Daring the Wild Sparks (30 page)

“You can’t go very fast then.”

“I don’t want to.” He grabs my sopping ponytail, tugging my face down. “I’d rather kiss my girl.” Letting go of my hair, he puts his hand on my face to move me the rest of the way to his mouth. When our lips meet, he thrusts his tongue into my mouth and kisses me with wild abandon, not caring that we’re being drenched in a monsoon. My hands slide throughout his slick, dark brown hair as we kiss, intermittently gasping for air as we lose ourselves amongst the drops of water cascading over us.

CHAPTER 19

When we got back to the house, Finn and I used separate bathrooms to take a shower. It’s kind of weird that we took showers after being in a shower.

My iPod made it through the downpour, which I was glad. Julie grinned at the sight of me wearing Finn’s jacket. Simone gagged at us. I’m going to assume that Owen never returned her call.

When we got back to Julie’s, she advised us to leave our wet clothes in the sink and she’d pick them up to wash them for us before we leave tomorrow. That’s so nice of her and such a motherly thing to do, I guess. I wouldn’t know.

Sitting on the edge of my side of Finn’s bed, I raptly stare at his class ring. Oddly, this ring, unlike my Easter ring, gives me a warm feeling. He used to wear his class ring and now he wants me to have it. I’m aware that I won’t actually put yarn on it and wear it anywhere, but the symbolism is still significant to me.

Finn didn’t tell me about soccer or his seeing a psychologist. Maybe he won’t. That makes me feel sad for the both of us. Sad that he doesn’t want to talk about it, and sad that he doesn’t want to talk about it with
me
.

The door opens, startling me, as Finn walks into his room and catching me staring at his ring. He’s dressed in a tight, gray T-shirt that clings to his damp skin. Even his black sweatpants are sexy on him, subtly showcasing the bulge between his legs. His wet hair sticks up in spiky patches and his glasses are back on his face.

Double. Hot. Damn
.

Looking utterly mystified by my blatant gawking, he asks, “What?”

I shake my head and put his ring on the nightstand next to his phone, keys, watch and wallet.

Offhandedly, I mention, “You didn’t get to say goodbye to Ricky.”

He shuts the door and regards me peculiarly. “Yeah I did. Before we left for my school. I told him not to wreck the rental.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How sentimental of you.”

Walking over to me, he asks, “What did you want me to do? Hug him at his knees and beg him not to go? Chain myself to the rental car? Confess my undying love to him?”
Just about
.

I giggle, thinking about Finn doing just that, and shrug. “No. I guess I can’t say much since I didn’t tell him goodbye.”

Stopping in front me so that my bent knees are against his legs, he puts his hands on his hips. “You mean, you didn’t tell my best friend goodbye? What’s wrong with you?” he teases.

I roll my eyes. “I think Ricky is fine with me not telling him goodbye.”

He shakes his head and playfully smacks my thigh. “Yeah, but
I’m
not. You may have hurt his feelings.”

I frown and mockingly glare at him. “Not likely.”

A pensive look crosses his face. “Well, I think maybe you should make it up to his best friend, at least.” Leaning down, he puts his hands on either side of my hips. His lips are inches from mine, and the strong smell of his body wash and wet skin forces my hormones into overdrive.

Playing along, I coquettishly ask, “I should? Well, how do I make it up to his best friend?”

Deliberately straightening to my chagrin, his eyes float over my body in a circuit before he quietly answers, “You should touch him.”

A smile sweeps across my lips as I stare up at him. “Where?”

“
Any
where.” I’m pretty sure I know where that is.

I stand. “How about here?” With my right hand, I drag my nails along his scruff and he leans his face into my palm as I glide my thumb over his bottom lip with my left.

Finn kisses my fingers and whispers, “Lower.”

Through his glasses, his bottomless, brown depths blaze. Moving my hands down to his biceps and up the short sleeves of his T-shirt, I caress his shamrock and cross. “Here?”

Without taking his fervent stare off me, he torpidly shakes his head. “Lower.”

“Hmm. What about here?” I move my hands down his barbed wire tattoos and over his shirt to his chest.

