“You were very blessed to have us,” Cade
chimed in.
Hale grunted. “Blessed to have
me
.”
They visited with Annabelle and Nancy for a
couple hours. Annabelle insisted on giving Kyra a tour of her
gardens, and with Hale helping her, she made her way around,
pointing out certain flowers that attracted butterflies or that had
the sweetest perfume in the spring. She took great pride in her
flowers and clearly knew a lot about gardening. Kyra mentioned her
awful track record with killing plants, and Annabelle insisted Kyra
come back so that she could teach her a few tricks.
It all delighted Kyra, but it also made her
heart ache. She saw the easy familiarity between Hale, Cade, and
their mother. It was so casual and effortless that they didn’t even
notice, but she watched with longing, her eyes burning with
blinked-away tears. She wanted this.
They left shortly after. She drove back to
her house so Hale could pick up his truck. Before he left, he
invited her over for dinner at his place. He told her to bring some
of Stevie’s wine, since she wouldn’t need it anymore. Kyra just
shook her head at him, making him ask what the big deal was. She
went inside without answering him, but she was smiling.
twenty-four
H
ale’s body pressed
along the top of Kyra’s, his tongue wreaking delicious havoc inside
her mouth. She was stretched out on a blanket he’d put out for them
to have a nighttime picnic outside. Above them, the stars winked
and the trees whispered, making for a beautiful night to be
outside. Except for one thing…Hale drew back from the kiss and
slapped his cheek.
“Another one?” she asked, grimacing at the
huge welt already growing on his cheek. They’d lit four citronella
candles and doused themselves in slimy, coconut-scented bug spray,
but it did little good against the vicious mosquitoes.
“Damnit,” Hale growled, swatting at the
persistent bug swarming his face. “I will fuck you tonight. I don’t
care if I get malaria trying.”
Kyra laughed. He grumbled something, but she
ignored him, lost in her own amusement. This was not the way she
imagined their first time together would be. Actually if she
thought about it, every time they’d tried to have sex, something
had gone horribly wrong.
“Maybe it’s not meant to be,” she said,
swiping at the tears under her eyes. Her shoulders still shook with
the laughter she bit back.
“Oh, it’s meant to be. I’ll make it so.”
Hale’s forehead drew together as if he was focusing intently. He
kissed her again, the tip of his tongue tracing along hers. She
pressed her body into his, but the building itch on her thigh
distracted her. Subtly, she tried to reach down and scratch, but he
noticed. He drew back and groaned.
“This is miserable.”
“Pretty much,” Kyra agreed.
He stood and adjusted his pants. The mood
was so unromantic, he wasn’t even hard. He smacked his arm, leaving
a smear of blood along his muscle. “Let’s go inside. I can’t stand
this.”
Hale jerked up the blanket as she blew out
the candles. Together, they carried everything from their picnic
back inside. She started putting things away neatly, but Hale
jerked them from her hands and threw them on the ground.
“Bed,” he said, pointing to the front of the
trailer.
Kyra’s stomach fluttered with a tickling
combination of nerves and excitement. She tried to scowl at him
before she went to the bedroom, but it fell flat when she saw the
grumpy, purely
Hale
look on his face. Only he could be so
pissed off about having sex. A giggle bubbled up in her mouth,
which she tried to hide.
The “bedroom” of the trailer was actually
about the size of a normal closet. There was no room on either side
of the bed, which was only slightly bigger than a twin. Narrow
shelves made up the headboard, which Hale had filled with taped-up
drawings.
Kyra tried to study them, but Hale climbed
through the narrow door behind her and flipped her over so that her
back was pressed into the lumpy mattress. “Quit smiling. This is
serious,” he barked, but the corner of his mouth was shaking with
the effort not to smirk.
“Sorry,” she said, forcing the laugh back
down her throat. She should be taking this serious, but it was
impossible with Hale. He jerked his shirt over his head and yanked
off his pants without even unbuttoning them. Kyra propped herself
up on her elbows and watched him fling his clothing over his
shoulder. “Should I play the part of nervous virgin?”
Hale paused and glared. “Technically, you’re
not a virgin. I popped your strawberry last time.”
