316 Rose Rd. (A Cherry Falls Romance Book 11) Read online

  “So what changed?” I ask. "What made you come home after all of that?”

  She pauses for a moment, and she lets her eyes slide to the left. I can see that there is something that she doesn’t want to come out and tell me, and I don’t want to push her to give me more than she is comfortable with.

  "My mom," she whispers, finally. She says those words as though they are hard for her to get out, and I know at once what she is going to say.

  "She got... sick," she explains, her voice cracking slightly. "While I was away. I thought that she’d recover quickly – we all did – but the more time went on, the more clear it became that she... that she wasn’t going to get better."

  She takes a deep breath, and I slide my hands over hers. I can see the pain in her face, and it hurts to see her in so much agony. I know that I should say something, but I have no idea what I am meant to come out with right now.

  "I moved back home to help out with her," she continues. "My dad couldn’t do it all on his own. And I didn’t want him to. I guess I didn’t really accept it till I was back with her again, but as soon as I saw her, I knew..."

  She shakes her head, looks away from me. I know that this must be agony for her to go through all over again. I don’t want to force her to tell me, but she seems willing to keep talking, and I don’t want to trip her up.

  "I knew that we were going to lose her," she continues. "I stayed there, until the end, and after it happened – well, after it happened, I knew that my father was in far too much pain to live by himself, all alone, so I stayed there with him. I’ve been there ever since. Helping out with the church, at home, all of that stuff. This is the first time I’ve had some time to myself in... well, in way too long."

  I smooth a finger down her cheek and she offers me a slight smile; it’s tinged with sadness, and I know that it must be hard for her to tell the truth about what happened. I wonder how many people have seen her like this, have seen the truth of how bad she aches when she talks about her mother.

  "I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Harper."

  I’m not sure what to say to her, except to offer her my sincere words of comfort. I have never gone through a loss like that, and it seems unfair that someone so bright and so bubbly would have to. I hate that she’s suffered in that way. I hate that it hurts her as much as it does. She shakes her head.

  "Me too," she replies. "But it happened. And I’m not willing to spend the rest of my life sitting at home trying to make it un-happen."

  "You’ve done something so good, you know," I tell her, smoothing her hair back from her face. "Going home to Cherry Falls to look after your father. It can’t be easy, not when you’re dealing with all of that sadness in yourself, too."

  "It’s downright awful, sometimes," she admits. "But I – I know that he needs me. And I know that my mom would have wanted me to be there for him."

  "I bet she’s proud of you," I tell her, and she smiles at me.

  "I know she is," she replies softly. "She wanted me to be happy. To do what made me happy."

  "And what might that be?" I ask her. "Right now. What would make you happy?”

  She looks up at me, and her eyes light up as soon as they lock onto mine.

  "You know, I have a few ideas," she says as she lifts her mouth to mine. And, as soon as our lips meet, I know that my chances of not falling for this girl are next to nothing.

  Chapter Eight

  Harper

  He winds his arms around me tight and pulls me close, as though he wants nothing more than to lose himself to the way that our mouths feel against each other right now. I can’t believe how close to him I feel, how comfortable. Normally, I would have been freaking out about the thought of someone so perfect having seen me so naked, but with him, it’s different. With him, I have nothing at all to fear.

  His body is strong and muscular, and I get a little lost in the sensation of it pressed up against me. Hard to believe that he’s mine – hard to believe that he really just belongs to me right now. Our tongues meet, slowly, playing against each other, and I feel him begin to stir to hardness against my hip.

  I move my hand down his stomach, and feel over the top of his pants the hardness of his erection, right there, as though it’s waiting for me. I’ve never gone this far with a man before, and it feels as though we are meant for this. I thought that I would be more nervous when the time came, but instead, I find myself enjoying it – enjoying the pressure of it beneath my fingers, enjoying the way that he reacts to my touch as though he has been starved of it for far too long now.

  "I want to feel you," I tell him, my voice hoarse with want for him. My body is still a little trembly and oversensitive from the fact that he just made me come, but I want to give him everything right now – I want to show him than I am as willing to give as I am to receive.

  He reaches down, unzips his pants, and I wrap my fingers around his erection for the first time.

  I gasp – it's big, even bigger than I expected it to be. He groans as soon as I touch it for the first time, and that deep, masculine sound escaping from his throat tells me that I am doing the right thing.

  I try to remember what I read in all those magazines, all the ones that told me how to please a man, and I begin to stroke him, slowly, taking my time, in no rush for this to be over.

  He reaches down and wraps his hand around mine so that he can set the pace for a while, and I am more than happy to let him show me what needs to be done. He kisses me as he slowly moves my hand up and down his thick hard-on, and the feeling of his hand over mine is almost unbearably sensual – he's showing me how he likes to be touched, how he wants to be pleased, and I am eager to show him in every way that I can that I am willing to do just that for him.

  "That’s so good," he breathes against my lips, his stubble brushing against my chin. His roughness matched with his softness – something about it makes my head feel as though it’s spinning. I want more. I want to pleasure him the same way that he pleasured me.

