His cerulean eyes looked right into mine as he raised his glass in a toast.
“To Layla. A girl who never stops surprising me.”
My heart just about broke out of my ribcage, but I managed to clink his glass and smile.
“So, what now? We gonna roast marshmallows?” he asked, trying to keep the mood light.
I had no idea if he truly knew what I was up to. Thinking about it made my heart race and turned my palms sweaty. I tried to maintain the conversation along with the grip on my glass. “It’s nice here, right? Lisa and I found this place years ago, but I haven’t been up here in a while.”
Trip took a sip before answering, “It’s great. I’ve hiked the trails through here a bunch of times, but I never came down this way.” He shook his head and laughed out, “I still can’t believe you hauled all this stuff up here on your own.”
“I’m a girl of many talents.”
“Yeahyouare.”
I gave him a shy smile and then promptly changed the subject. “Are you mad that we’re missing Rymer’s party?”
Trip stretched out on his side, propping his head up on his hand. “How could I possibly be mad? Layla, this is awesome.”
“You think Rymer’s gonna be mad?”
He smoothed a hand over my knee and then kissed it. A shudder ran through me at the intimacy of that. He raised his mischievous cobalt eyes and asked quietly, “Layla. Did you really bring me up here just so we could spend our whole night talking about Rymer, for chrissakes?”
Chapter 37
LET HIM HAVE IT
Trip rolled onto his stomach and continued to slide his hands up my legs, his fingertips grazing my thighs at the hem of my skirt while peppering my knees with soft kisses.
My heart did that slamming thing again, watching him kiss me so tenderly and feeling his hands running along the outside of my legs. I combed my fingers through the golden hair above his ear, my palm coming to rest on his nape.
That was all the invitation he needed.
He slid his arm around my waist and pulled me underneath his body, my skirt bunching up above my legs in the process. I could feel the weight of him on top of me and the iron-like vise of his strong arm wrapped around my middle as he lowered his mouth to mine.
There was a sweet taste of wine on his lips mingled with his hot breath and within seconds I was yielding to the perfection of it all. I wrapped my arms around him and I guessed the knee-kissing had gotten him all worked up ahead of time, because I could already feel him harden against me as his mouth opened over mine.
Making out with Trip was always like this. My love for him combined with his hunger for me, the force of which made for spontaneous combustion, this unstoppable thing between the two of us.
I felt myself spinning, wrapping my legs around him and pressing back, and when I heard the moan escape from his throat, I was lost. So lost, in fact, that I hadn’t realized he’d pulled the top of my dress down and was working the clasp on my front-closure bra. I peeled off his shirt before his mouth made its way to my breasts, cupping them with his hands as he licked and played and tormented me with his tongue.
Out of nowhere, his movement stopped.
My eyes flung open in a panic, sure that he’d found my half-naked body revolting, and I looked down to see his chin resting against my chest as he stared up at me. “What?” I asked, anxiety-ridden.
He gave me an evil grin, which, thank God, managed to dispel my insecurities-my fear over his abrupt halt to our makeout session was replaced with instant relief. But then he shocked me all over again when he said, “Take off your clothes. I want to try something.”
I suppressed my astonishment as I watched Trip army-crawl over to the corner of the tent before stripping off my dress and bra under the covers. For the time being, the panties were staying put.
Trip came back, kneeling over me with the half-emptied bottle of wine, and the sight of him hovering over me shirtless was positively dumbfounding. Before I had a chance to process that, he pulled the blanket down, exposing me to my waist.
“Trip!” I said in embarrassed surprise, reaching down to cover myself up.
His grip on the blanket tightened, denying me. “No. I want to look at you.”