By nine o’clock that night, the coeds were once again in their tents, out cold.
“Kayaking takes it out of you,” TJ said from the fire, where he was putting on more wood.
“The way you do it, it does.” Harley moved toward the heat, hands out. Her legs were chilly since she was still in her bathing suit with a hoodie sweatshirt and board shorts over it. “You pushed them a little hard today.”
He slid her an inscrutable glance.
She met his gaze, raised a questioning brow.
And he caved with a smile.
“I knew it,” she breathed. “You did it on purpose. For a replay of last night, perhaps?”
His eyes dilated black. “I had to dunk myself in the cold water every time I thought about last night.”
“I was wondering why you kept going in.” She grinned. “Did it help?”
“No.”
She was quiet a moment, then voiced what had been on her mind all day. “Maybe it’s not the mountain?” she whispered, repeating his words from last night.
He just looked at her.
“Where did that come from?” she asked. “Because aren’t you the guy who isn’t into commitment. I mean, did the rules change?”
“I’ve never been much of a rule man.”
More off balance then ever, she shook her head. “You say that like…like you’re sure.”
His gaze remained steady and thoughtful.
“But…you can’t be sure,” she whispered. “No one I’ve ever known is sure.”
“Stone and Cam seem pretty sure.”
She was having trouble processing the words. “But they’re not playing the temporary game that we are. We have one week. Even that could be too long if you think about it. What if you get tired of being with just one person? Tired of the banality of it, tired of the daily grind? What if you get tired of sleeping with just one person, of having sex with just one person? Hell, maybe I’ll get tired of it.”
“You wouldn’t get tired of the sex.”
She stared at him. “Only a man would say that.”
Tossing aside his stick, he rose and came toward her. Unlike her, he’d changed. His look was the usual, basic badass mountain man…a pair of faded blue jeans, beloved battered trainers, and a long-sleeved Henley. It was the jeans that held her attention. They were molded to him and like the night before, there was no indication of anything between him and the denim.
He got real close. “Sounds like maybe you’re the one that has the commitment problem.”
Before she could comment on that, he tugged her into him, nudging his hips to hers.
“Um, are you”—she swiveled a finger in the region of his crotch—“commando again?”
“I took a quick dip in the river to wash off.” He shrugged. “Got dressed in a hurry.”
“And forgot your underwear?”
Some of the tension left him, and he smiled as he nuzzled his face into her hair. “Is that turning you on?”
Duh. “Not at all.”
He laughed. “Let’s go for a walk so we can talk.” One of his hands went to her hip, his fingers slipping beneath the hem of the sweatshirt to touch bare skin.
“Where to?” She did her best not to sound all breathy and failed. Miserably.
Taking her hand, he turned and headed out of the clearing, away from camp. She followed him alongside the water’s edge for a good quarter of a mile, even more breathless by the time they finally stopped at a small protected inlet. TJ sat on a fallen log, haloed by the moon’s glow on the water behind him. “Come here.”
Perfectly willing for a repeat of last night, she stepped closer, then between his long legs, but he smiled and shook his head. “Here.” Tugging her into his lap, he snuggled her in.
His hand slid to the nape of her neck, his fingers in her hair as he touched his forehead to hers. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, a warm, sweet kiss. Lots of warm, sweet kisses. He took his time, and the slow buildup was incredibly…hot. And she could feel that he felt…hot, too. “I thought you wanted to talk.”
“Always.” He smiled against her mouth. “But maybe not right now.” He kissed her again, his fingers holding her head in place as he took the delicious buildup to the next level, still taking his damn time, but plundering now, taking what he wanted, pleasing them both with deep rhythmic thrusts of his tongue that made her think of what she wished he was doing to the rest of her body. She wanted to tell him so, but it felt so unbelievably good she couldn’t speak, and when her toes curled, she began to wonder if she could orgasm from a kiss alone. When he finally pulled his mouth from hers, she heard a moan of protest and realized it was her.
Eyes still closed, she sighed. “I wish…” so much, she wished, but mostly that he could be deep inside, filling her.
“What do you wish, Harley?” When she remained quiet, he stroked his thumbs over her jaw. “Anything,” he said softly.
She wondered at all the possibilities of that intriguingly wicked promise.
Still holding her face, his lips curved. “You have to be able to say it out loud. You know that, right?”
Yeah. She knew that. But she really wasn’t good with voicing her needs, especially those kinds of needs.
