Smash_ A Stepbrother MMA Romance(113)

“Really nice,” I said sarcastically.

“Here,” he said and pointed at a tree.

I walked over and looked. “I’m not seeing it.”

He laughed and pointed right at a spot. Carved into the tree were two letters: R.C.

“You wanted to show me two initials someone carved into this tree?”

“Think about it for a second.”

And then it hit me. R.C. were his initials. “You did this?”

He nodded. “When we first moved here.”

“Huh. I’m amazed you remembered how to find it.”

He leaned up against the trunk. “I come here every once in a while if I feel like being alone.”

I leaned next to him. “It’s a decent spot.”

He laughed. “No, it’s not. But here.” He held out a knife for me. “Why don’t you add your initials?”

I took the knife. “I thought this was just your special place?”

“Nah. I figured you’d want to make your mark, since you’ve been gone so long.”

And in that moment I realized that was exactly what I wanted. I had been gone so long that the town seemed like it had forgotten all about me, even though it had barely changed at all.

I wanted to do something to make them remember. I wanted to be part of things again. For some reason, carving my initials into some random tree actually seemed like it would feel good.

I had no clue how he knew that it would be something I’d want. But for whatever reason, I desperately wanted to leave my mark on Ridgewood, even if it was only in the form of vandalizing a tree. I knew the poor tree didn’t do anything to deserve me cutting it up, but I figured she wouldn’t mind too much.

And so I carved. It was hard at first until Reid showed me how, and then it went pretty fast. In the end, cut deep into the tree’s bark next to his initials, were the letters R and F.

“I thought you might make a B,” he said.

“Rebecca is my full name.”

“Makes sense.”

We stood and admired my handiwork for a minute, letting the sounds of the forest fill the silence for us. I felt at peace for whatever reason, even though stabbing my initials into a tree wasn’t exactly changing anything. Still, I felt like I was now a part of the forest, and as long as the tree stood, so would my initials. Nobody would know what they stood for, but I would.

“Nice out here,” I commented.

“It grows on you.”

“How long did it take?”

He looked at me. “For what?”

“For it to grow on you.”

He thought about that for a second, looking out across the woods. “Not until I found climbing. That was like finding my place in the world.”

I nodded. That made sense to me. That was the thing I had been searching for, the thing I had left and gone to college to try and find. My place in the world had never been obvious or simple or easy, but for some reason, standing with Reid against a tree with our initials carved into the trunk, I felt at peace. More at peace than I’d felt in a long time.

Without thinking about it, I reached out and grabbed his hand. He didn’t seem surprised at all as our fingers intertwined. He looked at me, and I knew what it meant.

He turned away from the tree and faced me. I looked at him, my mouth hanging slightly open, as he pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the tree. His eyes were intense as I inhaled his smell mixed with the piney scent of the trees around us. I could feel the earth vibrating all around me, or maybe that was just my arousal at his ripped body so close to mine.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

After a second, he leaned forward slowly and kissed me hard.

I melted in that moment. Everything in my life dipped away. The stress of a new job, the stress of a new place, the fear of the future, it was all gone as his lips worked against mine, his body pressed close, his hands roaming along my body. I gasped as he bit my lip and grabbed my breast while his other hand touched my face.

That was it. I knew it was happening, I knew it was what had to happen after our kiss on the cliff. It was what had to happen ever since we first kissed, ever since he got lodged into my brain and never shook himself free.

I reached forward and began to unbuckle his belt.

“Fuck, Becca,” he grunted, kissing my neck.

“I want you.”

“I know you do.”

“Right here. I don’t care.”

I gasped as his hands slowly slid down my stomach and slipped into my pants. His fingers were warm and strong against my soaked-through pussy as he began to rub me. I shivered and threw my head back, his pants halfway undone.

“I’ve been thinking about fucking you in this forest for years,” he said in my ear. “Been thinking about making you come as loud as possible out here in the open.”