“I climbed through the tree, just like we used to do,” she offered.

“And your birthday’s tomorrow. Can I climb over to your bedroom?” I countered sarcastically. “What are you really doing in here?” I pinned her with hard eyes and came up to her so close that a fire sprang to life in my stomach.

Dammit. I was going to need another shower. Did I have the same effect on her body?

“I…um…” she stammered, and I had to hold back a smile.

She wanted to play games? She had no idea.

Her gaze struggled to meet mine. She couldn’t look away for long, but she couldn’t hold my stare, either.

Finally, she took a deep breath and broke into a shaky half-smile, pushing some hair behind her ear.

“I have something for you, actually.” She leaned in close to my face. “Consider it your present to me as well,” she whispered.

What the…?

Her lips melted into mine, and it was like warm sugar.

Jesus Christ. What was she doing?

Her tight body pressed into mine, and I closed my eyes, a tingling spreading through my hands. The urge to sink my fingers into every curve of her skin was uncontrollable.

Her lips teased and captivated me. She moved her h*ps into mine in slow, small movements, and her tongue flicked under my top lip, playing with me.

I was in a whole lot of trouble and a world of pain if she stopped.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, and my eyebrows lifted.

Holy shit. She wasn’t ending this. She was grabbing on.

Thank God.

Snaking my arms around her back, I took control and dove into her mouth like I was never going to get this chance again.

I forgot everything. Why she was here. Why she was the one initiating this shit. What she was going to do when we got close to the point of no return.

Who f**king cared?

“Jesus, Tate,” I breathed out, light-headed when she dipped her head into my neck. The pleasure of her lips, tongue, and teeth was a dream come true.

This was Tate, but it wasn’t.

She was wild, kissing and biting me like the night on the kitchen counter. I could feel the way she moved her h*ps into mine, pressing herself into me.

She was everywhere, and I couldn’t even remember my own name.

I tensed for a moment when her fingers ran over the scars on my back. She knew that they were there, but I hoped she wouldn’t notice them. I’d be ready to throw down with the devil himself if she stopped this to ask more f**king questions.

Her mouth was hot, and the sweetness of her breath had me in a daze. I nearly growled every time her tongue shot out to taste my skin as she kissed my neck.

Whispering in my ear, she had my body screaming “Get her on the bed!”.

“I’m not stopping,” she taunted.

Hell, yes.

Lifting her up, I carried her to the bed as she wrapped her legs around me. It was a great feeling. Having Tate hold fast to me. Wanting me.

I didn’t know why she was really in here, and I wondered at her change of heart all of a sudden, but she wasn’t faking this.

And I wasn’t going to f**k it up.

I laid her down and hovered over her, taking in the sight of Tate underneath me. I inched her tank top up to her bra slowly, loving the feel of her in my hands. Her stomach was smooth and taut, curving in at the sides and looking soft but tight. Tate would be showing me this body a lot, I hoped.

“You’re so beautiful.” I held her eyes for a moment before dipping my head to her stomach and tasting her hot skin.

Her lips always tasted sweet, like fruit. Her body, on the other hand, tasted wild and raw, and I had a vision of rain falling across her na**d chest while I made love to her on the hood of my car.

“Jared,” she gasped out, her body arching into my lips.

Not yet.

I kissed and lightly bit her skin all the way down to the top of her jeans.

My brain was in overdrive. I wanted to rush this, because the itch in my head told me we were on borrowed time. The logical Tate—the normal Tate—was going to stop me any second.

But I still didn’t rush.

Using the tip of my tongue, I grazed her hot skin before taking a little between my teeth. Her eyes were closed, and she was squirming just enough to drive me insane. I don’t even think she noticed me peeling off her jeans or that her underwear were now sliding down her legs.

Jesus.

My heart pounded in the back of my throat, and my stomach dropped like I was on a roller coaster.

Tate was beautiful. Everywhere.

With as much time as we’d spent together in our past—and the fact that her window was in perfect view of mine—I’d seen her scantily clad before, but this was new.

I didn’t wait. I dove back to her body and left a trail of kisses across her stomach, on her hipbones, and thighs.

“Jared,” she begged, her raspy voice breaking with her breaths.

I looked up at her, looking down at me, and my c**k was about ready to explode.

She was going to stop this.

But she didn’t. She paused for only a moment before she pulled her shirt over her head, finishing the job of getting undressed.

Hell. And I closed my eyes in relief.

Not waiting, I yanked her bra straps down, off her shoulders, and stared in awe at her amazing body—Tate’s body—laying bare and open for me.

I couldn’t get over the fact that she was here. Naked in my bed.

I’d loved her like a kid before, but we damn well weren’t kids anymore.

Kissing my way down her stomach, her hips, and her thighs, I dove for what I’d been dying to taste for weeks.

Hell, for longer than that.

With the tip of my tongue, I slowly licked the sweet length of the soft, wet heat between her legs.

Goddamn.

She gasped and jerked slightly. “Oh!”

I looked up, calm and amused, to see her wide-eyed, surprised look.

And I knew.

No one had touched her like that.

“What are you doing?” she asked, confused.

