Chapter 27
The look in Ethan’s eyes made her belly tighten. Paisley stood before him in her underwear and let him look at her. She was still reeling over his declaration of love. It’s what she’d always wanted. Ethan Snow in love with her. A future with him.
The love inside her swelled until it hurt.
There was fear, because there always was, but that was about losing what she’d only now gained.
She could hear Trey’s voice chipping away at her confidence years ago, undermining her, emphasizing that Ethan didn’t care about her, had only been biding his time, and wasn’t ever coming back.
Trey said it and she believed it. Not that she would ever believe his lies again, but she feared he’d do something worse. He wouldn’t settle for dividing them with words this time.
Ethan took her hand and tugged her to him, then slid his fingers down her abdomen. “I wish I’d seen you pregnant with Violet. I wish I’d been there for you.”
Tears pressed hard against her eyelids but she wouldn’t let them fall. “I wish you had, too.”
He dropped to his knees in front of her and pressed his mouth to her belly, his hands shaping her waist before going around to cup her ass.
Paisley moaned from all the electric tension zipping through her body.
It gathered beneath his mouth when he pressed it to her skin, making her gasp and curl her fingers in his hair.
“I want to go slow, but not sure how that’s gonna work,” he said before dragging her panties down her hips and pressing his mouth to her mound. When his tongue slid into the seam of her sex, her knees nearly buckled. It was only because of Ethan that she stayed upright.
“Need you on the bed, Payz. Legs spread, ass on the edge.”
She did what he said, her heart throbbing with anticipation. If she’d never been with him before, maybe she’d be shy, but this was Ethan.
Ethan.
The man she thought she’d never see again. The man she’d never stopped loving.
“I’ve dreamed of this,” he said, anchoring his arms on the bed and pushing her legs open with them.
His gaze fixed on her pussy. When they’d been together before, she’d shaved down there, thinking it sexy and enticing, but these days she was too busy surviving and taking care of her kid to spend time doing anything more than making sure things weren’t a jungle.
Ethan lifted his gaze as if he knew what she was thinking about, the heat in his eyes making her heart flip.
“I like what I see, babe.” He lowered his head, his eyes never leaving hers, his tongue gliding into her seam and over her clit.
“Oh my God,” she gasped.
He spread her with his thumbs and licked her teasingly. “You taste the way I remember. Sweet, salty, and so fucking good.”
“Ethan…”
He stopped teasing and attacked, his tongue gliding expertly over the bundle of nerves, down to slide into her, then back again. He built her up with that maddening tongue, knowing just when to glide away and nibble something else—and for how long—before he returned to build the tension again.
When he slid two fingers into her, she moaned and curled toward him to grip his hair. She was a wild woman, chasing her pleasure, rocking her hips to direct the tension where she wanted it, squeezing her inner muscles around his fingers.
She hadn’t felt this good in forever. She’d slept with Trey once before they married, and then not again until after Violet was born. She’d cried the first time and he hadn’t taken it well. He didn’t hit her then, but he said cruel things.
He never made her come. Not once. It was like he didn’t care.
But Ethan…. Oh lord, Ethan.
She was so close. She wanted it badly, but she also didn’t want it to end.
Right now, she could pretend the world didn’t exist. But the instant she came and the tension left her body, a different kind of tension would take up residence.
The relentless kind that made her stomach knot and fear settle into her soul.
No.
No, she wasn’t going to think about that. Life was meant to be lived every moment. It was meant to be lived right now. Worrying about the future was normal, but she wasn’t going to let it steal her joy in this moment. It was wrong to do so.
Ethan changed the rhythm of his fingers in her body, his tongue circling ever tighter around her clit. She was panting, gasping, making noises she hadn’t made in years.
And then he sucked on her clit, hard enough to make her see stars—and her body imploded.
She came with a sob, her legs shaking as she held on to the edge of her pleasure and tried to make it last. When she lay back on the bed, breathing hard and blinking away tears, he started the build again.
It didn’t take long before she was riding the wave, her body shaking apart as he worked her with this fingers and mouth.
