AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stirred and sat up. “Trent?”
His heart stopped. The firelight danced across her face, her shoulders, her full breasts…painting an impossibly lovely Madonna. Her dark hair fell in soft waves, framing her face. She was like a vision, a fantasy…
But when he touched her, his heart beat again. She was real. She was here. And he would take what he could, give what he could…as long as the night survived.
He was on his back looking up at her. All it took was a smile to make him hard. Her eyes were shadowed with exhaustion, her tousled hair a testament to their earlier lovemaking.
“I’m glad you came with me tonight.” He couldn’t resist stroking her leg.
“Me, too. I missed you while you were gone.” She pulled her knees to her chest and laid her head on them, regarding him sleepily.
Despite the awkwardness of the question, he took a deep breath and made himself ask it anyway. “Why was it so difficult for you to…”
“Have sex with you?”
He grimaced. “Yeah.”
“Why do you think?”
She was asking for something from him. But he felt as if he was traversing a minefield. “I don’t think you’ve been with a man in a very long time. Is that right?”
Her lashes fell, and he could no longer judge her expression.
“I’ve had sex in my life a total of five times…all with Jesse. I had already decided to break it off when I found out I was pregnant.” She sighed. “Since then…well, you try being an unwed mother, a full-time student and a grateful niece. Boyfriends were way down on my radar.”
A sharp pain in his chest made it hard to breathe. She had been through a hell of a lot, and the responsibility for all of it lay firmly at his family’s door. They had all let her down. Mac. Jesse. Trent.
He couldn’t bear to think of it anymore. Not right now. Not with the epitome of every one of his fantasies just a hand’s width away.
“Come here, Bryn. It will be better this time, I swear.”
A smile flitted across her expressive face, but she allowed him to pull her beneath the covers. “It wasn’t all that bad before,” she teased gently.
She insisted on being the one to put on the condom. Her clumsiness was both amusing and arousing. He moved half on top of her, shuddering at the sense of homecoming. “I can do better.”
He put his hand on her thigh, between her legs. She was wet already and warm, so warm. Being with Bryn was like basking in front of a fire on a rainy winter’s night. She chased away the cold. And she filled him up in places he never knew were empty. Why was he so afraid to take her at face value? What more proof did he need?
She wasn’t content to be passive. As he caressed her, she set about to drive him over the edge. She was a fast learner, and she was uncannily attuned to his body’s responses. Her small, soft hands touched him everywhere. He burned. He ached. He struggled to breathe.
He heard her laugh once, and a shiver snaked its way down his spine. It was the sound of a woman discovering her power. And his weakness.
In the distance, the sound of rain drummed steadily on the tin roof. The seclusion lent a surreal note to the night’s events. A wild, windswept ride, a deserted, ramshackle cabin. A man and a woman discovering each other’s intimate secrets.
If he hadn’t known better, he might have thought it was all a dream. He leaned on his elbow, winnowing his fingers through her hair. His body insisted he seal the deal, but he was desperate to make the night stretch beyond its limits. He brushed a thumb across each of her eyelids, replacing urgency with tenderness. Passion slowed to a quiet burn.
“I wish we could go back and change the past,” he muttered.
Her expression, even in the firelight, was bleak. “I have a child, Trent. I wouldn’t change that if I could. Whether or not you can come to terms with Allen’s existence will decide how all of this plays out. I won’t hide my son and I won’t apologize for him.”
He was struck by her quiet confidence. She might be a novice in bed, but she was a mature woman with undeniable strength…an appealing mixture of vulnerability and determination.
Already her taste was like a drug he couldn’t resist. He slid an arm beneath her neck, pulled her to him and kissed her. He shoved aside all the questions, the problems, the uncertainties. One thing he knew for sure. Bryn Matthews was his. He’d worry later about the details.
