Page 66 of Wild and Wanted

With his last shred of control, Clay muttered, ‘Stevie.’

But she didn’t hear him or, given the depth of his pitch maybe she thought he was encouraging her? Either way, Stevie went down again – deeper – the tight sling of muscles low in Clay’s belly giving a treacherous shudder.

Oh God…

‘Stevie,’ he repeated, firmer this time, his hand on her shoulder urging her off, urging her up until she was blinking at him, her eyes glazed with lust.

‘Am I hurting?’ she asked on a pant, her brow furrowed. ‘It’s taking me a bit to figure out the teeth thing.’

Clay smiled and smoothed back a wisp of hair at her temples before tucking his dick back in his underwear. ‘No.’

More confusion. ‘I am doing it wrong?’

‘No,’ he assured her on a chuckle, leaning in to kiss her, slow and languid, his mouth lingering, savouring the taste of himself on her lips before he pulled away. ‘You’re not doing it wrong.’

‘Okay…?’

She was clearly confused as was his poor dick, although mightily fucking pissed was probably a better descriptor. ‘I’m very close to coming right now and I’d really like to take you to my cabin and be inside you the first time I do.’

She smiled then, relief flooding her face. ‘I’d like that, too.’

‘Are you sure, Stevie? I need you to be sure because… you’re still wearing that purity ring.’ He tipped his chin at her hand high on his thigh. ‘And I’m not sure if that’s just habit or if you’re actually not ready, like really deep down ready, to lose your virginity just yet which is why you keep it on.’

‘Oh.’ Lifting her hand, Stevie blinked at her ring.

‘Which is fine,’ he hastened to assure her as she stared at it. ‘If you just want to keep doing what we’re doing – that’s fine.’ He could live with mutual masturbation if that was as far as Stevie really wanted to go.

There were worse ways to pass two weeks.

‘This isn’t me saying if you don’t want to go all the way, we can’t keep making out.’ He smiled because she was looking uncertain now and he didn’t want that, either. ‘I’m happy to go as far as you want. I just… don’t want you to have any regrets so I need you to be sure this is what you really want.’

She didn’t say anything for long moments, her gaze glued to the ring. Then, breaking from her reverie, she slid the ring off her finger and placed it in the tray beneath his radio where his cell phone sat.

Turning back to him, her eyes met his, radiating purpose. ‘I’m sure.’

‘Stevie, I don’t want you to⁠—’

She shook her head at him, cutting him off. ‘Clay,’ she murmured. ‘I’m sure. It’s still on my finger because, yes, as you said, it’s habit and I honestly forget it’s there most of the time. But also because if I do take it off I might get used to that and not remember to put it back on again when I head back to Boston.’

Back to Boston. Already, Clay hated those words. But that wasn’t what was important in what she’d just said. He frowned. ‘Why would you put it back on again?’

‘Because my mother would definitely notice if I wasn’t wearing it.’

Hmm. Okay. ‘And you don’t want her to know?’

‘No.’ Stevie shook her head. Vigorously. ‘I don’t.’

Well, that was definitive. ‘Stevie… I don’t want to get between you and your mom and whatever the deal is with the whole purity ring thing but… you’re twenty-two. Is it really any of her business?’

She sighed. ‘I know. It’s just… complicated. With her. And, trust me, it’ll be easier this way.’

Clearly, there was stuff there that Stevie didn’t want to get in to. Either with him or at this particular moment or both. But he meant what he said; he really didn’t want to get between her and her mother. ‘This isn’t some kind of… rebellion, is it?’

Not that he would normally care. Women had used him for all kinds of reasons over the years and if Stevie wanted to use him for that, so be it. But often such acts led to remorse and he did not want to be the implement of her regret.

‘Clay.’ She leaned in and kissed him then, hot and hard, and despite his reservations, his simmering desire flared again. When she pulled back, her lips were wet and the rich glitter was back in her eyes. ‘I decided when I put this ring on when I was sixteen that, for me, it wasn’t about saving myself for marriage, it was about being particular over who I chose to go all the way with. And I choose you. I want to go to your cabin and I want to lie on your bed and I want you to show me how a man loves a woman. I want it for me. I’ve wanted it from the moment I saw you on the back of Electra. And the only regret I’ll have will be if I leave here not knowing what it feels like to have you inside me.’

Her quiet, serious words laced with conviction felled Clay like a tree. He wasn’t some impulse for her; she’d chosen him. And fuck if that didn’t hit him like a kick from a horse.