Page 21
He groans as I feel something brush against my clit, sending a shockwave of pure pleasure through me. “May I taste you?”
“Please,” I whine, my body trembling with need as he slides my panties to the side and presses his tongue flat against my folds.
I moan loudly as his tongue drags over my clit, licking and sucking, his fingers slowly pushing inside me.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Don’t you dare,” I hiss, my hips lifting off the counter in time with his movements.
The next brush of his tongue against me steals every coherent thought from my head. My thighs tighten around his shoulders as he lingers instead of rushing, drawing another helpless sound from me before easing back just enough to watch my reaction. Every instinct expects him to chase my release, but he doesn’t. He pays attention to every shiver and involuntary movement of my body as if none of it’s too small to matter.
My fingers twist helplessly against my shirt as the pleasure coils tighter inside me. I can feel myself clenching around his fingers, hearing the rough groan that vibrates against my skin when my body responds to him. And each time I think he’ll push me over the edge, he slows just enough for me to breathe before building me back up again. My body gives in to him before my mind finally accepts that it’s safe to do the same.
“Eyes on me, sweetheart.”
His voice draws my attention back to him before I notice I’ve looked away. My gaze finds his, and the smile that spreads across his face is so warm it steals what little breath I have left.
“There you are,” he murmurs, his thumb stroking slow circles against the inside of my thigh while his eyes never leave mine. “That’s my beautiful girl. I need you to stay with me, okay? Tell me what feels good.”
“Harder. Faster,” I respond as I clench around him.
He does exactly as I say, creating a rhythm that quickly sends me over the edge. I cry out in pleasure as my orgasm rips through me, every nerve ending lighting up at once. He doesn’t rush to get away from me when the last tremor fades. He lingers between my thighs for another heartbeat, pressing one last kiss against my skin, and the tenderness of it steals whatever breath I have left.
When he finally straightens, he trails slow kisses along the inside of my thigh, across my hip, and over the curve of my stomach until his mouth finds mine again. I open to him without thinking, my fingers slipping into his hair as I taste the lingering sweetness of the kiss. When we finally part, he rests his forehead against mine and brushes a loose braid back over my shoulder with a touch so gentle it almost undoes me.
He searches my face for a long moment, as though making sure the woman looking back at him is still the same one who chose to trust him. “You doing okay?”
I nod before I can find my voice. The corner of his mouth lifts, relief softening every line of his face as his thumb drifts once across my cheek. “Good. We can stop here if that’s what you want. We don’t have to go any further.”
I search his face, waiting for the hesitation I’ve been bracing myself for all night, but it never comes. “I don’t want to stop.”
His eyes drift closed for the briefest second before he opens them again, searching my face with the same care he’s shown me all night. “You don’t have to say that because of what I just did. That was enough for me.”
“I’m not.” My thumb brushes slowly over the rough stubble along his jaw, and I marvel at how familiar the gesture already feels. “I’m saying it because I want you.”
Disbelief flickers across his face. Maybe no one has chosen him without asking for something first either.
“This is only for tonight. Everything goes back to being complicated tomorrow.” I kiss him slowly before I whisper the only promise I know I can keep. “But even then, I still choose you.”
Wonder softens every line of his face until it steals the air from my lungs, and before I can say another word, he slips one arm beneath my knees and the other around my back as he lifts me off the counter.
“I can walk.”
His smile brushes against my hair before he answers. “I know, but I want to carry you.”
My arms find their way around his neck, and I let my head rest against his shoulder, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my cheek. Every step down the hallway feels impossibly certain, and it occurs to me that home has never been a place.
Maybe it’s the feeling of finally letting someone hold the weight I’ve been carrying for far too long.
Chapter Six
Jubal
Her weight settles fully against me as I carry her through the bedroom doorway. The difference is minor, no more than the warm press of her cheek against my shoulder, yet some of the tension I’ve carried since she kissed me in the kitchen finally eases.
I slow my pace as we approach my bed instead of lowering her onto it, unwilling to decide where she belongs simply because she trusted me enough to let me bring her here. Her head lifts when my footsteps stop, and the question in her eyes makes me tighten my hold for one instinctive second before I force myself to release it.
“I’m going to put you down.”
