Breathe With Me (The Breathe Series Book 3) (24 page)

A soothing sigh ignites from Piper and for the life of me I have no idea how it managed to escape. Our mouths are sealed together in hot morsels of nibbles and caresses that has my blood pressure rising, my spirits soaring and other parts of my body ready to take off for flight. I cannot get a grip on it, there is no use trying. I pull away reluctantly, both of our breathing elevated.

Before I can get any sort of excuse out, Piper speaks up, “What time is it?”

I remove my hand from her body where it was leisurely grazing close to a zone I’ve wanted to be at since this summer when I saw her drop her top out on the beach.
Damn.
Leaning across her body more so I can stay close but also because I remember dropping my phone to the floor by the bed, I press my finger to light it up.

“Ahhhh…you’re crushing me Evan.” Her fingers dig into my chest as she nudges me off of her, but I stay there, grinning from ear-to-ear.

The need to pester the living hell out of her is alive and rearing to go.

“Evan…” she giggles, huffing out my name in a way that almost excites me more.

I squirm around, my torso laying over her chest with my head hanging down towards the ground. My phone goes back to sleep mode, but I stay comfortable, shifting my ass back and forth in a pathetic attempt to taunt her.

“Ev…vaaaan!”

Fingertips dig into my side, squeezing the flesh beneath my armpit. I grit my teeth and jump, twisting to the side with a burst of laughter.

“Ah ha…I don’t think so.” Twisting my torso at the same time that I clasp her small hand, I pull up to my knees then thud down against her as she laughs uncontrollably. “There will be no tickling; you know how much I hate that.”

“I know that’s the spot that gets you every single time,” she says through a wide smile and breathy giggles.

She’s right; that’s the place that she always went for after a silly night of her testing to see if I was ticklish. I had claimed I wasn’t, which seemed to inspire her to investigate my declaration by squeezing and pinching along my stomach, the inside of my leg and then up my side. Finally, right above my ribcage she triggered a place that was actually sensitive to her playful pinching technique. I bolted up with a laugh, but I’ll never forget the gleam in her eyes as she realized she had something on me. First, she proved me wrong and wouldn’t let me live that down. Second, she had a go-to place that would have me unhinged in an instant. I’d muster up my most serious expression and tell her I didn’t like being tickled there, but she knew me too well; she saw through that, only making her more relentless in her pursuit of driving me into a kicking frenzy when she’d assault that particular spot.

With her hand still in mine at the side of her face and my other arm supporting my weight, my grin grows until it cannot stretch any further. She twists and squirms, probably assuming she’s in for it, but as my laughter dies down, she stops as well.

An easy silence falls over us and I can’t help but glance up to our joined hands, a glow of warmth engulfing my heart at how much she trusts me, even though she has claimed not to for years. She may not trust my mouth, and who could blame her for that, but she does trust me with her well-being; she trusts that I will not hurt her and that means the world to me. I swing my gaze down to her lips and pause, not wanting to talk, but needing to keep at a pace she is comfortable with.

“So…” her gentle voice blends in with the quietness of the cabin and jolts my eyes back to hers, which carry that same gleam I had seen back then. “What time was it?”

I really don’t want her to leave.
“11:15,” I force it out, knowing she’ll probably use that as a reason to escape.

“Oh wow…it’s late. I have a lot to do in the morning.”

All of my hopes fall along with the smile on my face. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but her leaving wasn’t topping my list.

“Brrrrrr…it’s kind of cold, huh?” Piper nuzzles near me with a subtle scoot while lowering both her hands and bringing them onto my chest.

Flurries of tingles spread through my stomach like I just raced down a hill at full speed. Lowering my brows in confusion, yet excited that her follow up words to the time wasn’t ‘I have to go’, I shift to lower the comforter out from under us. Piper lifts her hips as I push it down and then carefully pull it over our bodies, making sure that she is fully covered. A thump followed by another one fills the void of the room and makes me look down.

“Oooops.” She grits her teeth and swings her face to Jake as I realize she just kicked off her shoes.
Holy shit.

A swarm of excitement blazes through me on this. “It’s ok. I think he is out for the night.”

I pull in closer to her, placing my hand on her stomach. The bottom edge of her sweater lifts as she jostles around onto her back. As soon as one of my fingertips make contact with the smooth texture of her skin, my body springs into action.
I may very well die tonight.
This has got to be tough on the little guy, going from one extreme to the next.

I ignore the obvious which has got to be more than noticeable to her as she nudges her hip against me almost in a sexual, teasing way.
Holy geez, we’re gonna be looking at a second Ice age with the amount of cold showers I’m going to have to take after this.

“Are you doing that on purpose?”

I close my eyes, moving my fingers beneath her sweater, but not pushing the limit. I keep them idle, letting the temperature of her skin combined with her wooly garment at the back of my hand, serve as a glove to warm one of the only places on my body that is still chilled. The rest of me is like an oven with a path of flames raging beneath my sweats.

She doesn’t answer, but another shift from her hip and thigh brushes against me and I know; it’s fully intentional. Piper has never been the aggressive type, of course, but she always knew how to draw attention to her needs. Suddenly, I feel as though we are years older, knowing each other’s movements, wants and desires as if they are our own. I open my eyes.

Her gaze pierces me like an arrow as she presses her lips together shyly with a sliver of mischief and longing beneath it.

“What do you want, Piper?” Her expression changes fast, twisting into a shocked glare.
Shit; insert foot. Dammit.
“I mean, do you want me to touch you?” I just put it out there; no way am I sugar coating this.

A line forms above her nose and her eyes darken into a gloom that shatters the moment. She shrugs, seeming unsure and hesitant as if she is thinking one thing and saying another. I slide my hand up, enjoying the way her stomach tenses.

