"When I asked if there would be a lot of walking, I was thinking a museum or a garden, not a hike in November," Casey said as we walked down the forest trail toward our destination. Luckily, the weather wasn't that bad for that time of year and although it was pretty cold, the sky was clear and blue.

"We're almost there," I promised him, eagerly walking a couple of feet in front of him with my hands buried in my coat pockets. "It's a fifteen minute walk. Calling this a hike is a little bit dramatic."

"To you, that's a hike," he chuckled, quickly catching up to me so that he could wrap one of his arms around my waist just as I was about to trip over a large root that sprouted across the path. He was much more in tune with nature than I was, but I had been camping with my dad a few times and I wasn't completely hopeless when it came to the outdoors.

"We're here," I piped eagerly and then watched Casey look around the forest in confusion when he didn't notice anything around us except for the hundreds of tall trees. I could tell that he was trying to phrase his confusion in the most complimentary way possible when I finally relieved him of the stress and pointed up toward the canopy. "Well, it's not here. It's up there."

I pointed up and his gaze followed, landing on a large cabin that was built into the trees above us with a thin staircase leading up to the wrap-around porch.

"Oh wow," he exhaled. I grabbed his hand with mine and started pulling him toward the stairs that were somewhat hidden by the color matching terrain. "Are we allowed up there? What if somebody lives there or something."

I couldn't help but laugh, that he thought I would just invite myself into a treehouse cabin without an invitation. "I rented it, Case. It's an Airbnb. We've got the place to ourselves."

Once we were up the stairs, I got in the front door by entering the five digit pass code in the digital door lock. We were quickly engulfed in the warmth of the heated cabin, which was a small space with the entire interior made of light wood, a large bed to the right hand side and a small living room area with a TV to the left. On the back wall, there was a kitchenette and the door to the bathroom.

"Holy shit," Casey mumbled as he took in the view. All four walls had large windows, making it feel like we were in a bubble among the trees, floating with the leaves above everything. "This is incredible."

I sat my backpack on the little couch to pull out all of the supplies I prepared for our trip. "I'm making us lunch and then we're having a movie marathon of all of your favorites. When I was trying to plan something, I kept asking myself what were your favorite things. Trees and curling up at home with a movie were the top two things I could think of, so I combined them."

"You're going to cook?" he wondered apprehensively.

"It's just mac and cheese, don't be too impressed."

"I'm the most impressed, Josie." As I carried my bag of groceries to the little counter in the kitchen area, I noticed him eyeing the bed, made up neatly with a stark white comforter. "How long are we staying for?"

"Well, my plan is to just stay up here for the day, but I did have to rent it by the night, so we technically have the room until tomorrow morning." That was completely the truth, I didn't really plan on spending the night up here. But did I pack pajamas for both of us just in case? Of course I did, I am always prepared for anything. I'm a planner.

It wasn't quite time to start cooking, so I left the groceries on the counter and returned to the couch. After removing my coat and hanging it up on one of the hooks by the door, I pulled out a bottle of champagne and two plastic cups.

"You know, Josie, I was really proud of myself for my date to the Shakespeare museum," he said as I popped open the champagne bottle and he hung up his coat beside mine. Underneath the coat, Casey was wearing a plaid flannel and jeans. "But this makes that look like a date to the local 7/11 for hot dogs and slushies."

"No it doesn't. I had an amazing time at the museum."

I poured both cups of the bubbly drink and handed one of them to him.

"I completely underestimated your ability to plan a date."

"I've been waiting ten years, Casey," I told him with an unexpected lump forming in my throat. "I'm not messing around and I really wanted this to be special."

"It's the most special," he assured me as he slowly raised his cup of champagne to his lips. "A tree house in the middle of the forest? Nothing could be more magical than that."

It made me so happy to see him enjoying the cabin because it took me an entire day of obsessive internet scrolling to find this place and I put a lot of work into making this a great day. Seeing that look on his face made all of that work so worth it. And then when he swiftly ducked down and pressed his lips to mine for a quick kiss and my knees turned to jello, I was really happy with my decision.

"So, what movies do we have lined up?" he asked, still standing only a few inches away from me with his hand resting on the small of my back. I was still getting used to feeling him like this, in the way that I'd dreamed about for so long. Feeling his lips on mine, his hand so casually resting against my back, standing so close I could smell the champagne on his breath. It almost felt like an out of body experience, like I was watching it happen to somebody else.

"Um, The Goonies," I finally sputtered out an answer when I came back to myself. "And Spaceballs."

He started to smile and then said, "You know me so well."

