Chapter 10 #2
He chuckled. “Should I be worried about how interested you are in them?”
She rose onto her elbow and looked at him. “Mia and Bennett are like Romeo and Juliet, Carter. Everyone in town is that interested in them. I just have an inside track for intel. Will they?”
“Eventually. Ten years is a long time to be apart, even when you do love someone. Maybe especially when you love someone,” he answered. “They need to get comfortable with one another again, and they need to figure out how to be together without having to sneak around.”
There was a note in his tone, an implication that maybe they needed to work on that too. Josie sighed and let her head drop onto his chest again.
“I’m just as bad as everyone else in this town. Poking my nose into people’s business, asking questions about things that don’t concern me at all.”
“There’s a difference,” he said.
“How’s that?” she asked.
Carter dropped one leg over the side of the swing, pushing off again so it kept rocking gently.
“Because you care. You’re not asking because you want to see them fail.
You’re asking because you want to see them succeed.
You might be stubborn and ornery, you might have a temper like a wildcat, but you’re a good person, Josephine Marcum.
Not just surface good, but deep down where it counts. ”
Josie closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. She was all the things he’d said, every last one of them, and more. But he still believed that she was good. With Carter, she was always enough .
If they went public and told people they were together, how many of those people who’d reminded her all her life that she had so much to be grateful for would do the same thing again?
All of them. They’d talk about how handsome he was, how tall he was, and then they’d hint that maybe her children wouldn’t be midgets.
Or, heaven forbid, they failed epically in front of everyone.
Then she’d hear about how lucky she was to have dodged the bullet of being tied to a man like him.
“Do you ever just want to run away from here and go some place where no one knows a thing about you?” she asked.
He pushed the swing off again, pulled her tighter. “Every damn day.”
“Can we stay out here all night?” she asked. “Or are you working tomorrow?”
“No. I told Savannah I’d never work another Black Friday as long as I live. It’s going to get cold,” he warned.
“We have blankets…and body heat.” She waggled her eyebrows as she said it.
He laughed. “Don’t ever do that again. Please. I can’t unsee that.”
“It’s not sexy?” she asked, climbing on top of him. Straddling his hips, her hands flat on his chest, she looked down at him. “Would it be sexier if I did it sitting right here?”
He didn’t say anything, just settled his hands on her hips, tugging their bodies closer together, grinding against her. “You can do anything you want as long as you do it sitting right there.”
Josie unzipped her jacket and tossed it to the side.
The air was cool, but still mild enough.
Thankfully, all the rain had finally cleared.
She hadn’t really dressed for seduction.
Jeans, high-heeled boots, and a twin set didn’t exactly scream sex kitten.
With that thought in mind, she reached for the hem of her sweater, but he stopped her, his hands closing around her wrists.
“Unbutton it…slowly. One at a time.”
Josie smiled. “Any other requests?”
“That’ll do to start,” he answered.
Josie reached for the bottom button, working it free slowly.
His hands stroked her back, her hips, her ass.
He touched her everywhere except the places she needed to be touched most, but he didn’t want to hurry, and for a change, neither did she.
Carter had built them an oasis there in the woods, and it was magic.
No need to rush or hurry, no need to hide or sneak or pretend.
With the last button freed, she slipped the sweater off her shoulders and let it fall to the bed.
His hands moved from her hips to her waist, his thumbs sliding beneath the hem of the camisole she’d worn underneath.
Josie pulled the camisole over her head.
The contrast of cool air and his hot hands on her skin made her shiver.
“Too cold?” he asked.
“No…you make me shiver for a completely different reason,” she answered honestly.
He grinned at her then, the same sexy smirk that always made her either want to kiss him or choke him.
It was definitely the former that was on her mind.
Leaning forward, resting her weight on her palms, she pressed her lips to his.
She kissed him slowly, molding her lips to his, savoring the sensation of his beard against her skin, the slight clenching of his fingers on her thighs.
Josie licked his bottom lip, her tongue gliding over the curve of his mouth.
But Carter would never be a passive participant.
She was on top, but when he kissed her back, his mouth hot and hungry on hers, there was no denying that he was in control.
Her body melted against him, her breasts crushed against his chest, the hard ridge of his erection nestled at the apex of her thighs.
She wanted more. She wanted to be naked against him, to feel him moving inside her, easing the ache that he created.
Breaking the kiss, she drew back. “I need to get these boots off so I can get these damned pants off. Remind me to only wear skirts with you from now on.”
Carter simply pushed her off him and onto the bed, still on her stomach. “Lift your hips.”
She did, and he reached beneath her to unfasten her jeans. Within seconds, he had them yanked down to her knees. She felt him behind her, heard the rasp of his zipper, and then simply dropped her head to the mattress and moaned as he pushed into her.
It was like that every time. Right. Perfect.
Her mood didn’t matter, whether she wanted him to be tender or rough.
He just seemed to know without question what she needed from him.
And at that moment, he was moving achingly slow, sinking into her inch by inch, filling her up until she could do nothing but grip the bedding and sob his name.
“Josie, let go, baby,” he whispered, his hands stroking over her back, her hips. He was so tender and so gentle with her. “Let go.”
With his hands holding her hips steady, he set a slow but devastating rhythm—hard thrusts followed by an agonizingly slow retreat that only dragged out the pleasure.
Josie couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. Hell, she could barely breathe .
It was as if the entirety of her existence had narrowed to just the two of them.
His hands moved from her hips, coasting up her back, to her shoulders, and then down her arms. His hands covered hers, his breath hot against her neck as he kissed the tender spot where her neck and shoulder met.
When his teeth closed there, biting down just hard enough, she was simply lost. Her hips bucked beneath him.
Her eyes closed, and she literally saw stars as the pleasure exploded inside her, wave after wave of it.
He pumped his hips again, twice more, and then he stilled as well.
The weight of him was heavy on her, solid. But it felt good. It made her feel safe and protected, secure in a way that she rarely did.
She was in love with him.
It should have made her panic. It should have sent her running.
But lying there beneath him, listening to the sound of his breathing, feeling the soft stroke of his hand on her skin, she willed the fear away.
It would come back later, and it would be ugly.
But for now, she just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being in his arms in the small, perfect space he’d made for them.