The Test
Authors: Ava Claire
THE TEST (His Dark Lessons, Part Three)
Ava Claire
Copyright 2013 Ava Claire
SMASHWORDS EDITION
The Test, Part Three
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****
"Pull the car over," I said through gritted
teeth. "NOW."
For once, Chance Crawford obeyed
me
.
I always thought that going to Mayor's Glen,
the rich suburb tucked outside of the city limits where Alicia
lived, was like stepping into another world. Tonight was no
different. Lush green trees stretched their arms to the dimly lit
night sky, like they were trying to catch a star with their wooden
fingers. The road stretched dark and abandoned in front and behind
us, isolated except for emerald and bark.
Any other night, driving on this road would
have been relaxing; windows down, wind combing through my hair, the
sweet musk filling my nostrils. The night sounds of owls and
crickets would have been the music that flooded my ears until I hit
civilization and decided to crank up the radio. But tonight, the
green landscape was alien--along with the guy who was kowtowing to
the whims of everyone except the person that mattered.
He put the car in park and in one swift, mad
as hell move, I unclicked my seatbelt and threw open the door. I
stepped out into the darkness, ready to pace until I wore lines
into the asphalt, but instead, my flats sunk into the soggy dirt
like quicksand. I let out an angry groan as I wrenched my feet from
the muck and stepped onto solid ground, walking in the opposite
direction.
"Just where the hell do you think you're
going, Cassandra?" Chance yelled after me, the anger in his voice
almost grinding me to a halt.
"Back to Alicia's,” I hollered over my
shoulder. “Apparently, I owe her a
huge
apology for standing
up for my boyfriend."
Boyfriend
. This dark, intensely
handsome guy with tattoos snaking up his arms and weaving onto his
back didn't really fit the cutesy sounding descriptor. Words like
'mate’ and ‘lover’ seemed closer to the truth; words that evoked
passion and trembling knees instead of valentines and first loves.
It was easy to forget that once upon a time I’d called him that
without hesitation, giving my whole heart and committing myself to
him. But that was before the bottom fell out, spilling my hopes and
dreams. Ruining that word. Ruining me.
I shied away from the ‘b’ word even when I
dated other guys that made it official on Facebook. I never said it
out loud after I broke up with Chance. Boyfriend meant being
attached. It meant being vulnerable. But I’d called him that at
dinner tonight without even thinking about it.
My heart hitched in my chest and without
seeing it with my own eyes, I knew that Chance had stopped
advancing toward me. The word caught him off guard too.
“Boyfriend?”
I shivered as his deep voice rushed over the
syllables, thinking of anything but candy hearts. I thought about
how his lips would feel pressed against my heated flesh. I thought
about the simmering pull in my lower abdomen that overwhelmed my
will to hoof it back to Alicia’s. I thought about turning around
and telling him to take me right there in the middle of the
road.
"Does that mean we're official?" he probed,
words like warm honey as they went down. Even with the insects call
I could hear him rock back to motion, each step matching the
staccato tap in my chest.
The nearness of him sent goosebumps up and
down my arms. The blush that started in my cheeks spread outward,
the current of warmth extending to my toes. How did he do it?
Chance Crawford made everything else fade to nothing except the
stomp of my heart. I was so rapt, so freaking sensitive, that even
the slightest touch from him would send me spiraling into
bliss.
I let out a tiny gasp as his fingers combed
through my windswept hair and all of the dark strands spilt over
one shoulder. The goosebumps along my exposed neck stood at
attention, waiting with bated breath for what came next. I squeezed
my eyes shut and prayed for strength that evaporated as soon as his
lips pressed against the nape of my neck.
"You smell delicious," he breathed into the
sensitive flesh, sinking right to my bones. His fingertips were
rough and possessive as they drug across my abdomen and pulled me
back until I met a solid wall of muscle and the hardened length of
his arousal.
My lips parted slightly and ‘you too’ was
left unsaid as I felt his cock raging for freedom against the
contrast of his steady breathing. I was dialed to a hundred,
dangerously close to begging. The earthy notes of the woods mixed
with his warm, exotic scent, creating a heady mixture that was as
hypnotic as the breaths that went straight to my core.
His fingers wrapped around the last button on
my blouse, freeing it. A second was loose. A third. It wasn't until
there was only one button holding the fabric together that I
finally spoke.
"W-what are you doing?"
"Do you know what hearing you say that word
does to me?"
A moan rose in my throat at the urgency in
his voice. The white hot need. "Chance-"
The button slid through the sliver of a hole
and I glanced down, watching his hand spread across my pale flesh
like caramel. His fingers were trembling, like it was a battle just
to keep it together.
"Don't tell me to stop." Those forceful
fingers were pulling the two sides of my blouse outward, over my
shoulders. "I don't think I can. Not with how beautiful you look
tonight."
Beautiful
. Another familiar word. He'd
used it before, but never like this--never like he had to have me,
body and soul.
I spun around, staring into his handsome
face; the cheeks like chiseled stone, the sharp nose, thick lips
and those amber eyes that burned as bright as the stars in the
midnight sky.
"Say it again." My voice was so small, a
pleading whisper that was almost carried off by the wind.
He cupped my cheeks like I was precious,
something that needed to be cared for to keep it from shattering
into a million pieces.
"You are
beautiful
, Cassandra."
His fingers hooked under my chin and tilted
it upward. I knew he was only mere seconds from pressing his
delicious mouth against mine, but I didn't close my eyes. I wanted
to see the emotion that flickered across his face and hold onto it
forever.