A rough laugh escaped him, and he nipped her jaw. “Harley, after all we’ve done, what could possibly embarrass you?”
“Don’t you ever lose it?” she asked, frustrated.
“I’m close now,” he murmured, voice low, eyes hot, his body hard beneath hers. “Say it, Harley.”
“You know what I want.” She nibbled on her lower lip, watching him watch her from those heated eyes. “I want you to do what we haven’t managed yet. At least not as legal adults.”
He trailed a finger down her throat to the zipper on her hoodie, which he slowly pulled down. “That actually covers quite a bit of ground.”
It did?
“Tell me,” he coaxed. He tugged the hoodie off her arms and it fell to the ground behind her, leaving her in just her halter bathing suit top. He slipped a finger under the thin strap over her collarbone. The pad of his finger slid a little lower, heading south.
Her nipples, already hard, pebbled into two tight beads. “I want…”
A corner of his mouth quirked up as his finger slid even farther. “If you can’t say it, how can we do it?” he asked on an amused breath.
“I’m not sure what to call it.” She felt the top of her bathing suit sag a little, no longer supporting her, and she realized he’d untied it. Her breath backed up in her throat as it began to slip away from her. “Saying ‘making love’ seems so sappy, given the circumstances. And the other seems a little…coarse.”
“Sex?” He was watching his finger as he slowly tugged on the suit, revealing just the very top of her breasts. “The word sex is too coarse?”
“No.” She squirmed, and the bathing suit caught on her nipples. “That wasn’t the word I was thinking of.”
He lifted his gaze off her breasts and met her gaze, his so hot it stole her breath. “You want me to—”
“Be inside me,” she whispered so softly she might have only mouthed the words. Fuck me…
Her top pooled in her lap, baring her to the waist. TJ adjusted her so that she was straddling his lap, his big, callused hands sliding down her thighs, caressing, then back up again, unbuttoning her shorts, pulling down the zipper, the rasp of the metal nearly as loud as their labored breathing. She wriggled her hips, giving him room to work. Under the shorts were her bikini bottoms, which his fingers had no problem slipping beneath.
When he touched her, the air left her lungs in a whoosh. She spread her thighs farther so that she could feel his hard sex cradled beneath her, and pressed her face into his throat. She could smell the soap he’d just used, and the man himself, and when his fingers parted her, she weaved her hands into his hair for an anchor and opened her mouth on his throat.
“God, Harley. You’re wet.”
At h
is touch, his words, she tightened her grip on his hair, biting the tendon where his neck met his shoulder without even realizing it until she heard his hiss of breath and felt him rock his hips hard into hers.
As his fingers teased her, she moaned, her mouth still on him, hips helplessly moving. She was so ready that she began whispering her plea. “Please. Please, now, TJ…”
Abruptly he stood her up, ripped off her shorts and bathing suit bottoms. Even before they hit the ground, his fingers slid deep inside her, his other hand cupping a breast, his thumb rubbing over her nipple in a rhythm that matched.
She lost her mind. Completely lost it. As she panted and begged softly, he met her gaze. “I know you want a quick fuck, just like we had back all those years ago, but not again. Not with what’s between us now. This is more than that, Harley.”
She didn’t care what he called it, as long as he pulled her out of that frenzied state and filled her. Now. “TJ.”
“Right here,” he promised. “Harley. Look at me.”
It took her a minute to calm down enough to open her eyes and meet his gaze.
“More,” he said with that quiet intensity, and then he tugged her onto his lap, his lips taking hers hard, his tongue gliding in and out of her mouth in the same rhythm his fingers slid in and out of her body. When his thumb brushed over her very center, she threw back her head and gripped his shoulders, riding his hand, unable to hold back. She cried out his name as she burst, and he stayed with her until the last of the shudders shook her.
It wasn’t enough. She reached between them to unbutton his jeans, but he stopped her. “Harley.” He closed his eyes, his mouth grim. “I don’t have a condom.”
She pulled one out of the pocket of her shorts and held it up sheepishly. “I was a Girl Scout.” she said to his soft, grateful laugh. “But for future reference, I’m squeaky clean and on the pill…”
“Me too. The squeaky clean part,” he murmured as she slid her hands inside his jeans, caressing his hard length.
Still not enough. “Help me,” she whispered, and again he lifted her, this time so she could free him and put the condom to good use. Soon as she did, she immediately sank down on him, inch by thick, delicious inch.
“Jesus, Harley,” he breathed, gripping her thighs, spreading them open further, pulling her hard against him. Breathing raggedly, he held her there, giving her a minute to get used to him.