He huskily says, “Lift up my shirt.”

I pick up the bottom of his shirt and slide my hands up along his skin to his pecs. “How’s that, Sparks?” He nods. I kiss his sternum, gripping his hip with one hand and toying his key with the other. I feel and hear him tranquilly sigh. His scent is even more potent, now mixed with the smell of his arousal. His heart pounds beneath my kisses and his light chest hair tickles my nose and cheeks.

Above my head, he whispers, “Baby, go lower.”

I let go of his key and trail my tongue down over the ripples of his stomach muscles. Amid licks, I ask, “Like this?”

He replies with a guttural humming sound that vibrates through his chest and torso. His hands go to my shoulders, massaging them. Moving down further, I lick to his naval where his hair thickens to his waistband, and he groans loudly. If Simone is in her room, she most likely heard him.

Taking a hand off my shoulder, he pushes down the front of his sweatpants and with his other hand, he urges me to stoop. Oh, shit. I positively licked my way into this one.

Tipping his head down, he throatily exhorts, “Becks, I want you to take me in your mouth.”

I blink as I stare at his stomach. I’ve never in my life done this. I had mentioned it once to Finn when he commented about a scene in a movie, but he didn’t say anything further about my embarrassing tidbit, though he did try coaxing me to overcome it, gently pushing my head down when I kissed his chest. In high school, Max had wanted me to, but I wouldn’t do it. Ty or Chet didn’t ask. I have to be the craziest person in the world for not having tried it. I hope I’m not the only one. I guess I just didn’t want to not like it and gag, or even puke. Is there a minimum amount of time that I have to do this for? I don’t think I can do it until he comes. I’m going to disappoint him or gross myself out. I’m not sure at this point which one would be worse.

I’m 33 years old. I need to get past this aversion. My hot boyfriend wants me to give him a blow job, and there’s a long line of women who would be more than happy to take my place right now. I’m sure he’s even had offers. Wait. Has he taken any of those women up on their offers because his inadequate girlfriend refuses to do it for him? That would rip my heart out and destroy me if Finn is getting sexual favors from someone else.

My gaze drops to his awaiting erection. I can’t do this! Can I? Nervously, I lick my suddenly dry lips. He gives me oral and he seems to actually enjoy it. Gross! Why would he want to do that to me? I try to discourage him from doing it, but he actually gets pissed off when I close my legs on him. He even does it until I… Damn. I cannot even think about what he does for me when I’m freaking out about doing the same thing to him, notwithstanding the fact that his dick is inches away from my mouth. I feel bad for not reciprocating. I suppose I’m a little late with the remorse after three years together, but still. Maybe if I hate it, I can think of something else to distract me. Find my happy place: Lying on a blanket in a field of sweet-smelling flowers, gently blowing in the breeze. Walking along the beach with the bubbly surf lapping at my feet. Snuggled with my favorite pillow and blanket right after they get out of the dryer. Or right now, sitting on a comfy stool at a bar during Happy Hour.

Finn interrupts my breakdown by stroking my face. “Becks, come on, baby. Make me your first and your last.”

Come on, Hadley Bliss Beckett
!
You can
do
this
!

Enclosing my fingers over him, I take a deep breath and lick my lips again. Closing my eyes, I hesitantly flick my tongue onto his tip, tasting him. A little isn’t horrendous, but can I handle more? I’m such a virgin at this.

His entire body jerks. “Oh, fuck,” he hisses. His hands move to my head, persuading me to take more of him in. How much? Will I be able to breathe? I’m sure if I gag, that’ll turn him off, let alone if I throw up on him.

Opening my mouth, I slowly slide my lips onto him, and he groans louder than the first time. Simone most definitely heard him if she’s even in the same zip code.

Finn whispers a demand that sounds more like a desperate plea, “Suck me, baby. I want to be your only one.”