This man made me so nervous and clammy and sweaty. I felt like I was staring at a dream standing right in front of me, something that I'd wanted for so long but could never reach out and touch. Casey has been in the 'pipe dream' compartment of my brain for so long, I was struggling to move him into the 'reality' zone.

"What are you thinking about?" he finally asked me, his voice low as his hand tightened slightly in the fabric of my shirt. His brow quirked the tiniest bit lower, seeming vaguely concerned.

Slowly, I shook my head and muttered under my breath, "How is this even real?"

A smile flickered on his round lips, his fist curling completely into my shirt just as my knuckles curled around my champagne glass. "I haven't figured that one out yet either. But somehow, it is real, and I could not be happier."

This time, I took the initiative and leaned into him until my lips pressed against his. I was quickly becoming obsessed with kissing him because it was like a reminder that this was real and happening. And it felt really good in a very surreal way.

"I was going to bring candles and make it this whole romantic scene, but I didn't have room in my bag and also, this place is made of solid wood, so it felt like a dumb idea," I told him once our lips parted again and I took a sip of the champagne.

"Starting a forest fire for me would have been so romantic," he joked. "Remember when we were watching The Goonies at Eleanor's old apartment and you laughed so hard you peed your pants and had soda coming out of your nose at the same time?"

"I wasn't laughing at the movie, I was laughing at your impression of Chunk," I told him, laughing softly at the memory. "But yes, I do remember. It was a lot more painful than you'd think to have soda coming out of your nose. And then when I peed my pants, you started laughing so hard that you were crying."

"You're the only person that can make me laugh like that," he said, his voice so quiet because we were standing close enough that he could whisper and I still heard every word. Has my heart always beat this hard and irregular?

"Well, I'm not peeing my pants again," I warned him. "So don't get your hopes up. My DVD collection is in the bag, go ahead and pull out our first movie."

He kissed my cheek before he stepped away from me and walked around the couch to where my bag sat on the left cushion. I was focused on wiping champagne off of my mouth and making sure my face wasn't getting too blushy when I heard Casey chuckle from behind me and then ask, "What are these for?"

When I turned around, he was holding up two pairs of pajama pants. Mine were pink shorts with little palm trees on them and Casey's were long flannel pants that I picked up at the store as I was doing the grocery shopping.

With raised eyebrows, he asked me, "I thought we were only staying up here for the day?"

Without thinking, I just blurted out, "Wishful thinking." I was so used to humiliating myself with word vomit at this point that the embarrassment barely even registered in my brain. What was the point of being embarrassed by wanting Casey, when it was already so obvious. It couldn't get much worse than admitting on camera that I touched myself thinking about him.

Casey started to laugh but his eyes were dark and my heart rate was starting to pick up pace. I wasn't planning on sleeping with him that night, but I knew it was a possibility and it was definitely something that I really wanted. Especially after that first kiss at my apartment and how ready I was to rip his clothes off then.

"On our second date? Moving a little fast, don't you think?" he teased me, dropping the pajamas to return to the back of the couch where I still stood, feeling stuck and warm.

"Says the guy who told me he loved me before our first date," I threw it right back at him as I started to anxiously chew on my bottom lip.

"Yeah, and you still haven't said it back yet," he reminded me, swiftly taking both of our champagne cups and placing them on the console table behind him, effectively freeing up our hands for other things.

"I'm waiting for the right time," I justified myself. "Be patient."

Touching Casey still felt kind of wrong, like touching a masterpiece hanging in a museum. I reached out and placed my hand on his chest, almost expecting the lasers to catch my movement and all of the security guards would come out of the woodwork and arrest me for touching a piece of valuable art. His chest felt hard under his flannel and I could feel the beat of his heart against my palm. I waited there for a moment, making sure he wouldn't disappear from in front of me.

"I usually am a patient man," he said under his breath, stepping forward until the back of the couch hit my backside, our shoes getting tangled together between us. "But not about this."

If I stayed there, wedged between Casey and the couch for even a second longer, I was going to pounce on him and I'd never let go. My throat was going dry, my eyes started gazing down at his clean shaven neck where I so badly wanted to nuzzle my kisses. I wanted to grab him and I wanted to show him with my body exactly how much I loved him.

I cleared my throat and stepped to the side. "You pick the movie. I'll get dinner started."

I could feel his eyes on me as I walked into the kitchen area, starting to prepare the bag of ingredients to make us some mac and cheese. It was still pretty early for dinner, but he was making me so nervous and I needed something to calm me down.

