Bump and Run (Wide Open #6)

Chapter Sixteen

Jones

I convinced Ollie and Travis to come with me back to Charlie’s place, but I don’t think they were too happy about it. They were going to take some convincing, but right now they were enjoying the bonfire Charlie had sat up outside the house. The beer and hard cider he had provided, along with the food, went a long way to convince them that they could be persuaded. We had invited some of our friends from high school, some of the guys I raced with, and I was pretty sure I saw Ollie sneak off with Keith Lewis. Maybe it was the cider I had consumed, or maybe it was just Charlie, but I felt bolder, happier, and a little something else I couldn’t put my finger on tonight.

“What are you smiling about, Bashful?” Charlie nuzzled my neck as we lay sprawled out on a blanket on the beach. I hadn’t let go of him since the arcade, and I didn’t plan on leaving his side until I was forced to.

My skin broke out in goosebumps. I loved the nicknames he had given me. I loved that he seemed to have chosen me out of everyone else he could have had.

“Tonight,” I confessed.

“Is that so?” He leaned up to stare down at me, his brown eyes searching my face .

I nodded. “Everyone seems to be having a good time. I just saw Ollie go off with a boy.”

“Good.” Charlie kissed my lips lightly before he wrapped his arms around me and hauled me into his lap as he sat up. “Maybe now I don’t have to worry Ollie trying to—”

My mouth was on his before he could finish the sentence, hoping it told him what I couldn’t. That Charlie didn’t have to worry about Ollie, because he was my friend. What I wanted from Charlie was so much more than that. That I felt what he felt. That pull in my chest, that fear of not being able to breathe unless he was around. I wanted him, just him, and no one else.

I moved my legs so that I was straddling Charlie’s lap, and when I felt his erect penis against mine, I groaned into his mouth.

“Take me to your bed,” I begged.

“Not tonight, Bashful.”

“I want you inside of me.”

Charlie growled, deep and feral, inside his chest. “Jesus Christ, Jones. No more booze for you.” He nipped so hard at my bottom lip that I was pretty sure I tasted blood. “You can’t say things like that.”

“Why not? I mean it. I want you to be my first, my only.” I reached up to touch his face. “Please, baby?” I tested out the endearment, and Charlie’s eyes flashed with want.

He pushed me back down onto the blanket. “I want that, Jonesy. Fuck.” He buried his face in my neck.

“Then take me to your bed,” I said again as I shamelessly rubbed against him. “Strip me bare, kiss and touch me all over, have your way with me, and then make love to me,” I whispered as I trailed my fingers through the hairs on the nape of his neck.

Charlie pulled back and gripped my head in his hands. “You really want that, Jonesy? You want to lose your virginity to me with a house and beach full of your friends? Don’t you want it to be special?”

“I want it to be you. That will make it special.”

“You’re killing me.”

I smiled at him. “Please, Charlie?” I tried to give him a sexy, flirty smile.

“Fucking hell.” He groaned and dropped his body against mine. He was heavy, but I liked how he felt against me, and I giggled happily as I wrapped my arms and legs around him. “I can’t.” Charlie’s lips brushed my skin.

My stomach dropped. “You don’t want me? Is that what you’re telling me?” I whispered as I tried to wiggle out from beneath him. All the playfulness I felt moments before was gone. “Get up, Charlie. Get up!”

“Jones, wait,” he hissed between clenched teeth, and when he stared down at me, I wanted to bury myself against his chest. Wrap myself around him again so that I could feel his warmth and inhale his beachy scent all around me. “I want you to be lucid. I need you to remember every single thing that we do. The way I touch you, the way I make you feel, and how good it is. How full and stretched out that pretty hole is. I don’t want you drunk. I want you so damn bad it keeps me up at night. I fuck my fist, thinking about how good you’re going to feel wrapped around my cock. The sounds you’re going to make. If you might moan my name when you come. I don’t want this to be a spur-of-the-moment thing, Jonesy. I want it to be just as amazing as you are.”

My chin trembled as I looked up at him.

“Charlie.” His name slipped from my lips on a breath.

Then I crushed my mouth to his. He dropped back down to the blanket, pinning me beneath him.

I had never met anyone as sweet as Charlie. He was kind, thoughtful, and perfect. The fact that he wanted me, that he went out of his way to invite Henry Richardson to come watch me drive, even though Charlie had never even seen me race himself, said so much about who he was. I didn’t deserve him. I had never met anyone like Charlie before, and I was petrified that he would realize that I wasn’t good enough.

“Jonesy, my sweet, sweet, Jonesy,” he murmured.

He threaded his fingers through my curls to tilt my head up, then kissed his way down my jawline. A loud burst of laughter caused him to stop and look up as a few party goers rushed down the beach and into the water. He snorted and dropped his head against my chest.

