Page 23 of Better Than the Beach
The flare of her eyes tells me she’s not just talking about the Christmas movies and mealtime conversations, and her already pink-tinted cheeks flush deeper. I hold her tighter and turn my mouth into a soft smile.
“It’s been my pleasure,” I say honestly, and I mean it.
I pull the glove off my hand, then slide my bare fingers over Cassie’s jaw before pulling her lips to mine. I welcome the warmth of her mouth, her tongue, and when she whimpers, I almost lose it. The kiss was supposed to be brief and sweet, but it heats quickly, until she’s turned completely around and is straddling my hips on the snowmobile.
When she rocks forward, I can’t swallow back my groan. I harden immediately, and when she pushes down on my erection, I match her movement. She gasps into my mouth, so I repeat the motion.
“What are you trying to start out here, Cassandra?” I ask, the words low and dark. I dig my fingers into her hips and encourage her to continue to move. “I can feel your heat. Your desire.”
“Yes, Professor,” she says, quickening the roll of her hips over my erection.
I kiss her again, harder, faster, and she rides me, fucking me fully clothed on the back of the snowmobile as the sun sets. There’s a voice in the back of my head telling me to stop, to get us back to the house for the night, but I don’t want to stop. I don’t want it to end.
I’m about to lose all sense of reason when there’s a loud beep and then Craig’s voice booms through silence.
Cassie and I both startle at the noise.
“Nolan! Nolan, you copy?”
My brow furrows for a moment before I remember the walkie. We always bring them on the trails because cell service is spotty and unreliable out here. Leave it to my older brother to interrupt what could be my last moment alone with Cassie.
I grab the walkie begrudgingly and answer.
“Copy, Craig. What’s up?”
“You got Ma with you?”
Cassie jerks her head back and her eyes go wide, and I glance behind me, remembering the sound of the snowmobile from earlier.
“No,” I tell him quickly, already knowing what he’s going to say next.
“Welp, she’s in the wind. Took the rig and everything. We’re going to take the Back Creek trail to check for her. You anywhere near the cabin?”
Cassie is already up from my lap with her helmet back on before Craig finishes talking, and I spin my body around, so she can slide back into the seat behind me.
“Yep, I’m about ten from the cabin. I’ll head now and radio back when I get there.”
I put the walkie away and crank the engine back up.
“You think she’s okay?” Cassie asks, and I can hear the worry in her voice. I give her hand a squeeze before answering.
“She’s probably fine,” I say clearly, and then I get us back onto the trail and head toward the cabin.
Five more minutes on the trail, and my body relaxes when I see chimney smoke coming from the vicinity of Pop’s cabin. It was Ma I heard earlier, and she’s probably in the cabin now. I’m relieved, but also ready to scold her for scaring us all.
Sure enough, when we pull up to the cabin, the lights inside are on and the smoke is coming from the chimney, but Ma’s snowmobile isn’t anywhere I can see it. I park, and Cassie follows me up the porch steps and into the house quickly.
“Ma?” I say as I step into the living room. The woodstove is lit, but from the look of the logs, it’s not been going long. “Ma.”
I walk through the small living room and kitchen and check the bathroom, then the two small bedrooms. Everything is empty. When I step back into the main area, Cassie is holding a bottle of wine with a puzzled look on her face. I glance from her to the bottle, then to the table in front of her.
Two wine glasses are set out on the table, and so is an old VHS tape and a plate of my mom’s sugar cookies.
I realize what’s happened at the same time the walkie beeps in my jacket pocket.
“Professor Dweeb, copy.”
I roll my eyes. Duncan is such an ass. You’d never know he was in his mid-forties by how he acts.
