Craving You (TBX #2) (13 page)

I feel a soft push from her lips against mine before she pulls away. “I may have missed you a little bit.” Holding her forefinger and thumb close together in front of us, she taunts me.

“Just that much?” Jutting my bottom lip out and creasing my eyebrows, I mock pout.

With a laugh, she cradles my sad face in her small hands. “Okay, okay, I missed you a lot.”

“That’s more like it. You want to take a spin on my bike?” Raising my brow, I challenge her.

“Is that code for your dick?” She accepts my challenge.

“If it were, you’d be riding me right now, Kelsey. I want to teach you how to ride
this
.” Grabbing my bike, I push it between us.

“I know how to ride a bike.” She crosses her arms across her chest, causing her tits to push up in her red tank top. My tongue swipes across my bottom lip, a movement she catches and rewards me with her sex kitten smile. The one where I can see all the dirty thoughts running through that mind of hers.

“I know that, babe. You want to ride the ramp?”

“Yes!”

“Hop on and just pedal to the middle of the ramp and then back and forth to gain speed. Each turn you’ll get higher and higher up the ramp.”

She follows my directions with a toothy grin firmly in place. Seeing her on my bike does crazy things to me. That bike’s my livelihood, and I just handed it over to her like it was an everyday thing for me to give her what means most to me.

After watching her for a few minutes, I grab Colt’s bike and begin pedaling with her.

Back and forth, turn.

Back and forth, turn.

Once I gain my speed and catch her, she’s laughing. “This is so fun! I feel like I’m flying!” It’s so nice to share this moment with her. Enjoying what I love most.

I keep pace with her for a few minutes, just enjoying the view of her as the Texas sun beats down on us. Her hands are steady on the handlebars as she works the ramp. She doesn’t have the strength to get fully up the ramp, so I’m not worried about her injuring herself. I take the next down with force to pick up speed and gain height.

“Now that’s flying!” she shouts out to me as I hit my landing after flipping off the ramp airborne. She’s still pedaling, so when I go to repeat my trick on the opposite side of the ramp, my eyes leave her. As I’m whipping around and steadying myself to land, she loses balance and slides down to the wood floor.

Fuck!

I’m off Colt’s bike before I can register the sound of it sliding against the wood from my sudden departure. “It’s okay. Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay. I’m here.” Bending down next to her, she looks up at me with tears trapped in her eyes. She hurriedly wraps around my neck as she crawls up into my body, bandaging herself with my arms.

“The brakes don’t work on your bike.” I squeeze her to my body.

“These bikes don’t have brakes, Kels. I’m sorry. I should have remembered to tell you.”

A minute or two passes before she whispers, “Thank you.”

“For what?” Her brows wrinkle at my question.

“For sharing your passion with me. I loved it,” she says like it’s obvious.

There’s that fuckin’ tug in my chest again.

Kelsey

Hearing him talk about the high from riding and experiencing it are two different things.
Wow
. I can feel the excitement vibrating through him, and it’s fueling me. Looking into his brown eyes, I see flecks of gold from the heart I know he has.

“Yeah, anytime.” He’s looking at me like I’m some foreign object that’s landed in his lap.

“I’m okay.” Assuring him, I scoot out of his grasp and to my feet as he does the same and grabs my hand without a second thought, pulling us in the direction of the pond. Once we clear the wooden floor and make our way across the grass, finally, we reach the wood planks of the dock.

Sitting together on the dock, our silence is comforting. His arms around my body ground me.

“It’s so nice out here.” I keep my voice low for fear of breaking the moment.

“You know, Colt and I had to deal with a lot growing up. We’ve always found refuge in riding, so when we found this place … once we saw
this
, we knew it was the land we wanted.” I look at Parker and his gaze is following a few ducks as they paddle through the water.

“Do you guys plan to always live together?”

“If you would have asked me that question a few months ago, I’d have said yes. But, now … I assume one day one of us will build our own house out here. We’ll always stay close to each other. I doubt we could ever really live that far apart from one another. “

“What’s changed now?”

“He has Brealynn.” Of course, the hopeful little girl in me who used to believe in love wants to be that for him, but reality likes to interject. Sooner or later the fairy tale ends, so what’s the point in reading it?

“Have you guys always been close?” I’m trying to dig deeper; trying to figure out this man my body is obsessed with. That my heart is trying to thaw itself out for.

“As far back as I can remember.” He starts rubbing soft circles onto my forearm. “Our parents started fighting pretty bad when we were in middle school. Dad would be gone for weeks at a time, and our mom would lock herself away in the bedroom. When that happened, Colt took over as the role model in my life. He’d make sure we ate three meals a day and showered for school, along with everything that goes along with running a household. Our mom couldn’t or wouldn’t. She suffered from depression.” He lets out a big sigh with the admission from his past. I relax further against him, the vibration of his voice flowing from his body through mine.

“One Christmas, our parents got us bikes. Dad was home from a business trip and they were fighting, yet again. He locked us outside and this wasn’t the first or the last time he’d do it. We got creative. Built jumps out of anything we could find and started riding. We had no idea it was actually a thing, a sport. Dad happened to look out the window to see Colt mid-air. He came stormin’ out of the house bitchin’ at us about safety. Like he fuckin’ cared. It didn’t stop us, though, and once Colt started researching new bikes, we came across BMX and our minds were blown. I mean, we were like eight and ten. We had no idea.” We pull away from each other, so I can make eye contact with him. I want him to know I’m invested in his story, and in him, it seems too. “Soon, Dad decided what we were doing wasn’t dangerous enough to keep us from making money or making him money. Long story short, TBX was born. Dad was home more then, and the fighting just increased. Nothing he did could make our mom happy.” What do I say to that—
I’m sorry
? No. That’s too cliché.

