Exaltation (Insight #11)(79)



The push and pull sensation amplified. Which only made her hold onto him all the tighter. To breathe in his kiss. Knowing it could fade at any moment made her hungry for it.

Trusting she was not going to fly from his arms, his grip loosened, as his hand moved across her back a warm ease surfaced on her skin, almost as if it were calling his touch back to where it once was.

Raven held her breath as his hand slid down her sides, skirting past her chest. Before she knew it she was leaning back on the handlebars and he was leaning into her.

He broke their kiss as slowly as possible. Holding her gaze the tips of his fingertips traced the delicate features on her beautiful, young visage before gliding down her neck, across her chest.

She arched her back into his touch. “You feel that?” She breathed. It was like he was there, but not, their vim was gliding together, but never merging…indescribable.

“I do,” he rasped, as he leaned forward and tenderly claimed her lips once more. Her eyes slammed shut in ecstasy as his lips eased down her neck. When his hand reached back and slowly began easing up her leg, it drove her insane with desire. She couldn’t understand the barrier of vim, and wanted past it—desperately.

She leaned forward, taking control of the situation. She cradled his face in her hands as she deepened her kiss and pressed her body against his. A few seconds later she felt his hands reach for her cheeks, caressing her hair out of her face just before he broke away and leaned his forehead to hers, letting out a deep breath.

“We are going to have to be careful,” he breathed. This girl was too innocent for him and he knew it. Nice and slow was the only way to go if he was going to have that kind of relationship with her.

Both Dagen and Jamison had outright told Rydell he didn’t have a fever for her. He was starting to believe it, but there was still something about her that drew him forward.

At the same time it made him keep his distance, he felt like he was treading across sacred ground. In his life he had rarely said more than a few words to the girls he was intimate with. He made it a physical act, nothing more. This was different and because it was—it was pushing him to open up his mind to memories he was sure were better left locked away. He knew they were.

He pulled Raven to him and held her for a second.

“On a positive note I did not fly out of your arms and land in the swamp,” Raven joked after a minute or two of breathing him in. A bellowing laugh came from him. It sounded so natural yet odd coming from someone as serious as him.

“I think we need to get you dirty,” he said as he unclasped her arms and slid her around him as if she were weightless.

“You’re insane!” Raven yelled over the motor as he cranked it.

“It’s not mudding unless you get muddy,” he bellowed as they peeled away. He was clearly using his energy to protect her from the mud on the way out there; on the way back she had no such luck.

Raven was soaked with sloppy mud, and for spite she sat in his car in her condition.

You would think someone who owned a car as mint as his would have had a come apart, but instead he climbed in, too, and roared off, making sure the car fishtailed. It was a wild ride.

On the way home he blared music, old rock, but it was the kind that made you move to it—the kind that made you feel alive.

When they pulled up in front of Emery’s house it was eleven fifty-nine. Raven flew from the car and ran around the back just to make the gate screech right as the curfew time clicked into place. She planned to go back and tell him goodnight, but as she turned he was there.

“You ran again,” he said as he carefully put his hand on her waist and eased her closer to him.

“Had to tell them I was here, otherwise there would be no mudding in my future.”

“You had fun?” he asked as he moved her mud dried bangs out of her eyes with his other hand.

“I needed tonight. Life has been busting my bliss bubble lately.”

He laughed, really loudly, so loud Raven reached to cover his mouth.

“Your what?” he whispered.

“Bliss bubble, that’s my zip code, man.”

“Sounds legit,” he said as his eyes rapidly moved across her image.

“You should know. You’re in it with me, the creator of the current one I’m in.”

“Am I?” he said as he held her gaze and leaned in to kiss her. His lips had barely touched hers when they heard someone clear their throat. Someone that should not be there. Raven tensed and so did Rydell as they both moved their stare to the gate.

Jamison was standing there. Behind him, through the bushes, Raven could see Emery sitting in the chair on the stoop, trying to cover her worried gaze with a smile.

“Dad, this is Rydell. My, um, boyfriend.”

Jamison gave him a troubled once over. “That serious,” he said as he reached to shake Rydell’s hand.

“I guess that’s what they call good friends these days,” Rydell said with a boy nod and a wink aimed at Raven.

Jamison looked over both of them. “Do I want to ask?”

“Mudding,” Raven said.

Jamison raised his brow. “With or without a car?”

“Four-wheeler.”

He nodded once as he looked back at Rydell. “Very exhilarating night I assume.”

“Blissful,” Rydell said with a shy smile.

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