Page 63 of Holding Ground

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

Elliott

Once again, Emelia has me baring my soul to her. It’s a regular occurrence at this point.

It’s wild to think how I felt about her the first time compared to now. The emotions couldn’t be further apart.

I pull the boat up to the dock at my place and kill the engine. Emelia puts the bumpers out, and when it drifts perfectly beside the dock, I hop out with the rope in hand to secure it. Once it’s roped, I hold a hand out and help Emelia out of the boat.

She stumbles and, lucky me, falls into my arms, laughing. When she looks up at me, her hazel eyes glitter in the sunshine. I place a hand on the side of her neck and rub my thumb over her jaw. Now that I’ve touched her, I can’t find it in myself to stop.

“Thank you for taking me. I had a lot of fun.” Her gaze dips down to my lips.

“So did I.”

“Maybe we’ll have to go back there sometime and try having our own make-out session.”

My dick perks up in my pants. “Boat has to come out of the water pretty soon.”

She mock-pouts.

I drop my hand from her face and slide both hands around her waist and down to her backside. “I can think of a lot of other places we can have a make-out session, don’t worry.” I hoist her up.

Her legs wrap around my waist, and I walk us over to one of the loungers, taking a seat on the edge. Once we’re settled, I return my hand to her neck and draw her in for a kiss.

The kiss starts off slow and sensual but quickly moves into desperate territory. It could be because she’s grinding against my now-hard dick. Or it could be because every single thing about this woman draws me in—her looks, her scent, her taste.

My hand roams up and down the side of her waist until I need more, so I bring my hand around and cup her breast, squeezing gently. She moans into my mouth, so I do it again.

Emelia’s hands fist my hoodie as she rocks her hips, and I bring my lips across her jaw and down her neck. She arches her back, turning her face up to the sky, a strangled sound leaving her lips.

Something draws my attention away from her, but it takes me a moment to understand what it is, since my brain is so rattled with lust.

It’s the sound of a boat engine.

Pulling back, I meet her gaze. “Someone’s coming. Probably going to ride right by here in a minute.”

“Then take me inside.”

Our gazes hold, and her teeth sink into her bottom lip. I’ve been out of the game for a while, but I can still tell when a woman wants me.

I stand with her legs tight around my waist, walking toward the house, while her face buries in my neck and she chuckles. I hear the boat pass by the house as I start up the stairs of the deck.

“Close one,” she says.

I chuckle and open the sliding glass door with one hand, turn to close it behind me, and walk us right to my bedroom.

It’s not until we’re inside that reality hits—I’ve never had a woman in my bedroom since Kate.

I would have thought the idea would freak me out, but I’m glad the first woman is Emelia. I don’t have rose-colored glasses on this time. I know what this is between us. I know she’s leaving. She’s not professing to love me.

Stepping over to my bed, I sink onto the edge of the mattress with Emelia on my lap. But she doesn’t stay there. Almost immediately, she slides off my lap and drops to her knees in front of me. Her hands move to the laces of my boots, and she undoes them.

I don’t know why that’s a turn-on, but I chalk it up to the fact that everything she does is a turn-on.

She gets the first one undone, slides my foot out of it, then works on the other one. At one point, she looks up at me from behind her dark lashes, and a bolt of lust fires through me. It’s exactly how I imagined her looking at me when I’d lie awake thinking about her.