44. Dallas
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Dallas
I kiss her.
I kiss her with the kind of hunger that leaves no room for misunderstanding.
She melts for a second.
Just one.
Then she bites my bottom lip like she’s claiming territory and drags me with her, stumbling us backward until my knees hit the couch and she lands beneath me with a soft, surprised gasp.
Her legs spread for me instinctively.
I wedge a thigh between hers and press up, grinding her down against me, pinning her there like I’ve been waiting all night to finally let go.
She cries out, loud and raw.
“Keep making noises like that,” I growl into her mouth, “and the whole damn ranch is going to know exactly what I’m doing to you in here.”
She grabs my face with both hands.
“Then be quiet,” she whispers, breath hot and shaking. “Or don’t. I don’t care.”
Oh, help me.
My hand slides down her stomach, not wasting time with anything gentle.
Not tonight.
Not after the way she’s been unraveling me since the second we walked through the door.
Her hips jerk when my fingers find her. Hot and slick and so fucking ready.
I groan against her throat, the sound buried in her skin.
“Faith.”
“Dallas, please…”
She doesn’t know what that does to me.
Or maybe she does. Maybe she learned exactly how to ruin me, and now she’s using it like a weapon.
I stroke her slow at first, just to feel her go soft and desperate under me.
Her breath stutters, thighs tightening around my hand. Her back arches off the cushions like she’s offering herself to something bigger than both of us.
I bite her shoulder—a warning that I’m a second from losing the little restraint I have left.
“You have any idea,” I grind out, fingers moving faster now, deeper, “how hard it was to keep my hands off you tonight?”
She laughs breathlessly, the sound breaking into a moan.
“You like that?”
“Keep talking,” I whisper against her jaw, “and I’ll make you come before I even take you to the bedroom.”
Her hips snap upward, sharp, frantic.
She’s already so close.
I can feel it in every twitch of her muscles, every half-swallowed sound she tries and fails to keep quiet.
I curl my fingers just right, and she breaks. Her back bows, knees clamping around my arm, fists tangling in my shirt like she’s drowning and I’m the only air she has left.
“Dallas, oh my…”
I kiss her through it, swallowing her cry, holding her still so she doesn’t fall apart completely.
“Good girl,” I murmur against her lips, still stroking her slow and cruel. “I’m not done.”
Her breath is a broken rhythm against my mouth.
She clings to me like she’s trying to stay conscious.
I pull my hand free and lift her with me, her legs wrapping automatically around my waist as I carry her down the hall. She watches me the whole way. Eyes blown wide, lips parted, body still trembling.
“Bedroom,” I growl.
She nods, already gone.
I set her down on the bed, and she crawls into my lap like she was born for it, thighs straddling me, heat pressing over the hard line of my cock, and I swear I almost lose it right there.
I grip her waist, teeth clenched, breathing hard against her throat.
“You want this?” I rasp.
“Yes,” she breathes instantly. “I want you.”
No hesitation.
No doubt.
I guide her hips, line us up, and the second she sinks on me, slow, tight, so damn perfect, my head drops back with a curse.
“Faith…”
Her nails dig into my shoulders as she takes all of me, inch by inch, until she’s flush against me, trembling.
She leans forward, forehead to mine, breath mingling with mine.
“Don’t stop,” she whispers, smiling like she knows exactly what she’s doing to me.
I laugh once.
“Oh, sweetheart,” I say, gripping her hips, pulling her down harder. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Then I move with her.
Hard.
Deep.
The bed creaks under us, her voice breaking on my name, my own breath tearing out of me as I lose the last thread of control I’ve got.
“Dallas…”
I feel it hit her. I feel the shiver run through her, the moment her body tips over the edge…
And I follow her straight into it.
When the heat finally breaks, and the world slows back down, I don’t let go of her.
Not right away.
The storm’s passed, and now all that matters is keeping her still. She settles against me on the bed, bare legs tucked under her, cheek pressed to my chest as it’s the most natural place in the world.
Maybe it is.
I reach for the blanket and pull it around her shoulders. She sighs into it, the sound loosening a tightness in my ribs.
“Dallas,” she says quietly, testing the word now that everything’s changed.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve never had anyone…” She trails off, swallowing. “Not like this.”
Something heavy settles in my chest. Protective. Certain.
“You do now,” I say. “And you’re not alone here. Not on this ranch. Not with me.”
Outside, the wind moves through the trees, low and familiar. The house creaks the way it always does when the temperature drops.
Faith curls closer, her fingers gripping my shirt, anchoring herself.
“I don’t know how to do this,” she admits. “The staying. The choosing.”
I kiss the top of her head, slow and unhurried. “You don’t have to know yet.”
She exhales, forehead pressing into my collarbone. “I love you.”
I cup her face, make her look at me.
“I love you too,” I say with no hesitation.
Her smile is small and wrecked and beautiful.
She rests her head back against my chest, listening to my heartbeat, memorizing it. I keep my arms around her, solid and sure, while the ranch settles into the night.
It feels like home.