Chapter 17

Emilia still hasn’t spoken a single word to me. I thought for sure she’d get over it because we’re at the cabin and it’s usually her favorite place to be, but she hasn’t gotten over it. I can’t believe the first time we’re truly arguing is over freaking Tony. He’s not worthy of touching a single strand of her hair. If it was someone worthwhile, I’d at least understand it – I think.

I pace back and forth in my room. I need to make this right somehow, but I don’t know how. Eventually, I come up with an idea that might work.

I walk up to the room she shares with Kate and knock. Kate opens the door and looks surprised to find me standing here. I push past her and walk into the room. Emilia is sitting on their bed in a tight t-shirt and some very short shorts. No bra. I can see the outline of her nipples right through the fabric and force my eyes up.

“What’re you doing here?” she snaps. I grab her hand and pull her up. “Let’s have a chat,” I tell her. She tries to pull her hand out of mine, but I won’t let her. Kate jumps up to follow us, but I shake my head and glare at her.

“Give us some time to talk things out. You can have her back later. Or do you want us to keep arguing and ruin the rest of the weekend?”

Kate looks conflicted and sends me a warning look that I ignore. If she knew what I’m about to do, she’d never let Emilia go with me. Part of me feels guilty for doing something I know she’d vehemently oppose, but I can’t resist. I’ve been brooding all night and I cannot stay away from Emilia. I can’t leave things be the way they are.

I drag Emilia along and out of the house. When she stops resisting, I intertwine our fingers and hold her hand, my pace slowing. She follows me to the lake. Neither one of us speaks when we get to the little makeshift pier where the water is shallowest. Eventually I turn towards Emilia, her hand still in mine. I raise our joined hands to my heart and look into her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Emilia.”

She looks surprised and blinks up at me. She seems torn. I know she wants to stay mad at me, but she can’t. “You’re such a hypocrite,” she snaps. She pulls her hand out of mine and wraps her arms around herself. The move only pushes her chest out more.

“Hypocrite?” I repeat. She nods and glares at me.

“Yes, hypocrite. I know you go on dates all the time. Matter of fact, Gemma told me you took her to a coffee shop to ‘hang out’ last week,” she says, air quoting the words. I bite back a smile.

“Minx, what exactly did you think hanging out meant? Gemma and I were working on a project together. I asked to meet her so we could finally finish it.”

She looks at me in disbelief, and the stubborn tilt of her chin tells me nothing I say will convince her I didn’t actually go on a date with Gemma. Hell, I’ve never bothered to go on a date with anyone, but she won’t ever take my word for it so I don’t bother telling her.

I pull a hand through my hair and sigh. “Okay, Minx. How about a clean slate? I’m sorry. Can we stop arguing, please? I hate arguing with you. You know, like really arguing. I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I never mean to hurt you, Emilia. I was just being me.”

She purses her lips and eventually nods at me. “Was it really that hard to just apologize?” she asks. I drop my head and sigh.

“You never apologized, you know. You ruined the first date I ever went on, and you didn’t even bother to say sorry.”

That’s what she’s so upset about? She’s upset because I didn’t apologize? I bite down on my lip and nod contritely. “You’re right, Minx. I didn’t even realize, but it’s true. I didn’t apologize. I just assumed that you knew I was sorry. And, you know, I kind of just didn’t really get why you were so upset about Tony. Him, really? He doesn’t deserve to so much as look at you, Emilia.”

She blushes and looks up at me with wide eyes. “It’s not him I was upset about, per se,” she whispers.

I sigh and twirl a strand of her hair around my finger. “Then what was it?”

Emilia looks away, her cheeks bright red. “Carter, that was my first date. I might not have cared that much about Tony, but I was still excited. And now all I’ll remember about my first date is how bad it was.”

I shake my head and place my hands around her shoulders. “That wasn’t your first date, Minx. It wasn’t a real date. Let me make it up to you, okay? Truce?”

Emilia smiles. “Yeah, okay. Truce,” she whispers.

I exhale in relief. I was worried I’d have to do far more groveling, and I have no idea what the right thing to do would be.

“Okay, great, so can we swim now?” I ask, smiling down at her.

She looks at me in surprise. “Swim?” she repeats.

I nod and tip my head to the lake behind me. I’m hoping this might make up for the date I ruined.

“It’s evening, Carter. We can barely see. Surely we shouldn’t be going into the lake right now.”

I grin mischievously. “What, you don’t dare go skinny dipping?” I pull my t-shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor. My hands move to the button on my jeans and her eyes are glued to my fingers. Fucking hell, I’m hard already.

“Turn around,” I tell her. She swallows hard and looks at my body longingly. She’s undressing me with her eyes. I doubt she knows what she’s doing to me when she looks at me like that. Emilia nods and turns around, and I undress quickly. I hesitate, but end up taking my boxer shorts off too. I drop them on top of my jeans so she’ll know I’m actually naked.

I rush to jump into the water. I was hoping it’d be colder so I could at least get rid of my damn hard on, but no such luck. I turn my back towards Emilia. “Okay, your turn, Minx.”

Part of me is worried that she’ll change her mind and walk off, leaving me here naked by myself. Or worse, that she’ll walk off with my clothes — I wouldn’t put it past her.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I hear fabric hitting the floor. Emilia lowers herself into the water far more gracefully than I did, and suddenly I’m nervous as hell.

“Hmm, I thought you’d chicken out,” I say, my voice trembling slightly.

Emilia glares as she swims towards me. “I would never.”

I’m startled when she grabs my shoulders. I’m tall enough to stand here, but Emilia isn’t. She uses me to keep herself afloat and her body is far too close to mine. All I can think about is that she’s naked and my heart starts racing. The tips of my shoulders are above the water, and the way Emilia holds herself up allows me to just about see the top of her breasts. She’s so stunning.

