Page 14 of Solitary Man

“Did I…did I make you feel good?” he asked after a while of us both trying to catch our breath.

I nuzzled his chest. “Yes, you were perfect.”

He rolled to his back, taking me with him, so I was plastered against his side. “I just want to take care of you, Riley.”

Then his breathing evened out.

A moment later he was fast asleep.

I smiled against his side. I wanted to take care of him as well.

4

Cash

I glanced at the house again. What was Riley doing right now? Something I’d been asking myself all day—the last few days. I scowled and hefted another plank of wood onto my shoulder. What had she done to me? I had a constant ache in my gut and a weird feeling in my chest.

I wanted to be inside the house with her. I’d brought her here for a lot of reasons: So I wasn’t alone anymore. To make my life easier, better. So I could get more done around the place. So far, I’d barely done any of the things I needed to do around the property.

How could I when all I could think about was what we’d done in bed three nights ago? The way she’d touched me and let me touch her. Her sweet, hushed words in the darkness, the little noises she made when I used my fingers on her to bring her to orgasm.

The feel of her tight opening against the tip of my finger. I’d wanted to plunge inside so badly. A shudder wracked through me. She said we’d fit together just fine, but I wasn’t so sure. What if I hurt her? She was so small. And what I wanted to do to her, the way I wanted to take her—

I clenched my fists and shook my head, trying to dislodge the images in my head of her under me, my hands holding her down while I slammed into her curvy little frame. What the hell is wrong with you?

Christ in heaven, I needed to stay the hell away from her. At least until I could gather some control. I needed to treat her with care, with respect. Not force her to endure my raw, unschooled hunger for her.

No, I hadn’t been with a woman before, but I’d been imaging what it would be like for a long time. Someone to talk with, eat with, share a life with. Someone to sate this burning lust deep inside me.

So many nights I’d lain in bed, feverish with hunger, cock in hand, feeling so incredibly lonely, so desperate for another person to touch me. Someone to help relieve the unrelenting ache between my thighs. Someone to just…hold me. It had gotten so bad, the loneliness had nearly broken me.

Until I finally did what Beau had suggested during one of my deliveries to their homestead.

Advertise for a wife, like he had.

I’d used the computer at the general store and started my search. Since I’d needed Landon’s laptop, I’d had to share what I was doing. He’d ended up helping me communicate with Riley. I didn’t have a computer, so I’d call him via satellite phone, he’d read me her emails, and I’d tell him what to reply with.

It was awkward and time consuming, but it was worth it.

Now I had my perfect, little wife. So beautiful and sweet. I wanted to protect and look after her. And fuck her so hard the walls would shake. If I took her like I desperately wanted to, she’d never look at me the same again. She’d probably run from me and never look back.

I couldn’t have that.

I finally had everything I wanted.

I couldn’t lose her. Not now.

Which was why I was getting up before she woke and climbing into bed after she was asleep.

I’d had her here less than a week, and I was already ruining everything.

I glanced at the house again and bit back a curse as a wave of lust hit me so strong I had to lock my knees. She was inside. In my house. Mine.

She was mine.

Growling, I dragged a hand down my beard. I’d woken early this morning with her plastered to my side—her arm flung over my stomach, her knee bent, thigh over mine, her face pressed against my ribs—and a cock so stiff I’d barely stopped myself from rolling her to her back, shoving her thighs wide, and stuffing her full.

Which was why for the third morning in a row, I’d gently shifted away from her and snuck out before she woke, busying myself milling wood for the house extension. Riley hadn’t sought me out. Not once.