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We’d been burning the candle at both ends the last few weeks, and she was exhausted, so I let her sleep. Things would only get busier, which wouldn’t help with my desire to learn everything I could about her, but I would take every chance I could to spend time with her. I wanted to know what it was like growing up in a Cuban American family and about the volunteer opportunities she’d worked before coming to Bells Pass.
Maybe that was the opposite of no strings attached, but neither of us appeared to be very good at that in practice. Our jobs taught us emotional distance, but we didn’t appear to be great at applying it to our personal life. Did I still feel the need to protect her? Yes, even if I didn’t know why. Was she the best part of my day? Yes. Every second we spent together at work was so easy and comfortable that I often felt like we weren’t even working.
Lately, she was the best part of my nights too. I didn’t want to admit it but I had no idea how I would sleep when she returned to her bed—and I had no doubt she would. A woman like Hazel wouldn’t be satisfied with a life like this for very long. Eventually, she’d be ready to move on and leave Bells Pass in her rearview mirror. I didn’t know how to deal with that so I chose not to think about it. Instead, I thought about her lips on mine and the feel of her hair twined between my fingers.
“Are you going to stare at me all night?”
“Shh, go back to sleep,” I whispered.
Those blue eyes popped open. “Not until you do.”
I gathered her into my arms and kissed the top of her head. “That might not happen, but I’ll hold you while you sleep.”
When she flipped around, she assessed me momentarily before speaking. “Does something feel off? Are you uncomfortable?”
“Yes,” I whispered, leaning down for a kiss. After a short peck to her lips, I kept my mouth close to hers when I spoke. “I feel off when you’re not with me. I fear I’m going to be terribly uncomfortable when you stop sleeping in my bed.”
The smile that tipped her lips was brighter than the moon. She was sleepy and sexy and the combination was making me want far more from her than I ever had the right to ask for in this life. “Guess I’ll just have to keep sleeping here then. I don’t want you to be terribly uncomfortable.”
“Your kindness is always at the forefront of everything you do,” I said with a wink before I closed the gap again and kissed her like a man obsessed with the taste of her. The soft moan that filled the room had me pulling her to me until she was straddling me and taking control of the kiss. I was sure I was going to combust from the heat of our tongues lashed together, but at the last moment, she trailed kisses down my jaw to my ear where she playfully nipped at my lobe. “Hazel,” I moaned, guiding her lips back to mine. “I yearn for your touch even if I get burned.”
“You won’t,” she promised before her lips were back on mine in a tangle of tongues that added fuel to the flames. She ground her hips against me until more than just my lips burned for her. “Oops,” she said, cocking her lips in a smile that told me it was no accident. “I caused a problem.”
“In my opinion,” I moaned against her lips. “That’s a good problem to have.”
She slipped her hand down my chest and across my hardness. My sleep pants allowed just enough heat from her hand to reach my skin and remind me I was still alive and wanted this woman. She broke the kiss long enough to sit up on her knees and grasp the bottom of her sleep shirt. With a brow in the air, she slowly lifted the hem, revealing her creamy skin a little at a time until her nipples peeked at me from the perfect mounds on her chest. They puckered slowly as the cool air hit them, but all I could do was gaze at her. It wasn’t until she took my hands and placed them at her waist that the spell was broken. “Touch me, Irving.”
Permission granted, I slid my hands up her waist to her ribs and ran my thumbs across the edges of her breasts. “You’re so gorgeous, Hazel Cane,” I whispered, right before my lips found a nipple to tease and taunt. Her sharp intake of breath told me that was exactly what she wanted, so I spread the love to both breasts before returning to her lips for a scorching kiss of need and desire. With my hands on her breasts and her tongue in my mouth, I had to wonder if internal combustion was a real thing. If it was, I was going to die a happy man.
As we kissed, she slowly worked my shirt up until she lifted her lips long enough to pull it over my head. The cool air teased my skin, immediately followed by her warm hands tracing the hard lines of my chest. “Irving,” she whispered against my lips. “I knew you were ripped, but…”
“It’s out of necessity, not vanity,” I assured her, nuzzling her neck and placing a kiss below her ear.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor,” she moaned, dropping her head back as I kissed my way down her throat to suckle her nipple.
My laughter vibrated against her skin and she moaned again. “I won’t stop you.”
She took a tour of my chest then, kissing, nipping, and tracing each muscle with her tongue until I was sure she’d mapped out my physique to memorize in her mind. It wasn’t until her hands tugged at the waistband of my pants that my anxiety overruled the sensations surrounding me and brought me back to earth.
I grabbed her hands to stop her. “What are you doing?”
“Getting to the good stuff?” she asked, a brow in the air.
“But we aren’t prepared for that.”
“Do we need more preparation than you, me, and how we feel together?”
The question was genuine so I decided to answer it with honesty. “I’m not like most men. You’ve seen my legs, they aren’t attractive.”
“I’m not worried about your legs, Irving. My focus is a little higher up.” She toured my erection again, caressing, squeezing and rubbing her thumb across the tip until I wanted to come right there under the pressure from her hand.
I forced my eyes open so I could try to explain what worried me. “My catheter is still hooked up to the night bag and I don’t have any of my equipment ready.”
“Leave your catheter alone. It’s not in the way, and as far as I can tell, the only equipment we need is already ready and willing. Trust me, Irving.”
She didn’t give me a chance to answer before she pulled my lounge pants down and off. Every part of me screamed to put them back on and shield myself from the pain of disappointment and rejection. Instead, I tightened my fists around the bed sheet, determined to fight my way through the anxiety of shame as she drank me in head to toe. She lowered her lips to my right knee and kissed her way up my thigh.
I grasped her hair to stop her. “Hazel. I can’t feel anything down there.”
