The Last One (25 page)

I shook my head in mock outrage and sat up to help her maneuver the jeans off. My boxers caught on the button, so I took them off too and discarded them in the corner with Meghan’s clothes.

“Much better.” She swung one leg over me, straddling my hips so that her hands were on my shoulders and my dick jutted out behind her. Laying there looking at her, with her red hair spread around her face and her body glorious with the globes of her breasts, I thought I’d never seen anyone so beautiful, so perfect. I knew this vision would haunt my memory for a long time.

“I like this.” I lifted her boobs, using one finger to draw a circle around a nipple. “Are you going to ride me?”

“Maybe.” She flashed that sassy smile that used to annoy the hell out of me. Now it only made me want more. “But first I’m going to taste you.”

She slithered down my body, and I thought I was going to lose it when her boobs ran over my cock. But in a few seconds, Meghan’s hand was on me, stroking and pumping, pausing now and then to cup my balls or to circle the head with her thumb. Just when I wasn’t sure I was going to live and didn’t care if I died, she surrounded me with the burning silk of her mouth, sinking over me, taking in each inch.

She gave that same little hum that I’d come to associate with her pleasure, and the vibration ran out of her mouth and into my dick, making my hips buck up to meet her lips.

“Shhh.” She glanced up at my face through her lashes, and the sight of her there between my legs, taking me into her mouth, hair cascading over us both as her breasts brushed my legs was my undoing. I reached for her shoulders.

“Now. I need to be inside you now.” I tried to drag her up to me, desperate to have her on top of me. Or under me. I didn’t really care, as long as it ended the same way.

I heard the sound of her soft laughter as she crawled her way toward me. She leaned to the side of my head and picked up the strip of condoms from the pillow next to me. All of my senses were overwhelmed: the scent of oranges wafting from her skin, the feel of her legs alongside mine and her weight on my thighs, the taste of her still on my lips, and the crinkle of paper as she tore open the little packet were only heightened by the sight of her rolling latex over my pulsing cock.

She raised herself over me, holding me just at her entrance. She teased a little, rubbing me up and down her wet sex, before she sank down.

And then we were both frantic. I held her hips and thrust my own upward, needing to meet her rocking pelvis. Meghan’s mouth was slightly opened, her eyes closed, as she threw back her head and touched her own breasts, finding the perfect rhythm that made us both moan.

“Oh, God, Meghan—I’m going to come—” I didn’t recognize my own voice, hoarse with desire and strain.

“Yes, now—now.” She arched her body, and I felt her pulsing around me. It pushed me over the edge into madness, an insanity where I shouted her name again and again as all the stars in the sky fell over both of us.

Meghan collapsed onto me, both of us slick with sweat and breathing hard. I managed enough energy to lift my hand and stroke down her back. She murmured something against my chest, but I wasn’t sure what it was. It didn’t matter, because I didn’t think my brain had enough blood running through it to make sense of anything, and the pounding of my heart drowned out the rest of the world.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head and smiled at me. “I’m hot.” She peeled herself away from me and lay down with her head on the other pillow.

I touched the side of her face, pulling a few strands of hair away from her damp cheek. “Me, too. You have that effect on me.”

One side of her mouth lifted in a half-smile. “I thought I drove you crazy. And not in a good way.”

I chuckled. “Well, you did. But turns out this was the crazy you were driving me to. So I guess it’s okay.”

“Just okay?” She raised one eyebrow.

I rolled to my side, facing her. “Much more than okay. I think I died for a minute there.” I sat up and felt a trickle sweat roll down my spine. “Hey, I have an idea. Want to cool off?”

Meghan pushed herself up. “How?”

“Swim in the river. C’mon.”

But she didn’t move. “Sam, aren’t there snakes in the river? And it’s really cold.”

“Babe, the only thing that might bite you in there is me.” I leaned across her and sank my teeth gently into the slope of her breast, then ran my tongue over to soothe it. “And cold is the point.” I swiped something from the pillow and then jumped off the tailgate and offered her my hand.

She was still reluctant, I could tell, but she crawled down toward me anyway. I caught her waist and swung her down to the ground with me.

“You trust me, right?” I gazed down at her, at the moonlight reflecting on her skin. She turned luminous green eyes to me, considering for a minute before she nodded.

“Yes, I trust you, Sam.”

It felt like we were both talking about more than just a dip in the water, but neither of us acknowledged that. Instead I pulled her toward the riverbank, lacing our fingers together as we picked our way through the dark, the feel of each other’s hand the only sure thing in the night.

“THAT WATER WAS FRIGID.”

I sat in the back of the truck again shivering as Sam wrapped me in a quilt and pulled me onto his lap.

“Yeah, it was, but I warmed you up, didn’t I?”

I tried to bite back a grin, but it didn’t work. “Yes, you might have raised the temperature of the river by a degree or two. And scared some fish, probably.” I reached up to smooth his wet hair out of his eyes. “I’m very impressed you thought to bring the condoms with us.”

