Caspian (Carolina Reapers 8)

“Why?” She inhaled sharply, her gaze dropping to my mouth.

“Trust me,” I repeated just as quietly.

She nodded subtly, but it was there.

Then I raised my voice just loud enough to be heard if someone was trying to listen. “I’ve been thinking about this all day.”

I brushed my lips over hers.

Soft. Chaste. Lingering. My chest went tight.

She gasped, her lips parting.

Fuck it. I took the opening she gave and kissed her deep, pulling her hips against mine and cupping the back of her head. My tongue slid into her mouth like it had always belonged there, and I groaned at the sweet taste of lemonade and Ryleigh.

Sweet and tart, just like she was.

It was all of a millisecond before she was up on her toes, pressed against me as she kissed me back, her tongue moving with mine as I explored every line of her mouth with deft strokes and teasing licks.

Her arms wound around my neck, and still I kissed her.

The point was publicly made, and yet, I couldn’t stop. She was that fucking addictive. She gave back just as good as she got, throwing herself into the kiss. I should have known she’d meet fire with fire. Ryleigh had always given a hundred percent to whatever she was doing, and right now, she was doing…me.

Her whimper nearly drove me to my knees as I sucked her tongue into my mouth, and my hand dropped down past the dimples at the base of her spine, past the waistband of her cutoffs, and cupped her ass.

I went hard as a fucking rock.

I wanted her.

Her tongue flicked the sensitive flesh just behind my teeth, and I growled, lifting her into my arms without so much as breaking our kiss. This was too public for the things I wanted to do to her.

“Oh. My. God,” I heard Stephanie Brown comment as I carried Ryleigh down the stairs of the gazebo, turning left—toward privacy—instead of the crowd.

A few steps later, and we were hidden, tucked away between the trees and the latticework that framed the supports of the gazebo.

“Caspian,” Ryleigh whispered as I lowered her to the ground and backed her against the thick support beam.

That’s where it should have stopped. Where it would have stopped if she’d tasted just a little less sweet. If her mouth had been a little less welcoming. If I had any other thought in my head besides getting back inside her in any way possible.

“Caz,” I corrected her before kissing her breathless.

She melted into me, one hand at the side of my neck and the other trailing down my bare chest as she surrendered to the kiss. We both did.

My mouth tasted the skin of her neck, slightly salty from the heat of the day and the game. My tongue licked its way from her collarbone to the shell of her ear.

She gasped, clutching me tighter, her nails digging into my sides as she arched, her head falling to the side to grant me better access.

“You taste so damned good,” I murmured, gently tugging on her earlobe with my teeth.

“Caspian,” she moaned, rocking her hips against mine.

“Caz,” I demanded, desperate to hear it on her lips as I covered her ass with my hands, lifting my head just enough to look in her desire-hazed eyes.

“Caz,” she whispered.

One heartbeat passed, then two as we stared at each other.

Then we pounced, coming together with the force of a tornado, losing ourselves in the force of our common need. Our mouths collided in a frenzy of tongue and teeth as I lifted her off her feet.

She locked her ankles around my back as I leaned her against the beam and took her mouth over and over. My heart pounded, drumming out a single word with each beat as I kissed her deeper, longer, harder.

Mine.

Her nipples hardened against my chest, and I stroked my hand over the smooth curve of her waist, letting my thumbs graze the side of her breasts.

I wanted to see them naked. Wanted to know if her nipples were the same shade of pink as her lips. Wanted to feel the weight of her breasts in my hands. “I want my tongue on you,” I said against her lips. My cock agreed, throbbing against the barrier of our clothing.

She whimpered, her hands gripping my hair.

“Fuck, Ryleigh.” One thumb stroked across her nipple, and she cried out softly.

I was going to lose it right here. If she was that sensitive with all that cloth between us, how would she react to my mouth? My tongue? My teeth?

“Hey, there you—Oh!” London’s voice cut through the fog. “My bad!”

I ripped my mouth from Ryleigh’s and leveled a glare on my little sister.

London backed away slowly, her gaze darting between me and where Ryleigh had her head buried in my shoulder. “Right. I’ll just. Uh. Be anywhere but here!” Apology shot through her blue eyes as she backed herself around the corner, leaving me alone with Ryleigh in my arms.