Chapter Twelve

Emmie panted, pausing on the sharp incline to catch her breath. Coleson steadily walked further ahead, apparently not realizing she was having a stroke. Or a coronary. Maybe she had asthma. Or lung cancer. Whichever is due from lack of oxygen…

“You all right?”

She jerked her gaze up and met his amused blue eyes. Instead of using precious air to reply, she held a thumbs-up. Many curse words coursed through her mind, all railed at Jacoby, who probably looked down from his ghostly cloud to snicker at her predicament.

“Need help?”

Emmie shook her head. “I can do this all day.”

“Sure, Captain America.”

Without even thinking about it, she flipped him off. All he did was laugh harder. Eyes narrowed, she marched up the incline, intending to punch the smirk off his face, but he caught her easily and dipped her. Like in an old movie, he kissed her soundly. Which made her breathless for a whole different reason.

Before someone came along and was traumatized by their makeout session, they ended the kiss and he pulled her upright once more.

“I think you’re one of the bravest people I know,” he whispered, nuzzling her neck. “First you face your heartbreak, and now you’re tackling your fear of exercise.”

“I’m not afraid of exercise, you goofball,” she muttered, pushing him away. “I just prefer a more academic lifestyle.”

“Good save,” he said as he took her hand. “I’ll help you up this hill.”

She wanted to say something sassy, but once more the oxygen was too precious to waste on talking. An eternity later, or maybe just ten minutes, they reached the top. They overlooked the base of the falls, and a fine mist settled on them from the powerful tumble of the water. Nestled in a canyon, the majestic whitewater fall spilled at about one hundred forty feet. The sun hit it at the right angle to produce a rainbow.

Spring Meadow Falls.

A white, frothy cascade plunged against the large boulders at the bottom and mellowed out into a calm pool. Jacoby had gushed on how exquisite this place was, and he was right. It was humbling to be in the presence of such breathtaking beauty. Like at the lighthouse, she felt his spirit wrap around her, and she closed her eyes to savor the invisible connection. One more piece of her fractured heart mended, and she took a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, Emmie opened her eyes.

The day seemed brighter.

Coleson was a steady presence beside her, staying silent as she processed everything. They were frozen in this too brief moment of time, and when she looked up at him, she saw the same emotions reflected back.

“I bet Thomas had been here,” he said.

“I bet so, too.”

He looked down at her, and tears swam in his eyes. “I owe him every thing. And he’s gone.”

“But he’ll never be forgotten.”

Emmie wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into his strength as well as giving all she could back to him. All too soon, the bubble popped as a couple more hikers showed up. Camera out, they snapped shots, and it surprised her when Coleson dipped his head lower and spun away. Holding onto her hand, he pulled her away.

At least, going down was a lot easier than going up.

****

Crew had this burning needed to consume her. To taste her until she was nothing but a wriggling mass of pleasure.

“I want to eat you until you come on my tongue.”

“Yes,” she moaned.

Excitement surged through him, making his hands slightly shake.

“God, you’re so fucking sexy,” he breathed.

His hands glissaded over her shoulders, down to her ass, grabbing hold of the plump cheeks to pull her into his body. She was butter melting in his arms. Crew buried his face into the curve of her neck, breathing her in. Licking her soft skin and taking a little nip. Not enough to give her a hickey, but he was tempted to put one there.

Leaving her delectable ass, he slid his palms up her rib cage until he found the curve of her breast. Cupping the shape, molding her to his palm as he gently squeezed. Her nipple pebbled under the thin material and he traced over the turgid peak with his fingertip. She arched and gasped and that’s when he began to maneuver her toward her bedroom, walking her backward as he kept lavishing her soft skin with kisses.

Once inside the room, Emmie backed up, keeping her eyes on him, until the bed hit the back of her knees. Then she flirted with a little striptease, slowly removing her clothes. Shucking her pants, pulling her shirt up and over her head. Lace cradled the globes of her breasts, pushing them together. All he wanted to do was tear the bra with his teeth and suck on her pink nipples. Then down came her panties and she stepped out of them. Naked, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“I’ll be just a moment,” she murmured, giving him a wink and heading into the bathroom. A moment later, the shower turned on.