Do I ask him for how long? Would that be a mood breaker? Do I actually use suction on him like when I give him a hickey? Do I
have
to…swallow, or can I spit it out onto the floor? That probably would be rude, not to mention awkward to clean up. Can I do it until the moment he’s about to come and then dodge out of the way? Shit. I know he comes hard and fast from the times I’ve jerked him off. What if I can’t swallow it all? Will I drown?
What the hell do I do
? Did they teach how to do this in high school health class? If so, I must’ve been absent that day because that’s one demonstration I absolutely would remember. Again, so many questions with no immediate answers. I should’ve paid more attention to my friends talking about their experiences. I had always cringed when I heard them regale their stories and thought to myself, “
Hell no. Not ever in my life will I ever do that. Eww
.” I can’t even eat broccoli or anything else of questionable appearance.

Well, look at me now!

I tightly close my lips around him as he gently thrusts his hips forward, pushing more of his dick into my mouth. My tongue caresses his shaft and he sucks a lungful of air between his teeth. I tentatively take him in deeper, causing him to grip my head more firmly and to heavily pant.

Unexpectedly, a swift, hard knock at the door makes us both jump, rendering Finn to fall out of my mouth.

“Fuck!” he angrily whispers, pulling his pants up, tucking in his erection, still gleaming from my suddenly intrepid mouth.

I quickly stand and whip my head to the door, fully expecting for us to be caught or for whoever is at the door to know exactly what we were doing. I feel like I’ll be sent to my room, the principal’s office or instead of wearing a scarlet
A
embroidered on my clothes, a huge
B
.

“Put your clothes on! Wilderness, there’s someone here to see you.”

Twisting, his muscled torso rippling as he does, he consults the clock on the nightstand, reading 5:33. “
Now
?”

“Yes,
now
. Why? Do you have an early bedtime or room curfew? Come on! Both of you.”

When Finn looks away from the clock, his eyes burn through me.

“What?” I ask quietly, tucking my lightly damp hair behind my ears. Did I fail his oral exam? I can’t believe I just thought that. What a loser.

He steps over to me and tilts my head up to look at him
, his thumbs sliding against my cheeks. “That was…  Fuck, Becks, that was so daring of you. That was also one of the sexiest things you’ve done for me. We’ll have to pick up where we left off later.”

I nod and feel unsure if I want to do that.

“I just need a few minutes before I can go down there.”

“Okay. Maybe I should head down now so it doesn’t look so bad to Simone.”

“She’s probably already telling my mom that she heard us screaming.”

If she heard any screaming, it was surely from the panic raging in my head.

CHAPTER 20

I quickly leave the room, but slowly descend the stairs, twisting my damp, loose hair anxiously around my left wrist. Hearing voices in the living room, I angle my head, trying to catch a glimpse through the doorway, so I’m not completely blindsided.

“There’s Hadley!” Simone shouts. Shit. I wish she’d calm down. She skids into the foyer like a monstrous ocean wave ready to inundate me. Grabbing my hand, she drags me into the living room. I hope whoever it is doesn’t mind the fact that I’m in sweats and an old T-shirt, or the fact that I was just with my boyfriend, who was on the receiving end of my inaugural blow job.

I look around as a man, who has his back to me, stands from the couch. He turns while Simone pulls me further into the room. “Hadley! It’s so good to see you, honey.”

I smile. “Jack.” I’m so glad to see him, despite the fact that I was just sucking on his stepson’s dick.

Jack is broad-shouldered with more pepper-than-salt hair. Every time I see him, he’s wearing blue jeans, plaid and a pencil behind his ear. They’re almost his trademark. He reminds me of a cross between the Brawny lumberjack and Handy Smurf.

Simone lets go of my arm and I swiftly walk into his open arms. He smells like my dad, leathery and dadlike.

I rest my cheek on his chest and squeeze him. I love this man for being such an awesome second dad to Finn when he didn’t have to be. Finn’s first stepdad certainly wasn’t. Jack helped raise my boyfriend. I’m so eternally grateful to him.

“How are you doing?” he asks, pulling back to look at me.

I comb my fingers nervously through my hair, feeling like he can see right through me or smell Finn’s body wash on my breath. Precipitously feeling more self-conscious than usual, I reply, “I’m good.”
Your stepson is trying to calm down a hard-on, though
. Why do I think these things at the worst time?

“Are you and my boy doing okay?”

I nod. “We’re great. He’ll be down in a minute.” Down
, literally
. There I go again.

