Page 55 of Be My Reason

“What do you say, Brooklyn?” heasks, his hand creeping lower. “I want to wake up every day looking at your beautiful face.” He runs his fingers through my small patch of hair, feeling his way to my slick opening.

“Ooookay . . .” I let out in a breathy groan and I feel his smile against my skin.

He abruptly turns me around and places my hands against the tile wall of the shower. “Hold on, baby.” He rubs his erection on my behind. “I’m going to take you hard and fast.” He easily slips his hard length into me. It feels divine. He pulls out and grips the flesh of my hips and then slams back into me hard, causing his balls to slap against me.

Wow!

“You are so tight like this. You feel so good.” He reaches around to caress my breasts; pinching and tugging both nipples, making me moan and beg.

“Yes, Nate. . . don’t stop,” I implore him.

Keeping one hand on a breast, he moves the other down to find the apex of my thighs, rubbing slow, deliberate circles until I feel the familiar ache of pleasure in my belly.

“Tell me again,” he groans. “Tell me you’re mine.” His voice causes me to shudder and tighten around him.

“Yes, Nate. . . oh God . . . yours . . . I’m yours!” I shout through my orgasm as I hear his own exaltations when he comes inside me, emptying himself completely.

~~ ~

Outside of work, we spent most of the last week holed up in the apartment existing on mint chocolate chip ice cream, sex, and the occasional take-out food.

Tonight, however, we are going out on our first official date. As I get ready for our night out, I wonder what it will be like to go on an actual date with him. We have become so comfortable with each other here at home. Sharing a bedroom even seems natural for us. We have been living in a bubble, our perfect little sex bubble. Will the bubble burst when we let the real world in?

I don’t know where he is taking me, he wouldn’t say.He simply told me to bring a jacket. When I emerge from the bathroom, he has a blanket and a large cooler ready to go.

In his truck, driving away from the apartment, he turns in the direction of my parents’ house. I know he isn’t taking me there. I canonly think of one other place out this way. The Bend.

I stare over at him as we make the turn onto the gravel road. He says, “Have you been here? Since…”

I smile.He’s not ready to burst the bubble either. I think about the last time I came here. It was the most incredible moment of my life. If I could have scripted the night I lost my virginity, the real thing was ten times better. Maybe it was because I had been in love with him since the seventh grade. Maybe it was because of his kind words and gentle hands. Maybe it was the shots of liquid courage Emma forced down my throat. Whatever the reason, it was the best night of my life. Until recently that is.

“No.” I grab his hand. “There is only one person I would ever come back here with.”

~~ ~

I never knew Nate could be so romantic.I lie on the blanket looking up at the stars and think back on tonight. He was so incredibly slow and gentle, almost like he was that seventeen-year-old boy deflowering a virgin again . . . only with food and wine this time.

I snuggle into him and lay my head on his chest. His heartbeat and rhythmic breathingare comforting. Our fingers are entwined and I absentmindedly trace the little scars on his right hand.

“I was twenty-two when it happened,” he says. Then he lets out a long breath as I brace myself to hear his story. “I was a senior at Clemson. Claudia and I had been married about six months and we were out celebrating. I had gotten drafted by the Red Sox and even though I would start out on their AA team in Portland, it was about as good at is gets for a rookie ball player.”

Boston?Portland? I never would have found him so far away.

I can feel his heart racing through his chest and I know what heis about to tell me is a painful memory for him.

“We were at a bar and had done some shots. She got up touse the bathroom and a few minutes after she returned, some guys came up to us and started talking trash. They said I had better put a leash on my bitch of a wife and who the hell did I think I was. I got up to defend her—defend us—when one of the guys took a swing at me.”

Oh God, no.He lost his career in a bar brawl?

“Naturally, I swung back and took the guy down, all the while cursing at myself for hitting him with my pitching arm.Then, out of nowhere, his buddy comes up to me and swings a bat at my head. Instinctively, I put up my arm to protect myself. My right arm. My pitching arm.”

I wince.“Oh God, Nate.”

“I broke my wrist in six places, had ten pins put in.I couldn’t play baseball again after that.”

“I’m so sorry.” I hug his chest tightly. Tears are welling up in my eyes.

“That’s not the worst part.” He hesitates. “Later on, I found out that Claudia was in the bathroom that night bragging about me to some of the other ladies, telling them that their boyfriends weren’t good enough to get drafted and how much better I was than them.”

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