I kissed him again. “You’re just as beautiful inside and out,” I murmured against his lips.
He held me tighter and kissed me harder. His hand continued to roam over my waist and I pressed my breasts against his chest. My need for his touch was becoming more feral by the minute. Now that I felt fully ready to move on, I wanted this. Bad. One could only be a celibate recluse for so long before starting to go a little mad with want.
Eli’s kisses became greedier as I lost the little self-control I still possessed. I wanted to make out with him. I wanted to touch him all over. I wanted to rip all our clothes off and give him every part of me.
I could feel Eli straining against his pants, and I shifted so I could straddle him. His hands slid down my sides and then around to my ass where he pulled me closer to him, pressing our bodies together. He was so hard now, and my entire body ached to feel him.
“God, Eli, I need you,” I moaned, and he immediately grabbed the hem of my fleece, pulling it up and revealing the flimsy sports bra underneath. Once it was off, he kissed down my neck and chest, making his way to my breast.
“I’ve thought about doing this for so long,” he whispered as he licked the thin fabric and teased my nipple with his tongue, sucking gently and sending a pulse between my legs.
“Eli.” His name came out as a moan.
He pulled back to look at me for a moment. I should have felt vulnerable in this position, half-undressed and longing written all over my face. But I could tell he was in this withme. I tried not to think about the vast difference in our experience levels as Eli shifted the fabric of my sports bra aside and took my bare breast in his mouth. The cold air against my skin made me shiver, but his mouth was so warm. So perfect.
His free hand slid up the outside of my thigh, coming dangerously close to the heat building between my legs.
Suddenly it dawned on me that we were still very much in the middle of the wilderness. I doubted anyone would come across us, but some sort of barrier would be appreciated.
“Tent?” I panted. The words had barely left my mouth before Eli stood up. He wrapped my legs around his waist and carried me by my ass to our tent. I let out a laugh as we toppled onto the soft mattress. He zipped the tent flap closed before moving back over me. His lips met mine and I grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off of him. It got stuck near his arm and he released my mouth to pull the rest of it off.
His rippling muscles flexed as he tossed the t-shirt aside. His skin was smooth and warm, and my hands immediately roamed up his sides and chest. “So that’s what you’ve been hiding under there.” I reached out to touch his perfectly sculpted chest but pulled my hand back at the last second.
Eli grinned before grabbing my hand and placing it over his heart. “You’re not getting shy on me all of a sudden, are you?”
“No,” I lied, thinking now about his amazing body and all of the likely equally-amazing bodies he’d been with before.
The corner of his lip tugged up. “I’m not sure where your mind went wandering, but can you please bring it back?”
“Maybe we can turn the lantern off,” I suggested.
His smile widened as he shook his head. “Do you know how badly I want to see you? There’s no way in hell I’m turning off that light.”
Eli pressed his body against me, keeping his weight off me with his forearms. He touched our foreheads together.
“What’s wrong, Calla?”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “I just started thinking about how perfect you look right now. And then I thought—of course he looks perfect, he’s literally a movie star. And then I thought about all of the stunning women you’ve probably been with before?—”
“First of all, I’m hardly a movie star.” My words cut off as he placed a hand against my mouth. “And second, I can’t change my past. But I can tell you this is new for me too, okay? The fact is, I’ve never cared about someone like I do you. So, as vulnerable and bare as you’re feeling right now, know that I’m feeling the same.” He kissed my forehead. “And we don’t have to do anything, by the way. We have plenty of time for that. We can just talk, or sleep, or whatever you want. I’m not going anywhere. There’s no rush.”
His words melted away my insecurities. As soon as he pulled back his hand, I reached up and kissed him.
“Thank you,” I whispered. He kissed me back sweetly at first, but now that my worries had been relieved, my raw need slowly returned.
Eli shifted so that his body covered mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist, desperate to have him closer.
“Tell me what you want,” he whispered.
“You.”
A growl escaped his lips as he kissed my neck and reached between us, pulling at the waistband of my leggings. His hands were warm and firm as he slid them down my thighs. My stomach did a nervous flip. Eli had a way of making me feel like a completely new person. The type of person ready to dive headfirst into whatever this feeling was.
I pushed his sweats off, revealing a pair of gray boxerbriefs that hugged him tightly. The thin material did nothing to hide his arousal. I bit my lip as I ran my hands over the smooth fabric.
He flinched and grabbed my hand. “I’m not going to last long if you start doing that.”
I smiled shyly, grateful I was having as powerful of an effect on him as he was having on me. Eli reached down to help me shimmy out of the rest of my clothing, his eyes drinking me in as we exposed more and more of my bare skin. He traced his fingers lightly down my stomach, stopping as they reached the delicate dip by my belly button. His eyes searched mine before he moved his hand lower.
