Chapter 42
Chapter forty-two
Zac
She could have been injured. Could have died. Zac could have been crushed by that chunk of granite. Every single worst-case scenario filtered through his mind at an alarming rate. What would a world be like without her in it? Without tasting her lips and feeling her pressed against him?
He lived the last sixteen years without her.
Because he’d left her.
Selfish, selfish prick that he was, he’d made the call to dip out and live a life devoid of her beauty. Her passion. Her heart.
He’d done it to himself.
And so he decided to do this for himself now. Decided to be selfish yet again. But this time, he’d have her. Delight in her comfort.
Because fuck it, they were alive. And the world would be less bleak with her still in it.
Zac’s lips descended on Tabitha’s as though he’d find the answer to the meaning of life there.
He pressed his tongue into her mouth with a needy desperation and to his delight she responded in kind.
That sweet taste of dried apricots had his head swimming with lust and called focus to the restricting nature of his climbing harness.
God, he needed it off. But he needed more of her first.
He swiftly flicked open her helmet clasp and removed the safety equipment from her head.
Instead of tossing it aside carelessly, he placed it down with reverence—he nearly kissed it—because it had helped keep his woman safe when she’d taken that whipper up top.
He removed his as well and placed it beside hers.
She smirked curiously at his actions, but he didn’t even consider embarrassment.
Gratitude overshadowed it all.
“I’m suddenly a big fan of safety,” he teased, closing the distance to her smiling lips. He cradled her jaw with both hands, tilting her chin up to sink deeper into her mouth.
Tabitha snaked her hands around his ribs and gripped his shirt. She pulled him closer, pressing her body against his. Pressing her figure eight knot and his Grigri hard between their harnesses.
Time out.
Zac pulled back and was punished with her forlorn whimper.
“I know, tabby cat.” Nimble fingers wrenched on her knot—which had tightened fiercely with her falls—to free her from the obstructing gear.
As he worked the knot, she unhooked the belay device from his harness, accidentally brushing his dick as it strained against the confines of his harness and zipper. She grinned wickedly.
Ok, not-so-accidentally, then?
Finally, the tangled rope gave way, and he pulled her free. Her harness was next. Once loosened, it fell to her feet with a satisfying thud. The squeeze of her hands on his shoulders made him hum with pleasure as she stepped out of the loops and buckles.
Zac scooped Tabitha into his arms, delighting in her yelp of surprise, and hauled her away from the flaked rope and strewn climbing gear. He set her gently on one of the boulders at the opposite side of the ledge and knelt to remove her climbing shoes.
His long fingers snaked around one ankle while he released the tidy bow she’d tied after lunch, before she’d started up the third pitch of the day. The pit of his stomach welcomed his heart as it dropped.
She could have died.
“Are you ok?” Tabitha’s voice was a soothing balm, calling him back from lingering fear. When he didn’t look up at her right away, she reached for his face with both hands. Bent forward, she placed a gentle kiss on his knitted brow.
“You could have—”
“But I didn’t,” she reassured and kissed one cheekbone just above his beard.
“I could have lost—”
“But you didn’t.” She kissed the other. “Look at me, Zac.”
He complied, but not before blinking away the visible signs of his anguish a few times. Tears glistened in her wide, sky-blue eyes too. Were they from fear? Relief?
“We are alive.” She sniffled but gave him a hiccupy grin. “And do you know what I want?”
“To say fuck climbing?” he teased.
“No,” she giggled. “More than anything, I want you. Now. Here.”
He needed no more coaxing. Zac returned to her other shoe and removed the snug footwear.
Much like in his van, he kissed up the inside of one leg and then down the other while never extending up past the bottom of her barely there shorts.
Did she know how the little black spandex things killed him?
He liked to think she wore them specifically to torture him.
In retribution, he nipped at the back of her knee.
She squirmed as his coarse beard tickled her sensitive skin.
He grinned at the press of her knees as she instinctively tried to squeeze them together.
But he held her wide. Open to him so he could finish what he started in his bed the day before.
“Stand up, tabby cat,” he demanded hoarsely.
He didn’t wait for her to follow directions but instead slid his hands beneath her ass and lifted her upright. She stumbled forward a little and found his shoulders once again for balance.
“That’s right. Hold on to me. I’ll support you long after your legs have given up.”
She looked down at him curiously. His wink was the only warning as he slid her too-tiny shorts down past her curved hips, past her knees, and to her slim ankles. After freeing each foot, he lifted the shorts and noticed her skimpy panties had come along for the ride.
He pulled out the lacy blue cheekies and grinned wolfishly at her.
“Oops,” she said before he could, lust blowing her pupils to consume the blue irises that perfectly matched the color of the undies dangling from his finger.
Zac groaned. At her playful murmur? The press of his erection against his zipper?
The sight of his leggy goddess standing before him with a patch of auburn curls hovering just above her bare pussy?
All of it. His groan should have lasted an hour to express the tension and need sweeping through his body.
Fabric tossed aside, Zac slid up the inside of her long, perfect legs and teased her seam with the blunt tips of his fingers.
“Is this what you want?” His words puffed out as a husky breath against her belly.
“For starters,” she purred, still slightly bent forward, bracing, squeezing her fingers against his bunched shoulders.
“Anything for you, tabby cat.”
He teased and reveled in her wetness. He wasn’t even inside of her and already she was primed enough for his cock.
No question about it. Instead, he slid his finger to find her clit.
He swore she pulsed for him, but maybe that was her body shuddering as he circled and teased the sensitive spot.
Her hips rocked, antsy and wanton. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what she wanted.
And his suspicions were confirmed as he slid two fingers deep inside of her in one press and her knees buckled.
“Lean on me as much as you need.” He looked up to her, locked eyes. “Because I’ve barely started.”
She couldn’t respond. She was too busy rolling her eyes to the back of her head as he flexed those two fingers inside her snug warmth while simultaneously grazing his thumb back and forth on her clit.
He increased the speed, increased the pressure, all in time to the sexy little mewls and gasps that kept popping out of her mouth.
Zac’s chest heaved with every breath. He was so keyed up from her sounds, to the wetness dripping down his fingers, to the heady scent of her so close to him.
He had to dip his head and let his tongue take the workload away from his thumb.
And he grinned against her soft, sweet skin as she wailed in response to his licks and sucks.
She was heaven on his lips and wicked sin pulsing around his fingers, and the only concern in his mind was whether he should make her come this way or make her wait.
But when a little plea escaped her lips, breathy and desperate, he knew he’d die before denying her the release.
So, he upped the speed, upped the pressure, upped the fervor with which he feasted until she had no choice but to grind against his face and plummet over the edge of her climax.
She shuddered and screamed all kinds of obscenities in a voice Zac barely recognized as he eased her down the other side with sweet kisses and gentle sweeps.
His arm bracing beneath her ass tremored from fatigue as she collapsed against him.
Zac chuckled. “Oh no you don’t, woman. I’m not even halfway done with you yet.”