“Look at me,” he said. “I have a theory about why that is.”
I opened my eyes, his intensity drilling down into me, stealing the last of my breath.
“Maybe you lost a part of yourself on that mountain,” he said. “And maybe I lost a piece of myself every time I had to take a life. So, on our own, we both feel half alive. Incomplete.” Those dark eyes swirled with real, raw emotion. “But together, two halves...” His lips brushed mine, sparking. Just a taste of the nuclear kiss between us. “Whole again.”
“Oh, God,” I said. “I love you.”
I surrendered completely. He wanted inside my heart, whether or not it was cold and lonely in there.
He took an enormous breath, my arms rising and falling on his broad shoulders, and victory flashed in his eyes. “I told you.”
My mouth dropped open and my head spun, weak from the overpowering emotion. “Not the three words I was hoping for.”
“I’m sorry.” He grinned, and that only made my head spin stronger. “I love you,” he said. “I am very much in love with you.”
Warmth came over me, not cold numbness at his words. “Better.”
Our lips came together then.
I wasn’t sure who exactly had started it, not that it mattered, anyway. The intensity of his kiss raced down me, all the way to my toes and back again. His hand closed on the back of my head and smoothed down, his fingers inching along my spine, and I sighed with relief at his touch.
We worked in concert with each other to get our pants out of our way. Mine came off first, then his down past his knees. His fingers dove beneath my panties, a finger spearing inside me when he discovered just how turned on he’d made me.
I shuddered with pleasure. My hands flattened to his beautifully scarred chest that contained his heart, which beat a furious tempo. Proof he was alive. Proof he was mine.
My hands drifted down, sliding over each scar, each rib, each notch of muscle until I reached the thin cotton standing between us. He exhaled at my touch and groaned when I pushed a hand inside his underwear and stroked him. But like the first time we’d been together, there was too much desperation in us for foreplay.
We’d confessed our love, and now we hungered for all the connection we could get.
He stripped off my panties and added them to my pile of shoes and clothes so I was completely naked, before bending and extracting a condom from his pants pocket. I watched him shove his underwear down his legs, tear the wrapper open, and roll the latex on.
The words were forming in my brain to ask him how we were going to do this, but I should have known he had it covered. He grasped my hip with one hand, dropped a hurried kiss on my lips as we shuffled back a step, then he urged me to turn away from him.
“Feet together,” his voice was hushed but full of gravity. “Up on your toes. I’m going to need all the height you can give me.” He stepped out of one pant leg so he could use a wide stance.
I stared at the barrel heads in front of me as I stepped my feet together and sank my teeth into my bottom lip. Since the night on the mountain, I hadn’t let anyone have me like this. I’d always turned off the lights and hidden this part of myself.
But there was no need to hide from Ethan.
He’d seen it all, and the more I’d tried to hold him at arm’s length, the closer he’d held on.
I leaned forward, bracing my good hand against a barrel, and when one of his hands closed on my waist, I lifted onto my toes. The tip of his dick slicked against me. One preparing, searching stroke before he claimed what was his, easing into me one slow inch at a time.
The stretch of him inside me made my fingers curl, my nails scratching against the wooden barrel head. We gasped together as he began to move, widening his stance to find a position he could maintain.
Pleasure crackled in my body with each thrust. He’d begun slow, but ramped up quickly, and in no time, my legs shook from the exertion, my calf muscles straining. But I loved it and the way my heart beat faster than ever. His hands caressed me, over my back, my breasts, between my legs.
I could only imagine what we looked like, him driving into me, making my breasts undulate while my hand was pressed to the barrel head. It contained fifty gallons of what we needed when we were homesick, and now, I was sure I’d think only of him whenever I drank bourbon.
Then he leaned over, pressing our scarred skin together and his mouth to the side of my neck so I could hear his rapid, uneven breathing. The intensity built inside me until I couldn’t hold it back and all that remained was the man.
“I love you,” I said.
He answered back, telling me he loved me in all the languages he knew, except for the one he’d used when he’d begged the men not to hurt me.
But being connected this way took a physical toll on us,and his arms wrapped around me, lifting my feet off the ground. I reached up, grabbing the rail of the rack with my good hand and held on, trying to make it easier for him to keep pushing inside me.
The shift in angle was just what I needed, letting him slide deeper and find the spot that made my entire body shudder. “Yes,” I gasped. “Oh, my God.Yes.”
