A Sudden Storm

Katie closed her eyes as the boat pitched forward, and then back. Her stomach lurched, nausea rising. The heaves and swells of the storm were tossing the boat around like a bathtub toy.

Jake assured her that anyone could experience motion sickness out on choppy seas. Not him, however. Far away from the coast, he was only happy and more at ease. Perhaps that’s why she agreed to one last sail. After a hot and blissful July, they spent these last few weeks either arguing or simmering in silence. She didn’t want it to end like that. She didn’t want summer to end at all.

Gritting teeth, she braced for another surge, but they seemed to even out. The wind grew fainter. She could hear the creaking of beams, and then the unmistakable thud of the boat’s bumpers hitting a dock.

Pulling up on shaky legs, she watched him clatter down the companionway steps, soaked and out of breath.

“I had to pull into a marina. We’re going to have to wait it out.”

Rain fell in heavy sheets, the sky dark and ominous. When they left port, intending to sail out to the island and back, it was all breezy blue sunshine.

“There’s that motel here on the island,” he continued. “Hopefully we can crash there for the night.”

“The night?” Katie’s eyes widened. “I have to get back to school…to Boston. I’m supposed to leave tomorrow…”

Jake frowned. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you back in time,” he muttered. “I have some clothes on board. Grab whatever you need for the night.”

With that, he disappeared above deck. Heat rose in her cheeks, wondering why he kept acting so mad. Staying the night, the two of them together, alone? What the hell was safe about that?

She’d been coming to her family’s cottage every summer since she was ten, and Jake was a neighborhood kid—a year-rounder. Between his jokes and teasing and all her uptight sarcasm, they started off as antagonists, not friends. Who knew all that friction would someday start a spark, and who knew that spark would take off this summer like wildfire?

He paid for the overnight slip at the marina office and she used the phone to call her parents, hoping they might offer to send out the Coast Guard. Unfortunately, they were only glad to know Jake had been so responsible.

Trudging after him through torrents of rain, his soaked shirt clinging to his broad shoulders, angry muscles bunched tight underneath, Katie could think of a few other words to describe him.

The motel was on Main Street near the marina, and as luck would have it they only had one room available for the night. Jake dropped the wet duffel bag in the middle of the floor as Katie eyed it nervously, but neither said a word about the single bed.

In the bathroom, she peeled off wet layers before digging into his dry clothes. All that fit was a t-shirt that fell to her thighs. She was shivering when she came out.

He paused in pulling off his damp shirt to frown. “What?”

“Nothing.” She tried not to notice the prominent curve of his bicep.

“Right,” he snorted derisively. “I’m sorry, okay? I know—it’s all my fault.”

“I didn’t say that.”

He sighed then, softening his edge. “No. It was stupid of me to take a chance like that with you on the boat. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Katie admitted. “I was just scared something might happen to you.”

They held each other’s gaze. Then Jake took a step forward, closing the distance. Touching a hand to her cheek, he leaned down and captured her trembling lips in a soft and tender kiss.

He looked as surprised as she felt when he pulled back to meet her eyes.

“Why have you been acting so angry with me?” Katie blurted out quietly. “What did I do?”

“It’s not you,” he sighed.

“Then what?”

He only shook his head and shrugged, seeming at a loss to explain it. Instead of a reply, he only leaned in to kiss her again.

This time it went on and on, warming her to her core. Tentatively lifting hands to his chest, she drifted fingertips down his damp skin. Despite how lean and hard his body looked, his skin was always so incredibly soft to the touch. Jake brought his other hand to her long hair, fisting strands as he deepened the kiss. She moaned into his mouth.

Groaning softly under a harsh exhale, he guided them towards the bed, falling down onto it with her. As they rolled across the covers, his tongue invaded her mouth in a slow, possessive slide, intimately exploring. Since her first taste, Katie was lost. She never wanted anyone so badly.

Jake grazed his hand over her breast, cupping the soft weight as he rubbed his thumb over the peaked nub. Pushing the t-shirt up out of his way, he bent his head to close his mouth down, tongue teasing, teeth grazing. Katie gasped. A summer of stolen moments together, and now they finally had all night alone. It wasn’t like she was a virgin. She had Todd, her boyfriend freshman year at college—sweet, perfect and perfectly boring. But Jake was something different. He always had been.

She felt him hard against her, giving sweet relief from the dull ache. He thrust, hips grinding down. Crying out, she gripped him tightly, the heat almost unbearable.

Breaking away from the kiss, he propped himself above her on his forearms, his dark blue eyes drifting over her. Maybe he was going to stop it here. They both knew she was leaving.

“Kate, I…”

She swallowed. “What?”

“I want you.”

She stifled a whimper as he slipped his fingers into her silky panties, knuckles grazing the warm skin of her stomach. Easing the elastic down over the curve of her hip, he dragged them down her slender legs. Then his mouth was on her stomach, covering it in fevered kisses as she squirmed and moaned, his head moving down between her thighs.

Gently, he eased her legs apart. She felt his lips, so soft and wet, her breath trapped in a silent cry as his mouth did the most indescribable things. Feelings assaulted her senses, demanding surrender.

His tongue parted the silky folds, and she let out her breath in a low moan as he flicked the tip over that charged bundle of nerve endings. The throbbing pulsed at an intense level, her heart racing. With slow, wet strokes, he concentrated the ache. Her hips rose off the bed, heat coiled within, tension building like an approaching storm. Then it burst, the warm rush of her release raining down.

Kissing his way back up, Jake smiled when he brushed the hair out of her eyes.

She still felt ripples of sensation between her legs. “Now...please.”

His smiled faded, but the heat and intensity in his eyes did not. “You’re sure?”

Her reply was a softly broken plea. “Yes…”

Leaving her to retrieve a condom, he shoved his shorts down as she tossed her t-shirt aside. Then they were sinking back down onto the bed. His hands were like drifts of heat, the slow slide of fingertips tracing a path up her quivering body, rough calluses on his palms causing a ripple effect of need. Hot and hungry, she bit down on his neck, feeling his body responded with a quiet shudder. Pressing thighs to his hips, she tensed in anticipation.

Breath caught on a silent gasp as his hard length stretched to fill her on a slow, deep slide. Rocking hips slowly, he eased back to drive deeper still. Heat swept through her as she climbed higher, arching up to meet him, senses lost to a dizzying rush. Circling his hips, he filled her again and again, whispering such thrilling things in her ear. How she felt so good, how he’d waited so long…

Jake groaned her name, and the rough, sensual sound of need hit her very core. Then he hit her very core, that sweet spot of pleasure and pain. Her body clenched around him in spasms of ecstasy, and several rapid, deep thrusts sent them both over the edge.

He kissed her as they came together. Katie’s arms encircled his neck, shivers of her orgasm trembling through as she felt him pulse so deep inside.

After a small eternity, he eased off to the side, wrapping strong arms around. Katie breathed in his familiar scent as she curled up against him. In the quiet, the weight of it seemed to settle over them like a heavy blanket. Tomorrow she would be gone. Summer was over.

He rubbed a thumb over her freckled shoulder, always teasing her about her Irish tan. She was paler than his dark bronze, but it was a nice contrast.

“Did you plan this?”

A soft, deep laugh rumbled through his chest. “You think I’m that smart?”

She smiled. “No, actually, I think you’re that dumb.”

“I can’t exactly control the weather, sweetheart. Otherwise…”

Katie glanced up in his face again when he didn’t finish. “Otherwise what?”

His voice softened on his smile as he met her eyes.

“I’d make it be summer all year long.”