Chapter 40 #2
“What’s the time?” he asks.
“Getting on four o’clock.”
“It will be another hour or so until the club girls start making dinner. I can wait until then.” When I bite my lip, he notices.
“Ames, I get you don’t want to face them.
I’ll text the prospect to bring us some food.
” He’s right. I don’t want to see them, especially knowing they got into trouble last night.
They’ll probably blame me for telling on them.
But then thoughts about myself fade, as his brow furrows, and for a moment he seems lost in thought.
“What’s up?
“We can’t keep staying here. Freak only said we can stay for another night.” He shudders as he lets breath out.
I remember something he’d told me. “You said you had a house?”
His lips press together. “I do, but I only just bought it. It needs a ton of work to make it habitable, new wiring for a start.” An apologetic look comes over his face. “We might have to go to my room in the bunkhouse.”
“I don’t mind where we are.” As long as I’m with him. Part of me feels responsible for looking after him now. It’s not only that my feelings have again softened toward him, but that it’s my fault he was hurt. If it wasn’t for me, Malachi would never have had reason to harm him.
His eyes narrow as he looks toward me. “There’s only a shared bathroom.”
“I can make do. But it will be harder for you.”
“I’ll manage.” He taps the side of the bed. “Come lie with me.”
The corners of my mouth turn up. “Not looking to get frostbite.” I pull up a chair to the side of the bed and sit on that instead. When he reaches out his hand, I take it in mine.
After a moment, he turns wistful. “I wish we never had to leave the cabin.”
“We were always going to have to come back to real life.” But I know how he feels. After we’d gotten over the initial awkwardness, it had been comfortable and easy being together.
He tries to shift position and grimaces, his face looks strained, his forehead creased. I move my hand to gently stroke his cheek, and he leans into my touch. For minutes we don’t speak. Until I glance at his clock and see that the twenty minutes are up.
I stand. “I’ll keep the ice wrapped in the sheets. Hopefully it will stay cold enough to use again in a couple of hours.”
“Ames?”
“Yeah, Flynn?”
He gives a small shake of his head. “Not what I was going to say, but I love that you’ve started using my name again.” Holding out his hand for me to take, he explains, “My legal name’s just for you. I wouldn’t want anyone else to use it.”
I think that’s the point when the ice the club girls had caused to form around my heart melts completely. No one has ever made me feel special before. I wouldn’t have thought it would only take just one syllable.
He grimaces again. I go to ask what I can do for his pain, when he places his one good arm beneath him and slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position. I rush in and prop pillows behind him.
“Fuck, but I’m useless. Right now, I can barely sit up by myself, and I can’t do any of the things I want to do.”
“What is it you want to do?” I’m ready to help.
His eyes find mine. “Kiss me, Ames.”
My hands flutter. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
He sounds so sure that I sit on the bed, and lean my head toward him.
Bracing myself by placing my hand on the headboard, I lean down and let my mouth touch his.
His working arm comes out to hold my head to him.
His lips open, I slide mine over them. In that moment I realise that this is what I’ve been missing.
And when he frees his other arm from the sling to have more control, I haven’t got it in me to protest. Instead, as our tongues meet and dance, I lose myself.
This, this is what he’s never given to anyone else.
Or, at least not the club whores. This part of him is all mine.
I love the way he’s fisting his hands in my hair, how he sucks my tongue into his mouth and then releases it, and I feel his chuckle as I try to mimic his action.
It makes me smile and lean further into him. It’s as if we share breath.
My breasts start to feel heavy, my inner core clenches. It’s so fucking unfair, I want more, but he’s in no position to give it to me.
Feeling me tense, his lips more a fraction of an inch away from mine. “What’s wrong?”
Mulishly, I complain, “I hate that you’re so badly injured.”
“Darlin’.” I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Am I having the same effect on you that you’re having on me?
” For an answer, I hide my face in his unharmed shoulder.
It’s one thing to think it, quite another to admit.
And truthfully, I’ve no words to describe how I’m feeling.
Again he chuckles softly, the sound vibrating through me.
“Babe, I worried that my cock might be dead, but if he was, you’ve revived him.
Which is a fuckin’ miracle given the way I’m feeling. ”
He removes one of his hands from my head, and takes hold of one of mine. Then he moves our joined hands down his body. I feel the muscular ridges of his stomach, but still he sinks lower. And then, something very erect and hard gets in my way. I blush like the inexperienced woman I am.
“You can touch me,” he rasps.
Nervous, through the sheet, I shape my fingers around him.
I’ve seen plenty of bulges in pants before, and pictures that suggested what was under them.
But I’ve never held a man’s dick. It’s harder than I expected, more like steel than flesh.
And the sharp intact of his breath tells me I’m either doing something wrong or something very right.
Hoping it’s the latter, I tighten my fingers and move them up and down.
Suddenly he snarls. “This isn’t working.”
I pull my hand away, and bite my lip. Well, what did he expect? I’m a novice.
“Lay down beside me Ames, if you’re touching me, I want to touch you too.”