“Sharks.”

I shook my head. “What?”

“Sharks. Don’t you remember the first time I kissed you? When I went skinny dipping? You were worried about sharks.”

“I’m always worried about sharks, Charlie. I don’t like to go into the water.”

He chuckled softly. “But you went in with me.”

“I like you. I would do anything to be near you,” I whispered .

Charlie made a happy sound that reminded me of a cat purring. “Mm, I would have done anything to get you into that water, and that included taking off my shorts. I was hoping you would do the same thing.”

“What?” I gasped loudly.

He grinned at me in the dark, his eyes shining in the moonlight. “I wanted to see you naked, Jonesy. I wanted to see your cock, your ass, your everything, and now that I have, I don’t plan on letting anyone else see what’s mine.” He moved to lie next to me and wrapped his arms around me to pull me against him.

“Charlie—”

He stopped me with a hard kiss. “Mine, Bashful, and I’m never letting you go.”

***

“Jonesy, quick, wake up.” Charlie’s husky voice drew me out of my slumber. “You’ll miss it if you don’t.”

I grunted as I rolled over, the feeling of the hard sand beneath me. Shoot, had we fallen asleep out here last night? Memories from last night flooded my senses. The hard cider, dragging the blanket out away from the party, begging Charlie to deflower me. Heat flamed my cheeks as I sat up, but when I opened my eyes, I saw the sunrise before me. Beautiful and breathtaking as the day began to wake up.

“Gorgeous, right?” Charlie commented as I stared in awe at the orange and pink colors that had started to break out over the dark sky. It reminded me of cotton candy .

I nodded. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” I stared wide-eyed as Charlie moved behind me, his arms wrapping around my waist. I smiled as he leaned his head on my shoulder.

“Take a picture before it’s gone,” he suggested, and I quickly reached for my phone in my pocket, praying it had some battery life left.

I took a couple of photos before I turned it around to snap a couple of selfies with Charlie, realizing these were more memories of us together.

“We should take one of us with the sunrise.”

He chuckled softly and helped me climb to my feet, then spun me around to tuck me against him.

“You’re going to outshine the sunrise, Bashful,” he whispered into my ear.

Warmth grew inside my belly and goosebumps broke out over my skin. I barely managed to take the picture and not drop my phone in the sand.

“You’re more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen before.” His lips brushed the back of my neck.

I twisted my body around to face him. “You can’t say things like that.” I gripped the front of Charlie’s shirt with my free hand.

“You mean the truth? Take another picture of us.” He brushed his lips over mine.

I swallowed nervously as I raised my arm. “Like this?”

“Yeah, Bashful, just like this.”

When I did, Charlie made sure to kiss me, his tongue meeting mine in a hot, wet slide, and I didn’t care about anything else. It was just him, us, and the sounds of the beach as the world began to wake up around us.

I beamed up at him as he pulled away, his blue eyes shiny and full of lust as Charlie dragged his thumb across my jaw. “Make sure to tag me in it when you post it.”

“Are we friends now?”

“Jonesy, I think we talked about this already.”

I stepped up onto my toes. “No, I mean on Insta or Facebook or whatever.” I hadn’t accepted any requests from Charlie or gotten any new followers.

“Did I not...” He untangled himself from me to grab his phone from inside his sneaker on the blanket. He unlocked it and then my phone dinged as requests came through.

I met his heated gaze. “What about your daddy?”

“What about him?” Charlie asked as he began to scroll through his socials. “Jones, look at you. How old were you here?” He was looking at a picture of me with Ollie and Travis after my first race win.

I blushed at how young and awkward I was. “Twelve, I think.” I nudged his arm. “Are you friends with your family on here? Won’t they question things?”

“I don’t care.” Charlie shoved his phone into his back pocket. “What about you? Your mother, any family members you might be worried about?” He grabbed my hips to yank me against him.

“Mama doesn’t like social media,” I told him as I slid my hands up his chest and hooked them behind his neck. “I don’t have any other family. After she got pregnant, they all disowned her, so she moved to North Carolina.”

Charlie’s eyes grew soft. “I’m sorry. People are assholes. ”

“They are, but Mama raised me good. I never wanted anything, and I like my life here. If things had been different, if she had stayed or married my daddy, I wouldn’t have met you.” I leaned my head against his chest and listened to the sound of his beating heart.

Charlie traced patterns into my skin through my shirt. “Thank fuck for that.”

We stayed like that for what felt like forever. Just holding one another on the beach until Ollie and Travis came racing down to find us, both complaining about being hungover and needing coffee and food. I pretended not to notice the hickeys on Ollie’s neck, and Charlie promised to take everyone out to breakfast once we straightened up the house.

I felt happier than I had ever been in my entire life.