He set me on my feet and I instantly missed the warmth of being pressed against him, despite the heat of the summer night suffocating the interior of a boarded-up house.
"Let's just go back to the apartment."
"No," I pleaded, hands fisted in his shirt. "I can't wait that long. I need you now."
Good lord, who the hell am I right now?
"Fuck," he muttered, looking over my shoulder. "Don't you move a muscle." He pointed a stern finger at me. "Got it?"
I held up three fingers. "Scout's honor."
I barely saw the narrowing of his eyes in the dark room, but I did hear the mutteredcheeky little bratwhen he turned to walk into the darkness. It was followed by a few clatters and a few curses. And then I heard what sounded like aworriedmeow.
I reached in my back pocket for my phone and turned on the flashlight. There, in the corner of the room, was a small ball of black fluff. "Brody!" I shouted. "That's not acat! It's a kitten!" I crouched down to its level and set my phone on the floor, lighting up the space. But before I could inch closer, Brody was barreling back into the room, arms full of…stuff.
The kitten bolted.
"A kitten?" he asked, arranging this, that, and the other until the ugliest looking makeshift bed ever made was laid out on the floor. "Calvin?"
"Huh?" Just then, I realized I'd been staring. Staring down at this sweet, caring, mess of a man who had just made a bed out of a tarp, a sweatshirt, and a couple ratty-looking towels so I wouldn't get splinters in my ass.
I had a brief and extremely unwelcome flashback to rough hands gripping my hips as my chest was splintered on the top of a wooden picnic table.
"You okay?" His brows were pressed together, his lips turned down.
He was down on the floor on one knee. There was a fleeting moment where I wanted to sayno. To tell him how disposable men had made me feel for my whole damn life.
But it was too much for this moment. And when my heart told me to go left, I did the smart thing and went right.
I plastered a smirk on my face. "I sure as shit hope this isn't how you proposed to Sassy."
His eyes narrowed on me. Fucker was on to me.
But bless his sweet soul, he let me off the hook.
"How 'bout we don't talk about my ex when I'm about ten seconds away from being balls deep inside you?"
For a second, we both froze. Then, like the chute gate had just shot open, we were moving. Brody was on his feet in a flash, whipping his T-shirt over his head while I did the same. He toed off his boots while he unbuckled his belt. When my bra fell to the floor, he stopped moving, stunned. My chest rose and fell so quickly, I had to make a conscious effort to suck in a lungful of air.
"You are so fucking beautiful."
His voice was rough and his green eyes dark. The flashlight from my phone still shone on the ceiling, casting the room in eerie shadows that had this moment feeling all kinds of intense.
As fast as we'd started undressing, time seemed to come to a standstill. Brody inched closer, pants unbuttoned and fly down. I could see the tip of his dick peeking out of the top of his boxer briefs. A bead of pre-cum pooled there, and it had me licking my lips.
This moment felt so heavy, so charged. Not frantic or fumbling like the first night I'd had his cock in my mouth.
Everything about this was different, including the way I was feeling.
That night, he'd been a quick hookup. One and done, never to be seen again. It was why I hadn't bothered learning his name—or giving mine.
Now? I wanted to give him a lot more than my name.
And that scared the living fuck outta me.
"C'mere, viper."
He tugged me to him, my tits pressing against the warm skin of his bronzed, muscled chest. Coarse chest hair tickled my skin and made me squirm in his hold as he wrapped his arms around me.
