Chapter Fifteen
A light rain started during dinner, so they quickly packed everything up and by the time they dashed into the tent, they were both soaked through, their clothes suctioned to their skin, hair dripping.
Lila rung out her tank top and then pushed her hair out of her face. “Got any towels?” she asked, laughing, but nothing was humorous about the look on Charlie’s face.
His eyes had drifted down, where they stayed, and Lila realized that her white tank top, so very innocent moments before, now revealed every outline of her lace bralette, and because it, too, was white, you could now plainly see the outline of her nipples.
“We need to change,” Lila said, clearing her throat. “Then we can finalize this bet. Fair warning, I’m kind of amazing.”
“Yeah . . .” But Charlie made no effort to move, and instead, his gaze returned to meet her own, and he shook his head slowly. “You are amazing. And smart. And kind. And beautiful. So damn beautiful, and you don’t even realize it. You don’t see what the world sees. What I see. And I can’t freaking pull myself away. Can’t even be around you without wanting to touch you. So you can forget the bet. I’ll forfeit now. Because if you touch me, if you put your hands on my body, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop this from going further. Hell, you’re not even touching me right now and it’s taking everything in me to stay over here.”
Lila contemplated what he was saying, tried to make sense of his fear over losing Lucas. But she knew her brother. Sure, he might be mad, but he loved Charlie and he loved Lila. It would all be okay.
So with that in mind, she took a step toward him, her eyes on his, forcing him to look at her. “No.”
“No?” His eyebrows rose.
“No, a bet is a bet. Now lie down.”
He licked his teeth as if in thought, and holy hell, it had to be the sexiest thing Lila had ever seen in her life. Her body buzzed with the need to touch him, to feel his warm skin under her fingertips. “You want me to lie down.” He said it as a statement, not a question, but she could see the apprehension on his face. How hard he was fighting the tension building in the air. Rain beat against the tent, the storm rolling in, and with it Lila found courage she’d never felt before. There was no one else here, only them. No one around to judge, no one to remind them that she was Lila and he was Charlie. Just them.
“Lie down.”
He eyed her once more, and then slowly started for his sleeping bag, when Lila called out, stopping him. “Shirt off first.”
Now he was staring at her, doubt on his face. “Lila . . .”
“No shirt. I can’t massage you with a shirt on. That’ll never work. I’ll be a good girl.”
“Is that a promise?”
Hell, no. “Yes.”
Charlie’s eyes met hers, heat within them as he gripped the edge of his shirt and slipped it off, dropping it without thought to the ground. And before Lila could stop herself, her own eyes trailed over his chest. The small dive-flag tattoo on his left pectoral muscle, the cut of each of his abdominal muscles, the deep V that disappeared below his low-hanging shorts.
“Ready now?” he asked, his voice low and husky, laced with want.
Lila tried to swallow, but she couldn’t make her throat work. “Good. Lie down.”
Without another word, Charlie lowered himself to his knees, and then his arm and back muscles flexed as he dropped down to his stomach.
Now or never, Lila thought. She took off her tank top and dropped it with Charlie’s shirt, and then walked over and stepped over him, one leg on each side of him, then she bent down until she straddled his ass, his smooth back laid out before her.
She glided her hands over his body until she reached his shoulders, and a shiver worked through him, a curse slipping from his lips, as he clenched his eyes closed.
Slowly, she worked her hands into his hot muscles, pressing and massaging, working out the tension she felt in his shoulder muscles. Then she leaned over him more and went to his neck, working those muscles, until he moaned low, and she smiled with pleasure.
“This okay?”
“This is killing me.”
Lila bit her lip and worked her way down his back, pressing harder, deeper in spots, lighter in others, then started back up, heat building in her belly, then lower, swirling and igniting, until she knew she must be soaked. Her hands went over his biceps, and without realizing it, she rocked against him, desperate for relief. Instantly, his eyes flew open. “Screw it.” And then he flipped around, causing her to gasp. His pupils darkened as he drank her in, and then he pulled her against him, his mouth covering hers, his tongue commanding her to follow along. To not stop. He gripped her ass and tugged her closer, and then as quickly as he’d flipped around earlier, he flipped them over so she rested on the ground now, him over her, his lips on her neck, her collarbone, sucking and tasting, and then as though he’d lost all sense of control, he pressed a hot kiss to her nipple through the lace bralette, and she arched back, moaning loudly as she gripped his head. “Again,” she breathed.
He sucked her deep into his mouth, lace and all, tonguing the sensitive flesh, as his free hand snaked down to cup her heat. His hand slipped into her shorts, then inside her panties, stroking her core.
“So wet,” he said, his words as breathless as her own. Then he slipped two fingers inside her, gentle at first and then harder, faster, finding a rhythm, until she couldn’t think, couldn’t process, only feel. Before she could stop herself, she exploded, stars flashing across her vision, her body firing in sparks and spasms as she came around his fingers.
Lila drew a few breaths to calm herself down, and then reached down, his need visible through his shorts. She stroked him once through the shorts and he groaned, then took her hand and gingerly placed it down at her side, then curled up on her other side and pulled her against him.
“You have to let me—”
“This wasn’t about me. It was about you, your need.”
“But—”
“Shhh, I’m trying to sleep,” he said as he nuzzled closer to her.
“Yeah, but—”
“Shhh, sleep.”
Lila wracked her brain for how to respond, a way to convince him, but she could tell that he wasn’t bending on this, and suddenly all the feelings she’d had for him before multiplied, overwhelming her. This wasn’t just selfless, it was caring and kind. Because she did need this, to her core she needed this. For him to realize that, for him to put her first was so—
“Are you crying?”
She sniffled. “No.”
Charlie jerked upright, his eyebrows knitted together. “Did I—?”
“No, I just . . . I don’t know, okay? I’m a woman. We do this sometimes.”
Charlie chuckled as he pulled her against him again. “You go ahead and cry, Tiny. But just be prepared. The real thing? Yeah, it might throw you into a full-out depression.” He paused, and then, “That didn’t come out right, did it?”
They burst out laughing, and though Lila didn’t know where this thing of theirs was going, she knew she would never forget that night.