She glanced at the cabin and back at me. “Okay.”
I went around and gave her my hand to help her out of the truck. This time, it was met with a soft smile instead of skepticism. I wound my fingers through hers as I led her up the deck and into the house. Our hands fit naturally together. She was smiling when I glanced over at her.
I took a deep breath to steady myself as we walked into the house. The nerves were still there, but they weren’t incapacitating. More like the lingering chill in your fingers when you come in from the cold to warm by the fire. The desire to be near her and share with her was stronger than the tragedy of this house that still plagued me.
When Claire was around, she demanded all attention from my senses, so there was no room for anything but her.
I’d taken two steps forward to the extra room when her hand slid from mine.
“I think we should kiss more. Make out, actually,” she said.
I stopped in my tracks. I turned as slowly as possible so I could collect all the thoughts that had just exploded through my brain.
“Unless you don’t want to. Obviously. But that kiss.” She whooshed out a deep breath, fingers twisting in front of her. “Itwas like—” She made a gesture that I think was supposed to represent fire. “And you are just—so I think we should. Make out. Yep.” She nodded, apparently pleased with that proposal.
I chuckled, feeling more nervous than I would have ever thought. Now, I was fully distracted from the reason I brought her here. She wanted to kiss me. I took one large step toward her. Her eyes widened, and she sucked in another breath, lifting her breasts closer to me.
“It’s just that I don’t do subtext. I don’t really get body language. Unless it’s very obvious.” Her gaze flicked to my groin, where I had been sporting an erection like a randy teenager at the fire, and back up to meet my waiting eyes. Color burned her cheeks. She was adorable. “I just really need to know one way or the other.”
“I do want to kiss you more?—”
“Okay, great.” She slammed into me before I could finish the sentence.
I caught her shoulders with my palms as her lips pressed into mine. I had been about to say something else, but when we collided, I didn’t remember how to speak. Whatever thin thread that had been pulling me through the house snapped, mission forgotten. My desire for her was a simmering pot, and the press of her lips against mine was the heat to bubble over. She was delicious and warm and soft against me.
All there was were her lips moving softly against mine.
It took fractions of a second to realize I hadn’t responded to her yet. Far too long. She had been taking the lead, but no more.My hands went to her luxuriously soft hair, threading through the thick locks. I moved us so that I could press her against the door and use my thigh and hip to grind into her, hold her up. I slanted my mouth across her, using my tongue to press into hers. She moaned in relief.
I couldn’t settle myself. I couldn’t kiss her enough. I was shaking and out of control. I lapped at her. I pawed at her. Hands moving to her waist from her hair and back again. But too risky to leave them there. My thumbs were desperate to worm their way under her shirt, under the hem of her jeans. I moved them back to her head and cupped her head gently as my hips jutted into her. My cock needed friction in any form. Needed her to feel my want.
She gasped out. Took gulping breaths of air into her lungs. I used it as an opportunity to suck and kiss at her neck. I wanted to take her here. I wanted to bend her over that desk of hers where I’d seen her working so many hours and tease her until she was dripping for me, until I could slide in all the way to the hilt and feel her wet heat clenching around me.
“God, Levi,” she gasped out.
My hand had somehow moved back to her hip, my traitorous thumb working its way under her shirt, rubbing in slow circles across her heated skin.
“Fuck.” I tore my mouth away. I mumbled thoughts without thinking. “Fuck. I knew it would be like that. I knew it would be too hard to stop once we started.” I backed up until I was against the wall opposite her. I bent over with my hands on my kneesand my now intensely painful second erection for the night. Taking gasps of breath in.
I lifted my head to check in on the woman I’d all but devoured.
Claire leaned back against the wall, a smug smile on her red plumped lips, chest heaving. She ran a hand across her chest and brought her fingers to her lips, a sort of daze slowness to her movements. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.”
I pushed myself against the wall, letting the corner of it dig into my back, trying to distract my body with pain.
I blinked at her, my breaths still coming too fast. Confusion as to who I was and what I was doing there. My gaze focused on her nipples pressing against her shirt, and my mind wandered to wonder if she’d be wet if I slipped my hand into those jeans.
“Levi?” she asked.
“Claire.”
Her smile widened. “You wanted to show me something?”
“I wanted to show you something,” I agreed.
“And it wasn’t just to make out?”
“It wasn’t just to make out.” I cleared my head with a rough shake. “No. Right. I wanted to show something to you. In the room.” I ran the back of my hand over my mouth. I tasted her. Fuck, I still wanted her so badly.
