Page 84 of Yours to Keep

The playful edge of the argument dissolved into something warmer as her gaze dropped briefly to my mouth before snapping back to my eyes. She sent me a smile that was absolutely filthy. “You’re infuriating.”

“You’re still here.”

She pushed her chair back slowly, standing. “Only because the food was good.”

I rose too, closing the distance between us before she could move away from me. My hands settled on her hips, the feeling familiar and right. “You know for someone determined to keep this casual, you argue with me like you’re negotiating a lifetime contract.”

Her fingers slid up my chest, curling into the fabric of my shirt and pulling me closer. “Maybe I just like fighting with you.”

“Maybe I like it when you do.”

She exhaled and tension melted into heat. Then she kissed me, hard and hungry, the leftover sparks from our argument igniting into passion. I backed her toward the counter, my hands tightening at her waist as she arched into me, knocking my carefully ordered thoughts straight off a cliff.

Her fingers dragged through my hair, tugging just enough to make my breath catch, and I laughed softly against her mouth, adrenaline, desire, and even happiness tangling together in my chest.

Nothing about this was simple and it never would be, but as she wrapped herself around me, I entirely stopped caring about simple. Right now. I was only focused on her.

CHAPTER 31

BREE

Sullivan kissed me like he was trying to breathe himself into me, like every unspoken word between us had been waiting right behind his lips and was finally being released. The kiss was fierce enough to steal my balance, but there was also a careful reverence to it that made my chest ache.

He held my face like I was fragile or precious even as his mouth claimed mine with devastating certainty. The rasp of his stubble dragged across my skin as he shifted, deepening the kiss, and the sensation sent a shiver racing down my spine.

It was almost overwhelming, the heat of him, the urgency, and the way he was consuming every inch of space between us. I didn’t fight it at all, just leaning into him and matching his intensity kiss for kiss, breath for breath.

Holding back had stopped being an option with him long ago and especially after the Bahamas. These days, he tasted like home and danger all at once, and at the same time, I knew he was safe. Our situation was difficult, but Sullivan himself?

The only danger he posed was that being with him made me feel things I never thought I’d feel. Things that somehow managed to be simultaneously intoxicating and grounding, making me feel like I could reach up and touch the stars, but he would be there to bring me back down.

My hands reached for him instinctively, gripping the solid planes of his shoulders and sliding up into his hair. His fingers traced restless paths along my sides, sending sparks dancing across my skin wherever they touched. The world around us blurred, shrinking until there was nothing but the two of us and the electric pull drawing us closer.

We stumbled backward together, a clumsy tangle of limbs and breathless laughter swallowed by another kiss. The back of his legs hit the couch and he dropped onto it, taking me with him in a single, fluid motion. I landed across his lap, straddling him before I could even think about it, our mouths never parting long enough to catch more than a couple of shallow breaths.

The fabric between us suddenly felt like an unbearable barrier. His hands slid beneath the hem of my shirt, warm palms skimming over my skin and leaving goosebumps in their wake. My pulse thundered in my ears as I tugged at his shirt, needing to feel him, to close the last inch of distance between us.

When the material finally disappeared, my palms met warm, firm skin that made my stomach flip. I pressed closer, mashing my chest to his and relishing the steady strength of him beneath my fingertips. He felt impossibly solid, like carved stone wrapped in warmth. His arms tightened around me like he never intended to let me go.

The scent of him was clean, familiar, and uniquely Sullivan, and it made my head spin as it filled my lungs. My fingers threaded through his hair, tugging gently as his hands roamed my sides in slow, reverent passes that left heat trailing behind them.

Every touch and every kiss felt like falling and flying at the same time, and I surrendered to it completely, letting him pull me deeper into a moment I never wanted to end. He cupped my breasts and ran his thumbs along the sensitive skin underneath them, groaning quietly as he broke away from our kisses to bring his lips to one of my nipples.

He sucked it into his mouth, his hot tongue sliding around the hard peak. My head rolled back, my eyes closing on a moan I didn’t even try to swallow.

The pleasure this man could bring to my body would never stop amazing me. My nails dragged from his scalp to his bare back and he let out a low growl in response, releasing my nipple from his mouth to lick and kiss his way up my chest, my throat, and my jaw back to my mouth.

His hands dropped to the waistband of my shorts, trying to roll them off, but the position we were in made it difficult. I lifted myself off him clumsily, but before I could go too far, he wrapped his arms around my hips and scooted forward.

“Fuck this,” he murmured, raking his fingers through my hair as those molten blue eyes caught mine. “I’m taking you to bed. I’m not in the mood to keep fighting with clothes and too little space.”

Before I could even begin to formulate a response, his arms tightened a little more around me and he stood, lifting me up against him. I laughed against his lips, my legs wrapping around his hips as I clung to his shoulders.

He carried me the short distance to my bedroom, lying me down on my bed and hooking his thumbs into my pants. He pulled them off in one clean motion and I kicked them away.

My soaked panties came off next, and then I was completely bared to him. He shifted off the bed, his eyes roaming along every inch of my exposed skin. It wasn’t the first time he was seeing me totally naked, but when his eyes finally came all the way back up to mine, it felt like he hadn’t just been looking at my body, instead seeing past all that to the very fiber of my being.

A silent moment passed between us and it was almost like our feelings were tangible, as real as the sweat glistening on our bodies. Sullivan wanted me. Fully, openly, and in public. He didn’t want to hide. He wasn’t ashamed or scared, and the very thought that he would claim me for the world to see made my heart beat faster.