Page 20 of Weathering The Storm

I’m delirious. I’ve inhaled too much saltwater.

The weather’s frozen my brain.

I’m so exhausted, I’m in some unstudied stage of sleep where this feels real. I’ve dreamed of him so often, it’s become so vivid, that I can smell his pine bar soap and taste the mint on his breath.

“You… do?”

“Yeah.” His smile trembles, his gaze dropping to my mouth. “I do.”

I try to speak.

But all that comes out is a pitiful sigh before I grab him by the back of his head and slam our lips together.

It’s real. I can hardly believe it’s real, but I know it is, because I’ve imagined this momentsomany times. In every dream I’ve ever had, Seth was shocked and confused. Reluctantly returning the kiss until we found our rhythm.

This Seth though, therealSeth… his mouth answers mine like he’s wondered for the last four years what we’d taste like together. Like he’s been ready this whole time. He’s just been waiting on me.

His teeth scrape my bottom lip and his tongue meets mine halfway while my fingers shovel under his wool cap, tossing it to the side and sifting through his coarse brown waves, still damp from the shower.

His hands go to my body without shock or fear or hesitation. One glides down, roughly exploring my chest and stomach as his bandaged hand goes to the back of my neck.

“Nicky…” he murmurs between kisses, hot and breathy and so fucking perfect I could die. “Nicky, Nicky… want you so bad.”

I groan, because I still can’t come up with the words to say it back. To say,I’vealwayswanted you.

I turn us around, cornering him against the window. My hands get twisted in the hems of his sweatshirt and undershirt before I give up and pull them both over his head. It’s warm up here, but the glass is the same temperature as the air outside, and it chills his skin as I push him back. Goosebumps rise beneath the brown whorls of hair that cover his chest.

I brush my thumbs over his dusky, pebbled nipples, my heart pumping faster with each gasp he makes.

“You’re gorgeous,” I blurt out, instantly second-guessing myself.

Is that the wrong thing to say? Not masculine enough for his type of beauty?

I don’t know. It’s the first word that comes to mind, seeing him shirtless and tousled, leaning against the outside door to the bridge.

Myhands are the reason his hair is messy and snarled.Mystubble, my teeth, are the reason his lips are reddened around the edges.Mykiss is the reason he’s panting as he looks back at me. The reason he’s smiling.

Gorgeous is the only word I have.

“Kiss me again,” he says, head tilting back, throat elongated. “Just keep kissing me.”

My lips barely meet his before I’m groaning at the feeling of skin against skin. His hot, solid chest. His hardening cock. I kiss him once because he asked me to. Again, because he said it twice. Another two times for me, becauseIwant to.

And then I’m kissing him because I can’t believe I’m allowed to. Full and open on his lips. Down his neck, across his chest. Stopping to suck each peaked nipple until he makes a low, raspy groan that spears straight through me.

I drop to my knees.

“Please.” My thumbs hook into his sweatpants. “Can I?”

I can’t even finish my fucking sentence without my fingers curling, desperate to get him all the way naked. Desperate to get him under my tongue.

Seth chuckles deeply, his bandaged hand coming up to my hair and twining in the strands as he forces me to look at him. “You never have to ask. I amalwaysdown for you, Captain.”

It’s been so long since I’ve touched anyone, been touched by anyone, that I feel a flash of insecurity as I take off the rest of his clothes. But it’s nothing compared to the desire that follows.

His calves and thighs are strong. Seaworthy strong, coated in the same dark hair as his chest. And his cock juts out, a thick, straight rod that jumps at the sensation of my warm exhale.

I lean in close, heart palpitating as I bury my face against his inner thigh. Breathing in the woodsy, mineral-rich musk of his skin and laying my mouth all over him, aimlessly. Kissing his legs, his hips. Licking a stripe up the seam of his sac before softly sucking on each of his balls.