Kyra bit down on her lip to keep from
smiling. “I think it’s a cherry.”
“What?” Hale growled, ripping off his socks
as he rolled around at the end of the bed.
“The phrase is ‘pop your cherry,’ I
believe.”
Hale’s massive arms came down on either side
of her head. With a fierce tug, he tore the blankets out from under
her and kicked them down to the bottom of the bed. The smell of
detergent drifted up from the fresh sheets and tickled Kyra’s nose
until she sneezed. The coconut-scented bug spray they’d used
overpowered the small space and made her skin stick to the sheets.
Hale glowered. “I don’t give a shit what the phrase is. Take off
your clothes,” he commanded.
“Yes, sir,” Kyra said, making Hale’s eyes
flare at her words. He crouched at the end of the bed, giving her
room to maneuver her cotton shorts down her legs. His head almost
touched the ceiling. While she took off her shirt, Hale leaned back
and reached around the door of the bedroom. The trailer was so
small and narrow that he could turn on the stereo from where he
sat.
“Pop?” Kyra questioned, tossing her shirt
over Hale’s shoulder. “Really?” The music was perky and upbeat and
entirely at odds with Hale’s expression.
“Shut up.” His hands skimmed up her legs to
grasp the lacey sides of her panties. Much more carefully than he’d
taken off his own clothes, he eased them down.
“I’m just saying it’s not what I expect from
your music tastes,” she said, her breathing becoming heavy. She
tried to recover her laid-back, amused mood she’d had a moment
before, because now suddenly everything had shifted.
He dropped her panties to the floor and took
her ankles in his hand. His muscles flexed as he spread her legs.
Drowning in her own nerves, Kyra swallowed loudly as he stared down
at her. His heavy brows drew down over his eyes just as the moon
went behind clouds, flooding the trailer with darkness. He was just
a dark shadow above her, sliding his fingers up her legs, over her
stomach, and to the thin lace of her bra.
Her nipples pebbled under the light touch of
his hands. She shifted and reached her hands back to unhook her
bra. His eyes traced every movement as she slipped her straps over
her shoulders and let the bra fall away.
The music changed to a slower, sadder song,
but the words didn’t reach Kyra, only the lilting, swooping
melodies. Her breathing matched the rise and fall of the strumming
guitar as Hale settled above her, his hips to hers and his arms on
either side of her head. His erection was heavy against her belly,
the muscles of his legs flexing around hers.
He leaned down, coiling the muscles at the
base of his neck and shoulders, and breathed light kisses across
her skin. He took the weight of her breast in his hand, twirling
her nipple between his rough fingers. Humming in satisfaction, he
tasted her, his lips vibrating against her skin.
Wetness gathered between her legs. The ache
for him was a steady throb inside her, but she remembered the sharp
pain from before and squeezed her legs together. Her nerves rose up
her throat and choked her.
“Stay with me, Kyra,” he murmured against
her skin before he grazed his lips down to the skin of her breast.
He didn’t even need to see her face to know she was scared. With a
sigh, he rose back above her, his eyes finding hers.
“I’m fine,” she whispered.
“Don’t lie.”
“I can be fine.”
Hale was bending to kiss her some more when
he stopped. He came back level with her face again, his expression
serious. “Kyra, when my dick is inside you, and I mean really
inside you, you will remember me long after we’re done here. I’ll
always be your first, and it’s going to be more than fucking
fine
.”
“Um, okay?” Kyra said, her mind racing as he
pulled her on top of him, switching their positions.
His hands gripped her hips where she
straddled him. The top of her head barely touched the roof of the
trailer. Of course the moon would choose now to reveal itself once
again, illuminating the inside of the trailer with more than enough
light to see her. Instantly, she sucked in her stomach and worried
about what her breasts looked like from this angle. Never before
had she felt so self-conscious than in this moment; Hale stripped
more than just her clothes off her. She tried to shift away and
into the shadows, but he held her tight.
“Put me inside of you,” he said, his voice
rough over the intimate words. “Figure out what feels good.”
“Why don’t you get on top,” Kyra said, her
voice wavering. “That way you can do what feels good.”