"You want help with cooking?" He asked, following me across the room. As I was grabbing the only pot they had in the kitchen and filling it with water from the sink, I felt him approach me as he rested his hands on my hips and then let his chin lay against my shoulder. For every point of contact his body had with mine, a chill ran down my spine.

"That's actually really distracting and not helpful at all," I informed him with a tremor in my voice.

"Give me something to do then," Casey suggested in my ear, his breath whisping some of my baby hairs around the nape of my neck. My entire body started to shake. Even after the pot was full of water, I turned the sink off but couldn't make the move to lift the pot and carry it to the stove. His hands tightened their grip on my hips and I let out a short gasp.

"I...I guess dinner can wait."

The rest of this chapter is X-Rated. Skip the rest of this chapter if you don't want to read that sort of stuff!

His breath fanned across my neck and then he kissed me in the same spot. "Everything can wait."

Casey pulled my hips back until they were pressed against his and I could immediately feel him, hard and nestled into my jeans. I gasped again, this time louder and more desperate. I wasn't sure how long he planned on teasing me for, but I couldn't take it anymore. I spun around in his arms, quickly finding his lips with my own.

The kiss was deep and hard. His fist tangled in my hair as I held onto his chest for dear life, clinging to him so that he couldn't float away. A strangled moan escaped my lips when I felt his hard body pressed against mine, because this was fucking real. Not a dream, not something in a museum. Right here, right in front of me, right in my hands, in my mouth. Casey Gordon was here. He was mine.

Seemingly effortless, he scooped me into his arms until my legs were wrapped around his waist. My jeans were too stiff to really feel anything through them and I needed them off now. He cupped my ass and carried me across the room with our lips still connected, my fingers running their way through his blond hair, tugging lightly to elicit a groan from the back of his throat.

Careful and precise, just like everything else about Casey, he laid me on the bed and I released his hips from between my thighs but continued to hold his chest close to me. As quickly as I could, I started to unbutton his flannel, thinking maybe I could just reimburse him if I just ripped the thing off of him.

Eventually, he tossed the flannel and rose to his knees to remove the black t-shirt underneath as well. My mouth started to gape as I stared at his body, all tight muscle under smooth skin. I followed every valley and hill of his abdomen and then traced the same path with my fingers. I'd seen him shirtless before, but I'd only ever dreamed about what it would feel like.

"Sorry I didn't bring my lab coat," he teased me with a breathless grin.

I pulled my hand away and rolled my eyes. "I hate you."

"That's the opposite of what I'm looking for," Casey mumbled as he leaned over me and started leaving a hot trail of kisses down my neck while his hands began to curiously roam up my sweater until the tips of his fingers brushed along the bottom wire of my bra. It all felt so achingly slow. I knew he was about to say something else sarcastic or teasing, but when I slid my sweater over my head, taking my tank top with it, he fell silent.

My bra was nothing special, just one of my trusty red bras with a lace trim. It was old, but one of my favorites because of the way it pressed my boobs together and was also really comfortable. I don't think Casey was staring at it right now because of how comfortable it looked, though.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath, looking at me with shiny eyes, like I was some hidden treasure that he just discovered. I could see the bulge in his jeans twitch, looking like it was trying to escape its denim cage. I wanted to free him. As I unbuttoned Casey's jeans, he leaned back over me and started peppering kisses across my collar bone and then into my cleavage. Mumbling against my skin, he said, "I've wanted this for so long. I've wanted you for so fucking long, Josie."

I didn't have the voice to tell him that I'd wanted him just as long. Even when he was a scrawny teenager who was mostly awkward limbs and bony elbows, I wanted him in this exact way. Finally, as he reached around my body to unclip my bra, I responded by saying, "You know I've wanted you too. Just as bad. Just as long."

"Even as a kid." He didn't say it like a question, because we'd already talked about this, but more like he was still in disbelief that it was true.

After my bra had been discarded with our shirts, I pulled him close to me by grabbing the back of his neck and said, "You were everything to me, Casey. Back then. Now. You're everything."

A raspy moan left my lips when he ducked his head down and encircled one hard nipple in his mouth, gently running his thumb over the other one with a feather like touch. Then, he switched. Casey was a very thorough, meticulous man so it was no surprise that he paid very close attention to every square inch of my breasts before his lips met mine again. I was practically squirming underneath him, begging him with my body to let me touch him.

"Fuck," he groaned again, this time more hot and desperate than the last. He reached between us and adjusted his groin. "I've never been this hard in my entire life."

Something twitched in my throat.

