Chapter Eight #2
“Beautiful.” He located the clasp and removed the garment.
Her breath caught when he spattered kisses over the tops of her breasts, then lower, sucking her nipples until she was moaning and writhing beneath him. Her legs parted instinctively, bringing him closer, his hard length pressing against her center.
“Decker…” She didn’t even know what she was begging for, just that it was more. With him, always more.
He groaned, sliding one hand down to pop the button of her jeans, then easing the zipper down. She lifted her hips in invitation, trembling as he dragged the denim down her thighs, taking her panties with them.
He pushed off the bed to tug off her cowgirl boots and remove his own heavy work boots.
Then his body covered hers again, warm and solid…and hers.
He stripped the rest of his clothes in a blur, and when he settled between her thighs, skin to skin, she nearly sobbed. His cock pressed against her slick entrance, thick and hard.
He stilled.
“Fuck, Willow. Condoms in the dresser,” he ground out, his forehead resting against hers, sweat already dampening his hairline.
She cupped his face. “Get one. Now.”
He leaped off the bed like it was burning. She watched his carved backside as he crossed the room in two strides and yanked open a drawer. In seconds he was back and sheathed. His lips landed on hers a split second before his body cloaked her.
She locked her thighs around him, urging him right where she wanted him.
With a guttural sound, he pushed into her, slow and careful, stretching her until she clutched at his shoulders with a gasp.
When he filled her to the root, he held himself still, letting her adjust, whispering against her lips. “You feel so damn good. So tight around me, love.”
Her body clenched, welcoming him, and when she rolled her hips in a silent plea, he gave her what she needed.
His thrusts were long and deep, each one shaking her to her core, stoking the fire higher. Their gasps and moans tangled and their kisses turned even more desperate as they rocked in a steady rhythm.
Willow’s nails dug into his back, pleasure rising inside her. “Decker! I can’t—”
“You can,” he gritted, pounding harder, his mouth catching her cries. “Come for me, love. I’ve got you.”
She stared into his eyes and shattered around him, her whole body bowing, stars exploding behind her eyes as wave after wave rolled through her. Decker followed with a harsh groan, driving deep, deeper, before spilling into her.
For a long moment, the only sound in the room was their ragged breathing. His weight settled on her, comforting, grounding. He kissed her softly, over and over, until her heartbeat slowed.
When he finally lifted his head, his gaze locked on hers, fierce and unguarded. “You’re mine now.”
Her smile trembled, tears pricking her eyes. “I’ve wanted to be yours for a long time.”
He gathered her close, wrapping her in his arms as if nothing—and no one—could ever take her away.
* * * * *
Decker returned from the bathroom and slipped into bed, reaching immediately for Willow.
He skimmed his fingertips over the curve of her waist, drawing lazy circles across her skin. Her cheek lay warm against his chest, and he bent to sweep a kiss over her temple—a slow graze that said all the things he couldn’t put into words.
“Hey,” she whispered, smiling against him.
“Hey,” he murmured back, voice husky with satisfaction and something deeper. His palm spread over her hip, thumb stroking absently. “You okay?”
“More than.” She shifted, gliding her thigh over his. “I didn’t know it could feel like that.”
His chest rumbled with a quiet laugh. “Me either.”
She tipped her face up. In the low lamplight, her eyes were huge, pupils blown, lashes spikey.
He couldn’t stop himself. He touched her mouth with his, just a press, tasting the afterglow still humming between them. When he pulled back, she chased him, giving him one more sip of a kiss that made his body tighten all over again.
She tucked herself closer, drawing idle patterns over the scars laddering his ribs, pausing on each one. He caught her hand and brought her knuckles to his mouth.
Then he stilled. “You’re shaking.”
“Happy shaking.”
He curled onto his side, gathering her in so her back fit his chest and his arm slung heavy over her waist. He pressed his mouth to the tender slope of her shoulder and just breathed her in—body wash and winter air and something that was only her.
They lay like that until the edge of urgency faded into a syrupy warmth. The silence wasn’t empty. It was thick with everything they hadn’t said yet, and everything they already had with hands and bodies and gasped-out pleas.