“No.” Hale hooked her neck and dragged her
face down to his. “You’re not going to hide from this. You’re going
to be on top of me, and you’re going to feel every moment, every
sensation. Figure it out. But you’re not going to fake it.”
“Hale…”
He took her hands in his and placed them on
her breasts. “Feel yourself,” he commanded. He left her hands there
and skimmed his fingers down between her legs, finding her clit
instantly and started circling it. “Do it,” he said, nodding at her
hands.
As his finger worked over her cluster of
nerves, Kyra flexed her hands over her breasts, teasing her nipple.
Hale lifted her hips and shifted her back, so that his erection
lay, sizable and intimidating in front of her. Shocking her enough
to make her gasp, Hale pushed his fingers inside her. When he
pulled them out, they were slick with her wetness, which he rubbed
over his dick to make himself ready for her.
The ache was back between her legs, and she
craved to feel him inside her, to make herself feel good. She took
him in her hand and rose up above him. His hands returned to her
hips as she lowered herself onto him.
He filled her instantly, stretching her to
the point where she’d never felt so full. Adjusting the angle of
her hips, she pulled him in until she’d slowly taken every inch of
him. She paused for a moment and felt how big he was, knowing he
was watching her and waiting.
“You feel amazing, Kyra,” he said, his voice
strained.
Sweeping her hair over her shoulder, she
rocked slightly against him. It seemed as though every way she went
hurt. Grimacing, she paused again. “I can’t do it,” she said,
meeting his eyes in defeat.
He lowered his hands from her hips and
grabbed her ass. Lifting her slightly off of him, he guided her
back down, rocking her hips back and forth as he did. “How does
that feel?”
“Better,” she murmured, her eyes fluttering
closed. She reached behind her and braced her hand on his leg so
she controlled her movements. Moving as he had moved her, she
leaned back farther, discovering how good it felt.
Hale continued to use his thumb on her clit,
circling it around her with just enough pressure. She moaned,
rocking into his hand. She had to stop and adjust herself a few
times, but she felt herself opening up around him. The pain
subsided to allow for some pleasure.
She squeezed her breasts again and sped up
slightly. As she started to move faster, so did Hale’s thumb over
her clit. The pain was still there, but her body reacted to his
touch. Her insides seemed to pulse around his dick until she felt
like she was on a rollercoaster that was slowly clicking its way up
to the top of a huge mountain. Then he started tapping his finger
against her clit.
It undid her. She stopped moving up and down
his length and just rocked her hips against him, feeling as if she
was rocketing down a steep hill with her heart rising up her
throat. He grabbed her hips as she came and pressed into her
harder. Almost immediately after her, he exploded inside of her.
She opened her eyes as his warmth flooded through her. His entire
body flexed and strained beneath her as he forced himself not to
move too much inside of her. The muscles along the side of his face
were coiling with every clench of his jaw. His eyes were squeezed
shut. “Oh, fuck,” he growled.
A trickle of his fluids made its way down
Kyra’s thigh as she watched him unwind. Finally, he relaxed back
against the bed and looked up at her. Her expression must have been
as glazed over as she felt, because he grinned in satisfaction.
“Is anything on fire?” he asked.
Kyra looked over her shoulder, pretending to
look around the trailer before she turned back to him. “I think we
actually had sex without something awful happening.”
“How about you make me a sandwich while I
stretch out my butt muscles, and we’ll test the boundaries of
calamity one more time.”
Kyra smacked his chest as she eased him out
of her. “How about you make me a sandwich? I did all the work.”
She climbed backwards off the bed and stood
naked before him. The insides of her thighs were coated in
moistness. Hale propped himself up and snorted. “Do you know how
much restraint it took not to flip you over and
rip
into
you?”
Kyra cringed, thinking of the building
soreness between her legs.
“Too soon?” he asked with a devilish,
crooked grin.
“Too soon.”
twenty-five
T
he light in the
trailer flared to life. From within the cocoon of downy blankets
and pillows, Kyra groaned. It took effort and her sore body
protested, but she managed to peek above the mound of blankets
covering her to glare at Hale.