Page 61 of Before Forever

He looked and shook his head. “I didn’t see anything. It was probably just a fox or a rabbit. Or maybe both. A fox hunting down his dinner,” he smirked.

“Maybe,” I murmured, biting my lip. I could have sworn I saw a black silhouette moving behind the tree as we passed it, and I had the strange and eerie feeling that someone was watching us.

“Or maybe a kid is sneaking around,” I shrugged, trying to write it off. It’s not like I really had to worry about too much with Derek around anyway. He’d protect me from anything I couldn’t handle on my own.

I smiled at that, thinking I couldn’t remember ever feeling that way about Evan. He must have offered me some sense of security and safety at the time, but it wasn’t in the same way. He definitely wasn’t a muscular firefighter who gave the impression he could fight off the bad guys if he ever needed to. He was nothing like Derek.

The closer we got to the lake house, the slower we walked. Neither of us was ready to say goodbye for the night.

He drifted closer to me, locking our hands together, and pulled me in for a kiss. As his lips pressed to mine, his hands started drifting to all sorts of deliciously dangerous places like the backs of my thighs, the hem of my panties, and the curve of my breasts.

“Do you think you could come inside for just a little bit?” I asked in a suggestive tone.

He stared at me with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “I think Keith can keep things under control a little while longer,” he winked.

That was all I needed to hear to drag him into the house. The moment the door shut behind us, he pushed me back against the wall and rolled his tongue over mine. My hands spread across his back, clawing into his skin and then up to the back of his hair. I clenched into him and drank him in as much as I possibly could. Kissing him was like taking a drink of cold water after hiking in the desert. He quenched thirsts I didn’t even know I had.

As we kissed and fumbled through the dark foyer, the backs of my legs pressed against the end table, but something was different about it. It was taller and bulkier than it should have been. I spun around to look and was shocked to see the antique washstand from the fair sitting there instead of the old end table.

“What the…How did you…where did…,” I stammered in disbelief. The smile on Derek’s face gave it away that he was behind this. “I thought this was sold to someone else!”

“It was. To me. The moment you said you wanted it,” he smirked. “I had the guys from the renovation crew sneak over here while we were at the play and deliver it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind!?” I shrieked. “Of course, I don’t mind! This is beautiful!” I ran my fingers over the ornate carvings in the wood, marveling over Derek’s craftsmanship just as I had done the first time I saw it. “And it only makes it that much more special that it was something you made.”

If he had given it to me a week or two ago, I might have been anxious about bringing a new piece of furniture into the house I was planning to sell. I would have fretted over where it would go in my tiny apartment back home or how I would ship it there. But now, I didn’t mention any of that. Because it was becoming so obvious that the washstand was right where it belonged…and so was I.

I wrapped my arms around Derek and pulled his lips back to mine. We sank deeper into each other’s arms and tumbled towards the couch. He plopped down to the cushions first, with me straddling him on top. His hands caressed my thighs as I leaned down to kiss him with my hair falling around us in a curtain.

Our kiss was long and slow, but the heat rising between us was intense and urgent. His fingertips drifted along my skin, fluttering underneath my dress, teasing me until he finally went the final stretch to pull it over my head. My skin prickled with longing as he gently felt his way up to the clasp of my bra and snapped it open, then ran his hands down both of my arms to remove it.

My head rolled back with a moan as he leaned forward to kiss down my neck, across my chest, and over each of my full breasts. Grinding into him impatiently, caught in between never wanting this part to end and yet still needing so much more.

I lifted at the hem of his shirt, craving the sight of one of my favorite things about him that mouthwatering, chiseled chest. As my fingers dragged over the clefts between his muscles, I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had been with Derek like this before, obviously, but now, it was with the exciting potential of maybe staying here with him, of being able to cast my eyes on his body any time I wanted to. For as long as I wanted to.

His hands wrapped around the back of my neck and swept his lips across mine, pushing his hardness between my legs. I rocked into it and rushed to unbuckle his belt. How we got completely undressed and positioned on the couch so he could finally slide inside of me, was a sex-hazed blur. My head was swimming with deep desire, and I was overwhelmed with the intense need for relief. He was the only thing that could sate me.

I rocked back and forth on top of him with our hands interlocked. He matched my rhythm, thrusting up to meet me each time I pressed down. I used him to guide myself to the brink, knowing the sight and sounds of that were enough to get him there too. I delighted in the feeling of knowing he was watching me as I moved over him.

“That’s it,” he whispered against my neck, his eyes burning up into me. “God, you’re so sexy and beautiful. I want to feel you let go.”

His deep, raspy words did the trick. An explosion of tingling nerves and rippling shock waves spread from between my legs, vibrating through my whole body as I gasped and cried and collapsed against him. He shuddered inside of me and growled, pulling me down harder to catch the last lingering seconds of his own release.

All we could do in the aftermath of how unbelievably good it felt was laugh. I swung my head back as he nuzzled into my chest, kissing along my skin in between heavy breaths.

“I think I’m in trouble,” he sighed with his forehead pressed against me.

“Oh yeah?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah. You’re addictive.”

“In that case, we’re both in trouble,” I laughed.

We laid there on the couch for a while, then reluctantly put our clothes back on before I walked him to the door.

“I don’t want you to go,” I pouted. “But I know Em is probably waiting for you.”

“I’d love for you to come over and spend the night again sometime soon, if we haven’t scared you off yet,” he replied.

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