So instead, I pull my shirt over my head as I stand. “You ever skinny dipped in this water before?” I want him back to the here and now, where I am. Not in the past - or the future where I can’t be found.

“I can’t say I have.” Head tilted up, his brown eyes rake in my braless chest and torso. His attention to every curve and dip of my body causes lust to lick up my stomach. When he stops at my cut-off blue jean shorts, the rumble of his voice sends my arousal into overdrive. “You’re overdressed for the task, Kels.” That panty-dropping half-smile in place, he lifts one cheek and displays his all-American boy dimple.

So I drop my panties. They may have well disintegrated for all I care. I won’t need them anytime soon.

That smile, ladies. Damn, it’ll make you want to do illegal things just so you will see it on his handsome face again. So you’re the one putting it there.

Parker stands and then startles me by charging at me full speed tackle style into the water below.

“What the fu-” Water enters through my nose burning its way down my throat before I’m able to breathe in the sweet taste of oxygen. Don’t you for one minute say it doesn’t have a taste; it fills my lungs with the flavor of life.

Gasping for air, I swat at Parker, who’s fully dressed in the water. “Are you tryin’ to kill me?”

“Shit, ouch, stop.” His chuckle echoes around us. “Now, why would I go and do somethin’ like that? I just thought my firecracker could use a little water to simmer down.”

“You’d have been better off lightin’ my fuse. Now, I’m waterlogged, you ass.”

“Oh, I’ll get it to light.” Soft lips crash onto mine with a point to prove while Parker kneads his fingers into the soft curve of my ass. My legs tight around his waist, and we begin to move out of the water. Lips parting long enough to test another angle. Parker stumbles only for a split second, and I think we’re going down, but he recovers. Once we’re back on land, it’s another few feet before I’m dipped and my wet back hits the warm wood beneath me.

His lips leave mine, and I inhale a rush of air. Heart pounding and very aware of how close Parker is to me, I watch his every move as he peels off his soaked workout clothes and toes off his shoes. My eyes focus on the prize. Parker stands there literally glistening while the sun beats down on the water droplets sliding over his sculpted body.
Am I drooling?
There’s a strong possibility.

“You gonna stand there and look like a god or fuck me like one?” I’m up on my elbows drinking in the sight of him, trying to memorize every muscle of his body. Commit it to memory.

A growl escapes his mouth before he’s hovering over me, arms braced on either side of my face. I place my hands over his strong biceps and squeeze, feeling his muscles tense and release while he lowers his face to mine. As promised, he lights me up.

The flame burns slowly at first, testing out the amount of freedom it will be allowed. The feel of his growing length against me is luring the flame lower and lower. Fire feeds off oxygen, and right now, I need him to breathe. When did this need become so overwhelming? Did I miss the turning point? Hell, it was a dead end street to begin with, but the flame will be worth it as long as it doesn’t burn everything to the ground.

One arm holds him up beside my head while his other arm roams my body. “Wet for me already, sweetness?” A part of me wants to bitch at him. Tell him it’s because he tossed me into the water and not because of him, but lust wins.

“Mmmhmm.” That’s all my brain will compute. I’ve been reduced to just sounds. My eyes roll back into my head when I feel the rough callus of his finger slip into me. “Ahhh.”

“You asked for it, but you know the words I want to hear you say-or scream-and, sweetness,
you will say them.
” The rumble of his hunger-filled demand along with him playing me like a fiddle has me focused on one task – it starts with an O. Staring into his eyes, you’d think I would feel something … like insecurity; however, I feel empowered, sexy and
craved
.

“Parker … ahhh.” It’s on the tip of my tongue, I swear. I just. Can’t. Focus. Come on, Kelsey, you want the D, you tell him!

Get the D to get the O.

Simple math.

I feel his tongue slide over the sensitive skin behind my ear
with a slow, lazy lick before his rough, restrained voice waves across my eardrum. “Try again.” He stills his magical hand inside me. I wiggle and gain no ground in getting my O.

When my impending orgasm fog wavers, my brain sends the demand I need to reach my goal.
It’s self-preservation.
That’s what I tell myself—little white lies. “Can’t you hear that?” I whisper, drawing his attention from the lazy circles he was beginning to draw up my stomach during his wait. His gaze snaps to mine and his body goes stock-still;
shit, we are
outside. He makes a move to sit up and I grab a hold of his biceps with all my strength as he scans the area for an intruder. “Parker, look at me.” A soft demand from me. Glints of gold shine back at me, so bright I couldn’t turn away if I tried. “You can’t hear that? Every part of my body is calling out, shouting, throwing up flares and drawing an SOS in the sand
for yours
?” His quick intake of breath leads me to believe I’ve caught him off guard with my comment, but damn, it’s the honest, raw truth.

I’m too lust drunk to care that my stupid heart has taken over.

“Kelsey.” He lets out a gush of air before he brushes his lips with mine. “You’re so fuckin’ sweet,” he mumbles against my lips between hungry kisses. Every time we’re together, he melts another block of ice off my heart.

I hate it.

I love it.

It’s such a fine line I’m allowing myself to walk with him. The moment I had caved and gave myself permission to be with him, my heart picked up speed. Fluttering around my ribcage like a trapped butterfly, trying to break free so it could merge itself with his. Thank goodness I have that crazy thing on lockdown.

When he slides into me, our eyes lock, and for the briefest of moments, I see his soul through the windows and it’s screaming for mine. It’s unexpected the amount of strength it has over me at this moment. A warm current begins running through my core and rushing through my limbs with force before he shuts his eyes to me and finishes ruining me.