  "Can I go down on you?” I ask him, a little shyly. I don’t even really know what I’d be doing down there, but I feel the smile on his lips before he responds and I know that he is as ready for this as I am.

  "Let me show you how," he says back, and he kisses me once more before I begin to work my way down his body, just the same way that he did with me. On my knees, before him. His cock hard and ready to be in my mouth.

  Gosh, he smells so good. And the muscles under his skin – I knew that he was strong from the moment I slipped outside the shower and he pulled me into his arms, but this is something else entirely. He is so powerful, he could do anything that he wanted with me.

  I want him to do everything.

  I peel up his shirt, and he pulls it off and tosses it aside – I sit up for a moment, admiring his amazing torso, and he reaches out to slide his hands over my waist. The way he is looking at me, it is as though I am some sort of gift, someone handed to him for all his good deeds.

  "You’re so fucking beautiful," he murmurs, and I move forward and kiss him again, kiss over his hips, the line of muscle that leads down beneath his jeans. He slides them off, baring himself to me completely. I can hardly believe that this gorgeous man is actually bare-ass naked in front of me, and I have to hold back a little giggle of disbelief that this can really be happening. I figure that it might blow the mood, but then he smiles at me again, and I know that he can see the excitement written all over my face.

  I lean down to take him into my mouth for the first time, not moving my hand from his base, and wonder how on earth I am meant to fit that whole thing in my mouth at once – he must be a good eight inches long, and wide, too. I have no point of reference for what is normal for a cock, but I get the feeling that he is above average in all the ways that matter.

  Well, got to start somewhere – I plant a kiss on the very tip of his hard-on, and he sucks in a sharp breath above me. I glance up, worried that I’ve hurt him.

  "Is that
okay?" I ask, and he smooths my hair back from my face.

  "It’s perfect, you’re perfect," he tells me, and I slowly return my mouth to his head once more. He tastes a little salty, a little sweet, totally and utterly himself, and I find myself craving more. As much as he is willing to give me.

  I seal my lips around him and move my mouth down a little, then up again, experimenting with how it feels and how he reacts to it. Touching his thighs, I can feel his muscles tensing, and I know that I am doing something right.

  I look up and find him looking down at me, watching me as though I am the most tempting and delightful thing in the world. It sends a shiver down my spine to know how much he wants me; I can already feel the heat beginning to grow between my legs. I know that it isn’t going to be much longer before I am going to need more from him, but for now, I need to show him just how full of want for him I am.

  I use my tongue, slowly licking up from the bottom of his erection to the top and then back down again. I am already finding myself obsessed with the way that he reacts to me. He tastes so good, looks even better – there is a small furrow between his eyes that intensifies when I am doing something that he likes, and I use that as a signal to do just what he wants me to.

  I seal my lips around him again, and begin to slide up and down once more, taking as much of him into my mouth as I possibly can. I try to think what it must feel like for him, try to imagine what would feel the best. He flexes his hips towards me, pushing himself into me a little further, filling me. I can imagine that this is what it will feel like when he is inside of me, when he fucks me for the first time, but for now – for now, I want to lavish him with all the attention that he deserves, any way I can give it to him.

  He takes my hand and wraps it around his length, and I use it along with my mouth to stroke him. I feel as though I am lost to him. I can’t think of anything that came before this or after this, I just want to give myself to him. I want him to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed him moving his tongue against me downstairs, and I can tell from the way that his breath is starting to catch around the edges that I am doing something right.

  I go a little faster, picking up the pace, enjoying the power that I seem to have over him right now. I can’t stop now, I don’t want to. I need to take him over the edge and show him that I am just as willing to please him as he is to please me. This may be the first time that I have ever had an orgasm, but I am going to make sure that this is the first night that I give one, too.

  "Fuck," he growls, the sound raw and hungry as it seems to rise up from somewhere deep inside of him. Yes, he’s close – I sink my fingers into his leg, feeling him tense, and then, finally, I feel the heat of his seed as he finishes.

  The sound he makes when he comes is enough to tell me that all of this was worth it. I didn’t really know how hot it could be to make someone else come, to know that I was enough to push someone over the edge, but, as I keep my mouth over him and he finishes, I swallow every drop of his seed.

  I flick my eyes up to meet his, watching the way that his face softens and seems to calm as he reaches his release.

  I pull back slowly, and flick my tongue out over my lips; he tastes salty, sweet, delicious, and I know that I am already addicted to him.

  "That was amazing," he groans as he reaches down and pulls me up to lie against his chest. He runs his hand down my bare back, leaving a trail of tingles every place that he touches me. I close my eyes and nuzzle against him, inhaling the smell of the mountain air, of the wood and the sap and the trees, that seems to come off him in waves.

  "I think I need a little more practice before I’m sure that I’m doing my very best," I tell him playfully, and he runs his fingers through my hair, planting a kiss on my cheek and closing his eyes. This – this I could get used to. It feels so deliciously perfect, resting in his arms after the two of us have pleasured each other the best we can.

  I am not sure how long we lie there – in fact, I don’t even remember falling asleep, but when I wake up, I am lying in his bed, and I am all by myself.

