Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
The hard planes of his chest beneath my fingers coupled with his sensual tongue against my lips have my skin buzzing and my thoughts tumbling end over end.
I caress over his muscular shoulders and arch closer. The contact of my breasts against his chest and the firm ridge of his erection meeting where I’m starting to throb make us both groan.
Though only a few layers of fabric separate us, there’s no mistaking the heat growing between us, or his desire. It’s a powerful, rich feeling to be wanted like this. One I haven’t felt in so long. A whimper leaves my lips and I shift closer, already needing more.
He caresses up my thighs, under my dress, hooking his thumbs under the sides of my panties. “I need to make you come.”
My clit throbs with a needy ache and I suck in a breath.
“Is that okay?” he asks.
He must have mistaken the surprise on my face for apprehension. “Yes.”
After sliding the fabric past my hips, he shifts backwards to get them past my knees.
The brush of his calloused fingers combined with the silky fabric gliding over my skin creates the most delicious sensation.
The few times in my life where someone has undressed me, the act was hurried.
An obstacle to deal with. For Linden, it doesn’t feel that way at all.
The possibility that he wants to make this last creates a hot ache inside my heart.
“Already so messy for me, aren’t you, sweetheart?” he asks, stroking up the inside of my thighs.
“It’s your fault.”
He gives a low hmmm . “Then I’d better do something about it.”
I can’t help my smile. “And soon, before I combust.”
He laughs, his eyes bright, almost electric.
Linden plants kisses at my knee, caressing higher with his big hands.
Heat blooms tight and desperate inside my core.
His lips are so soft. He peppers my skin with wet little kisses on his way up, slowly parting my thighs open.
Unable to keep from touching him, I run my fingers through his thick hair, then over his bare shoulder.
He tugs the hem of my dress free and glides both thumbs over my throbbing flesh. I jolt.
With a low groan, he parts me open with his tongue. My fingers tighten in his hair as a shock wave shoots up my spine.
He buries his face between my legs, his lips sensual and his tongue slick and hot.
The pleasure is exquisite, intense. I open my thighs to get more of him everywhere, and he gently urges me back. “Fuck, you taste good,” he says on a groan.
He teases my clit, gentle at first, then harder, like he knows exactly how to tangle up every nerve ending into a buzzing, desperate knot. Stars burst apart behind my eyes. “Ohh.” I stuff my fist in my mouth, but Linden reaches up and draws my hand away.
“Let me hear you,” he says, easing one finger inside me.
My body starts to tremble. His warm, wet tongue is relentless and his thick finger stokes my inner fire, coaxing me to the brink.
I start to rock with him, panting, my fingers gripping the comforter.
Linden’s mouth and soft tongue glide and tease while his finger strokes a greedy, tender ache inside me, sending me flying over the edge.
Liquid heat rolls through me so fast I have to close my eyes.
I cry out, so lost to this intense form of pleasure there’s no way to hold anything back.
When finally I come down, gasping, my body limp against the bed, he’s releasing the tie of my dress. I comb through his hair as he kisses up my stomach and draws my dress open, the silk gliding across my hot skin, exposing me.
He pauses to take me in, his gaze reverent, serious, my arousal still wetting his lips. “You’re so beautiful.”
I give him a lazy smile.
He scoops under my back and slides the dress up and off, then shifts me to the middle of the bed and settles next to me, perched on his side.
He caresses up my thighs in one long stroke, spreading his big hand, like he wants as much contact with my skin as he can get.
He moves up my belly, over the center of my bra, then back down, his touch languid, the added friction of his callouses creating a current of desire beneath my skin.
So much for catching my breath.
I roll closer and capture his lips between mine. He releases a slow sigh and leans in to kiss me back, his full lips and soft tongue sealing mine with such tenderness and care, such focus. He strokes down my side, over the arch of my hip, and along my thigh, then back up.
“Can I touch you?” I ask, risking the brush of my fingers down his arm, then up his chest. He’s all warm skin and smooth, hard planes, lean and taut and strong.
“Yeah, shortcake,” he says, lifting my fingertips to his lips. “You can touch me.”
I roll him to his back and snug up against him on my side and caress his broad chest and down his middle. He tugs my top thigh over his and continues stroking. Up and down. Slow, unhurried while I want to touch him everywhere at once. How can that be when he’s the one yet to be satisfied?
