Page 85 of The Brave and the Reckless

I hadn’t found anything yet that filled me with the same sense of purpose as medicine, so I didn’t really have a reason to leave. But I didn’t want my summer of fun to end with me settling into a lifestyle that I hadn’t actually chosen for myself– not at Yale, and not here. Even if staying meant that I got more of Noah. I’d get more of the little smiles that he reserved for when he thought no one else was looking. I’d get more soft pats high on my thigh when I sat on the horse and he told me I was doing a good job staying in the saddle. Heck, I even wanted more of his grumpy eye-rolls.

Or maybe he’d meant the opposite.

Maybe he meant to imply that he was just seeing this as a summer fling.

We had to rewind. Those last five minutes were too close to bursting our perfectly compartmentalized boxes. If I had to throw myself on top of those boxes like they were grenades, I would. Get back to being obsessed with his tongue between my legs, and his moans and the way he could cuff both my wrists in one of his hands– without any of the mental gymnastics of what it might mean.

I had no forewarning as Noah pulled me into his lap and spread my legs to either side of him. I yelped as he slipped a finger into me, still sensitive and hot.

“I’m glad you didn’t get to buy any. I much prefer you bare like this anyway.”

“Good,” I gasped, only referring to the fact that he had clearly panicked just as much as me, and sex seemed like a safe change of topic right now.

He slowly moved back and forth, teasing my muscles until they relaxed enough for him to add a second finger. I shuddered under the perfect strain, letting the feel of him engulf my every thought.

“You should know that I have a to-do list, too, princess.”

“Oh yeah, cowboy?”

I leveraged myself against his shoulders, so I could tip my hips against his hand. Each move stirred the crushing current of my orgasms back up after it had quieted only an hour or two ago. This felt good. Sex was easy.

“I’m going to make you come in every room of this house.”

I gasped a laugh because that to-do list was ridiculous– and it sounded perfect. My laugh turned into a moan when he pushed down to his knuckles and curled his fingers. He hit that sweet spot. My pussy clenched around him, and I dropped my forehead against his.

“Okay,” I whimpered and closed my eyes, trying to piece together words through the blood rushing in my ears, “that could take a while. Do you have a specific plan?”

“No,” his breath mixed with mine, our lips skimming but not closing to a kiss, “I just want to replace every awful memory of this place with good ones. I want to walk into every room and be reminded of how prettily you fall apart for me.”

He wanted to make memories with me? In his familyhome? That was not the kind of plan you made with a summer fling.

He caught me off-guard. My eyes flew open and my grasp on him slipped. Still mid-thrust, the momentum shot my right arm forward over the top of his shoulder. Before I could react, my hand collided with the edge of the windowsill. The wood bit into my palm. I should have been able to use that to my advantage, grab the windowsill and catch myself– but my wrists weren’t made for that kind of support. Instead, my upper palm caught but the heel of my hand still jutted forward and bent my wrist at an unnatural angle. The back of my hand slanted toward my arm. Pain shot through my wrist. And then the heel of my hand finally collided with the wall under the windowsill, breaking my momentum.

“Ah, fuck!” I yanked my arm back, cradling it to my chest.

“Shit. Are you okay?” Noah’s hands wrapped around my middle, just a moment too late to steady me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I grumbled as the immediate strain ebbed into a thickly pulsing pain. This had to be the stupidest way anyone had ever sprained their wrist. Barreled into a sex injury by fear of commitment.

“Let me see,” he said and tried to reach for my arm.

“Noah,” I shrieked and leaned back, “your fingers are covered in… well… us.”

He hesitated, hand still mid-air. His index and middle finger glistened with the remnants of my arousal and his previous orgasm.

“Fair enough.” He awkwardly reached across with his other hand, and I just groaned and turned away from it.I didn’t need to be babied. If he didn’t know about my stupid issues with my tissues, we’d be laughing right now, and having silly sex. “Esra, at least let me see if you need an ice pack.”

“I’m fine,” I sighed and lifted the sprained wrist up to his eye level. It wasmaybeswelling up, minimally, but if I had to make an educated guess, the pain would mostly be gone within three days. Sooner if I wrapped it up nice and tight.

Noah leaned forward and brushed his lips over the inside of the wrist. “Kiss to make it better,” he said with a small smile.

A cynical part of me wanted to roll my eyes and tell him to move on, but there was something so genuine and soft about the moment that my heart beat loud enough to drown out everything else. He was comforting me in the simplest way.

“Again,” I whispered.

Noah complied. He carefully closed his lips over my pulse point.

My chest seized as it tried to contain the wild beating in my ribcage.

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