“I wonder why,” Simone mumbles. Stealthily, I glare at her and she moves a hand to her mouth to cover up a laugh.

Jack puts his hands on his hips. “Julie told me Finn got a new tattoo and that he has a video of it? He actually did that as a dare?”

I again nod. He asks, “I haven’t seen this week’s dare yet. What did he get? That bridge he used to jump from every year?”

“Um, no. Just wait until you watch the video.”

He smiles and sighs. “Oh, no. What did Finn do?”
As a dare or to me
? Shit…

“You’ll love it!” Simone shrieks from beside me.

“Love what?” Finn asks, walking into the room, stopping short when he sees Jack.

“Finn.”

“Jack.”

It’s like we’re at the OK Corral with guns drawn.

Jack walks past Simone and me, over to Finn, where he quickly hugs my boyfriend. At first Finn doesn’t make a move, his hands down at his sides and his face blank. Finn uneasily glances at me and I subtly nod, giving him an encouraging smile. Slowly, he raises his arms and puts them around Jack and they hug. Jack pats Finn on the back and says something quietly to him that the rest of us can’t hear. Finn closes his eyes and nods. My throat constricts at the sight and I turn my head so that I don’t start bawling like a stupid crybaby in front of everyone.

Ultimately, Finn steps out of Jack’s arms and looks at his mother as he crosses his arms over his chest. “So, are you just stopping by to pick up your things?”

Jack shakes his head and sighs. “No. I was out of town working this weekend, but I wanted to see you kids before you left, so I told them I had a family emergency I had to tend to. I wanted to be here earlier, but I really had to stay for a presentation since I knew that would’ve been screwed up if I didn’t run it.”

We all nod in understanding as Julie stands. “Well, dinner is ready. Come on.”

As everyone else heads out of the room, Jack clamps his hand on Finn’s shoulder and gives him a squeeze. Before he can completely leave the room, Finn pivots to the doorway. With his arms still over his chest he says, “I’m really glad you’re here, Jack.”

Stopping, Jack turns and grins at us, his hazel eyes twinkling. “I am too, Finn. Trust me.” When Jack leaves the room, I walk over to Finn and he drops his arms, as well as his guard. Against his back, I put my arms around his waist and hug him. He turns around in my arms and I whisper up to him, “Are you okay?”

He looks down at me, his gold eyeglass frames shining on the top from the overhead light, and whispers, “So, are we supposed to pretend to be a happy family now? I can’t do that, Becks.”

“We all know your upset, Sparks. It’s okay to be. Just don’t blame your mother so much because this is hard for her too.” He doesn’t say anything and I add, “At least they’re trying to get along. They could be screaming at each other or refuse to be in the same room together. I think this is actually better than it could be, under the circumstances. We don’t know what happened in their marriage, but Jack will always be a part of your family.”

Leaning down, he whispers over my lips, “
Our
family. You’re a part of this family too.”

I kiss him, lightly scratching his lower back and inhaling his spicy scent. Finn holds me firmly against him as he gently strokes my upper back. When he straightens, he sighs over my hair.

From the living room doorway Simone says, “Wilderness, Hadley, come on. Jackie is going to eat all the biscuits if you don’t get in there.”

Finn angles his head to give me another kiss. Letting go of his waist, he clutches my hand and we follow Simone into the dining room.

After dinner, I pick up the tray of sliced ham and nearly run into Finn who is suddenly beside me, picking up unused silverware from the table. “Sorry, Becks.” He drops them in a clatter and takes the tray from me. “I got it.”

Smiling at him, I rub his arm before he goes into the kitchen. “Thanks, baby.” He gives me a lazy— and sexy as hell—smile in return.

Across from the table, Simone moodily grabs a bowl and complains, “Ugh. You two are so sickeningly sweet. I’m going to have cavities and nightmares just from this weekend alone.”

I pick up the silverware Finn had gathered. “Still no call from Owen?”

“No.”

“Sorry.”

“I agree. Sims
is
pretty sorry,” Finn states when he returns to the dining room.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about,” Simone grouses.

