“Are you ready for that?” he asked, searching her face.
Her shoulders lifted just a little. “When I’m with you, it’s like I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. I want to do everything, experience everything, with you.” She sobbed softly. “I need your help to be good.”
“You want me to put the brakes on?” he asked. “Is that what you’re askin’?”
Her lips trembled before she nodded. “Yes.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling the way it tickled the insides of his lips as he exhaled. Could he make this promise? Could he promise her that he would stop them, even if she was begging him for more?
He wanted to believe that he could. He desperately wanted to believe that, for Laire, he could do anything.
“Okay,” he said, pulling her against him again. “Okay. I promise.”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him like the world would end if she didn’t, then nuzzled his nose with hers. “But anything else we want to do is up to us.”
“Being . . . naked?” he asked, grinning at her because she could barely say the word naked a few weeks ago.
She giggled softly. “Uh-huh.”
“Touchin’ you . . .” He cleared his throat. “Down there? With my tongue?”
She leaned back, her eyes wide and shocked. “Do people do that?”
He grinned at her expression. “Hell, yes, darlin’.”
She dropped his glance, thinking for a moment. “Can I do that to you too?”
“Ahh,” he groaned, all the blood in his head racing to his cock at the mere thought of her lips sucking him. “Yeah. You can.”
With a soft whimper, she reached for his face and kissed him again. “Ms. Sebastian said I can leave early. Said you asked last night.”
“I did,” he admitted. “I hoped.”
“Then I’ll see you at eight?”
“At eight. And then you’re all mine.”
She kissed him again, giggling against his lips as she wiggled from his arms, ran back to the door, and disappeared.
Two hours.
His cocked strained against his shorts in anticipation.
Lord, it felt like an eternity.
Chapter 13
If every other drive to Utopia Manor had felt exciting, tonight’s was making Laire breathless.
For the first time since she’d met Erik, they weren’t going to have an hour of making out at the Pamlico House dock, or even two hours at his house, or even a half day together visiting some landmark on the upper Banks. No. Tonight was totally different. Tonight she was going to sleep beside him. In his bed.
Her breath hitched.
My, how she’d changed this summer, from a teenager who could barely utter the word naked to a woman who reached for her man with new confidence and sanctioned passion. She had grown up this summer in so many ways, and now, tonight, felt like the apex of that growth—her reward for leaving childhood behind.
His fingers curled around hers, and he raised her hand to his lips.
“You nervous?”
“A little,” she answered honestly. “But excited too.”
“What time do you have to be home tomorrow?”
“Ms. Sebastian said I could leave my boat overnight, but I’m thinking I should be home by midmorning, just in case my daddy gets home early.”
“He said he’d be gone until afternoon, though,” said Erik his forehead creasing.
“I know,” she said. “But better not to risk being found out.”
“Humph.”
“We have all night, Erik. Let’s just enjoy it.”
He sighed and kissed her hand again before releasing it and putting his hands back on the wheel. “You’re right. I just hate to think about sayin’ good-bye.”
She knew that their farewell and subsequent months-long separation were weighing on his mind. The thought weighed heavy on hers too. And it had led her to a decision that had surprised her in its intensity and certainty.
“You know how you keep talking about Thanksgiving?” she asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, I’m not going to be ready to introduce you to my family yet. I’m sorry.”
“Laire—”
“You have to understand. I’m going to need time to explain this, to set it up for them. I’m thinking I won’t actually be able to introduce you to them until next summer. I’m sorry, Erik, but that’s the way things have to be.”
He huffed softly, clenching his jaw in frustration as he pulled into his driveway and hit the button on his visor for the garage door.
“But,” she said softly as he pulled into the garage and cut the engine, “I will come here and spend the day with you and your family. I’ll say I’m working. I can meet your folks and sister at Thanksgiving. Maybe again at Christmas. They can get to know me a little—”
“Laire!” He turned to her, his eyes wide. “You’d do that?”
She gulped, nodding her head. “I would.”
A small smile tilted up his lips, growing bigger and surer as he stared at her. “You’ll come for Thanksgivin’. You promise?”