Chapter 9

Chapter 9

By mid-afternoon the heat had settled over the backyard like a thick blanket.

Ava stood at the edge of the pool in one of Noah’s old T-shirts and a pair of simple black bikini bottoms she had found in the back of her drawer. The shirt clung to her in the humidity. She could already feel the sun on the tops of her bare thighs. Across the fence to the left, the neighbors’ second-story windows were open. Someone was playing music faintly. A lawn chair scraped against concrete somewhere out of sight.

Noah came out of the house behind her carrying two bottles of water. He wore only dark swim shorts that sat low on his hips. The sunlight caught the lines of his shoulders and the faint marks her nails had left the night before. He set the bottles on the table and looked at her for a long moment, eyes moving over the way the damp air had already made the T-shirt stick to the heavy curve of her breasts.

“Shirt off,” he said quietly.

Ava glanced toward the open windows next door. “Someone might see.”

“Then they’ll see.” He stepped closer. “Take it off.”

She hesitated only a second longer before pulling the shirt over her head. The warm air kissed her bare skin. Her nipples tightened immediately. Noah’s gaze dropped to them, then lower, to the soft swell of her stomach and the way the bikini bottoms sat on her hips. He didn’t touch her yet. He just nodded toward the water.

“In.”

The pool was cool enough to make her breath catch when she stepped in. She sank to her shoulders, the water lapping at her collarbones, and watched him follow. He moved through the water with easy strength, closing the distance until he was right in front of her. The depth here reached his chest. For her it came up higher.

His hands found her waist under the water and pulled her in until her bare breasts brushed his chest. The contact alone pulled a soft sound from her throat. He kissed her slowly, deeply, one hand sliding up her back while the other settled on the curve of her ass and squeezed.

When he pulled back his voice was low.

“You’re still sore.”

“A little.”

“Good. I want you to feel me the whole time.”

He walked her backward until her spine met the smooth tile of the pool wall. The water supported most of her weight. Noah’s knee slipped between her thighs and pressed up, slow and deliberate. Even that light pressure against her still-tender pussy made her hips twitch and a quiet moan slip out before she could stop it.

He smiled against her mouth.

“Quiet,” he murmured. “Unless you want them to hear.”

Ava bit her lip and nodded. He kissed her again, deeper this time, while his hand slipped inside the front of her bikini bottoms. Two fingers stroked through her folds under the water. She was already slick despite the chlorine — the soft, immediate wetness that always came when he touched her. A broken little sound vibrated in her throat. He swallowed it with his mouth and kept stroking, slow circles over her clit that made her thighs tense around his leg.

“Noah—” she whispered.

“I know.” His fingers moved lower and pressed inside her, careful of how swollen she still was. The stretch pulled a longer, shakier moan from her before she could muffle it against his shoulder. “Still so fucking tight. Even after last night.”

He worked her slowly under the water, fingers curling, thumb brushing her clit in time with the shallow thrusts. The risk of the open windows made every sound feel louder. Ava tried to keep quiet. She really did. But every time he rubbed that sensitive spot her body betrayed her — soft, helpless noises kept slipping out, half-swallowed, half-carried on the warm air.

A door slid open somewhere on the other side of the fence. Voices drifted over — a man and a woman, talking about dinner plans. Noah didn’t stop. If anything his fingers moved with more intent, pressing deeper, rubbing firmer. Ava’s forehead dropped to his shoulder. Her breathing had gone short and uneven. Soft, continuous whimpers vibrated against his skin.

“They’re right there,” she managed, voice shaky.

“Then you’d better come quietly.”

He curled his fingers just right and rubbed her clit in tight, perfect circles. The orgasm built fast despite the lingering soreness — sharp and inevitable. Ava bit down on his shoulder to muffle the cry that tried to escape when it broke. Her whole body shook. Her pussy clenched hard around his fingers under the water. Soft, desperate sounds still leaked out around her teeth as the pleasure rolled through her in waves.

Noah worked her through it until she was twitching and oversensitive, then slowly pulled his hand free. He brought his fingers above the water, wet and shiny, and looked at her while he licked them clean.

“Turn around,” he said. “Hands on the edge.”

She obeyed on unsteady legs. The position put her chest against the warm tile, ass pushed back toward him under the water. Noah hooked his fingers in the sides of her bikini bottoms and dragged them down her legs. She stepped out of them. The water kissed her bare pussy and made her shiver.

He pressed up behind her. She felt the thick, hard length of him against her ass, still trapped in his shorts. One hand reached around to cup her breast, pinching the nipple just hard enough to pull another soft moan from her. The other hand guided himself free. The blunt head of his cock dragged through her folds under the water, then notched at her entrance.

“Stay quiet,” he murmured against her ear. “If you get too loud I’ll stop.”

He pushed in.

The stretch dragged a long, shaky whimper out of her before she could stop it. He sank deeper in slow increments, giving her body time to adjust around the thick intrusion. When he finally bottomed out he stayed there, breathing hard against the back of her neck, hands gripping her hips under the water.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “You feel even better like this.”

He started moving — slow, deep strokes that kept most of the motion hidden beneath the surface. The water muffled the wet sounds, but it did nothing to quiet the soft, broken moans that kept spilling from Ava’s mouth every time he drove in. She pressed her forehead to her arms on the tile and tried to breathe through it. Every thrust rubbed over still-tender places. The pleasure built sharp and fast again, mixed with the lingering ache.

Across the fence the neighbors’ voices continued. A chair scraped. Someone laughed. Noah’s pace stayed steady and controlled, but his grip on her hips tightened. One hand slid around to rub her clit under the water in time with his thrusts.

Ava’s moans got harder to swallow.

“Noah— I can’t— they’re going to hear—”

“Then come before they do.”

He rubbed faster and thrust deeper. The orgasm slammed into her with almost no warning. She came with a high, muffled cry against her arm, body shaking hard, pussy clamping down around him in rhythmic waves. The water rippled around them. Soft, continuous whimpers kept leaving her throat as he fucked her through it without slowing.

Noah’s breathing roughened. He kept the pace deep and steady, chasing his own release while she trembled and tried (and failed) to stay quiet. Soft, desperate sounds kept slipping out of her with every thrust. When he finally buried himself to the hilt and came, the low, guttural groan against her neck was quiet but unmistakable. She felt every thick pulse inside her, the way it filled her and started to slip out around his cock into the water.

He stayed deep for a long moment, chest pressed to her back, both of them breathing hard. Then he slowly pulled out. A warm rush followed. Ava made a soft, oversensitive sound at the sudden emptiness.

Noah turned her around and kissed her — slow and deep, one hand still cupping the back of her neck. When he pulled back his eyes were dark and satisfied.

“That’s one,” he said quietly. “We’re not going back inside yet.”

He reached down, found her discarded bikini bottoms, and helped her step back into them under the water. The fabric settled against her messy, swollen pussy and made her breath catch. Then he pulled her into deeper water so only their shoulders showed, arms around her waist, holding her against him while the neighbors’ voices continued on the other side of the fence.

Ava rested her forehead against his collarbone, still shaking faintly, and felt his heartbeat under her cheek.

The risk hadn’t made her quieter.

It had only made every sound she failed to hold back feel more dangerous.

And from the way Noah’s hands kept stroking slowly up and down her back, he had every intention of testing that danger again before they left the pool.