I almost laughed.

Happiness spread like tingles across my cheeks, and it was a struggle to keep a straight face. “You’re a virgin,” I stated, almost to myself.

She didn’t say anything, only looked a little nervous, but excited as I dipped my head again and returned my attention to kissing her inner thighs.

“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” I murmured and moved my mouth back on her.

The wild taste of her center. The sweet smell of her heat. The smoothness of her on my lips and tongue. Everything had me starving for more.

Every squirm and every whimper she let out was because of what I was doing to her.

It was me she came undone for.

I sucked on the hard nub of her clit, taking it between my teeth gently and then releasing it only to claim it and suck it hard again. I gripped her hip with one hand and pushed her leg up with the other.

I sucked her long and slow, taking hold of her skin again and again, dragging it out slowly until she was gasping for release. I came back down, over and over, tasting and sucking her hard.

When I knew she was hot enough that there was no f**king way she’d ever tell me to stop, I licked.

Hot and wet.

I slid my tongue just a little inside of her and ran it up the length to her clit. Over and over again. In and up. Just the tip of my tongue. In and up. In and up. And then I swirled my tongue around her nub with the wetness of her body, and the heat of my mouth.

My dick was charged and rock f**king hard. I couldn’t think of anything else but the need to drive it inside of her.

But I didn’t. I was loving this part more than I wanted to admit.

She was in my hands, in my mouth, and I wanted her to know that I wasn’t thinking about myself right now. I wanted her to see that she had me on my f**king knees.

Looking up, I reveled in the sight of her panting with her eyebrows pinched together. Her lips were moist, and she looked like she was in the best kind of pain. Her ni**les were erect, and I reached up to knead a breast. The firmness complimented her skin’s softness, and it was just one more thing I wanted in my mouth, too.

“Jesus Christ,” I whispered against her sex, “if you could see yourself from my view. Fucking beautiful.”

I worked her harder, sucking, licking, and then I plunged inside of her with my tongue. She jerked up off the bed, begging for more, and—shit—my body ached for release. I almost came right there.

Her body moved like we were f**king, her h*ps like small waves in an ocean against my mouth.

Her chest suddenly stilled like she wasn’t taking in air. She was completely silent for a few seconds, and then she moaned my name as her br**sts started to rise and fall again with hard, shallow breaths.

She was coming.

Elation spread through me like a windstorm, and I really hoped she knew that we weren’t done.

“Damn, Tate.” I ran my hand up and down her body from her breast to her hip. “Your beauty is nothing compared to how you look when you come.”

“That was...” she trailed off, hopefully feeling delightfully lost like me.

I laid my lower half on top of her and leaned over, looking down into her eyes. “I’ve wanted you for so long.”

She pushed her top half up off the bed and crushed her lips to mine, wrapping an arm around my neck. Reaching over to my bedside drawer for a condom that I didn’t want to f**king use with her, I immediately halted when I felt a lightning storm spread between my legs and branch across my thighs.

My hand crashed back down to the bed, because I almost f**king fell on top of her in shock.

Holy shit!

Tate had grabbed hold of me and was slowly moving her hand up and down my cock.

Jesus. I squeezed my eyes shut.

This was not good.

Tate deserved slow. She deserved sweet.

But I knew there was about as much chance of that happening tonight as me getting into West Point like her father wanted. She wasn’t getting slow and sweet.

I was going to f**k her crazy.

After I peeled her bra completely off, I pushed her back down onto the bed and went for her full br**sts, taking each one in my mouth and rocking my h*ps into her until we were both beyond ready.

“Jared, you ready yet?”

Huh?

A knock on the door and a male’s voice registered, making us both jerk our heads behind me.

Sam.

Sweat seeped out of my pores, and a sharp ache settled inside my dick.

Hell. No. This was not happening.

“I’m going to kill him,” I bit out and then yelled to the door. “Go downstairs!”

“We’re already late, man,” he pressed. “The car’s gassed up. Let’s go!”

How in the hell did I forget that he was going to be back? I should’ve locked the front door.

Dammit!

“I said wait downstairs, Sam!”

“Alright!” His shadow under the door disappeared.

Jesus Christ, my f**king heart was racing, I was so pissed. Tate held her arms over her chest, her eyes now embarrassed and alert.

I got off the bed and held my hands up to stop her.

“No, don’t get dressed,” I ordered. “I’m going to go get rid of him, and we’re finishing this.”

“You’re racing tonight?” she asked quietly, sitting up.

I slipped on some jeans. “Not anymore.”

Screw the race. I didn’t have the money to pay my father tomorrow, but right now, I felt like nothing could tear me apart or take me down.

Everything but her faded away.

“Jared, go. It’s fine,” she whispered, looking so different than she did a few moments ago as she stood and slipped back into her clothes. I wanted to know what was going on in her head, because it looked like she was thinking again.

I didn’t give her a chance to ruin this, though. Lifting her up, I plopped her back down on my dresser top where we could be eye to eye.

“Races aren’t important, Tate,” I growled softly, leaning into her lips. “There’s nowhere else I want to be than with you.”