  I reach over to the spot where I am sure he was sleeping next to me last night, and I instantly feel that deep craving for him once more. He must have carried me here while I was sleeping, and I can remember the way his arms wrapped around me tightly as he slept.

  Where is he? I sit up and look around, trying to remember if he woke me up to tell me where he was off to. Probably back to work. I suppose that, to him, this is just another day – I can’t be the only woman that has been trussed up in these covers.

  But he is the first man that I have ever been with, and there is something in that which feels special to me. Strange to think that I have actually done it now – not sex, but I have managed to have my very first orgasm. After trying so hard for so long, after making such an effort to get where I needed to go, he had put his head between my legs and managed to do it in a matter of minutes.

  And I know that I am far from done with him. I can’t wait to see him again, to find out the other ways that the two of us can please each other. Going down on him was way more fun than I thought it would be; before him, I hadn’t thought much about the way that I would turn someone on, about how I could make someone feel the things that he had made me feel. But it seemed to come easily to me when I was with him. I just want to turn him on, show him how much I want him.

  I reach over to the bedside table, and find that he has placed my clothes and my phone there for me while I was sleeping. He must have gone to pick them up from the shower stall – God, he’s thoughtful. I still don’t know him well, but everything that I am learning about him is telling me that he’s perfect. He listens closely, as though everything that I say matters to him. And when he touches me...

  Mmm. I need to talk to someone else about this. Before I fall too deep into whatever it is that I am falling into whenever he is around. It’s a little after nine a.m., and I wrap myself in the sheet from the bed and look through the cabin, calling for Cliff. My foot no longer aches, and I exhale with relief as I unwrap it, grateful that there is only the slightest of bruising.

  The cabin is empty, though, so I decide to call Juniper, because I need to process last night with my best friend.

  Juniper picks up right away. My best friend since middle school, Juniper is no-nonsense, sharp, and doesn’t suffer fools – so why she keeps me around isn’t totally clear, but I’m not going to go complaining about it.

  "Hey!” I exclaim down the line. Even to myself, I sound too happy to get away with it that easily.

  "Hi," she replies. "What’s going on? You sound... different."

  "Well, I’m calling from – I'm actually calling from the cabin of the guy that I spent the night with," I blurt out. I can practically imagine her eyebrows shooting up into her bangs, and I have to bite my lip to keep from giggling with delight.

  "Holy shit, no way!” she exclaims. "Right now?”

  "Right now," I reply, getting back in Cliff’s bed and rolling over. Propping myself up on my elbows, I bury my face in the pillow that he slept on all night, and I smell his delicious scent.

  "You guys... did it?" she asks.

  "No, we didn’t go all the way," I reply. "But he did – he got me where I needed to go, if you know what I mean..."

  "Well, light the fireworks!" she replies with a chuckle. "Good for you. Who is he?"

  "He works at the campsite," I explain. "He’s... he’s like some woodsman, but for the mountains."

  "So, you’re saying he’s hot?” she asks.

  "I am," I reply.

  "Well, I say go for it," she replies. "How long do you have there?”

  "A few days..."

  "That’s plenty of time to get him to fall in love with you," she remarks.

  "I don’t think I’m going to go that far," I laugh, but I have to admit – the mention of the word love makes my heart ping happily in my chest. Yeah, I could manage that. I could cope with the thought of the way he looked at me lasting a little longe
r...

  "Do you think I should go for it?” I ask, lowering my voice as though there is someone listening in right now.

  "I think you should follow your intuition," she replies. "You know what’s best for you. And if this guy is the best thing, go for it."

  "I think I just might," I reply. I can’t keep the smile off my face.

  "I don’t want to get in the way of your dirty weekend," she replies. "So I’ll let you get back to it. Call me up when you need to gossip, okay?”

  "Will do," I promise her before we hang up. I turn over and stare at the ceiling, unable to keep the smile off my face. I want to scream, in the best way possible. I rise from the bed and head for a shower, wondering when Cliff is going to turn up again.

  I wash quickly, and as soon as I step out of the bathroom, Cliff is here to greet me.

  "Well, good morning," Cliff greets me, leaning back on the bed and looking me up and down with a grin on his face as I come out of the shower.

  "Good morning yourself," I reply. "Where did you go?”

  "I was just taking care of some stuff around the site," he explains. "I wanted to have the rest of the day clear."

  "For what?"

  "Depends on your foot.”

  “It’s good as new,” I say, lifting my foot and showing it off.

  “Damn, your legs get me so hard, you know that?”

  I giggle. “I didn’t, but I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “If you’re really good as new, I’ll show you what I was thinking about," he replies.

  I raise my eyebrows, but I go along with what he’s saying. I like the idea of spending the day with him, no matter what it is that’s happening.

  I get dressed, then we head to my cabin so I can put on the tennis shoes I packed. Once I’ve slipped them on, he hooks a backpack over his shoulder. He heads for the door, holding it open for me, and I duck under his muscular arm, inhaling a quick whiff of his gorgeous scent and trying to fight the urge to drag him back to the bed that I just left.