Daring the Wild Sparks (26 page)

“Simone, you don’t even want to hear what they’re whispering about,” Ricky says, raising a knowing eyebrow at us.
Great.

Finn turns his head to say to Ricky, “Shut up, Tesco. You’re just jealous that I’m not sharing my secret recipes with you.” At least Ricky hears the rest of Finn’s secrets.

Ricky keeps his eyes down on his coffee mug. “Yes. That’s it. You caught me,” he replies monotonously.

I
move to give Finn room as he stands. Still on my back, his hands slide up underneath my shirt, grazing my skin, and lightly digging in his fingertips before he walks out of the kitchen.

Shit. I want to forget about stupid pancakes and follow him.

I hurriedly eat my breakfast and help clean up, but Julie shoos me away, telling me to get ready for our trip.  I have other things to do first, like her son.

As I practically bounce out of the kitchen, Simone mutters, “Tell Wilderness to make it a quickie so we can leave soon.” I glance at her from the corner of my eye and see she’s checking her phone again. She adds, “I mean, at least change your shirts beforehand.”

“Simone!” Julie exclaims, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at her daughter. Ricky laughs as I hightail it out of there and nearly run up the stairs.

When I enter his room, Sparks is lying on his back in the middle of his unmade bed, grinning, which makes me beam at him in return. I shut the door and lock it before bounding to the bed and leaping onto him. He laughs as he rolls us over, his key necklace dangling between us.

He tries to kiss me and I move my head. “I have maple syrup breath!”

Laughing again, he says, “So do I. Maybe we should form a support group.”

I giggle as he kisses my cheek, traveling down to my neck. “Simone told us to make it a quickie so we can leave.”

“Did she?” he mumbles over my throat as he yanks my shirt to the side and moves to kiss my shoulder. Lifting his head, his eyes flash wickedly and he huskily whispers, “I guess that means I have to make love to you ever…so…slowly.”

With my hands on his chest, my right over his tattoo, I’m already panting. “Only if you wear your key and glasses. Nothing else.”

“I can do that.” His lips heatedly merge with mine and I wind my arms around his neck, holding him close to me.

Amongst our kisses I whisper, “Fuck me in your old bed, Finnigan.”

He groans against my mouth. “I can do that, too, Hadley.” His fingers go to my waistband and I instantly tingle for him, outrageously needing him inside me.

As he works my pants down, I warn, “Sparks, we have to be quiet.”

He hovers over me and his dark, lustful eyes pierce my soul. “Huh-uh. That’s something I
can’t
do. Not when I’ll finally have you in this bed.” I try to object, but his lips overwhelm mine, passionately kissing me, and I smile against his lips as my hands gluttonously tear at his shirt.

CHAPTER 17

Sitting in the backseat, Finn strokes his fingers with mine as he holds my hand on top of his thigh. In the front passenger seat, Simone alternatingly glances out the side windows and the windshield like she’s a cat watching a laser light on a dark wall.

I glance at Sparks to see him gazing out his door’s tinted window, his left hand propped against it while his index finger lazily brushes his bottom lip. He’s deep in thought about something, but he definitely won’t tell me what he’s thinking of with his mother and sister sitting a few feet from us. Shit, he probably wouldn’t tell me anyway even if we were alone.

Is he thinking about our lovemaking a little over two hours ago? He meant it when he said he wouldn’t be able to stay quiet, brashly moaning while frantically knocking the headboard against the wall with each wild thrust. I begged him to be quiet, but that only forced him to be noisier until he powerfully came. Fortunately, since Finn was so turned on from having sex in his childhood bed, he wasn’t loud for long, which was good in regard to not being overheard.

And for the third time this weekend, he fucked me without a condom.

Simone complains about a slow driver in front of us while playing with the radio, much to Julie’s annoyance, smacking Simone’s hand.

Still quiet, Finn continues to watch the passing scenery, while languidly sliding his index finger over the top of my hand. Examining his distracted profile, his rough stubble is longer and darker than it was yesterday; also evident from the light scratches he left on me this morning, ravenously sucking on my nipples until my breasts were completely sore from his fervor and his beard. His light brown hair is deliciously disheveled from my own inability to keep my hands out of it, which only further fueled his failure to be subtle. Not bothering to brush it and paired with his gold-rimmed glasses, he looks every bit like a rebellious college professor. If his Finnatics could see him now, they would certainly shove me in front of a speeding car just to get a piece of him.

I don’t want to tell Finn anything that Julie, Simone and I talked about last night because I’m technically not supposed to know any of it. If he had wanted me to know, he would’ve enlightened me himself. Why hasn’t he?

