Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(51)
Except that the water was ice cold. That was exactly what he needed. Shriveling, ice cold water to bring him back to his senses.
He rushed back to their camp, tugging off his shirt and undoing his pants. The pressure of his erection eased up once his pants were off, but not the intensity. In fact, his underwear was so tented that he’d have to be careful how he walked into the water to avoid popping out entirely. It was a humiliating situation, yet somehow the only thing he could think about was getting out into the water and over to Melody.
“Geez,” he gasped as he waded carefully into the shallows. The water wasn’t as cold as he hoped it would be, but it was still stinging.
Melody had made it all the way out to deeper water. When she turned back to Will, she burst into laughter. “Oh, sweetie, you’re not hiding anything with those tighty-whities.”
Will didn’t even bother to look down. He pushed forward, desperate to get deep enough for everything to be concealed and tamed.
“It’s a normal, human reaction, Clementine,” she went on, turning away from him and tossing her fishing line out into the water. “You should celebrate your body and all of its functions instead of being embarrassed by it.”
“I’m not emb—” He gave up with a breathless sigh. Yeah, he was. Might as well admit it. Although considering Melody hadn’t screamed or laughed or cried at the sight of his out-of-control desire, he had no reason to be ashamed.
At last, he reached a depth where he could sink down enough to hide the flagpole, but that only brought searing pain with it. “Do you have any nibbles?” he asked, desperate for any distraction.
“Hey,” she greeted him, ignoring his question, once he reached her side. “Thanks for bringing the fishing pole.”
“The what?”
Before he could catch up to her teasing, she reached over and slid her hand along his penis, giggling the whole time. Will gasped and jerked his hips against her touch.
No, wait, he was supposed to be pulling away from her, not encouraging her to—
“You don’t really need these.” Her voice was downright sultry, considering the icy lake, as she tugged at the waistband of his underwear. “They’ll only get in the way.”
“Melody.” He brushed his hands down across hers, intending to bat her away, but instead he ended up entwining his fingers with hers. “Now is not the time—”
“It could be.” She turned fully toward him, somehow managing to keep the fishing line wound around her fingers while working to get his underwear off. The teasing, tantalizing light in her eyes and the way she bit her lip and giggled sapped every bit of will he had to fight her.
“It’s too much,” he pleaded with her, even as his underwear slipped down to his thighs. “I can’t keep fighting it if we’re doing this.”
“Who says I want you to fight anything?” She emphasized her point by surging into him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “I think you’ve been fighting way too many things for way too long.”
And, by God, she was right. The soft press of her body against his, the way her curves fit against him, the way she lifted one leg to hook around his hip, broke the last of his determination to stick to the rules. Melody snapped every last thread of control he had. He slid his arms around her, splaying a hand across her backside and pressing her hips into his erection. He brought his mouth down over hers in a kiss that felt like it had been building in him for weeks. It was all-consuming, lips and tongues desperate for each other. Beyond desperate.
“Mmm, Darling,” she whispered, kissing him back with as much passion as he felt for her.
He lifted her completely against him, hands wanting to touch every part of her at once, and would have entered her right there if a tiny shout of reason at the back of his mind hadn’t screamed “condoms.” He’d blasted way past the point of recklessness for him, but he couldn’t put her at risk. So he turned and started marching back for the shore, splashing carelessly as he tried to carry her and kiss her at the same time. That wasn’t going to work no matter how hard he threw caution to the wind, so he concentrated on just getting her to their sleeping bags.
Dripping wet, the contrast of warm sun and biting breeze flickering across his skin, Will dropped clumsily to his knees at the pile of sleeping bags and pads. Melody gasped at the thump, then laughed. She relaxed to her back, trying to bring him down on top of her, but Will was fixated on his need to get to the condoms, and fast. He let go of her and scrambled to the other side of the campfire where his pants had landed.
“Hey,” Melody yelped, half teasing, half tormented. “Where do you think you’re going? We were just getting started.”
Will had no words to answer her. He snatched for his pants and nearly ripped the back pocket off as he pulled out the strip of condoms. By the time he crawled back to Melody, his hands and knees were dirty and scraped by rocks and twigs, but he had what he needed.
“Oh my gosh.” Melody took the rest of the strip from him as he broke off one, ripped it open with his teeth, and proceeded to roll the condom on. “Paradise Space Flight brand condoms?”
Will tossed the empty wrapper aside and wedged himself between Melody’s legs, sliding his body along hers until they were face to face, all of the important bits nestled up against each other.
A low chuckle sounded from Melody’s throat as she dropped the rest of the condoms and closed her arms around Will’s back. God above, it felt good when she did that. “I can’t believe the condoms have the PSF logo stamped on them,” she said, her voice growing increasingly hoarse as he bent to kiss and nuzzle her neck. “Howie has his own brand of cond—oh!”