Page 40 of Apple of My Eye

Before I can finish, he presses his mouth to mine, murmuring his words straight into my lips, ‘I wouldn’t be able to stop even if I wanted to.’

I sigh with pleasure as his mouth works his way back down my throat, past my breasts, towards my belly button.

His other thumb resumes circling my nipple, building pleasure so white hot through my body that I start to feel like I could explode just from his touch.

A deep murmur of appreciation escapes his lips as he kisses my stomach.

But when his kisses get even further away from my head I still, anxiety interrupting my pleasure.

Nick picks his head up right away. ‘Are you OK?’ he asks.

‘I just .?.?.’ I trail off, not sure how to explain this to him. Every other guy I’ve been with has gone straight to penetrative sex the first time. There’s been no slowness, no reverence, no appreciation. I don’t know how to handle it.

‘You can talk to me,’ Nick says, settling his head besides mine on the pillow. His hands are still at my sides now.

‘We’re in the dark, but it feels like we’re under a bright light .?.?. That probably makes no sense .?.?.’

‘It does,’ he says, patient, reassuring. He strokes my hair with his hand and pulls me closer to him.

‘I’m sorry,’ I murmur, embarrassed.

‘Eloise, all I’ve wanted since the very first day I met you was to hold you in my arms. If you think you have anything to be sorry for then you’re crazier than a hound dog with a flea in his ear.’

A laugh escapes my lips. ‘A hound dog with a flea in his ear?’

‘I got it from Betsy,’ Nick explains, he’s started laughing too. ‘I’m trying it out.’ He kisses me on the cheek. ‘Let’s get some sleep, beautiful,’ he says, pulling me closer.

I startle awake in the middle of the night, only to be immediately calmed by Nick’s steady breathing next to me. Tentatively, I curl up closer towards him and he stirs gently, a small whimper of satisfaction escaping from his lips. His arms tighten around me and I melt back into a dreamless sleep.

My alarm blares. I move to get up like I usually do, but something is pinning me to the bed.

What the .?.?. Nick. I peel his heavy forearm off me and blearily shut off my alarm.

Damnit. My parents will already be up. I cannot handle hearing what Mom will have to say.

We already have enough going on this week

‘Nick,’ I whisper, ‘time to—’ the words die on my lips. He looks so peaceful sleeping. He stirs so gently, his hand reaching towards my body.

‘Eloise?’ he murmurs, his voice thick with sleep.

‘We gotta get up.’

Nick shakes his head vigorously, like he could shake the sleep right out of his body.

‘Damn,’ he says, sitting up and running a hand through his hair. ‘I haven’t slept that deeply in .?.?. ages.’

I can’t help the shy smile that curls up my lips. ‘Really?’ I ask. ‘I thought you were sleeping better out here.’

‘Really.’ He cups my cheek with his hand. ‘I am sleeping better out here but being next you takes it to a whole other level.’

I hear the stirrings of my parents’ downstairs and my gaze snags on the door.

‘Damn.’ His expression changes, worry snagging at the corners of his mouth and pulling them down. ‘I better get back.’

‘We have to sneak you out,’ I tell him. ‘We can do it when I go downstairs for breakfast. We wouldn’t want Mrs. Parker speculating as to where you’ve been.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asks, with a glint in his eye. He glances at the book I had tossed to the floor, the one where very dirty things were explicitly described, and he wiggles his eyebrows. ‘I could just give her your book, tell her that’s what we were doing.’

I squeal, covering my eyes. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’

Nick stands, wrapping one arm around me and pulling me closer to him, tilting my chin up towards his face. ‘The things I want to do to you, Eloise,’ he breathes, ‘they don’t even have words for in that book of yours.’

I let out a little moan before I can help myself. Nick smirks, kissing me chastely on the lips, before heading out the door. He pauses in the doorway and whispers, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll skip the third stair.’

I have never been more motivated to pick apples than I am this morning.

Which is shocking considering prior to this I was motivated by the harvest determining my entire future, my loan application still hanging in the balance, my ability to make a living still undetermined.

But today, apples are standing in the way of great sex.

Ergo, I am picking apples more efficiently than a machine.

Nick is meeting me in East Barn later, and if our impromptu make-out sessions in the fields have been any indication, we’re going to have a mind-bending afternoon.

