She was quiet for long enough that he started to worry he’d miscalculated.
“Then don’t treat me like one.”
She reached across the console and pulled him toward her by the front of his shirt.The kiss was firm and deliberate, the kind that had intention behind it.Her hand stayed fisted in his collar, holding him there, and he let her set the pace because this was hers to decide.
When she pulled back, her eyes were open and steady.
“Inside,” she said.
They madeit as far as the hallway.
His back hit the wall first.She pushed him there, both hands flat on his chest, and kissed him again with a focus that left no room for ambiguity.He cupped her face and slowed it down—not because he wanted to, but because he needed to see her.Needed to know this was a choice and not a reaction.
“Harper.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“I wasn’t questioning that.”
“Then stop thinking.”She pulled his shirt free from his jeans.“I can hear you analyzing from here.”
“Force of habit.”
“Break it.”
Her hands were under his shirt, palms flat against his stomach, and the analytical part of his brain that she’d accurately diagnosed went quiet.He pulled her dress over her head in one motion.She wasn’t wearing a bra—the sundress hadn’t needed one—and the sight of her in the dim hallway made his breath catch.
She reached for his belt buckle.Her fingers were steady.
“Bedroom,” he said.
They left a trail from the hallway to his door—her sandals, his shirt, his belt somewhere near the threshold.He laid her down on the bed and took a moment to look at her.Dark hair across his pillow.The rise and fall of her breathing.A thin scar on her left hip that he hadn’t seen before.
“Broken bottle,” she said, following his gaze.“Bar in Memphis.Long story.”
“Tell me later.”
“Count on it.”
He crawled over her, bracing his weight on his arms, and kissed her jaw, her neck, the hollow of her throat.She arched into him, her fingers dragging down his back.
“More,” she breathed.
He gave her more.Kissed a path down her stomach, her hip, the inside of her thigh.She opened her legs wider, and he settled between them.The first stroke of his tongue drew a sound from her that he wanted to hear again.He took his time.Learned what made her gasp, what made her fingers twist in the sheets, what made her hips rock against his mouth.
She was unguarded in a way he’d never seen from her.Walls down.Defenses abandoned.
That trust hit him harder than the physical sensation.
He slid two fingers inside her and curled them forward while his tongue circled her clit.She came with his name on her lips, her whole body pulling tight and then releasing.
He didn’t stop until she pushed at his shoulders.
“I need you,” she gasped.“Now.”
Condom from the nightstand.He rolled it on and positioned himself at her entrance.Her hand came up to rest on his chest, right over his heart.
“I can feel it racing,” she said.