When she shifted, he growled and tightened his grip. “Christ, don’t move.”
Unable to help it, she rocked her hips and he swore, holding her still. “Not a muscle,” he said roughly, and pressed his forehead to hers, gulping in air like a dying man. “I’m going to lose it.”
Yes, but that’s what she wanted, and she nipped his bottom lip, her breasts brushing his chest.
A shudder racked through him, and then went through her as well. “Please,” she whispered again, and oscillated her hips.
With a groan, he brushed a kiss across her mouth, and eyes still locked on hers, he began to move. Just like on the river, he was in charge, letting her rock on him, but only as much as he allowed. He started off with glorious, agonizingly slow thrusts, but neither of them could hold to that for long, not while finally joined in the most intimate way possible. She’d never felt anything like it, and closed her eyes to savor the pleasure of having him fill her so completely.
When he said her name, she managed to open her eyes. His head was tipped down, watching as he thrust up hard into her. Then he looked up, and she was immediately lost in the dark pool of desire staring back at her. She felt like she was drowning in him, in the feel of him. She was reaching for something, needing…Sinking her hands in his hair, she kissed him, long and deep. With a groan, he ground his hips against hers, then stroked a thumb over where they were joined, murmuring hot, sexy things in her ear as he touched her. She burst and took him with her.
Spent, they collapsed to the ground in a pile of tangled, sweaty limbs. Either five minutes or five hours later, Harley sighed. “Okay, that was sooo much better than fine.”
By the soft light of the moon, TJ smiled and leaned over her, kissing her jaw, each eyelid, the tip of her nose, her mouth…Finally, he let out a long breath and lay flat on his back. “Christ, I’m done in.”
“Yes. That’s what happens when you turn into a sex fiend by night.”
He grinned. “It’s not my fault. You keep looking at me with the eyes.”
“The eyes?”
“The ‘please do me’ eyes. They’re very distracting.”
“So I should wear dark glasses, or better yet, keep my eyes closed?”
“It’s possible another part of your body would call to me.”
“Like?”
“Like your ass. You have a great ass, Harley.”
“My ass calls to you?”
“You have no idea.”
“What if I wore—”
“Let me save you some time. All of your parts call to me.” His voice lowered, and his smile went from teasing to something far more devastating. “Everything about you calls to me.”
Her heart pretty much turned over and exposed its underbelly. And that’s when she knew she was in big trouble.
As in unless he did something fast, it’d be too late to save herself.
CHAPTER 25
Nick picked them up as planned and drove back to Wilder Adventures. Harley was quiet on the ride home, and TJ wondered what she was thinking. Back at the lodge, she helped unload, promised the coeds a disk full of pictures from her camera, and hugged Nick good-bye.
Then turned to TJ.
He smiled and reached for her, but she backed up, whispered “good-bye,” and headed for her truck.
He barely caught up with her, playfully trapping her against her driver’s door, pinning her hands at her sides as he leaned in and nipped at her bottom lip. “So…”
Closing her eyes, she let out a shaky, aroused breath at his touch. He knew the feeling. A glutton for punishment, he ran a hand down her arm for the sheer pleasure of touching her and smiled. “How about dinner?”
“I can’t.”
His smile faded as he took in her solemn eyes. “Okay, then how about a game of pool later?”
“I have to catch up on my research work.” She shifted her gaze away. “Sorry.”
“Harley.”
She stared at his throat.
“Harley.” He accompanied the word with a finger beneath her chin, and she finally looked at him, the emotion in her eyes nearly cutting off his air supply. “I’m leaving in five days,” he whispered.
“I know,” she whispered back.
“That second trip is a distinct possibility as well. If I take them both you might be gone to Colorado when I get back.”
“I know that, too.”
“So let’s be together before I go, and say our good-bye.”
Pain flickered in her gaze. “Good-bye,” she whispered.
He stared at her, then closed his eyes for a beat. “Okay, now see, I meant a temporary good-bye. The kind where we get naked and sweaty, have a mutually good time, maybe multiple mutually good times, and then we say hello again the next time we see each other. But I’m thinking that you meant the kind of good-bye that doesn’t come with that eventual hello.”
“TJ.” She let out a long, shaky breath. “I thought I could do this.”
“This.”
“You know. Temporary. Casual. Turns out I’m not going to be so good at it.”
“Really? Because you’re better at it than you think. You go through life skimming the surface, not letting anything in too