Testing Recipes for Disaster (Emberwood #2)

Chapter 29- Lauren

H e walked me backwards until I sat on the edge of my bed before kneeling, making us about the same height. I pushed a piece of hair off his forehead and found myself cupping his jaw, running my thumb along his cheekbone. The skin around his eyes crinkled like he was amused.

“You’re just very pretty,” I explained.

“Oh yeah? So are you. I’d even go so far as to say that you would win should our beauty be judged.”

“Well, of course,” I agreed, making him smile.

I moved my hand to trace his bottom lip when he pulled my middle finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue around it before letting it go. Heat surged from behind my navel, and I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t quite sure what we were doing in this little bubble, but I wasn’t in a hurry to pop it.

“That felt...surprising.”

“Surprising good or bad?”

“Good. Definitely good.”

“Then maybe once more to make sure?”

He looked into my eyes as he did it again, and I was pretty sure I could hear colors at that point. I was not inexperienced by any stretch of the imagination, but the things this man did to my insides made me feel like I was in over my head in the best way possible.

“What are you thinking?” he asked while lightly pressing kissing along my neck. My whole body shivered.

“I...I don’t want to tell you,” I answered honestly.

He pulled back, and I felt the loss of his warmth immediately.

“Why?”

“I tend to... overshare. Or word vomit. Whatever you want to call it. And I don’t want to do that, and then you leave.”

“I, for one, like your overshares. I feel like I get a glimpse into your brain when you go on off on a tangent about breakfast pastries, you know?”

He leaned forward again and kissed his way down my sternum, and I arched into him and hummed my approval.

“So, tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Fine,” I sighed. “But you have to get up off the floor. It’s very hard to concentrate with you down there.”

I leaned back and rolled to my side, and he joined me, his hand now on my hip, pulling me closer.

“I was thinking that I don’t know what to do with you.”

“How do you mean?” he asked, concern clouding his expression.

“No, no. Not a bad thing, I promise. You just... you make me feel like my mind isn’t racing. Like I can be in my body and be with you and feel things. There are no outside thoughts trying to bust down the door. And that’s new. For me.”

He’d moved from my hip to holding my hand, putting pressure on different places of my palm.

“I very much want you to be in your body,” he murmured.

“What are you thinking?”

“How there is literally nowhere else on the planet I would rather be right now.”

My mouth quirked up at his quick answer.

“Do you think we could just do this tonight?” he asked.

His voice was low, and he pressed a soft kiss on my lips while the question registered.

“That...sounds really good. Let me get ready for bed, yeah?”

I kissed him and pushed myself up to go get my pjs and wash my face. He was still looking at me with a sweet smile, all stretched out on my bed when I came back.

“There are extra toothbrushes in the middle drawer in the bathroom,” I said, grinning back.

It was such a small thing, but it felt like this choice— not sleeping together and doing something as normal as him having a toothbrush at my house—was a bigger one than any of the others we’d made so far.

I WOKE UP WITH JER’S arms wrapped around my middle, holding me to his chest. After orienting myself, I relaxed into him and started playing with one of the rings on his fingers rather than trying to untangle my body from his.

“Morning,” he rumbled in my ear.

“Sorry, you can go back to sleep; I wasn’t sure how to extricate myself without waking you.”

“Mmmmmm, no.”

“No to what?”

“No to you extricating yourself. And no, I don’t want to go back to sleep. I want to do other things.”

He took the hand I was using to play with his rings, brought it behind my back, and settled it onto his cock.

“ Oh. ”

“Only if you want. Sorry, I should have led with that before I—”

He tried to pull my hand away, but I only laughed and squeezed through his boxers. He let out a hiss and lightly bit down on my shoulder.

“Can we stay like this?” he asked, grinding into my hand.

I only nodded and reached under the waistband of his boxers to take him out. He reached under the oversized t-shirt I’d slept in and dragged his fingers up my center. His hands tugged my underwear out of the way, and he put the lightest pressure on my clit.

“Do you need me to—”

“No, god, could you—”

He laughed, and I felt it vibrate in my chest.

“Do you want to grab a condom?”

I let out an exasperated sigh.

