Page 18 of Summer Camp with the Mountain Man

“Wrong cousin,” I say softly, drawing hearts on his chest with the tip of my finger. “I knew I was in trouble the second we met. It’s kind of a rule around here not to fall for tourists. So if you took more jobs on the lake, many more, you’d really be doing me a solid. Maybe so many jobs you never leave.”

“Or if there aren’t enough, I’ll just retire early.”

“I know somewhere you could stay.”

“Where’s that?” he asks in a tone so low, so close to my mouth, it causes my tonsils to vibrate.

“Right here.”

Before he can respond, I’ve pressed my lips against his, kissing Cade with the passion of a soap opera liplock your mom’s been waiting years to see. Two days is long enough for me.

His manly fingers tangle in my hair, not like my brush on an early Monday morning when I decide I should probably try to look presentable, but like I’m a priceless piece of pottery at a museum he’d protect at all costs.

Screw the insects incessantly buzzing around us, if this kiss lasts forever right here at the edge of the rocks, I will die one happy bug bitten girl. Okay, take my blood, whatever, I get it, but for the love of all things holy, stop trying to fly up my nose! And while we’re at it, leave my eyes alone too, they’re closed, you can’t get in. And why would you want to?

When his tongue grazes mine, I’m fully aware of the high pitched sigh that passes from my mouth to his but I’m too in heaven to dwell on the embarrassing sound. Maybe he’ll assume a nearby fairy sneezed so hard she farted.

His mouth finally leaves mine and as sad as I am to see it go, I love that it’s getting better acquainted with my neck. And my chest. And, oh fuck me with a glass dildo, that’s my breast.

Before I can whimper his name, his lips have left my skin for the thin fabric of my tank top, licking my nipple through it until it’s so hard I might leave a puncture wound in the cotton.

I don’t have a chance to pull my top down before his kisses have left my chest and traveled down to my exposed tummy. Ha, I beat you to it and pulled up my shirt just in time. I’ve always been self-conscious about my body but with Cade, I want to pose for a nude drawing and tell him to take his time. Somehow I know he’ll worship every inch of my body, and mass is in session.

The fact that he’s run out of room on our rock isn’t stopping him, his feet splash into the water in order to allow his mouth access to my lower half. I couldn’t flip my sheer swimsuit coverup out of the way any faster if my life depended on it.

His face parts my thighs where they always rub together, whether I’m dieting or not. He doesn’t care about the redness on my pale skin, even paler there where it never sees the light of day. He doesn’t focus on my patches of cellulite which somehow get worse whenever I drop a few pounds. He’s making me feel like a goddess.

My heart does a happy dance when I remember I did some landscaping in my morning shower, just in case.

My dates don’t normally get this far. I get a playful punch on the arm accompanied by a this was fun and that’s where my nights typically end. Full transparency, that’s where I want the night to end.

But not this night.

Not with this man.

I’m not even a little bit tempted to say something off the wall that might interrupt what’s going on. I want this so bad it’s got my toes curling in time with my butt clenches. When my teacher friends talk about needing to get laid, sure, I nod along, but this must be what they’re feeling. Except if it was, they’d never let the guy go.

Cade’s mouth finds me over my swimsuit, the sides of his tongue expanding past the fabric and rolling over my sensitive parts, causing my entire body to blush. The heat that pricks all over my skin has me throwing my head back, mouth open like I’m hoping to swallow every mosquito drawn to my explosive body temperature change.

My body’s nuclear reactor nearly melts down when his fingers leave my hips in order to untie my swimsuit strings. He’s taking off my tankini bottom and I’m allowing it. If I remembered they were there, I would have given him the assist. Brain no work proper now.

He buries his face in my folds and I lose all concept of time and space. I love space. My head is in the stars right now and I can’t even appreciate it because Cade’s tongue is currently devouring my clit and nothing else matters.

Is it too early to love him?

We spent the whole night talking, that must be the equivalent of like ten dates. I once went out with a guy from a dating app who did nothing but giggle at everything I said, I’ve literally had more in depth conversations with houseplants, yeah sometimes I get lonely, so a night talking with Cade has to count for at least a hundred of those.

It’s not too early to love him.

I’m gonna tell him.

Will he hear me with his ears squeezed between my thighs? The last guy I said that to twitched his nose and scratched his ear with his leg. I’m really hoping this time goes better. To be fair, that was a rabbit who lived under the forsythia bush in the back yard of my rental, but if Cade’s nose twitches, I can’t say I’d be mad at it.

“Cade, I… Think I hear voices.”

Is someone on the beach beside us?

I can’t see over the rocks behind me but I’m pretty sure someone’s there. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m going to get whacked by a mobster?