My gaze falls to what Sparks is wearing: faded jeans, a gray sweatshirt hoodie jacket over a black Henley, and black Converse—definitely not shoes Greg Rodwell would ever wear. I’m also wearing worn jeans, black Converse like Finn’s, and my own black, zippered hoodie to wear over my white T-shirt emblazoned with
Arctic Monkeys
, one of my favorite bands. It was a gift from Rod for our Secret Santa gift exchange last year, which wasn’t such a secret since band T-shirts are one of his obsessions.  Seeing Finn and I coming down the stairs holding hands, Simone pointed out that we looked “excruciatingly lovey-dovey,” and the fact we were even dressed alike. She then loudly gagged.

Arriving at Henlopen, Julie parks the car and jumps out, stopping on her way to answer her phone. Before we can get out of the car, Simone swiftly turns around to the backseat, glances down at our hands on Finn’s thigh and says to us, “Don’t you think you two did enough
handholding
earlier?”

Finn looks at her with confusion, matching me yet again, as I regard Simone with the same amount of bewilderment. He shakes his head. “Huh?”

“I heard you in your room, Wilderness. You weren’t exactly quiet.” Grabbing onto the driver’s seat’s headrest, she histrionically pants before imitating Finn’s deep voice like last night, ‘Damn, I can’t get enough of you, Becks. You’re so unfuckingbelievable. So tight.
Fuck
, I’m coming.”

My entire body freezes.

Oh, dear God
.
She did hear him
!

I want to die.

Simone grimaces at her brother as my eyes and jaw hit the floor, unable to look at Finn’s expression. The tightening of his hand in mine is the only reaction I detect from him.

She sneers, “Yeah. Ricky and I heard you, Wilderness. Be glad Mom was on the phone in the kitchen.” With a nod to our hands, she adds, “Now, you’re practically making Hadley give you a hand job. Didn’t you get enough already?”
Holy shit, Simone
!

My face burns with humiliation. I told him to be quiet! I honestly didn’t think he was really going to be that loud! Was
I
that loud?
Oh, fuck
!

I attempt to pull my hand away, but Finn
tenses his grip, having other plans for me. He places my palm firmly against his crotch, and begins moving my hand up and down the seam of his jeans, feeling the swell of his balls beneath the denim. Too shocked even to protest, he takes advantage of that. Biting his tongue and sucking air through his teeth, he lets his head fall back against the seat as he prods my hand faster, dramatically huffing and moaning as he expeditiously strokes my hand on him. “Just like that, Becks. Unfuckingbelievable.
Fuck
, I’m coming.”

Suddenly, his eyes fly open and he derisively mocks, “Like that, Sims?”

Simone’s eyes practically bulge out of her skull at Finn’s lewd display. “Gross, Finn Wilder! Mom!”

Stopping my hand, Finn wickedly laughs as Simone throws open her door and slams it shut. He yells at the window as she huffs past, “What a baby!”

I angrily yank my hand out of his and punch him in the shoulder with my other, taking him by surprise. His mouth gapes as I glare at him.

Now, I’m
beyond
mortified and disgraced—similar to how I felt at the club, except this time, he’s sober.

Astonished, he cagily looks at me and then to the front seat. “What? I was joking with her!”

Needing to get away from him, I slide over to my door and get out of the car. Humiliated, I timidly walk to the tailgate just as Julie lifts the door and Finn’s door slam shut. Not looking at each other, Simone and I each grab something to carry.

Finn was noisier than he usually
is when we make love. At times, he does shout, but he isn’t normally so vociferous the
entire
time, so I don’t know whether he was loud on purpose, hoping to piss off his mother, or if he honestly couldn’t hold back and got carried away. Regardless, I’m horrified his sister and his best friend heard us having sex, combined with the intimate way he just used me to torment Simone.

I tug the medium-sized, red cooler to me, but Finn immediately steps in, taking it from me. He doesn’t think I can carry a cooler?

Picking up the picnic basket instead, I slide it out of the car. Julie shuts the door and we follow her to a picnic area near the lot. The Atlantic Ocean glimmers a short distance away from the site. The late morning is still cool and the light wind is crisp. Finn walks silently beside me, not making a move to hold my hand with his free one, which is a good thing since I’d probably punch him again.

Simone picks out a table and we set our things down on it. She abruptly turns to me and nodding down to the beach asks, “Walk with me?” Before I can answer, she pulls on my arm. As I brush past my boyfriend, I hear him
huff in protest, but I keep going, allowing Simone to tow me to the shore. She’s about six inches or so taller and apparently stronger than me, too.

When we’re on the edge of the wet sand, she looks over her shoulder and sighs. Slowing us to a casual pace, she lets go of me. “I’m sorry for embarrassing you back there, Hadley. I shouldn’t have done that. I wanted to make fun of my brother because Ricky and I heard him, but when I was teasing him, I failed to think about how you were involved. I know that’s stupid of me to forget something like that, but I did. I’m so sorry.”

