Rhett bit his lip as his gaze slid over me. “Later,” he vowed.
Thrill bumps chased each other over my skin as I imagined what he might have in store for me when we got home.
* * *
He didn’t make me wait long to find out when he finally kicked my side door closed and turned the lock. We were tearing at each other’s clothes, engaging in the kind of desperate, frantic, wild foreplay that had always punctuated our relationship. This I understood. This made sense to me. This was me and Rhett… in our element… hungry for each other’s bodies.
We didn’t even try to make our way down the hall. Instead, he boosted me up on the granite countertop that stretched from the sink to the stackable washer/dryer. Our height difference made it easy for him to align our bodies perfectly, but instead of penetrating me, he stared at me.
I was just about to ask what was wrong when he made me see how right it was. It was the kiss that obliterated every other kiss I’d ever had… even with him. It was slow and intimate, searching and seeking. I moaned into his mouth when he framed my face with his hands. Holding me prisoner to a passion that I didn’t want to escape anymore. This was getting real and I was suddenly up to the challenge.
“Yes,” I whispered in his ear when he finally let me come up for air. I scraped my lips across his jaw. “Now, Rhett. Just like this.” I knew what I was asking, but before he could question my sanity, I inched closer, beckoning him inside my body.
“Bri—” He sucked in a sharp breath, letting it hiss out between his teeth when I took his hard shaft in my hand, opening my legs wider as I guided him to my core. “You’ve never— we’ve never—”
“But I want to now,” I whispered. “Don’t you?”
“You know I do, but—”
I didn’t want for him to list the reasons this was a bad idea. I knew it was. But I didn’t let that stop me. I wanted him like this, skin-to-skin, ratcheting up the intimacy to a whole new level. I’d never been in the kind of committed relationship that would have made this kind of risk viable, but this was Rhett. He wasn’t stupid and neither was I. Condoms with other partners were non-negotiable. But we knew each other. We trusted each other. God, this was getting too real.
“Oh my God,” he dropped his head, gripping my hips to slide me forward on the counter. “I need a minute. This is too much.”
The angle. The exposure. The look in his eyes, like he was struggling to hold it together… I couldn’t agree more. It was too much. Except I didn’t try to hold back. I wrapped my arms around his neck, drew him closer and invited another one of those toe-curling kisses that rendered my mind useless, while my body led the charge.
“Bri—”
His eyes met mine when we broke the kiss and I could read everything he was afraid to say. I felt it too.What the hell is happening right now?It felt like every time we had sex we crossed some invisible line, venturing into uncharted territory. But instead of my internal compass leading me back to the safe zone, I was wading a little deeper each time. Saying things I’d never said before. Feeling things I’d never felt. Doing things I’d never done.
He was plunging so deep and when he picked up the pace, rocking his hips, hitting just the right spot, I braced my hands behind me and opened my mouth on a silent scream. Closing my eyes to the truth. There was sex and then there was this… whateverthiswas.
“You gotta let go for me, baby.”
Baby.Those terms of endearments slipping from his lips made my whole body clench as the heat licked up my spine. I was breathless and gasping, letting him rock my body and demolish my defenses. I felt open and exposed. And I actually liked it. What. The. Hell?
My release built slowly, like it wanted to claim every inch of my body, leaving nothing untouched as I felt the familiar tug and tingle before the rush of satisfaction made me cry out his name in a hoarse, broken whisper.
I felt his body tighten as he clenched his abs, making my mouth water. He froze when our eyes met before swearing softly and spilling into me.
There was a minute of stunned silence while we both processed what had just happened, what we’d just allowed, before I smiled and pulled him close. “No regrets,” I murmured in his ear. “So don’t even ask.” When he didn’t respond, I felt the angst unfurl in my belly. “You?”
He closed his arms around me. “None.”
I closed my eyes, reveling in the moment before I giggled. “Are we crazy, or what?”
He chuckled. “Pretty sure we are.”
I drew back to look him in the eye. “Have you ever done that before?”
“Never.”
My smile spread. “I think I like being your first.”
He smacked my ass, grinning. “Now we’re even.”
A look passed between us and it felt like the past fifteen years flashed in front of my eyes. He took my virginity. He was the guy I’d saved myself for… now he was the guy who’d saved me. Given me peace of mind when some maniac tried to infiltrate every part of my life. I owed him. Big time.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said, kissing me.
