Page 63 of Swiped
Nat nuzzled her face into the patch of hair on Thom’s chest. She closed her eyes. Both of their heartbeats thrummed in her ears.
“I didn’t plan this rainy bit,” he said through panting breaths. “I promise.”
“Maybe I did,” she teased, cheek still pressed on his warm chest.
“I see.” She felt his voice purr under her ear. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the woman who designed a dating app knows romance better than I do.”
She met his eyes. “Sorry, not sorry.”
She watched Thom’s deep blue eyes flicker over her face. “I think you might actually be sweeping me off my feet.” He stroked her cheek with his hand. “Honestly.”
She wrapped her hand over his.
Thom laughed a quiet chuckle and looked at a faraway spot in the distance. “It’s funny because the lads at the office said Ishould give BeTwo a go now that I was stateside. Try to have fun, whatever. I agonized and read up on the app because, I don’t know, I’d had some bad experiences before. I only just signed up last month.” He held her face with his palms and gazed into her eyes. “But it led me right to you.” Those secret doors in his eyes welcomed her. “Your brilliant app,” he whispered.
“It did.”
The soft patter of the rain filled the quiet, like music. The sweet, earthy smell of the land curled around Nat and relaxed her senses even more than the fruit of its vines already had.
“It seems we might be stuck here for a while.” Thom’s lashes were still heavy with wet. “Can I make you more comfortable?”
“You can,” she whispered and leaned into his soft kiss.
He tightened his arms around her. Her wet skin pressed against his. Her legs rubbed against the hair of his strong thighs. She tilted her throat to him and deepened their kiss.
The rain pattered on the barn roof. He ran his hands down her back, dropping the robes to the floor. He pulled off a nearby tablecloth and spread it into a kind of nest on the wood planks. He kneeled and reached for her, and she let him gently push her to lie on her back.
She braced her hands on his muscled shoulders as he nuzzled his nose between her legs. His hot breath sent waves of desire burning through her hips. His fingers slipped into her wet waistband, and he teased it taut before letting go with a softsmack. She gasped, then giggled and sunk her fingers into his wet curls.
He pulled off her swim bottoms.
She gasped, then moaned as his tongue explored her. Deep swells of pleasure filled the hollows all the other dates had left inside her heart. She let her body melt open as he spread her legs. Tingles coursed up her thighs and throbbed into her hard nipples. He licked her like he could never get enough, and hishands tightened around her ass, drawing her in. She let her arms fall over her head.
He slipped a finger inside her and the sensation exploded into her breath. He traced circles inside her wet pleasure. The tension trilled in her thighs. She raised her hips for him and he drew her deeper. He flicked his tongue against her, fast and slow and soft and hard all at once. Buzzing waves rolled through her body, and she released them with soft moans. He pulsed his finger in and out, slick and smooth with her. Her body tightened around him. He pulsed faster. She arched her back.
Her cries echoed in the rafters.
* * *
Rami grumbled and shifted in his moist sweater. The back of the cab smelled like wet dog. He peeled the thick collar from his neck with a damp slurp to attempt some kind of ventilation. He felt like a giant slug. Allison sat beside him, just as soaked but somehow not looking like a used dishrag. Her athleisure seemed to have dried perfectly. He sighed. The cab inched forward through the dense traffic, which he could barely see through the fog condensing on the windows.
“It was really nice of you to get us a ride,” said Allison.
“Never leave your birthday to the whims of public transportation,” Rami offered meekly.
They sat in steamy silence.
He rubbed a small circle into his fogged-over window. A bus rolled up, unencumbered in its special lane. Rami glared as his wheeled nemesis whizzed past them.
Allison gave a tiny sigh and subtly checked her phone.
* * *
Nat held Thom’s hand as they walked down the sidewalk to her apartment in the streetlight. After the rain had let up and they’d made themselves decent, they’d left the winery andgrabbed dinner at an Italian bistro in her neighborhood. Her belly was full of pasta, and her body hummed with satisfaction. Thom carried her to-go box. Walking next to him, it was easy to feel like they’d time-traveled from first date into falling in love over the last few magical hours. She could even start to imagine that the last few solitary years, and especially the last few weeks, had only been a bad dream.
An older man in stained clothes was sprawled on the sidewalk in front of them. He watched them closely as they neared.
“Lady goes on the inside!” he shouted.