“How come you wanted to go swimming?” she asks.

“Skinny dipping was on my bucket list,” I murmur. “Besides, I heard that it makes for a cool, unique date. It’s the only thing I could come up with on such short notice and with no time to prepare.”

She looks at me in surprise and smiles. “This is a date?” she asks. I shrug and brush her wet hair out of her face. She sees right through me. “You wanted to make up for the date you ruined?”

I look away when she grins at me. I’m blushing and I’m hoping it’s too dark for her to tell. Emilia smiles and pulls herself closer to me. My arms wrap around her instinctively and without thinking I pull her flush against me. We both freeze when our bodies touch. My erection is pressing up against her stomach and her breasts are crushed against my chest. Her lips fall open and she looks shocked, but she doesn’t move away.

“Emilia,” I whisper. She looks up at me nervously and wraps her arms around my neck clumsily.

“You said this is a date, right?” she whispers. I nod and bite down on my lip. I never would’ve even been able to imagine that Emilia might act this seductively. Her gaze moves to my lips and back to my eyes. “Will you show me what I’ve been missing out on?”

My hands move to her ass and my dick twitches when I grab a handful of her delicious curves. Emilia gasps and then giggles, tightening her grip on me.

“Emilia, what are you saying?”

My heart is racing, and my mind is whirling. I wanted to give her a unique first date, but this is beyond even my wildest imagination. Emilia hesitates and then leans in. She kisses the edge of my lips. All it’d take for her lips to be on mine is a slight turn of my head.

“What’s bringing this on?” I whisper. She pulls away from me, surprised. Her eyes suddenly fill with insecurity and she tenses in my arms.

“I — I mean, I thought you said this was a date,” she says, her voice high and flustered.

I blink. “Do you want me, or do you just want to experience what it’s like to date?”

Emilia looks at me and hesitates before answering. “Both,” she whispers.

I tighten my grip on her ass and grab her harder. “What does that mean, Emilia? Does that mean you would’ve kissed fucking Tony if I’d left you alone with him?”

Her face scrunches up in disgust at the thought of it, and though she tries her best to school her features, she fails. I chuckle and relax.

“I guess that’s a no,” I say. She pouts and looks away. “I need you to tell me what you want, Emilia. I need to be sure we’re on the same page here.”

She groans and buries her hands in my hair. She pulls slightly, trying to make her annoyance known. Her cheeks are bright red and her blue eyes are sparkling. She’s never looked more beautiful than she does in this moment.

She pulls my head closer suddenly, catching me by surprise. My lips slam against hers and our teeth clang together.

“Ouch,” she murmurs, pulling back. She rubs her lips and looks away in frustration. She seems embarrassed at her failed attempt to kiss me and pushes against my chest. I chuckle and move one of my hands into her hair.

I gently pull her back to me until my lips are hovering over hers. She squirms in my arms, and I smile. I tilt my head and brush my lips against hers, once, twice… She sighs and I lean in. I kiss her carefully and gently. She melts against me. I brush my tongue over her lips and she opens up for me. Before long, she gets the hang of it and starts kissing me back properly, her clumsiness waning.

She hesitates for a second, and then she wraps her legs around my hips. My dick is pushing right up against her. One wrong move and I could probably slip inside her. I’ve never been so stressed out and turned on at the same time. She writhes against me, grinding her hips against mine. My dick slides against her with every move and she moans. She kisses me more frantically and tangles her tongue with mine as she increases the friction between us. I need to tell her to stop. I need to tell her I’m going to come if she keeps moving like that, but she won’t let me pull away. She’s moving against me passionately, moaning between every kiss. Emilia looks hot as hell and I’m struggling like crazy to hold on. The tip of my dick slides against her just right, and her entire body contracts over and over again.

I pull my lips away from hers to watch her fall apart, and it’s the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen. She looks beautiful and so incredibly sexy as she looks into my eyes, wave after wave of pleasure rocking her body. I can’t hold on. I lift her up higher as I come, trying my best to keep her from realizing. Her lips fall open and she’s breathing hard. When her body finally relaxes, she smiles at me knowingly. I feel myself blush and drop my forehead against hers.

“Okay… that’s not how a date usually goes, baby. I don’t think things are supposed to move so quickly,” I whisper. I guess it was inevitable for us. We never do things half-heartedly.

Emilia bites down on her lip and rests her head on my shoulder, her lips pressed against my neck. We stay wrapped up in each other like that for a while, and I hug her tightly.

“Emilia,” I whisper. She looks up at me. I can’t quite get the words out. I want to ask her whether she likes me the way I think she does and whether she wants me as badly as she seems to.

“I — I just… uh — you have… you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” I stammer.

Emilia smiles and bites down on her lip. “Me too,” she whispers. My heart hammers in my chest and I’m filled with elation.

“Really?”

Emilia nods and hides her face in my neck. I chuckle and pull her closer, closing my arms around her.

“How long?” I ask. She sighs and presses a soft kiss against my skin.

“Months, Carter. I’ve been wondering what it’d be like to kiss you for months now.”

I can barely believe it. I’ve been teasing her and messing with her for months, and I knew she wanted me after the way she sat in my lap, but still, to finally hear her say it sets my heart at ease. I bury my hand in her hair and tighten my grip on her. It’s like I can’t get her close enough.

“We need to go back, Minx,” I say reluctantly. “You know Kate will send a freaking search party out if we stay away for too long.”

She groans and nods in dismay. “I want to stay a bit longer,” she whispers. I smile and kiss her forehead.

“Okay, baby. Just a little while longer.”