“I-I can’t do it again,” she cried when she finally made her voice work.
“I think you can, baby,” he growled. “Come for me, Payz. One more time, and then I’m gonna make you do it again with my cock instead of my tongue.”
He was relentless, licking and sucking and fucking her with his fingers until her entire body was strung tight like a guitar string. Then it snapped and her orgasm reverberated through her with such power she didn’t think she could move for a week.
Ethan stood and dragged off his shirt while she watched. When his arms lifted over his head and the fabric revealed his chest, she cried out.
“You still have it.” There was wonder in her voice.
He glanced down at the ink on his chest, and the red heart nestled in its midst. It was the same as the one on the inside of her wrist.
“Of course I have it,” he said, his voice raspy and rough.
She got up and went to him, ran her hands over his torso, traced the heart. Then she kissed it, and he groaned.
The fire in her body kindled again. Her pussy was soaked, her nipples tingled, and she needed this man inside her before she died.
But there was something she needed to do first. She unzipped his jeans and pushed them down until he kicked them free and stood completely naked, his body the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
Ethan was muscled, golden, with scars and tattoos and a relentless fire in his eyes that said he’d seen much and survived much.
When she dropped to her knees, he made a sound in his throat. She tipped her head back to gaze up at him.
“I want this,” she said, wrapping her hands around his cock.
He hissed in a breath as she ran one hand down the length of him and caressed his balls. They tightened as she played with them, but Ethan stood stock still, staring down at her, that fire in his eyes growing hotter by the minute.
When she licked around the head of his cock, his balls responded. And when she slid him into her mouth, his head tipped back, his throat moving as he swallowed.
That was all the encouragement she needed. She took him to the back of her throat, moaning, feeling the vibration ricochet down his shaft and into his balls.
He cupped the back of her head, held her gently while she sucked him, little hisses and gasps issuing from his throat regularly.
She would have taken him over the edge that way, but he stopped her by hooking his hands under her arms and tugging her up. Then he claimed her mouth, gripped her ass in two big hands, and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and he walked them to the bed, their mouths locked together.
“I’ve got no finesse left,” he said as he tumbled her onto the bed.
“I don’t want finesse,” she whispered against his lips. “I want you wild.”
His cock pressed at her opening. She shifted enough to let him in—and the world shrank to a pinpoint as he invaded her body.
It was a good invasion. A perfectly pleasure-inducing one.
She’d loved sex with Ethan the few times they’d been together.
She’d always been somewhat reserved and shy, but never with him.
He made her feel like she could ask for what she wanted, like she could be as dirty or as tame as she liked, and he would be right there with her.
In all her daydreams about him lately, she’d thought she would want sweet and hot.
But she ached and craved and needed. She wanted him raw and wild, wanted him hard and fast. She wanted to feel pleasure so hot it bordered on hurt.
She needed to erase the pain and anger of a life with Trey.
Not that one sexual encounter with the love of her life could manage that, but it was a good start.
“Please, Ethan,” she begged. “No finesse. I need you. I won’t break, and I’m not afraid of you. You would never hurt me.”
“Jesus, no,” he said, dropping his mouth to hers again. “I love you, Paisley Rose. You’re my world.”
Joy was a hot, achy thing in her chest. “I love you, too.”
He moved slowly at first, testing her limits—and his too, probably—before the restraints fell away and he slammed into her body with all the strength and power of a warrior. She spread her legs wide, her ankles in the air, her body taking everything he had to give and wanting more.
They moved together like a well-oiled machine, bodies straining, sliding across the bed.
The headboard whacked the wall, the bed creaked, and Paisley hooked her ankles around his legs to hold on.
Ethan pushed up on his hands and thrust deep, his cock swelling inside her.
Her orgasm broke over her, her body shuddering in bliss, his name a sharp cry on her tongue.
She knew the moment he broke, too. Her pulsed inside her, jet after jet of hot semen coating her walls. She was still coming when he bent to kiss her.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered.
All she could do was kiss him back. Words were impossible.