He shrugs and lifts another large bowl. “Probably some guy you like who won’t call you back.”

Simone’s mouth tumbles open and she glares at me. “Hadley! Did you tell him?”

I shake my head and adamantly deny, “No!”

Finn gives her a stern look. “I’m not stupid, Sims. You’re constantly checking your phone and have been bitchier than usual.”

She gasps. “Like
you
haven’t been?”

He scowls and tucks the bowl into his arm. “Not about a guy.”

“I beg to differ!” Simone counters, quite accurately. “I’d rather pet a rabid raccoon than be around you this weekend!”

“Shut up,” he petulantly grumbles before sulkily heading into the kitchen.

Score one for Garrison.

Finn, Simone and I finish clearing off the table, and Jack and Julie each disappear in different directions. Simone busies herself with transferring leftovers into containers. From behind me, Finn puts his hands on my hips as I place glasses on the top shelf of the washer. Leaning down next to my ear, he says, “I’m going to go downstairs with Jack for a little while. Will you be okay in here?”

I tip my head to the side to look at him. “Yeah, Sparks. Go ahead.”

From the island counter, Simone stops dumping green beans to huff, “
Sparks
? What the hell? I didn’t know he had a nickname too!”

Finn frowns at his sister. “Yeah, what of it, Sims?”

She resumes her task. “I just never heard Hadley call you that before. You always call her
Becks
, though.” She snaps the plastic lid onto its container and shouts, “Back off, Wilderness! Sheesh!”

Instead of yelling at her and probably inciting a brawl, he mumbles, “Calm down, Sims. Shit.”

Still holding onto my hips, Finn nuzzles into my neck, tickling me as he kisses and subtly licks my skin, giving me goose bumps. I gasp and nearly drop the glass I’m holding. Finn pushes my hips, forcing me against his building erection. I hope Simone doesn’t notice my nipples hardening through my thin bra.

“You guys are so disgusting! Go to your room!” Simone whines, glancing away.

Finn stands as he holds me against him. “You’re just jealous.”

She pouts and moves to the mashed potatoes. “Shut up.”

Score one for Wilder.

Finn resumes talking next to my ear. “I want to show him my dare, maybe have a couple beers. You want to come down with me?”

Before I can reply, Simone retorts, “But don’t make out or feel each other up in front of him. That would be 1,000 types of awkward.”

Finn looks to the kitchen door before lowly saying, “Fuck off,” to Simone. She laughs and taps her serving spoon on the edge of the bowl to clean it off.

Reaching for the island and moving Finn’s arms with me, I pick up the glass baking dish Simone just emptied. “No. You go ahead and spend time with Jack. I’m going get our things together so we don’t have to do it all tomorrow.” As I bend to put the dish into the bottom rack, he pulls my hips so that his semi-hard-on is prodding my ass. I quickly stand and slyly peek to see if Simone saw him do that; however, she’s too busy checking her phone. What a relief.

Still holding my hips, he says, “Don’t worry about doing that, baby. We’ll both get it done in the morning.”

I shake my head and reach for a plate. “Just go ahead. I’m good.”

“Okay.” He bends to playfully bite me on the neck, making me shriek and for Simone to gag once more, before he squeezes his fingers into my hips and leaves the kitchen.
As Finn walks past Simone, she sticks her tongue out at her brother and he replies with a middle finger, making me snort and for them to both roll their eyes at me.

Two points for Wilder
and
Garrison.

Before going upstairs, I decide to hang out with Julie and Simone for a little while in the living room, watching some sitcom they watch. I try to get into it, but my mind is on Finn, downstairs with Jack, hopefully working things out.

Getting up to go to the bathroom upstairs, Julie asks where I’m off to. When I tell her, she lets me know there is one around the corner from the living room. Finding it, I slide my hand over the wall, searching for the light switch, and as I close the door, I notice voices coming through the vent near the baseboard.

“I’m glad I got to see you and Hadley. It makes me happy to see you so happy. That dare you did… I guess I didn’t expect that.”

“What? Me getting another tat? Really? I still have a couple more I want to get.”
That’s news to me! Maybe he
is
planning to jump that fucking bridge!