All Stars Fall (Seaside Pictures #3.5)(37)

“Now I feel like I need to thank you for taking care of the kids, for being there for me, for being…unapologetically you.” I moved toward her, the water sloshing over the sides. I set her flute down on the side and covered her body with mine, my legs straddling her hips as I leaned in and stole a kiss, followed by another, and another, until she wrapped her arms around my neck and held on while our bodies slid against one another, bubbles moving away from the small waves, and then I was moving my right hand down her chest.

“Made for my hands, aren’t they?” I said gruffly against her mouth as I weighed her breasts in my hands then moved back so I could get a better look, so I could memorize the way her nipples seemed to strain toward me. Mouth swollen, she waited with a hooded expression.

“You all right?” I smiled as she gave her head a shake like she was under my spell.

“No,” she said, shocking me, and then she licked her lips as she grabbed my hands and pressed them back against her breasts. “I think I need more attention, here, here…” She moved my hands down her body. “And definitely down there…”

“So much for trying to go slow and be a gentleman.” I gripped her by the hips and slid my fingertips down her thigh.

“You don’t have to be, not right now, not with me. I just want you to be you.”

I smiled against her lips. “Just remember you asked for this.”

“For wha—”

I swallowed her shriek of pleasure as my fingers found her core, stretching her, flicking her sensitive flesh, demanding she come apart against me.

“This.” I went deeper, softer, faster, slower. I pulled out all the stops and changed with every inflection of her moan, with every tense movement of her body. When her head fell back and she collapsed back into the water, muscles relaxed, I knew I would never forget the look on her face, wet pieces of hair sticking to her neck, lips slightly parted, eyes closed.

Mine.

“I’m not letting you go.” I kissed her with every ounce of passion I had, with relentless conviction that this was where my path had taken me, straight into this woman’s arms. And I was suddenly thankful I’d gone through hell, because I’d finally discovered that heaven was real.

And it belonged to me.

“Come on.” I held out my hand. “I’m not done with you yet, and the last thing we need is a flood in the bathroom.”

“Flood?” She yawned.

“Are you seriously yawning right now?” I laughed, wrapping a towel around her as she stood.

“Sorry!” Her face flamed red. “It’s not you, I just, I can’t believe I just yawned. It was instinctual, you know like after you get the best orgasm of your life by a guy’s hand and suddenly go wow I’m so relaxed I could just dream of a few fingers for the rest of my life and die happy.”

Shit, my grin got more and more permanent the more she talked. “You’re good for my ego, you know that?”

“You almost made up for the ketchup on your shirt that first day,” she teased with a wink. “What’s this flood busin—Oh.” She stared down at the water then back up at me with wide eyes. “Was that from us?”

“You,” I corrected. “Apparently you have trouble sitting still when someone’s trying to bring you past the brink of sanity over and over again.”

She covered her face with one hand and held her towel up with another.

I dried myself off, then ran her towel down her body and pried it from both of her hands.

She seemed uncertain.

“Are you on birth control?” I asked.

“Y-yes.” She swayed toward me.

“I’m clean. Sadly I had to double check since some dick was dipping itself into my ex-wife, but know, I would never…put you at risk for anything. And the only reason I ask is because I’m a single dad who had no intentions of finding anyone like you. Ever. Not just in Seaside, but ever. I also haven’t been with anyone, including the ex in years.” Tears filled her eyes. “So I don’t have condoms here. Besides, there’s something very wrong about storing condoms next to the Legos.”

She burst out laughing.

“What I’m saying…” I pulled her naked body into my arms. “…is this isn’t a one-time thing, this isn’t something I do. This means more, all right?”

A smile broke across Penny’s face that made her glow, and she wrapped her arms around me. “And here every time I stared at your poster I imagined you as the guy who had a new girl every night.”

“I knew you looked at my poster. It would make my day to know you circled my face with a heart and imagined what holding my hand would feel like.” I lifted her into the air and set her down.

Penny laughed. “Sorry to say I didn’t heart your face, but I did wonder….”

I waited.

And waited.

“Wonder?”

“Mmmm…” She crooked her finger. “Not when I was a teen, but last year, when you guys had your tour and were at the Grammys…”

Oh God, I knew where this was going.

I couldn’t hide my smile if I tried.

“And you wore those leather pants.” She slowly moved to her knees in front of my bed. “If all the rumors were true, that you have to literally tuck in order to perform in tight pants, plus those pictures went viral really fast.”