Chapter Thirty-Two

Rory

I heard her soft cries of pleasure, felt the ripples of her body as she shattered around my fingers—and wished I could see her face, look into her eyes. My body ached to join her.

“My turn,” she whispered. She pushed me onto my back and kissed me as her fingers skipped down my chest and then slowly inched down my abdomen. She trailed her hand up and down my belly, barely dipping under my waistband before withdrawing. Driving me crazy.

And then, suddenly, her hand was on me, cool fingers cupping hot flesh.

My whole body jerked as I tore my mouth from hers. “Amelia,” I gasped—begged.

“Shh,” she murmured, biting my lower lip and then running her tongue over it as she stroked me. I thrust helplessly into her hand. “Amelia, please. Wait.”

Her hand stilled. “You want me to stop?”

“God, no. Just…just wait a second.”

I extracted her hand from my shorts, shifted her off me, and vaulted from the bunk, not even bothering to use the ladder. I barely noticed the cold floor as I went to my pack and groped for the Ziploc bag of condoms I knew was in there somewhere. Finding it, I ripped it open, grabbed a few, and then hurried back up the ladder.

“I’m disappointed,” she said dryly. “I thought you were going to just jump back up.”

I laughed as I kicked off my shorts. “Aye, well, I thought about it, but I was afraid I’d jump too high and bump my head on the ceiling.”

Snorting at that, she rolled me onto my back again and crawled partway over me. “Now, where was I?” Her fingers tiptoed down my stomach. “Oh, that’s right. Here.”

My breath caught as she picked up right where she’d left off. Slow, then fast, then slow again, the touch of her hand a sweet torture. But I could play, too. I ran my hand down her back, smiling at her sharp gasp when I touched her.

We tormented each other, fingers dipping and teasing and caressing. But before long, slow and teasing turned into fast and urgent. Panting, I tugged her hand from me. I fumbled for a condom and rolled it on, hissing as my fingers grazed my sensitized skin.

I rolled Amelia to her back and carefully brought her right leg around my hip, bringing me flush against her. “Is this okay?” I murmured against her lips. “Does it hurt your knee?”

“No.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. Her other hand closed around me.

I felt my flesh jump and pulse against her hand. “Amelia…”

“I know.” Her leg fell to the side, and she guided me inside her, both of us gasping as I sank into her heat. Finally. I wanted to take it slow, but this had been building between us for far too long to go slowly now. Our breath came in gasps as our bodies came together, over and over. So close now. I dipped my hand between our bodies to touch her. She moaned, her head falling back.

“Look at me, Amelia. I want to see you.”

Her eyes opened, and I held her gaze as I dragged my thumb over her. Once, twice, her hips meeting mine with each stroke. Then she cried out, her body clenching around me. I threw my head back and shouted her name as my body shuddered through its own release.

I opened my eyes and stared down at Amelia, both of us panting. I raised up on my elbows so I wouldn’t crush her and cupped her face in my hands, kissing her lips, her forehead, and her cheeks, then returned to her mouth. I withdrew from her body and dealt with the condom, tucking it into a rubbish bag before returning to the bunk.

We crawled into my sleeping bag. I pulled her close and ran my fingers through her hair, combing out the tangles. Her fingertip traced idle circles on my chest.

“That was… Thank you,” I said, then swore inwardly at my own lameness. Thank you? Who the hell says ‘thank you’ after the best sex of his life? “I mean…thank you for listening to me. And for making me feel alive again.” Just stop talking.

“It was pretty good from this side, too,” she murmured.

I grinned. “Tommy will be happy.”

She lifted her head. “Why’s that?”

“He told me to keep an open mind about the idea of you and me.” She giggled, a sound I hadn’t really heard from her before, but hoped I’d hear again. “What?”

“When we said goodbye, he said that if there was an opportunity for me to kiss you for real, I should take it. I guess he’s playing Cupid. I’m glad he approves of me.”

“Do you think Carrie would approve as well?”

“Oh, heck yes. I could practically hear her voice in my head just now, saying ‘you go, girl!’ She’d be so proud of me.”

“Why? I mean, other than the obvious.”

“And what would that be?”

“That you got together with such a fine, braw lad, of course,” I teased.

“Oh, right. Obviously,” she scoffed, flicking me with her fingernail.

Then she was quiet for a moment, her finger once more drawing circles on my chest. “I’m just…she’s the outgoing one, not me. She’s the one who would have gone to your room like Emma did that night, while I would have stayed put and imagined what it would be like to go knock on your door, but would never have done it.

“But this whole thing with Carrie has shown me that life can change in an instant, and I don’t want to be the one who sits back and watches. I want to have the experiences. I want to be bold and go after what I want, not wait and worry and wonder.”

“You were bold when you insisted on continuing the trek after you got hurt.”

“That was the first time.”

“That you were bold? I disagree.”

She lifted her head and stared at me. “What do you mean?”

“I think it was pretty damn bold of you to come on the Skye Trail with barely any hiking experience, and on short notice.”

“Liar. You thought I was a spoiled twit who didn’t belong out here.”

“At the beginning, yes. But that was before I knew why.”

“I did it for Carrie.”

“I know. And that makes you even more bold. You stepped outside your comfort zone to do an eighty-mile trek over mountains and along cliffs, in wind and rain and cold, for someone else.”

“Is that why you offered to help me finish the trek? Because you thought I was brave? Or was it because of…”

Her voice trailed off, but I knew what she didn’t say. “Because of Connor?”

“Yeah.”

“It was both. You’d said that Carrie was like your sister, and my brother…he was everything to me. I would do anything—anything—to have him back. And yes, because you were so brave, and I admired that. I still admire that about you.”

“Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that.”

I kissed her forehead and lay back, twining a lock of her hair around my finger. It was so nice, being with her like this, just holding her in my arms. It had been so long since I had someone to hold.

“Rory?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I be bold again?”

And she was.