“Yes?” Smirking, I wiggle my way up her stomach another inch. She sucks in a breath and I pause. “No?” I whisper, trying to read her.

She doesn’t make a sound and for a minute, my heart plummets and I search her face to be sure she is breathing. Her stomach sucks in and chest rises on a breath; at that same instance, my panic melts away as my hand slips further up her satiny skin a millimeter or two.

“Hmmmmhmm.”

I barely catch her whiney reply giving me the green light and although the sound is damn near equivalent to a crisp leaf falling to the ground in a forest, it’s the most exhilarating thing I’ve heard all night.

I give up the patient path my fingertips have taken and go all in, diving in head first, well hand first actually, as it lands on lace. Surprising myself, I hesitate, running my fingertips to the center of her bra instead of taking in a whole handful like other parts of my body are screaming for me to do.

“Piper.” I nudge my face above hers while just lightly tracing the line of her undergarment with my index finger. “Do you…”

My mouth is five seconds away from capturing hers, my heart is on the verge of rupturing and there is truly no more room in this cot for me to be any further turned on. However, even with every fraction of my body propelling me forward, a part of me doesn’t feel right just jumping into this sort of thing after years of us not even discussing what all went down that day. I clear my throat and pull my head back a couple of inches.

“Can you stay, maybe for a few hours? You know, like old times?” I smile, not sure how ‘like old times’ will be received.

The sparkle in her eyes vanish and the barely there smile that was ticking at the corners of her mouth falls. I instantly regret my decision to put the brakes on.
Am I stupid? What man in his right mind would stop right here?
I glance down at her fuzzy sweater and how it rises and falls with each of her breaths.
What am I thinking?

“I’d like that,” she whispers, causing me to immediately snap my head back level with her face.

She has an innocent yet excited grin across her lips; those damn lips that I want to spend the next five hours tasting and enjoying, but I won’t. My entire inner being seems to be waging a silent battle of good versus evil. My hand is pleading to jump into this and save the talking for later;
we’ll let our anatomy get on the same page and go from there
. However, my mind keeps an idle grip on the emergency brake, remembering that I need to go slow with her, to always go at her pace; exactly the way she needs it to be taken.

To hell with no tasting. I drop my head forward, moving swiftly and capturing her bottom lip between mine so I can savor its sweetness. Her lips reply with an exciting amount of eagerness as her hand falls on my shoulder, pulling me closer and tighter to her. My hand seems to have won that earlier war as it acts on its own, ignoring the barrier of lace separating it from her tender succulent flesh.

A groan vibrates up my throat at the same time that my ears pick up on her amplified breaths mixed with a soft whimper-like sigh. The sound is the exact feeling that is building within me, a
finally
or
Thank God
sensation that makes my own lungs have to keep up with all the air that I continue to suck in at an over anxious pace.

She breathes heavier, shifting to the side towards me as our lips move in sync. My brain starts flashing lights and blaring sirens to throw all gears into park until after her and I talk, but my hands, my lips and my grinding hips that have taken over the act of a crazed dog on the scent of a fluffy little pooch in heat, all of them definitely have not gotten that memo.

Our bodies are nearly cemented together as we face each other, kissing in a way I never remembered us doing before. Her tongue stays idle as I explore and graze mine along the contours of her mouth as if I am scuba diving into unknown and exciting territories. I slide my hand out from beneath her bra, smoothing it over her skin, down her small waist and then stopping.
Shit.

She pulls back immediately and it’s abundantly clear that the moment is lost.

“Sorry.” I scrunch up my face in regret; landing on her hips has always been a no-go.
Damn…years and that still does it.
I want to confront the topic; to ask if this has happened with other guys or is it just me that makes her breathing trip up now, but that thought makes me nauseous. I had thought by now that she would have moved past it more so, but then again I suppose that isn’t something you ever get past; it sticks with you and emerges when you least expect it.

“Ummm, ahhhh, it’s ok. I’m ok, really.” She gasps for a breath and just that little bitty thing alone, sends a spark of accomplishment through me; like I just swung the winning hit to bring a teammate around to home plate.

Maybe I can’t read her as well as I used to.

“You tired?” Those words feel foreign on my tongue; not so much saying them, but saying it to her.

She nods her head and stays put.
Whoa.

“I actually came over to invite you to Christmas tomorrow, not to crash with you or interrupt your night of sleep.” She spits out a quiet laugh as if she’s a tad bit embarrassed.

“Ahhh, I see. Soooo…you’re saying it wasn’t seeing my goods in the shower that had you running to my cabin when you knew I’d be stripping down to crawl into bed.”

Her laughter kicks up and she fidgets around beside me.

“Oh please, Evan. I know you better than that. You strip down? Yeah right. You’re a pansy when it comes to getting cold. More like sleeping in footed pajamas, long underwear and about twelve blankets is more your style. Sleeping naked, that’ll be the day.”

Grinning uncontrollably, I share in her amusement, knowing she is right on, but also knowing if she is beside me, sleeping in the buff against her body would more than keep me warm. The next time I have her clothes off, it will be a furnace between the sheets.

“Shiiiiit…you’re just trying to tempt me. Listen, you can go about it like this, trying to get me to take the bait and prove you wrong or you could just be straight with me. If you want my clothes off, just ask.”

We both laugh as she shifts around nervously before settling to a still. A soothing calm falls over the room with our eyes locked on each other, but not even I can muster up a single word to ruin this moment. All I can manage is a deep sigh as I savor the fact that she is here; in my arms, letting me touch her.

She came over to ask me to the Christmas get together tomorrow, but from my calculations of how absolutely unexpected and electrifying this night has been since she has stepped foot into the cabin, I’d have to say for me, Christmas already came early.