I pushed his hand away from the zipper so that I could pull it down and together, we pulled his jeans down his hips and then off completely. His navy boxer briefs were only a thin layer between me and his throbbing erection. I stared down at the outline of it, feeling my mouth actually start to water. Until Casey put his hand on my chin and lifted my gaze to his. I'd never seen this hard look on his face before, this look of horny desperation and hunger and neediness. Everything that I was feeling in my own body mirrored back in his eyes.

"I love you," he said in a deep, husky voice that gave me goosebumps. "I love you so goddamn much, Josie. I don't want you to say it back right now, but I love you."

I wanted to say it back, but I understood why I shouldn't. I knew that I loved him, he knew that I loved him, but saying it for the first sober time with his boner pressing against my thigh and my boobs in his face wasn't the most genuine time to do so. "You are literally a dream come true."

He scrambled to get my jeans off and soon, our underwear fell away too. It was all so rushed, so hungry, and I felt like I might actually die if he wasn't inside of me immediately.

I watched Casey roll the condom on, staring with wide eyes at the sheer size of the thing. It was bigger in every direction than what I'd imagined so many times. Thicker, longer, somehow harder. I physically ached to feel him inside of me and by the tremble of his thighs and Adam's apple, I could tell that he felt the same way.

Once the condom was applied, I laid back with Casey hovering above me, lining himself up at my soaked entrance. I was usually a huge fan of foreplay, and I could imagine that Casey was amazing at it with how generous and meticulous he was, but neither one of us had the time for it right now. I needed him more than I ever needed anything or anybody in my life.

"You still like it rough?" Casey mumbled in my ear, his voice trembling and hot.

"Yes, doctor," I groaned out.

He took a very short moment to laugh at my terribly placed joke, and then thrust his hips into me until he was completely inside. I was suddenly thankful that we were in the middle of nowhere because there was no way I could have stopped the guttural scream that escaped my throat. Or any of the ones that came after it as he pounded into me with ruthless force.

I could feel my nails sinking into his damp back and with his face nestled into my neck, his grunting and groaning noises were getting funneled directly into my ear. I didn't last long until I could feel the beginning of my orgasm brewing and my thighs started to shake. When he reached between us and started rubbing that sensitive bundle of nerves, another loud moan escaped me and my vision started going white.

"Come for me, Josie," I heard him saying over the blinding fireworks in my brain. "That's right... just like that. Fucking perfect. Just like that."

I held onto him like a life raft, as if to stop my orgasm from pulling me completely away from reality. For the first time in my life, my reality was better than any possible fantasy I could create in my head.

As the bed springs continued to complain below Casey's hard thrusts, my screaming moans turned into light whimpers and he slowed his pace for a while, letting his blue eyes look directly through me.

"You're the most beautiful thing on this planet," he whispered to me. "In the universe. And I get to look at you, every single day. Forever. That's... incredible."

I wanted to say something romantic back to him about how I actually think that he's the most beautiful person in the multi-verse, with the hottest body and the best eyes and the most genuine, beautiful smile that the world has ever seen, or will ever see.

But before I could say any of this, Casey swiftly moved my ankles to his shoulders and thrust hard into me again until the headboard knocked against the wall. The new ankle hit something different inside of me and it took all of the air out of my lungs as my mouth fell into a wide O shape. Any words that might have left my mouth were replaced by another choked sob. I vaguely remembered panting out 'oh God, Casey. Oh my fucking God' a couple of times repeatedly, but I couldn't be sure. Everything was getting blurry and incoherent. The only thing I could focus on was how good Casey felt inside of me, how my body molded around him and how well we fit together.

"I thought I'd never get you." I couldn't tell if I was only thinking it or saying it out loud, but it was the only thing left in my brain. In all my years of pining, I never thought that it could actually happen.

"You've got me," he responded with a grunt, confirming that I did say it out loud. "I'm here."

My ankles fell from his shoulders as he leaned over me, peppering my chest, neck, and face with gentle kisses with his hand gently resting in my hair. I nestled my face in the crook of his neck and took it all in. All of the kisses, the touch of his skin against mine, the reality of it all. I came two more times before Casey started to tense up, his thrusts becoming more jagged and rough as his groans grew louder, almost matching the level of my own loud moans.

He buried his face into my shoulder and let himself go, tightening every muscle of his body against me and then going nearly limp.

Casey kissed me softly on the lips once before he rolled off of me, tossed the condom, and then kissed me again.

My entire body was sore and exhausted, my mind still gone somewhere else and my vision only starting to come back to me. The only thing I could mutter from my dry throat was, "So worth the wait."