Page 8 of Cruel Start

He peeled off my strap, cupped my breast with one hand, and squeezed it. I gasped as sensations burst through my body, and I ground my hips against him. He growled, breaking the kiss. I arched my back as he trailed kisses down my neck and to the hollow at the base of my throat, his husky words whispering over my skin.

“I want to slide inside you, surfer girl.”

He released my hair, and I nodded as he pinched and rolled my nipple.

“Gonna need to hear the words, Aspen.”

Some hazy part of my alcohol-infused mind realized he knew my name, making it even easier for me to do what I wanted. “Yes. I want you inside me too.”

A burst of hot air fanned my heated flesh, and with deft fingers, he removed the rest of my clothes. I swayed on my feet, shivering as he released me to grab my discarded beach towel. With a flick of his wrists, it was spread on the ground before he herded me toward it.

“You’re beautiful. You know that? When you jumped from the cliff then came out of the water like a fucking siren, everyone else faded. It’s only been you from that moment.”

I mumbled something unintelligible but understood what he meant. When I’d first seen him, something similar had happened to me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he slid his jeans over his hips and down to his ankles before kicking them off. Black boxer briefs did little to hide the large bulge that made my heart skip into overdrive, banging against my chest like a convict desperate for freedom. I glided forward and trailed a finger along his hardness, a thrill dancing through me when it jerked at my touch. I loved that I had power over him too. Maybe not much, but enough.

Then the last scrap of clothing that hid him from me was gone, and I swayed at his size, a sliver of anxiety piercing the haze of lust. I might have gotten myself in over my head.

He advanced, and I shivered. All thoughts fled as he grabbed my wrist and turned me so my back was against his chest. Then he was touching me. So many sensations had my mind on overload. All I could do was feel as he held my breasts, grazed my pussy, then dipped between my legs, feeling how wet I was for him. My face heated at the way I squirmed against his touch.

His other hand trailed across my stomach until he wrapped it around my neck, holding me immobile but not too tight so that I couldn’t breathe. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced as he swirled his fingers in my heat, teasing my clit until I cried out. My skin was overheated, my legs weak, and I knew that if he didn’t stop, I would come.

“Don’t stop.” I wanted to come.

“Not yet.”

His deep, hoarse voice brought me closer to the edge, and I moaned. He stopped what he was doing, and my legs almost buckled from the loss of his grip on my neck and pussy. I wobbled like a baby giraffe, drunk on desire, before strong, calloused hands found my hips, and he guided me onto the towel, easing me down so my back was on the damp cotton.

“Are you protected?”

I nodded, my mind fuzzy with desire. When he wasn’t immediately over me, I opened my heavy-lidded eyes to see him staring with raw hunger. Then he leaned forward, lifted my hips slightly, pressed against my entrance, and held there. I reached for him, and he gave me his weight.

My legs automatically wrapped around his hips, and he slid inside me. I cried out at the sharp stab of pain from penetration. He held still, waiting for me to adjust. When he jerked inside, the pain was gone, and in its place, pleasure. I gasped, lifting my hips, searching, as my nails dug into his shoulders. He flexed inside me, and a wave of need flooded me.

As he moved his hips, thrusting deep into me, every nerve ending became hyperaware. I squirmed, frantic, as he ground against my clit. My mind was a haze of lust. Time held no meaning as he played my body like an instrument, knowing how and where to touch to make my toes curl, and my breath fell from my lips in jerky puffs.

When his hand trailed down my stomach and between our writhing bodies, my eyes fluttered open to find his mercurial ones boring into mine.

“Come for me, surfer girl.”

Then his thumb brushed my clit, and I exploded around him. He thrust harder, faster, and impossibly deeper until he was right there with me, falling over the edge. More of his weight covered my limp body. His forehead dropped against mine before he caressed my lips with a tender kiss. Another second, then he rolled off me, lying motionless beside me. I shivered, missing the feel of him over and inside me. It was foreign but a sensation I knew I would never get enough of.

When he stood, his boxer briefs in hand, I lifted onto an elbow to watch. Covering up that body was a crime. I wanted more. There was so much I hadn’t tried since he’d controlled everything about what we’d just done. Then he grabbed his jeans, and I realized he hadn’t made eye contact with me.

“Hey.” I reached for him, but he shifted, and my fingers fell away. “You’re leaving?” I felt vulnerable, and I hated it.

“This was a one-time thing.” He bent and tossed my clothes to me. “I don’t do girlfriends.”

I recoiled inside, humiliated. There were no words—wait, yes, there were. “Screw you, asshole.” I grabbed my shorts and angrily pulled them up. “Dating you is the last thing I want.”

CHAPTER FIVE

PHOENIX

“You saw those two chicks, right?”

I dropped my backpack onto my bed in the room Shane and I shared at the football house. I loved my brother, but what I wouldn’t give for my own room. As freshmen, we got what was available, and that was it.

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