Chapter 38

Naomi felt like she was dreaming and Fantasy Sebastian was seducing her. But the reality was so much better than her dreams had ever been. They’d gotten into the backseat of his truck at some point, and then all bets had been off. Soft nips at her skin, fingers pulling off her jacket and then finding the hem of her shirt and slipping under it. A warm groan vibrating against her.

She broke contact with him just long enough to help him out of his jacket. His hands were over her stomach and under her black lace bra, tugging at her nipples and rubbing her breasts. She shivered at his touch, but the reaction was all desire.

“Is this okay?” he asked, his voice raspy and low against her chest as he kissed it above her bra. “I can stop. Or we can go somewhere else.”

“Don’t do either of those things. I’ve wanted this since you first kissed me. Longer, if I’m being honest.”

A laugh escaped his nose, but he was already positioning himself on top of her. “We’re in a parking lot,” he pointed out.

“We were in a parking lot the first time you kissed me too.”

“This is going to go further than that, though. I’m not going to be able to stop once we get started,” he warned between soft nips of her exposed skin.

She sighed when his fingers reached the edge of her underwear. “I’m counting on it.” Her hands clumsily removed his shirt. Just the amount of muscle she expected (she’d thought about it enough times to remember) and some soft, dark hair over his strong chest and stomach. But he didn’t look like some model or some fantasy that was too good to be true. He was real. Powerful and protective. Fascinating.

Scarred.

She wanted to run her finger over the raised white line on his abdomen—feel all of him. But she knew they weren’t quite there yet, in that place where they were both so exposed there was nothing either of them hadn’t seen or felt.

She shuddered when his fingers entered her and began sliding inside as he toyed with her clit. A few thrusts of his fingers and she was closer to climaxing than she’d been at any point alone. Clearly, Fantasy Sebastian had nothing on the real one.

He groaned when her hand moved between them to rub over his cock, which was so hard she nearly came at the thought of what it would feel like inside her.

She quivered as she tried desperately to hold off her orgasm, though she had no idea why. She’d been wanting this for months. She needed it. Her own fingers felt nothing like his—thick and precise as they found their destination deep inside her.

She ran her fingers through his thick hair as she guided his face toward hers. She needed to taste him again, feel his lips, his tongue stroking hers like they couldn’t get enough of each other. They kissed until her mouth began to feel raw from the ferocity of the contact. “Do you have any condoms with you?”

He stopped all movement and, looking deflated, replied, “I don’t. Shit.”

“That’s okay—I have one somewhere in my purse.” Sebastian adjusted his position to allow her to reach her bag and find the condom. When she opened it, he pulled his pants down enough that she could slide it on him, and she couldn’t resist a look at his sheathed thickness.

It didn’t take much effort for Sebastian to hike up her skirt and pull her thong to the side. Thankfully, because she couldn’t wait a second longer, he didn’t hesitate to thrust inside her, and when he did, Naomi’s whole being seemed to fill. This was what she’d been waiting for. This was the reason Fantasy Sebastian had always held out on her. Her body had known what her mind had refused to acknowledge. It hadn’t wanted to rob her of this moment where she felt things snap into place and every fiber of her being come alive. Yes, they were physically joined, but it was so much more. Everything was more. And it was so intense and perfect and consuming and scary that her chest felt heavy with the weight of it all.

His thrusts were shallow due to the confined space, but they were no less pleasurable. It allowed his muscular body to rub against her at exactly the right angle, brought them physically closer than they possibly would have been in another setting. And isn’t that what she’d craved for so long? What she’d tried to fight? A closeness with this man who’d gotten under her skin for reasons she hadn’t understood until this moment. He’d burrowed in there because that was where he belonged.

When she looked up at Sebastian’s face, she recognized what she felt in herself: the struggle to hold back a release she knew they both needed, because losing this moment felt dangerous. They were wild and hungry for one another, but the cage that bound them was fragile, and what the hell would happen if they broke free? If this thing between them grew larger than the bubble that protected them? They’d broken down so many walls over the last few months, but this was perhaps the final one. Once it was gone, could they rebuild something together, or would this collapse beneath the weight of what had been there before?

But no matter how hard they tried to grasp onto the moment and keep it between them, the explosion was coming. She felt it build within herself and knew from his frantic rhythm that he was close as well. And despite how frightening it was, she needed it. Wanted it with a passion she’d never experienced before.

The windows were so fogged up she heard whoever was outside without actually being able to see them. Sebastian stopped moving completely as they listened to muffled voices outside their window. “Don’t stop,” she whispered. “God, please don’t stop.” The outside world had already come calling, but they couldn’t let it intrude on this. Not yet.

He’d lowered his upper body so it was flush against hers and below the window line, further obscuring them from the view of whoever was outside. Wrapping her legs more tightly around him, she pulled him closer, pleaded with him to move with her. His movements began again: slow, steady, forceful, and each one brought her closer to orgasm. It wasn’t long before their speed picked up again, and though Sebastian seemed to be struggling to keep quiet just as she was, his body no longer showed his hesitance.

Both of them were frantic now, Sebastian pumping harder and harder into her until she couldn’t hold back any longer. The months of tension reached their boiling point, and all the pleasure that had built up finally bubbled over. She felt her release in every cell of her body, and it took its time traveling up her spine and through her limbs until her muscles felt like a piece of gum—soft and pliable from the heat of the summer sun.

Sebastian waited until she was thoroughly satisfied before his face tensed and he groaned quietly, his cock jerking inside her as he emptied himself into the condom. She moved with him, slowing down with every thrust to match his rhythm until both of them stopped completely. After a few moments, he gripped himself and pulled out of her slowly, but he didn’t move beyond that. They gazed at one another, and Naomi tried to say with her eyes what she couldn’t bring herself to speak out loud: Tell me this is only the beginning. Tell me we’re not too damaged and broken to make this work.

His eyes softened as he looked down at her, and he pressed a soft yet lingering kiss to her lips that seemed to hold reassurances she hoped were real. As he lowered his forehead so that it rested against hers, they allowed themselves to just be for a bit longer. And as Naomi breathed him in, she gave herself over to the moment, her fears fading into the background in the arms of the one man she’d shown her scars to. And who she somehow knew had stayed, not despite them, but because of them.