He took the opportunity to shed his clothes, tossing a condom packet onto the bed. Then he took his dick in hand to run his hand up and down the shaft. Squeezing the tip with each stroke. Only a few minutes later, Emmie returned, still completely naked, only with beads of water laying on her soft skin. A flush from the hot shower lingered on her cheeks.

She walked up to him and took over slowly jerking his cock, watching him with a little smirk lifting the corners of her mouth. He cupped her face, his thumbs brushing her cheeks and capturing her lips in another soul-melting kiss, his tongue sliding in easily to dance with her own.

This woman was magnificent. Her body didn’t have the stick-thin malnourished look that so many women favored, thinking men liked to fuck skin and bones. Although naturally slender, she was soft and round in all the places a woman should be soft and round. Real breasts and an ass he could grab and hold on as he rode her.

When they broke apart to breathe, he scooped her up in his arms and laid her on the bed. Crew straddled her body and bent his head and closed his mouth over one nipple, lavishing it with his tongue and teeth, tugging tenderly until she lay beneath him writhing. Then he kissed his way down her body. Over her tummy. Her hip bone. All the way to the apex of her thighs. God, he wanted nothing more than to sink his steel-hard cock into her wet cunt and pump her until they both splintered apart. Instead, he came to his knees and pulled her body upward until her legs fell open. Holding onto her ass, he saw her pretty pussy, all plump and swollen with desire. Moisture glistened around the curls covering the hood, and he gently touched her, barely brushing against her slit as a moan erupted from her lips.

“Fuck, you’re wet,” he murmured. Then he kissed her, right on the spot he’d just touched and her hips jerked up, bumping against him.

“Please, Coleson,” she breathed.

The name was jarring because he wanted her to scream his real name. His first name. The fakeness of the relationship weighed on him, and he came to the conclusion that he wanted to tell her the truth. It had to be the right moment, and he hoped once he came clean, she wasn’t pissed off at his duplicity.

He licked along her seam, finding her clit to tease the bundle of nerves. As soon as his tongue rasped against the sensitive nub, her body arched like it had touched a live wire. Her hands buried in his hair, pulling it almost too aggressively. It gave everything an edge that pumped through his blood, lighting him on fire.

“Fuck, you taste like honey,” he groaned. “I could feast on you every night.”

Her body tightened beneath him and he could feel her quivering around his fingers. Panting. Begging. Incoherent little moans escaping her lips. She tasted so damn good and he never wanted to stop. If he could live between her thighs he would.

When he blew against her overheated pussy, she screamed in pleasure and immediately fell apart. He had never seen anything more sensual, more addicting, than Emmie in the throes of bliss. When her body finally relaxed and she sagged back onto the blanket, he placed his hands under her knees and pushed her legs up until they hung over his arms. He was so fucking hard it was actually painful to kneel in such a position.

Grabbing the condom packet, he ripped it open and sheathed himself. As soon as he entered her wet depths, something meaningful singed through his blood, and he suddenly knew Emmie wasn’t just another woman to him. More than a meaningless fling. He knew in an instant that this was his forever girl.

“Fuck!” he groaned, leaning over to rest his forehead against her own. “What are you doing to me, woman?”

“I suspect the same thing you’re doing to me.”

He grinned, glad this wasn’t one-sided. He held onto her, going a little deeper, a little harder, with each thrust. Her tight little cunt sucked him in, turning his brain to mush. He was fast losing control and wished this moment would never end. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she’d been made just for him.

“Christ, I’m close,” he muttered.

Crew sank his fingers into her ass, lifting her as he pounded her pussy. Sweat broke across their skin, and all he wanted to do was give her the best fucking orgasm of her life. He tapped her clit with the backside of his finger, making sure to use the nail to give it that little extra sensation, and that was all she needed to fly apart. Her pussy spasmed around his cock and her incoherent cries of pleasure pushed him over the top. He came with a loud shout, filling the latex barrier with his cum.

For the first time, ever since he lost his virginity to Caroline Tucker at age sixteen, he wished the condom wasn’t there. It was primitive of him to want to see his cum leaking from her pussy, but the damn caveman inside him wanted to bang his chest and howl at the moon.

He had to find a way to tell her who he really was, and hope like hell she forgave him for lying.