“This okay?” I ask, stroking back and forth across the firm planes of his abs.
“I’d tell you if it wasn’t.” His calm gaze finds mine in the darkness. I slip his belt from the clasp, the buckle clattering as I free it, my anticipation making my fingers tremble and renewed heat ignite in my core.
Is it possible to do this wrong? I don’t want to feel like that right now, but I can’t deny the need to please him.
Especially with what I think I’m starting to understand about him—he may not have a problem with intimacy, or dancing, or carrying me down a mountain, but he has some very firm boundaries when it comes to people in his space, or sharing personal details about himself.
It makes me want to give him the best version of myself.
Like a welcome mat with the door wide open.
I manage the button with one hand and slide his zipper down.
“Hey, you’re shaking,” Linden says, slipping his fingers beneath mine and bringing them back to the middle of his chest.
I force out a breath. “I’m fine. Really.”
He rolls sideways, concern etching his face. “Meg. Don’t lie to me.”
I bite back the words of reassurance already forming on my tongue because ouch . The way this man sees though me is unnerving, but he’s also…right.
And I don’t want to lie to him.
“I’m not good in bed,” I blurt.
His eyes cloud with confusion, but his expression quickly softens. He brushes the side of my cheek with his knuckle. “Who told you that?”
I blink. This isn’t what I expected him to say. “It wasn’t ever said out loud. ”
His lips tense in a grimace. “But you were made to believe it, weren’t you?”
I shrink away from the memories starting to unspool because I don’t want to go there. “Sometimes I can’t…get to the finish line.”
He arches an eyebrow. “You knocked it outta the park just a few minutes ago.”
I can’t help but smile. “During sex.”
“That’s not your fault, Meg.” The amusement is gone from his eyes. “Whoever made you feel that way was a shitty partner.”
I nod. Deep down I sense this must be true. I’m not na?ve when it comes to understanding the mechanics . But my experience with Russel made this feel like an unreachable goal.
“What did you try?” Linden asks, caressing over my hip and down my thigh with his big hand, his touch soothing and gentle.
“Try?”
Recognition flashes in his eyes. “Yeah. It’s called communication. One person asks for what they need and the other person works to give it to them.”
“It wasn’t like that with Russel.”
“So he didn’t listen? Or you didn’t tell him what you need?”
“It was so easy for him. He never had a problem.”
Linden rubs down his chin, and then his dark eyes laser in on me. “First off, you don’t have a problem, so I need you to get that out of your head, starting now.”
I meet his stern gaze. It’s easy to believe him, so why not give myself permission to do just that? At least for this moment.
“Second, it was selfish of him not to put your enjoyment first.”
“He tried.”
Linden gives a frustrated sigh. “Obviously not hard enough.”
He slips off his pants and sets them aside, then draws me on top of him like a human blanket. His skin is warm and the planes of his muscular body feel so incredibly good beneath me. Strong and steady. A bright wave of heat unfurls inside me, radiating pleasure like a sudden burst of sunshine.
“I didn’t mean to kill the mood,” I say with a heavy sigh.
He caresses down my back, over my ass to the backs of my thighs, then back up in that same unhurried way. It’s soothing yet somehow stokes the cravings building inside me.
“You trusting me with this is no mood killer.” He combs through my hair and brushes it to one side, then lifts my chin. “It’s the opposite. I want you to feel safe with me, Meg.”
I smile. “I do.”
He leans up and kisses my forehead. “Anytime you want to share, I’m here for it.”
“You can trust me, too.”
He gives me a hint of a smile, but there’s an edge of something I can’t place in his eyes. It’s that invisible barrier again. Or is it a shadow of doubt, even fear?
With a sigh, I rest my cheek on his chest and stroke his shoulder while he caresses up and down my body.
His erection beneath his soft cotton briefs presses against my bare flesh, thick and firm.
There’s no mistaking his state of readiness, or his size.
Two things that should not make the hollow between my legs cramp with longing, and yet, my heart is thudding into my ribs and anticipation is galloping through my bloodstream.
I shift a little lower, parting his thighs with my knees, then plant a kiss in the center of his chest. Moving an inch at a time, I close my eyes and savor the softness of his skin and the gentle glide of his fingers through my hair while I caress and kiss my way down.
The lower I go, the warmer his body and the more urgent my hunger becomes.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me, Meg,” he says, tilting my chin so our eyes lock.