But the unsexy thing about being a farmer is that if I don’t get enough done before then, I can’t get my to-do list out of my head.

It’s like my body slams on the brakes when all I want to do is press on the gas.

After the night we spent together Nick has been slowly eroding my lapse in self-confidence and with every stolen kiss, every brush of his fingertips, my body has become more and more alive.

I’m thrumming with so much desire I feel like a tuning fork.

Nick meets me with a giddy smile plastered over his face.

We pass by North Barn on our way, and I sneak JJ one of the unripe apples I plucked earlier.

He nibbles at Nick’s hand too and cocks his head at him as if asking, Why didn’t you bring me a treat?

We laugh at JJ’s antics until we approach the door to East Barn and we both still.

Nick pushes the heavy wooden door with a soft touch.

It creaks open, letting slanted shafts of light spill onto the floor.

As soon as we step inside, our bodies smash together, hands everywhere, Nick’s mouth on mine.

I feel like I’ve been overtaken by an ocean wave, everything else melting away.

I wrap my arms around his neck as he presses me against the barn door and kisses me even deeper.

His hands clutch my ass and he lifts me up, pressing his hips to mine as I wrap my legs around his waist. I feel him harden against me and my breath catches in my mouth.

‘Eloise,’ he breathes. I unravel my legs from his waist as he wordlessly tugs my hand towards the side of the room and we make our way up the ladder to the small loft that overlooks the cavernous space.

He lays me down in the soft hay, trailing a slow, calloused finger across my belly button and curves his hand up over the side of my ribcage, letting his thumb bump over every bone. My body sinks into his touch.

‘We shouldn’t,’ I say, as the top of his thumb grazes my nipple.

‘Why? Because we’re in your childhood hangout?’

I nod, but I can’t speak, it’s too hard to find the words when Nick is touching me like this.

‘But you want to,’ he breathes, feeling my nipple peaking at the slightest brush of his touch.

‘I want to.’ I’m half moaning, breathless.

Under his touch I’m completely blissed out, my head on a cushion of straw, both of our feet dangling off the small ledge of the loft that overlooks the concrete floor below. Light drips in from the single window, illuminating the dust motes floating in the afternoon air.

Nick slides my shirt off, his eyes dark with hunger as they rake down my exposed body. As he releases my breasts from my bra, I arch towards him, moaning softly. He presses a finger to my lips and smiles coyly. ‘Can I finish what I started?’ he asks, trailing kisses down my neck.

I nod.

He looks up.

‘Yes,’ I pant.

He makes a sound in the base of his throat, a cross between a growl and a moan, and kisses me again, this time gently taking my nipple between his teeth.

‘Yes please,’ I breathe.

Nick wrenches off his T-shirt, his abs rippling as he positions his mouth over my thighs and presses his lips to my hip bone.

I feel my body start to turn to liquid, to melt underneath his touch, my knees falling sideways, opening up for him.

He works slow kisses until he arrives right where I need him before he hesitates, kissing me swiftly on the lips while teasing a finger inside me.

I writhe with pleasure and he practically purrs, ‘You’re so wet for me.

’ I nod, completely breathless, as he works my clit with his fingers.

I feel need building inside of me, I want him inside me more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

Until he sucks on my clit and thinking about anything else is completely obliterated.

‘Nick,’ I moan, ‘Oh, my God.’ I must have more nerve endings than I ever thought possible.

He teases his fingers around me and slips them in, filling me completely as his tongue continues to circle slowly, methodically, and my breaths get more and more rhythmic, faster and faster his hands move and before I know it, I’m crying out loudly, my entire world exploding.

Nick continues, lapping me up like he’ll never get enough, reverently consuming me until I stop shuddering and my body goes limp in his arms.

‘That was incredible,’ I murmur.

‘I was going for the gold star.’ He winks at me, before pulling his body up to rest atop mine, his forearms on either side of my head. He kisses me slow and deep.

‘I think it’s my turn to go for the gold star,’ I sigh, my lips pressed to his, my insides hot with desire.

‘You already got one,’ he says. His breath hitches when I tug at the hemline of his pants. ‘God, you’re sexy.’

Another gold star, this time for both of us, later, and we return to the fields, hair messy, limbs liquified, blissfully exhausted.