Jewel: You decided on what to do about college yet or have you even spoken to your Dad about the money?
Jewel: You can ignore me but when you’re stuck in Alpharetta commuting to the junior college while everyone else is off living a real college experience...you’ll wish you’d done something!
She was right. I needed to talk to Dad about the money I needed. I’d gotten a small scholarship but if I was going to go to an out-of-state college, I needed help financially. I’d been accepted and my registration was paid. The trouble was that due to my dad’s income I couldn’t get any extra money. I hadn’t applied for loans in time and now I needed help.
The tent flap opened and Sawyer ducked inside grinning at me. “Waiting up for me?”
My heart fluttered and all worries of school were pushed aside. “Yes.”
“I had to slay all those hungry black bears circling the tent first,” he teased.
I started to reply when he yanked his shirt over his head and his very well defined bare chest was inches from my face. Swallowing hard, I focused on breathing properly. His abs were so perfect they looked unreal. I mean, I’d seen him shirtless before but never this closeup. His cargo shorts hung on his hips. Even his hips were defined. The small patch of dark hair that trailed from below his belly button to beneath the waist of his shorts made me gulp. Suddenly it was very, very hot in the tent and I needed someone to throw cold water on me or fan me.
“Lana,” Sawyer’s voice broke into my thoughts and I lifted my eyes from his tantalizing flat stomach to his meet his gaze. Oh my. Licking my lips nervously I tried to think of a response but Sawyer was laying me back and covering my mouth and body within seconds. His lips were gentler than the look in his eyes had been. I gasped as his bare chest brushed the thin material of my tank top and Sawyer’s tongue was in my mouth teasing, tasting and driving me crazy.
I needed to feel him. Sliding my hands up his arms, I felt him flex under my touch. Loving the powerful feeling that came with the knowledge I could affect him with just a touch, I continued my exploration of his muscular back. I grazed his mouthwatering abs with my nails eliciting a groan from him. His mouth left mine and he began kissing a trail from my jawline down my neck. The closer he got to my chest the heavier my breathing became. Holding himself over me with one arm he took his other hand and traced the neckline of my tank top with his finger while watching me closely. I knew he was waiting on permission to go further and although I knew letting him go any further wasn’t a very good idea I couldn’t tell him no. The needy gleam in his eyes was impossible to deny. For fear my voice wouldn’t work I leaned up and into his touch in response. His eyes widened in surprise then a glazed look came over them as he lowered his head. He kept his eyes on mine until his mouth pressed onto the top of my cle**age that was showing just above the neckline.
His green eyes held my attention as his tongue darted out and took a small lap at the swell of my breast then trailed along the top until it met the crease between the two of them. One big hand slid underneath the bottom of my top and left a sizzling hot trail up my stomach until it stopped at the underside of my bra. Something close to a whimper escaped me and that was all the encouragement Sawyer needed. His hand slid over the lace of my bra and found the front clasped and quickly unsnapped it. I closed my eyes tightly as I felt both my br**sts spring free. No one had ever touched me like this.
When his calloused hand covered my right breast, I almost shot straight up. The jolt that went directly to the small ache between my legs shocked me. He eased my tank top slowly up my body. If I was going to stop him then now would be the time. I opened my eyes and started to say something but his dilated pupils and awed expression stopped me. Instead, I leaned up and lifted my arms as he took the tank top and bra off me. This was it. My first time topless in front of a boy. And it wasn’t just any boy. It was the only one I’d ever imagined doing this with. Every fantasy I’d ever conjured up about Sawyer Vincent touching me held nothing to the reality of it.
“Lana,” he whispered, staring down at me. I shifted, opening my legs so that he rested between them and his arousal pressed directly on the ache between my legs.
“Ohmygod,” I moaned loudly and Sawyer’s mouth was on mine. His slow sweet kisses were gone and he consumed my mouth with a wild urgency. My body bucked against his as if it had a mind of its own and this time, Sawyer groaned. Both of his hands covered my bare br**sts. He rolled each nipple between his thumb and finger sending my world spiraling out of control. His mouth smothered my response to him but at the moment I didn’t care. It was as if someone had shot fireworks off in my body. I clung to him afraid I might be falling somewhere I couldn’t come back from. The pain had ricocheted into a pleasure I didn’t know existed.
As I slowly came back to earth, I realized two things. Sawyer was no longer touching my chest. His hands were on either side of my head with handfuls of the sleeping bag underneath me tightly in his fist. His head was buried in the curve of my neck and shoulder. Sawyer was breathing deep and hard. His body was held rigid over mine and I carefully unwrapped my legs from around him where I’d been holding him in a vise-lock. Sawyer didn’t move or relax. Worry and embarrassment at my reaction to what we’d been doing started settling in. Was he okay? Had I just had an orgasm?
His warm mouth pressed a kiss to my neck and I shivered underneath him. “Don’t,” he demanded in a hard whisper. I stilled, instantly worried I’d done something else wrong.
We lay there for a few more minutes in silence and my concern began to grow.
Finally, he slowly lifted his head then let go of his death grip on the sleeping bag and pushed himself up off me careful not to put any pressure between my legs. Humiliation washed over me when I saw him reach for my tank top. Without saying anything, I let him put it on me. He pulled it down over my bare chest and stomach then quickly let go of it and sat back on his sleeping bag. I’d done something wrong. My stomach felt sick.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Sawyer lifted his head so he was looking in my direction but I didn’t meet his gaze. I couldn’t.
“What?” he asked in a deep husky voice I’d never heard him use.
Covering my face with my hands so he couldn’t see the tears welling up in my eyes, I replied, “I don’t know why I did that. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
Sawyer was in front of me pulling my hands away from my face and forcing me to look at him. “You’re sorry? Lana, do you understand anything that just happened?”
I shrugged then shook my head no.
Sawyer let out a small laugh and reached to pull me into his lap. “That was the single most incredible moment of my life. Don’t be sorry for it. Please,” he said in the same low sexy tone he’d used before.
I studied him a moment. “But... I don’t understand.”
Sawyer leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose then kissed each of my eyelids. “Let me explain it to you then. I just had a beautiful girl trust me enough to touch her and see her in a way no one else ever has. I got to hold her and watch her and feel her as she came apart in my arms. It was like nothing else I’d ever experienced. She was breathtaking and she was responding to me. She wanted me. I was the one making her spiral out of control.”
Oh. But.... “But you acted tense or angry when I reacted that way and moved away from me like you didn’t want to be near me anymore.”
Sawyer chuckled, “Lana, I was using every amount of self-control I could find to keep from pulling off those shorts of yours and going somewhere neither of us are ready to go. For a moment there, all I saw was red-hot need and I came real close to taking it. What you thought was anger was me forcing myself to calm the f**k down.”
The hardness I could still feel under my butt as I sat in his lap told me he hadn’t exactly calmed all the way down.
“But you’re still—” I trailed off and a crooked grin appeared on his face.