“Hey, I’m nothing if not resourceful. And hopeful.” He smiled as he leaned his forehead against mine.

“You know, you don’t do that enough.” I traced a finger around his lips. “Smile, I mean. You’re so serious.”

I felt rather than heard his sigh. “I haven’t had much chance to be anything but in the last ten years.”

“I get that. But I hope you’ll try to smile more often. Play a little. There’s this whole side of you that no one really sees. If you’d asked me when we met, I would’ve said you were a grump. And maybe a little bit of an asshole.”

He laughed then, settling back on the pillows, and pulled me to lie against his chest, my legs still tangled with his. “Yeah, you had every right to think that. The day I walked into Boomer’s and saw you there, it just knocked me off my feet. I don’t know why, but being a jerk felt like the best way to deal with it.”

“You did it well.” I shifted so that my ear was against his heart. We were both silent for several moments, as the water evaporated from our chilled skin and a breeze stirred the leaves above our heads.

“Thank you for tonight.” I traced a line down the middle of his stomach. “This is the best date I’ve ever had, in my entire life.”

His arms tightened around me. “I’m glad. And me, too.” I felt him draw in a deep breath. “I’ve never brought anyone else to this spot. Ever.”

My heart stuttered, and I swallowed hard. “You haven’t?”

“No. My dad first brought me here when I was about twelve. He said as I was getting older, he knew there were going to be times I needed to be alone, to think, and fishing was the best way to do that. We had other spots he and my grandfather had taken me to fish when I was little, but this was secret, and special. He told me I was only the second person he’d taken to this spot.”

“Who was the first?” I snugged my body even closer to Sam’s.

“My mom. He brought her here on their first date. I, uh, assume they didn’t enjoy it in quite the same way we did, seeing as it
was
the first date, but he told me there was nothing like fishing with a woman to really get to know her.”

I laughed. “I think I would’ve liked your dad.”

“Oh, yeah, you would’ve. And he would’ve gotten a kick out of you. He liked feisty girls.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. I mean, look at Ali.”

“True.”

I hoisted myself above him and moved my mouth up his neck to his lips, where I nibbled and licked until I covered him, drawing out a long kiss. “Thank you, even more. It makes tonight special to know that.”

Sam held my face in his hands. “Not over yet. I think we still have three condoms yet.”

I smiled. “Wow. You really are ambitious. But it’s got to be getting late, and you have to work tomorrow. I mean, I do, too, but I don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn.”

“I don’t care. I can deal with a few yawns tomorrow. This is a night when we’re not looking at clocks.” He rolled over, pinning me down beneath him. “And I have so much more I want to do with you.”

I ran my hands down his back and gripped that solid rear. “And when I can’t walk tomorrow?”

He grinned into my eyes, a wolfish gleam in his. “Well, you can always teach sitting down.”

DAWN WAS PAINTING THE sky when Sam and I finally climbed back into the cab of the truck. I’d helped him fold up the quilts and pile them along with the pillows in under the tarp, and we’d gathered the fishing supplies, blown out the candles and put away the bug spray.

“You know, we still have one of these left.” I waved the last tiny square of paper as Sam got into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, I know. I did that on purpose.” He winked at me. “I figured it was an incentive to do this again. Soon.”

“I don’t think I need an incentive.” I slipped my hand into his. “This was the most perfect night I’ve ever had, Sam. But the porch is going to seem awfully tame after tonight.”

“That’s okay.” He eased the truck over the road, and I grabbed the door with my free hand, trying to stay on the seat. “You need some porch time to balance out the nights when we can get away. You know? Like a tease. Coming attraction, and all that.”

“True.” I laid my head back, closing my eyes with a huge yawn. “God, what time is it?” We’d dozed a little throughout the night, but I felt heavy with sleepiness.

“I think about four. You can catch a few hours before you need to get ready for work.”

“What about you?” I rubbed my thumb on his palm, between our hands.

He shrugged. “I’ll probably just grab a shower and head out to the fields. If I start feeling bad, I can always come home and catch a nap mid-day. The house is empty, and it’s quiet.”

I smiled. “Something to remember. You know, when the house is empty ... I do have an hour-long lunch break between my morning and afternoon classes.”

“Aw, don’t tell me that. I’ll start scheming.”

“I’m counting on it.” I thought of how I could justify a trip back to the farm at lunch, and then it hit me, with a painful weight, that I only had four more weeks in Burton. At the beginning of the summer, two months had felt endless, but now ... I wished I could freeze time, or at least slow it down. I wasn’t ready to let go of whatever this was between Sam and me. I knew its limitations, but as long as summer went on, so could we.

The farm was silent as Sam parked the truck. We closed our doors as quietly as we could and snuck through the kitchen door. Sam whispered to me that he would take care of emptying the truck out later, after everyone was gone.

I turned to go toward my room, but Sam caught my arm, pulling me tight to his body. “One more kiss.” He wrapped his arms around me and covered my lips.