Close to Me (The Callahans, #1)

Within minutes she’s coming, those strong thighs of hers clamping around my head again while she rides out her orgasm. It’s hot as fuck. I can’t believe this girl is mine.

All mine.





Thirty-Six





Autumn





“Ash. Please.” I’m desperate. I claw at him, my hands reaching, seeking, and all I think about is having him inside me. I’m needy, I want it, but I’m also scared.

What if it hurts?

What if he can’t fit?

What if he comes before he gets inside me?

That would be…disappointing. But I can deal with it.

Hopefully.

I already had an orgasm, thanks to his magical tongue. God, I don’t know if I can ever get enough of that. I remember when I first heard about oral sex, and I always thought it sounded so disgusting.

Of course, that’s when I was twelve or thirteen and a complete idiot. Now that I’ve actually experienced it, I’m going to want him to do that to me just about every day. He makes me greedy like that.

“I’ll give you what you want, baby.” He finishes kicking off his boxer briefs before he reaches across me, his fingers grasping for the packet on the bedside table, and then he’s rising onto his knees, tearing the wrapper open and rolling the condom onto his erection. I watch in complete fascination, marveling at how large it is. Wondering for about the fiftieth time if it’s going to fit.

Is it? Will it?

God, it better.

“Try to relax,” he says as he gets into position. He plumps the pillows beneath my head, as if he wants to make sure I’m comfortable, and my heart just cracks wide open from all the love I feel for him in this moment.

In all of our moments.

He touches my hip and shifts me to the right, and I follow his lead, my gaze drifting down to the spot where we’re about to connect. His other hand grips the base of his erection. He gives it a firm stroke and then he guides it toward the spot between my legs. I spread them wider, feel the head nudge at my entry, and I swallow hard, trying my best to relax my muscles so I can accept him easier.

“Goddamn, you’re so wet,” he mumbles, sounding agonized. Slowly he inches himself inside me, and I bite my lip when I feel that first sharp pinch.

He goes still, gazing down at me, his hands propped on either side of my head. “You okay?”

I nod, pressing my lips together. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore. I just feel really, really full.

With a few flexes of his hips, he’s embedded fully inside me, and he pauses there, not moving, I suppose letting me get used to him. He presses his forehead against mine, his breathing harsh, his chest flush next to mine so I can feel his rapidly beating heart.

“Am I hurting you?” His voice is a harsh rasp, but there’s tenderness there. Caring. He cares about me.

He loves me.

“No,” I say with a shake of my head.

He shifts, sending himself even deeper, and a whimper escapes me. “You feel so good, Autumn. I’m going to have to take this slow.”

“That’s okay.” I’d rather take it slow. So we can make this last.

We start to move, hesitantly at first, and then with more purpose. It’s a little awkward, and I feel like a fumbling fool, but he’s fumbling too, and I realize he’s just as nervous as I am. I run my hands down the sleek, muscular skin of his back, and he shudders from my touch. I love that, the power I have over him, and I let my hands drift down farther. Farther. Until I’m touching his perfect butt, pressing down hard, so he has no choice but to sink deeper into me.

And then we start moving in earnest. Faster. Harder. I can feel the tingle start, and it’s right there, just out of reach when he drops his face into my pillow, groaning as his hips jerk, and I realize he’s coming.

Oh. Wow. That was fast.

“Shit, Autumn. I knew that would happen.” He’s speaking into the pillow, his voice muffled, and I sort of want to laugh.

“It’s okay.” I stroke his damp-with-sweat back, trying to sooth him. “It felt good.”

“You didn’t come.”

“No, but you did.” This time I do laugh and he lifts his head, smiling down at me. “We’ll do this again. You can make it up to me. Plenty of times.”

“I’m sure,” he says, dropping a kiss on my nose. “I just wanted to make it good for you.”

“You made it good for me,” I tell him truthfully. It was so good. Better than in the back of my Jeep, that’s for sure. “I promise.”

He stares at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, and it feels so good, so right lying with him like this. Our bodies still connected, our hearts pounding. I will never, ever forget this night. The game, kissing by the lake, laughing and eating with my family, having sex for the first time. All with Ash.

The boy who has my heart.

Completely.

We lie together for a little while longer, but then he reluctantly pulls away, grabbing a tissue from the box on my bedside table and peeling off the condom, wrapping it up in the Kleenex. “I’ll find a place to toss this,” he tells me, clutching it in his hand, and I’m thankful he thought of it. We have to get rid of the evidence. If my parents found out…

I don’t want to think about that. Not now.

He throws his clothes back on and I watch him, regret filling me. I wish he could stay in my bed for a little while longer, but that would just be weird, right? And if my parents caught us, that would be the end of our relationship. I can’t risk that.

We’ve already risked enough.

“I’m going back to my room.” He leans over me and kisses me slowly. Deeply. With languid sweeps of his tongue that leaves my body tingling and wanting more. “Good night.”

I catch his hand, stopping him from leaving. “You really have to go?”

“Autumn.” My heart expands when he calls me by my name. He never says it enough. “I wish I could stay, but you know I can’t.”

“I know. I’ll miss you.”

“You’ll see me tomorrow.”

“It can’t come soon enough.”

“You’re being kind of ridiculous,” he teases.

“This is what you do to me. You leave me in a ridiculous state.” I grin up at him and he kisses me yet again, like he can’t help it.

“Good night,” he murmurs against my lips, and I smile.

“Night.”

“Love you,” he whispers, and my skin goes tight.

“I love you too.” Oh God, if I don’t watch it I could cry from pure happiness.

This is the best night of my life.





Thirty-Seven





Ash





I smell the smoke before I see it, hazy yet visible, thin black strips of it drifting in the hallway that leads to the guest room. Right at the moment I notice it, a smoke alarm starts to go off, the incessant blaring making me cover my ears. I run toward my room, the tissue-wrapped condom falling out of my hand and onto the floor, forgotten.

I come to a stop at the doorway, flickering orange flames preventing me for going inside.

“Holy shit,” I mutter under my breath, looking left, then right, wondering if they have a fire extinguisher in the house, and where it might be. I decide to look in the laundry room, which is closer than the kitchen.

And that’s where I find it, tucked into a cabinet above the washer. I pull it out and run back toward the room, fumbling with the valve so I can hit the trigger. Footsteps sound behind me, and I glance over my shoulder to see Drew running toward me, clad in only a pair of black sweatpants, his forehead creased in concern.

“What the hell is going on?” he yells, and I point at the flames.

“Fire!” My fingers curl around the trigger and I spray as hard as I can, desperate to put out the fire, panic racing through me. All I can think is how this is going to ruin everything. They’re going to think I did something stupid and possibly blame me for the fire, since pretty much every bad thing that happens to me is somehow my own damn fault. Then they’ll kick me out. I’ll be on my own, in the streets, left adrift.

I fucked everything up, and I didn’t even do this.