The kiss was soft, his lips caressing the
contours of mine. I opened my mouth to taste more of him and his
grip tightened. I took his bottom lip between my teeth and grazed
it, an erotic fire lighting in me. He growled and the tenderness
became a hungry need as his fingers entwined in my locks and he
crushed his mouth onto mine. Nothing had ever been so
simultaneously sweet and savage as our tongues dueled, swirling and
fighting for more. The cool night air whipped around us and our
hands were caught in the cyclone as I ran my fingers up and down
his back, raking my nails down his spine.
The kiss ended abruptly but I made no
complaints because he was leading me back to the car. The sooner we
got back to his place, my place,
someplace
, we could fulfill
the unspoken promises of our bodies.
But he didn’t slide behind the wheel of his
car. Instead, he pulled off his jacket and laid it on top of the
hood like a blanket.
I hesitated, confused as I clutched my blouse
in my fist. “I thought we’d-”
His eyes glinted mischievously. “I’m not
waiting twenty minutes to have you, Cass.”
I balked, futilely bringing my crumpled
blouse to cover my chest. “Here? Someone could drive by at any
second!”
“Then you better stop wasting time.”
As his eyes bore into me, I felt a distinct
dampness spread in my panties. The thought of us hooking up out
here had just been a joke. A fantasy. I wasn’t really the kind of
girl that had sex on the side of the road. Still, I couldn't deny
the fact that every inch of my skin seemed to come alive at the
thought of our bodies moving together beneath the stars. But my
rational mind wouldn’t shut up. Someone could drive up at any
moment. God what if my moth-
“Cassandra.” His stern voice snapped me from
my worse case scenario. “It’s no longer a request.”
I took a small, hesitant step, but impatience
launched him forward and he pulled me the rest of the way. Nerves
danced in my belly as I stood in front of the car, watching lust
storm across his face. His breathing was savage as he pushed me
backward, my back flush against the hood.
“Chance--”
He didn’t speak, his hands commanding me as
he brought my legs up until my knees were bent and my thighs were
spread. Without warning, his hand shot up my skirt. I let out a
hiss of release as his fingers connected with the moist crotch of
my panties. My protests became moans, whimpers as he teased my
quivering slit behind the cotton material. I felt the cool kiss of
the night breeze as he pulled them to the side then the warm
thickness of his fingers as he plunged into my wetness. Right and
proper was silenced in favor of sexual need.
My tunnel expanded, stretching as he drove
into me. I could have let go right then, just from his skilled
assault with the crickets singing around us, but I wasn’t ready to
leave that place of sensory overload. I wanted to stay in the
moment with him deep inside, his eyes glazed with awe as he watched
what he did to me. Watched how I came undone.
When another digit joined the first, my
muscles gasped around the new girth, tightening. A moan, low and
dangerous, erupted from his mouth. His fingers rotated, finding
that piece of bliss inside me and holding on became impossible.
Little breathy moans shot from my mouth like bullets.
“I want you close before I take you,” he said
thickly. “Right at that peak before I push you over.”
And I was there, careening on the edge and I
wanted to say ‘now, PLEASE’, but the only word I could manage was
‘ungh’. I rattled like a leaf in the wind as his fingers pulled
from my core and it was a good thing that he steadied me as I
stood. Even if it was only for a second, long enough for him to
unbuckle his pants before he spun me around and pressed my chest
into the soft lining of his coat. God, he smelled good--a mix of
the woody and a crisp, bright musk.
“Spread wider for me,” he ordered. His hands
tightened on my hips. “Let me in.”
I willed my lower body to move, spreading
wider and arching my back slightly. His groan echoed over me and
when the tip of his cock roamed up and down my entrance, I couldn’t
help but fade into the lust. I forgot that at any moment someone
could zip past and see me splayed on the hood of a car. I forgot
that I could have just burned bridges at the most awkward dinner
ever. I forgot about everything except the throb of
anticipation.
Chance drove into me, my slick muscles
banding around his engorged instrument as he played my body,
demanding more, more until a moan as long and punctuated as a music
note rang out of my mouth. His fingers dug into my skin, bordering
somewhere between pain and pleasure, creating ecstasy and
magnifying everything. I felt it all: the sweat pooling in the
valley of my breasts, the knot of my nipples pressing through the
lining of Chance’s jacket, the hardened steel of the car’s hood,
and the heart that skipped a beat everytime he let out a moan. I
was climbing the hill, my body shuddering as I veered close to
climax...and light flooded my eyes.
A car.
“We should...st...sto...stop--” The car was
coming closer and I should have shrieked with embarrassment, the
lights destroying anything but white hot embarrassment, but
instead, I blinked into the light, eyes rolling back in my head
when his pace didn’t slow. As far as he was concerned, there was
nothing but us.
And then I was spinning, floating and
writhing as my muscles spasmed, dampness becoming a rushing tide.
His grip tightened, muscles locking as his thrusts became wild and
feral. He let out a cry of abandon as he released and his bellow
echoed through the trees. They almost seemed to shudder and twitch
themselves, branches creaking as we gasped for breath.
Both of us moved with frantic speed,
remembering we were outside and the next car could very well be a
cop looking for something to do. I didn’t bother buttoning up my
shirt and Chance looked like a men’s high fashion model in only a
blazer; muscles shimmering in the dim light, hair slightly wild as
the wind gusted through the cracked window.
