Page 31 of Weathering The Storm

He closes his eyes, head falling back as he waits for me to kiss him, but instead I take him in. Weaving my fingers through the soft hair at his nape.

Things were frantic yesterday. I didn’t get to appreciate him like this.

He’s a wall of toned muscle from the physical demands of our job. Rugged, unfiltered beauty. The very kind I live for.

The hair on his chest is a shade or two darker than the golden wheat of his beard, another few shades darker than the blond of his hair, and it forms a river down his abs that fans out into a delta across his chest.

There’s a large birthmark on his lower stomach, between the last swell of abdominal muscle and his hip. I didn’t notice it before, because it’s only a few shades darker than the rest of his skin, but with the light shining directly on his body, I can’t stop staring at it.

It’s shaped like Kodiak Island.

I’ve never been a very spiritual man, but something about that gives me a funny feeling. Like he was always meant to be here. Always meant to be with me.

“Wasn’t sure if you’d come,” he murmurs.

I lean in, breathing him in before I kiss him. “Oh, I’m gonna come. But you’re gonna come first.”

Nick strips me out of the cheap sweats I threw on and pulls me down on top of his chest. Running his hands all over me. He cloaks us in a quilt, the cotton worn-soft and warm from his body.

Even though he tastes like toothpaste, his breath smells like the char and oak of bourbon, and the supple, addictively sloppy way he kisses me tells me he’s still feeling the buzz from earlier.

I can’t say a damn thing. I still feel it, too. My head is spinning as he rolls me onto my side, facing him. Pleasure tingles across my scalp as he sifts his fingers through my hair. It swirls in my lungs as he traces my ribcage.

“No. Wanna kiss you. Want you to feel good with me,” he says against my lips, grinding his dick against mine. “Want you tocomewith me.”

He slides a hand between us, taking us both in his big, rough palm and squeezing until our moans ring out.

“Fuck, baby, I love your hands on me.”

His cock pulses, and he grips us tighter, another duet of a sound filling the air.

“You like that?” I lick his bottom lip, catching it between my teeth. “Baby?”

“I,hmmm—I—like everything you do.” He shivers, a shy little laugh bubbling up. As if I didn’t already know he’s the sweetest man on the damn planet. “I’ve never been anyone’s baby.”

“Mmm. That’s right. ‘Cause you’re mine.”Always were. You just didn’t know it yet.

“You can’t keep saying shit like that, Rit.” He kisses me too feverishly for me to get a word in edgewise. “I’m too into you. Already thought you were the funniest, nicest, hottest guy I’ve ever met. But the way you fucking talk… that’s gonna kill me.”

I know he’s rambling because he’s a little drunk. But I am too.

“You feel alive to me. You feel hot. You feelhard.” I spread a hand over his racing heart. “Feels like you love it when I talk dirty to you. When I call you Nicky, baby.”

“Seth,” he moans.

“AndIlovethat.”

Nick pumps us. Hard and uncontrolled, but I’m fucking living for it. Harsh callus against soft skin. The friction, the need. Nothing else in the world exists. His body is the only sensation I know. Those strong thighs woven with mine and my name on his lips and the taste of his tongue filling my mouth. His cock thick and needy, rubbing along where I ache for him.

I could handle him like this, happily. He could give it to me even harder. I’m about to bust all over his stomach from finallygetting to touch him after a whole night of holding back—but my wince of pleasure must register as pain, because he lets go and curses.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. Forgot.” He outstretches his arm blindly, knocking a few items onto the floor before he comes back with a bottle of oil. So frazzled that his thumb slides all over the lid before he gets it clicked open.

“We had an agreement about apologizing, remember?” I take the bottle from him, drizzling a generous amount over both of us.

I smooth it over his dick first, pulling his foreskin back and massaging his tip with my thumb until he gasps.

“Relax,” I remind him, kissing him as I guide his hand back to us. “And don’t youdarestop touching me.”