Page 66 of Wildfire
I keep repeating that it’s not a sign in my head as I fumble around for the flashlight Jenna gave me earlier and slowly navigate my way to the door in the dark. As soon as I’m outside, I can see there are lights on in other buildings. It’s just my row of cabins whose lights are out.
Of course it is.
The fact I’ve never googled the chances of someone being struck by lightning feels like a mistake as I run down the path in the direction of the lake.
There’s a real risk he’s going to turn me away.
What am I doing? Old Aurora would be booing and collapsing through sheer horror if she could see me now.
I’m thankful for my flashlight as I approach the row of cabins and count the numbers until I read the sign that says 33. My heart is in my throat as I climb the porch steps to Russ’s door.
The worst he can say to me is to go back to my own bed. At least I think that’s the worst thing. I know I shouldn’t be here, so there’s no reason to be surprised if he doesn’t want my needy ass right now.
The lightning cracks in the sky, stunning but terrifying, and I knock on the wooden door. Light peeks through a gap between the curtains, but he doesn’t answer the door. I knock again and wait, rationalizing he might be in the bathroom or something, but he doesn’t answer.
Dejected and a little embarrassed, I admit defeat and exit the protection of the porch back into the rain. It was a silly thing to do anyway and I really shouldn’t have been doing it. Maybe I have been misreading things. I’m sure I’ll have a great time overthinking thisnight for the rest of my life. When I’m old and gray, I’ll wake up in a cold sweat obsessing about how I went out in the rain in a sweater featuring a freaking bear and got ignored by the man I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Turning the first corner away from the cabin, I stop abruptly when I spot Russ walking toward me. His head is down, but after a few more steps he looks up at me and stops, too. “Hey,” he calls into the darkness. He’s as soaked as I am, wearing the same sweater and sweatpants as earlier, now darker from the rain.
“Hey.”
“I went to your cabin,” he says softly. “I thought you might be scared; I wanted to check that you were okay.”
I don’t know how to respond to what he said with words, so I move toward him, he moves toward me, and I’m so mesmerized by him that I don’t even flinch when lightning lights up the skies over Honey Acres, because he finally closes those last few inches and kisses me.
Chapter Twenty-OneAURORA
INOW UNDERSTAND WHY THEREare so many songs about being kissed in the rain.
Russ presses me into the wall of his cabin, my legs wrapped tight around him like they have been so many times before, except this time his fingers are tangled in my hair, pulling to keep my head to the side to kiss, lick, and suck the length of my neck.
It’s different from last time; he’s more confident, more sure of what to do to make me arch off the wall and whimper. I tug at his sweatshirt, impatient to see his body again and feel it against mine. He helps me pull the wet material over his head, immediately pulling mine off, too. Our damp stomachs stick together, heat spreading across my skin like wildfire.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispers at the shell of my ear. “I can’t believe it took us so long to do this again.”
Preach. We deserve some kind of medal for the amount of self-restraint we’ve shown when we know how good we make each other feel. “Some of us like to respect the rules, Callaghan,” I tease. His hands sink into my ass and my entire body feels like it’s going to burst into flames at any minute.
Moving us to his bed, he gently lowers me down onto the mattress, the soft material a welcome contrast to the roughness of the wall. He pulls down his pants and boxers and I have to stop my jaw from falling off my face. Time has dulled my memory of how impressive he is, and after several weeks of working here with only myself in the shower, I fear I may be a little out of practice.
“Do you know how big my ego gets when you look at me like that?” he says, kneeling on the bed between my legs totally naked.
I’m pretty sure it’s a rule somewhere that it’s rude not to look at someone’s face when they’re talking to you, but in all fairness, they haven’t seen how pretty Russ’s dick is.
“I’m doing a risk assessment of the likeliness of you splitting me in half.”
He snorts and leans over my body to kiss me slowly. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“It’s all I’ve thought about for weeks,” I admit. “I’m not afraid of a little risk.”
Unbuttoning my shorts, Russ pulls them down, then slides my panties off, spreading my legs wide in front of him. Without a little alcohol in my system, this is the bit where I’d normally feel self-conscious. Not with him. “What do you need?” he asks, massaging my inner thighs.
Everything. “I want to feel close to you.”
He moves to lie on the bed beside me, rolling me onto my side so our stomachs are touching. He hikes my leg over his hip and tucks an arm under my head. “This good?”
“Perfect.”
Russ takes his time to rub his hand over the curve of my waist, along the bottom of my back until he’s palming my ass. His mouth and tongue move against mine as his hand slips from my ass to dip between my legs. “Fuck, Aurora,” he groans, pressing his forehead to mine. “You’re so wet.”
