16. Nate

16

NATE

Working beside this woman is more complicated than I imagined. For one thing, she keeps smiling and humming as she trucks along, clearly achieving what she sets out to do. It's so sexy, seeing her confidence show up with this admin work the way it does when she handles the bees.

But also… my own work reveals how I despise what I'm doing. This is the first time I let myself fully form the thought.

I hate this.

I know it's the cost of owning a business, but it has all the appeal of a traffic jam to me, and I don't see a way through the zipper merge. Sure, I was able to renew the insurance. But everything on that spreadsheet of Eden's? Total mystery.

To avoid prolonging this exercise in humiliation—and because I really, really want to get my hands in Eden's pants again—I close my laptop and shoot my shot. Eden says she doesn't want to do anything with her mom around, and that's fine by me. I'm more than happy to drive her to my place, squeezing her thigh at red lights and enjoying the smiles and hot looks she sends my way.

We rush up my porch steps, and I have my keys out in record time.

"Oh, it's different," Eden says, peering through my open door.

"I forgot. You must have seen it… before." I scratch my head and hang my keys on the hook. "I cleaned up a lot—my act and the house." It took a few dumpsters, but I unloaded almost all my dad's stuff. He'd been hanging on to everything from his clothes from high school to crap my mom left before she split. I figure she was never returning for cracked old makeup if she wasn't showing up for her own kid.

Eden walks around the room, touching each of the photos I left on the mantle of me and Dad working together through the years. He was probably dragging me to job sites way too young, but he taught me everything I know. Dad made sure I was certified, which meant I actually could renew the insurance for the business.

"Do you want a drink?" I stand near Eden, sort of boxing her in against the wall. She seems to like it, leaning a little closer to me and licking her lips. She gives me a once over, and when she shakes her head no, I bend to kiss her.

It's on like a generator at a job site. Our bodies roar to life, pressed against each other. Both of us groan and grunt as we rip off each other's clothes. Thankfully I never open the curtains in my living room, because I am not stopping until Eden Storm is bare in front of me. When she is, I step back in awe.

"My god, you're beautiful," I whisper, trailing a finger from her collarbone, down her breast, to her navel.

She bites her lip. "You're nice to look at yourself."

The breeze from the ceiling fan picks up her hair and it flutters against my chest. Inspired, I wrap it around my fingers, giving it a gentle tug. With her head tipped, throat exposed, she looks vulnerable and extra sexy. I lick and suck at her until she moans my name.

"Nate, take me to bed," she whimpers. I grab her hand, tugging her behind me as I practically run up the stairs to my room. "Oh man, this is much cleaner," she says with a giggle as she dives into my bed. I don't even want to think about the condition this place was in when I had her here a year ago.

I pause, standing by her side. "I want to reassure you that I'm healthy," I tell her. "I've had checkups and, truthfully, I haven't been with anyone since that night… apart from you. In the garden."

Eden beams at me, eyes bright. "I'm healthy, too. Thank you for telling me."

I want to dive on top of her and smother her with pleasure, make her scream and come for days. I open my nightstand. "I have condoms," I say, setting a strip of them out.

"Excellent." Eden pats the mattress beside her. "I'm excited to get to touch you this time."

I lie next to her, giving her half my weight and propping myself on one arm. I rub and touch the expanse of creamy skin she's offering. Why can't everything be like this—hands on, tactile? I am so confident when I'm using my hands to create something, even if that thing is an exploding ball of pleasure inside Eden Storm.

She gasps when I skate a hand between her legs, but I do not linger. I chuckle and kiss her. "Be patient, and you'll get what you're looking for." I press my lips to her shoulder and then peck my way down her body until I'm nestled between her legs, which she bends and tips open. She sighs as I arrive at her center, where I pause to drink my fill with all my senses.

I've been imagining what Eden looks like. Each night when I touch myself to the memory of her coming on my hand, I think about how those curls I felt would appear, how her folds would be wet and puffy from my attention.

"What are you doing?" Eden props herself on an elbow and glances down at me, brow furrowed and lips pursed to one side.

"Memorizing the look of you." Before she can comment, I spread her open with a few fingers and lick. Her taste is familiar, seared into my brain from the other night. There's just more of it now—as much as I want with her spread open for me. Eden wriggles on the bed as I lick her. To my surprise, as soon as I slip a single digit into her slick center, she comes instantly.

" Nate! " Her eyes flutter shut, her mouth set in a gorgeous O that will be seared into my mind forever.

I rub her thighs and kiss my way up to her shoulders as she calms down until she sits up abruptly, fussing with her hair. "Give me a second, and I'll reciprocate." Eden tries to tie her dark waves, and I place a gentle hand on her wrist.

"You don't have to rush, and I don't need you to suck me off, Eden."

She flicks one of my nipples. "Is that what you thought I meant?"

I shake my head and swat her behind. "Cheeky."

Eden tilts her head to the side and reaches for me. I hiss when she wraps her hand around my length and traces her thumb through the pre-cum gathered at my tip. "I'm ready to be serious now."

She kisses me, a groan slipping from her throat. Her tongue slides deep in my mouth, tasting her sweetness. She matches the strokes of her wrist with thrusts of her tongue until I'm about to fall apart.

"Hey," I say, pressing my forehead against hers. "I'm close, Eden."

"I see." She withdraws her hand and then fusses with the condom wrappers. "We'd better move on then. I want that thing inside me as soon as possible."

She rips open the wrapper and slides the condom onto my dick. I roll to my back to give her easier access, eyeing the amused grin teasing her kiss-swollen lips.

"What's funny?"

She shakes her head. "Nothing. I just never thought I'd be here again and…" Her grin widens. "Now I can't imagine being anywhere else."

All the change of the past year flashes through my head, all the work and assumption that I was always just going to be swimming in that same fog. But she's right. This is right—this is perfect. "Come here." I tug her so she's straddling me, hands on my shoulders, mouth against mine. I kiss her until my hips move toward her slick center involuntarily, and before I know it, Eden slides down onto me, impaling herself with deep moans and squeezing my ribs with her knees.

Our bodies come together perfectly, tight and wet. I rest my hands on her hips, letting her set the pace and move in ways that feel good for her, because everything about this feels incredible to me.

"This is so perfect," I grunt. "Can't believe how good we are."

"So good," she says, head thrown back, eyes closed. There's no way I'm looking away from the sight of Eden Storm riding me, perky tits jiggling as she moves, hair everywhere, face lax with pleasure.

I reach up to rub her nipples, and she gasps. Her eyes fly open and meet mine. When I squeeze a little harder, she starts shrieking my name, grinding hard against me, milking my cock with her inner muscles. Then she comes in a beautiful, brilliant spasm that has me falling right over the edge with her.

My heart pounds so hard I'm sure she can hear it. Eden tips forward against my chest and places a hand above it. Her own breathing is fast and rough, and we lie together, still joined, until thoughts feel possible again. I press a kiss to her cheek and deal with the condom, stopping in the bathroom to grab a washcloth and run it under warm water.

When I start to dab at her body, Eden purrs like a cat, stretching in the bed. "This is so nice."

"I like taking care of you." I consider throwing the washcloth on the floor and playing with her clit again, but Eden's stomach growls.

"And you're hungry," I say. "Let's make sandwiches."