Page 78 of Hometown Hottie

I started stroking up and down. Carson lay back on the bed, letting me play with him. He shut his eyes and hooked a shapely bicep behind his head. “Be gentle with me, Nova. I’m already worked up.”

“You and me both,” I muttered, staring at the wetness shimmering on his exposed tip and feeling my own core heat in response.

Eventually, I realized I was just being cruel to us both at this point and I resolved to continue my exploration later. I grabbed the condoms from my nightstand. There was one left in the box after our adventures at the lake, and Carson’s heated eyes followed my movements as I opened it and rolled it on.

He groaned and tensed until it was in place. Then he took my hands and helped me balance with one leg on either side of his hips. “It’s you, Nova. You’re it for me. You always have been.”

Wow. It’s not quite an “I love you,” but it’s pretty damn close.

I held his hands, lowered myself down on him, and looked into his eyes. Mine filled with tears. “You’re it for me too, Carson. I’ve known it since I was sixteen and that’s never changed.”

He wound his fingers more tightly around my own. His hips moved as he pulled me down for another kiss. It was deep and hard but meaningful and passionate all at once. As we kissed, our bodies came together over and over again. He stretched me out and filled me in all the right ways. His mouth fused to mine and his powerful hips thrust with the perfect rhythm.

I lost all sense of time as he moved inside me. My entire being hummed with a feeling of rightness and belonging I’d never felt before. When my next orgasm hit, he crushed his lips to mine and came with me, holding on to me for dear life. He kissed me all the way through it. Afterward, he stayed in me as long as he dared before going to take care of the condom and coming back to take care of me.

Once he climbed back into bed, I cuddled into Carson’s side, unable to stop myself from wanting to be as close to him as I could possibly get. Glancing up at his strong features in profile, my eyes dragged across the dark stubble on his jaw and the movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed when he looked at me.

He smiled lazily, amusement and something softer sparkling his eyes. “What?”

I shook my head without lifting it from his chest. “I don’t know. I guess I just can’t believe that we’re really here.”

He chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “It’s pretty crazy, right? Amazing, but crazy.”

“Is it, though?” I asked quietly, twining my fingers together on top of his heart and resting my chin on them as I stared up at him. “Are we crazy for trying this?”

“No. What’s crazy is that it’s taken us this long to do it,” he said earnestly. “I guess the only thing that matters is that we finally made it.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” I exhaled a deep breath through my nostrils, worry sinking back in now that my head was clearing. “You and I were never really the problem, though. I mean, we were, but my brother is the bigger problem. So what are we going to do about that? If we’re serious about trying this, we can’t hide it from him forever.”

“We won’t,” he assured me with another smile. “If I wasn’t naked, I’d go talk to him right now.”

My heart jolted. “Uh, well, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea. In fact, maybe we should just take it slow.”

“Take it slow?” He arched a teasing eyebrow at me. “It took us ten years to have the what are we conversation, Nova. Glaciers move faster than we have.”

I chuckled. “I know, but what I meant is that maybe we don’t have to worry about Ryan right now. Maybe we just work things out for ourselves before we involved him.”

Carson sighed. “You just said we couldn’t hide it from him forever.”

“Not forever, no, but maybe for another couple weeks? Just until we’ve figured things out ourselves?”

“What’s to figure out?” he asked, and I could tell he would rather just clear the air with my brother now. “We know what we are, right?”

“Do we?” I wasn’t trying to be funny. I just really didn’t know. “Are you my boyfriend? Are we serious? Are we exclusive?”

“We’re exclusive,” he said immediately. “I am your boyfriend and it’s serious. There. Have we covered everything?”

I laughed softly. “Just about, but you still can’t tell Ryan until I’m ready, okay?”

He groaned. “Any idea when that might be?”

“No, but it won’t be long. I just need to work out what to say to him, is all.” I shut my eyes for a moment, my head still spinning with everything that had happened just today. “A few hours ago, I didn’t even think you could be interested in anything real with me, and now here we are. I just need a second to get my ducks in a row.”

He nodded and rolled onto his side. “Okay, baby. I can give you that. Of course, I can, but in the meantime, when can we move forward with me buying part of the property?”

I sighed, my head shaking even as I smiled. “You haven’t let that go?”

“Nope. I’m going to do it. I guess I was just hoping that I wouldn’t lose you while I was at it.”

My heart skipped a happy beat and I hooked a leg over both his thighs, trying to get as close to him as possible. “I’ll arrange for you to meet with my parents privately to make the sale, but do you think we can stop talking now?”

He gathered me in his arms and pulled me on top of him, grinning against my lips. He was already hard again. “We can definitely stop talking, but at some point tonight, we’re also going to have to sleep.”

“Who needs sleep?” I tucked my hair behind my ears and gave him a wicked smile before I started pressing open-mouthed kisses against his throat. “I only need a few hours, but if you want to sleep, go ahead. I’ll have fun all by myself.”

“Hell, no,” he growled, then flipped us over and pressed me against the mattress. “I think we’ve both had our fair share of having fun by ourselves. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather have my fun with you from now on.”

My laughter morphed into a moan when he sucked my nipple into his mouth. My legs fell open to wrap around his hips, and my eyes shut as pleasure streaked through me. Things were far from settled between us, but at least now, there was an us.

After everything we’d been through to make it this far, I had never been more certain that this was the way it had always been meant to work out.