“I can. But I have an IUD because I couldn’t be trusted to remember to take the pill, and I haven’t slept with anyone other than you since my last annual visit, and if we’re doing this for real, you and me...”.

I was glad he was behind me, and I wasn’t having to watch his facial expressions as I blurted this out.

“I haven’t slept with anyone else either since my last physical and never once without a condom,” he said, his hand rigid and splayed across my stomach.

“Okay, so then, we’re agreed?”

“Jesus, Laur.”

His laugh sounded against my ear, his hand returning to where I wanted it.

“I may not last thirty seconds. Fair warning.”

He reached down and brought my leg over the back of his, opening me to him. In one slow motion, he was buried inside of me, and god, he felt so good. The heat from his skin was radiating around my body.

I groaned into his bicep, no longer resisting the temptation to sink my teeth into it.

“ Fuck , Laur. You feel fucking amazing.”

He held me tighter to keep me against him while he found his rhythm, hitting the spot that had stars forming behind my eyes over and over.

“That’s...please don’t stop. I need you right there .”

“Laur...do you want me to pull out before I come?”

I shook my head, pretty sure I would murder him if pulled out right now. His hand drifted up from my ribs to my throat, and he held me against him with only the slightest pressure.

“Fuck. I’m going to need you to touch yourself, Princess. Because I’m barely hanging on here,” he rasped.

I didn’t even think I needed to; I was on the edge with him. Before my fingers reached their destination, he hit my G-spot one more time. I felt the thousand bands of tension that had been stretching tighter and tighter all snap together, and I didn’t know what sounds fell from my lips. Jer’s hand tightened by a fraction while I fell apart. His rhythm stuttered shortly after, and I felt him spill inside of me, nearly incoherent praise groaned against my neck.

His arms loosened their hold, but they stayed around me, not letting me drift away. We were both sufficiently out of breath and lay panting together. He slipped out of me a minute later and scooted over so I could turn and look at his face.

“Jer... I. Jesus.” I still couldn’t catch my breath.

I covered my face with my hands and willed myself to calm down. Laughter or tears threatened to force their way out, and neither felt like an appropriate reaction.

“Hey,” he said softly, pulling my hands down. “Are you okay? Do you wish we hadn’t decided not to use a condom? We can go back to—”

“What? No. That was the most...like so, so good. I’m just... I’m overwhelmed, and I don’t know why. I feel completely ridiculous.”

Even as the words came out, tears sprang to the corners of my eyes, and he wiped them away.

“I know we both have morning breath, but can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” I answered, thinking that sounded like the remedy to this entire debacle.

He was gentle against my mouth, his tongue finding a leisurely rhythm against mine. It might have been a minute or twenty that he held me there, but I felt the wave of emotions peak and subside. I pulled back when my brain was securely connected to the rest of me.

“I’m sorry. I feel better now.”

“Yeah? Good. And don’t apologize.”

He ran his hand over my hair and down my neck.

“That’s normal, by the way,” he said softly.

“I can assure you that is not normal for me. I’ve never cried after sex. Ugh.”

He laughed at my scrunched-up nose.

“I’m not trying to mansplain your body to you. But with an intense orgasm, it can, well, from what I understand, it’s like a big high and then kind of a crash. There’s nothing wrong with you. That’s what I’m trying to say.”

“Pretty confident in your skills, then, huh?” I teased him.

“Less so, now,” he said, huffing a laugh.

“I’ve never, well, finished without extra help ...or whatever. So maybe it was a little out of the ordinary. You can enjoy your well-earned confidence; don’t let it go to your head.”

“Oh, it’s already there. I doubt I’ll even be able to fit my ego in my car.”

“You’re hilarious. But back to the point—I’m fine now. And that wasn’t super mansplain-y. Well, maybe it was, but I think you’re right, so I’ll forgive it. I need to clean up, um, I’ll be right back.”

He laughed and started looking around for his clothes.

“I’m making you breakfast, so take your time.”

I let out a giant breath once I was in the bathroom and heard him walk toward the stairs. I was hurtling toward something with Jer that I didn’t expect, and the momentum was so strong that I didn’t think I could stop it now, even if I wanted to.

An even scarier thought? I didn’t want to.