“That was all-around mortifying.”

“You didn’t care for his simulating you jerking him off?”

I wince. “Not at all.”

She scoffs, “It’s not like you haven’t touched his dick before.”

Twisting my hands, I look past Simone and watch the waves roll, squinting from the sun peeking out from a break in the clouds. “Not in front of an audience. Jeez.”

She nods with an incredulous laugh. “That
was
an appalling move for him to do to you.”

I cross my arms over my chest as the ocean breeze whips through my ponytail and bangs. I still can’t look at her. “Your mom didn’t hear us upstairs, did she? It’s bad enough you and Ricky did.”

“No, but I think she knew what you guys were doing. She’s not stupid. She wouldn’t have had you two sharing a bed if she thought you weren’t fucking him.”

“Wow, Simone,” I grumble at how blunt she is. It’s also unnerving how Julie anticipates me having sex with her son. I gripe, “It didn’t help that you advised for us to have a quickie.”

She laughs and kicks at a shell. “Probably not. I’m being such a brat today. Sorry again.”

“Maybe it’s because you miss Owen.”

“Yeah. I do. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer, so I sent him a text. He hasn’t answered that either.”

“He will.”

She sighs. “I want a love like you and Finn have. I see the way he looks at you, touches you—holding your hand, caressing your back. I notice the smiles you give each other when you think nobody’s looking, and how he whispers to you, making your face light up from what he said. Then there’s how he gave you that damned nickname and then getting it tattooed on his chest.” Shaking her head, she laughs and I reticently smile, brushing wind-blown strands of hair from my face. “I heard him telling you he loves you while you were having sex.” I nearly stop walking as I stiffen and cringe with thick embarrassment coursing through me again.

Slowing down, Simone bumps her arm against mine. “It’s okay, Hadley. I want to have all of that too. I’m in awe of how much my brother is in love with you. I’ve never seen him in love before. He and I only grew up in the same house for a couple years together before he went to college, but he’s the one who visited more often than my sisters or Beau. I idolize him.” She puts her finger to her lips and says, “I still do, but don’t tell him. It’ll only go to his head.” I giggle and she says, “He seemed to have it all, but he was always alone. That’s why seeing him share himself and his life with you is so awesome. When we were in the ER that night, it was as if he was hypnotized when he saw you. He was drawn to you like a moth to a flame. He didn’t even know who you were, yet he refused to leave your side. I watched as Wilderness gave away his heart to a complete stranger.”

My eyes widen and I can feel tears threatening, so I avert my upward gaze to look out at the ocean. She says, “We stayed until you were released. I had fallen asleep in a chair because he didn’t want to leave you. When I woke up and he was talking to you and your dad, I knew I was witnessing Finn’s life changing right before my eyes.” Hearing Simone’s perspective of that night is unexpected and emotive.

I hug my arms tighter around me as the wind surges. “My life changed too, but I didn’t know it until he called me the next day. We talked for hours.”

Walking in silence, Simone pulls out her phone, checking for messages. As she taps the screen she says, “By the way, Ricky and I weren’t standing at the door listening.” The most recent bout of embarrassment that just had diminished seizes me again and I squeeze my eyes shut. “We were coming up the stairs to our rooms when he mentioned what he thought he was hearing. I admit we stopped to verify if that’s what he heard. When we figured out it was, Ricky laughed and I covered my ears after I heard Finn say what I repeated in the car. I then went to my room and Ricky went to his. It was awkward for us too.”

Clearing my closing throat, I reply, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think we were going to be heard. I did tell him to be quiet.” I put a hand up to my face, fiercely wishing a rogue wave would sweep me away right now.

“I was only trying to irritate my brother, I didn’t mean for you to be caught in the crossfire. I’m so stupid,” she sadly says, but swiftly cheers when she appends, “Anyway, maybe we heard him knocking you up.” Simone teasingly shoves my arm, nearly propelling me down into the cold, wet sand.

I straighten and shake my head. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

She twists her bright blonde ponytail around her finger, swinging it. “Yeah. I say a lot of things that get me into trouble.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“In case you didn’t know, condoms can
accidentally
have holes in them.”

Wincing, I quietly reply, “I would never do that.” Why do people suggest I deceive him? If I actually did that, then those same people would view me as a bitch.

Simone sighs. “I know you wouldn’t. I love and hate that about you.” She laughs and pushes my arm again, but I anticipate it this time and am steadfast. She stops to look out over the water and I follow suit. “I want to be an aunt so much, Hadley!” She leans against me and playfully growls, “Make it happen.”

I scowl at her through my wind-whipped hair. “Well, Finn isn’t dying for you to be one.”

She confidently counters, “I will change his mind yet. Mark my words.”

I roll my eyes as we turn around and make our way back. Walking closer to our starting point, I see Finn facing the water with his arms crossed.