She rolled onto her back, looking up at him. “Can I tell you something?”
“You can tell me anything.”
“I was nervous,” she admitted. “Not about you. Just…first time with someone who matters. I didn’t want to mess it up. Or rush. Or make you…I don’t know. Feel like I was taking more than I was giving.”
He propped himself on his elbow, mouth curving at the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. “You didn’t take a damn thing from me I wasn’t begging to give you.” He kissed the corner of her mouth. “But I get it.” Another kiss, the other corner. “We have all the time we want.”
She breathed out, tension slipping away. He watched it leave her in a visible melting that made his throat burn. “Let me take care of you.”
“You already did.”
“Not like I want to.” His thumb traced the line between her ribs, then drifted lower, tracking her reaction to what he was doing. “I want to taste you.”
Her breath hitched. He felt the tremor zip through her belly into his palm. Those eyes went wide again. “Decker…”
“Say yes, love.” The endearment spilled out again.
Her teeth caught her lip and her nod was tiny and frantic. “Yes.”
He folded the sheet down, exposing her to the pale moonlight. He took his time—because he liked watching pleasure ripple over her beautiful face.
He kissed the inside of her wrist first, then the soft underside of her elbow. The place beneath her breast where her heartbeat stuttered fast. Each kiss coaxed a new sound from her—soft sighs, little broken hums that arrowed straight to his gut.
By the time he settled between her thighs, she was breathing like she’d run a mile up the mountain in the snow.
He hooked her knees over his shoulders and felt her heels brace at his back. “If anything’s too much,” he murmured, palms open on her hips, “you tell me.”
She threaded her fingers into his hair. “I’ll tell you if it’s not enough.”
“Good girl.” He kissed the sensitive crease where thigh met hip, then the other, until her hips tipped up on instinct, offering more. He nosed along her slick folds, the scent of her making his vision white out for a blink. Then he gave her the lightest stroke of his tongue and felt her jolt.
“Oh—” Her voice cracked. “Oh, that’s—”
He smiled against her…then got serious.
He licked her like he meant it, slow and deep, the weight of his tongue a steady rhythm that made her thighs shiver against his cheeks.
He learned her quickly—how she gasped when he circled lazily, how she moaned when he flattened his tongue and pressed in, how she choked on a curse when he sucked gently and slid two fingers inside, coaxing.
“Decker!” She gripped his hair, the sheet and anything she could catch. “I—please—don’t stop.”
He answered with a rough sound and doubled down, finding that perfect angle inside her while his mouth worked the tight, needy peak of her.
She was wetter now, passion rolling off her in waves.
Her hips began to move in small, helpless arcs that met his mouth like a question and an answer all at once.
“That’s it,” he rasped against her, the words vibrating where she was most sensitive. “Ride my mouth, love.”
She did. God, she did—shy at first, then bolder when he groaned approval, his hands anchoring her and giving her something to push against.
He flicked his gaze up to catch the exact instant she broke apart.
The tension wound her up tight, and she chased it, chased him, until her breath broke into ragged little sobs.
The moment came like a lightning strike—her spine bowed, thighs clamping tight around his head, a raw cry tearing from her throat as she shattered. He swallowed all of it, kept working her, guiding her down with soft laps and kisses.
When she finally collapsed, he pressed one last kiss to the inside of her thigh and crawled up her body, laying himself carefully over her so she could feel his weight and know she was held.
She laughed—soft and stunned. “I didn’t think it could get better.” She nipped his jaw. “It got better.”
“Good.” He nuzzled her.
She slid a palm between them, found him thick and heavy again against his abdomen. Her brows lifted. “Seems like you need something.”
His laugh came out broken. “You don’t have to—”
“I want to.” She wrapped her hand around him. “Decker?”
“Yeah,” he breathed, helpless already.
“Roll on your back.”
He obeyed, something warm sparking low in his gut at the command in her voice. She straddled his thighs and leaned forward to kiss him, slick heat teasing his length in a way that almost undid him. Her hair fell around them like a curtain. Her smile was wicked and soft all at once.
“I like taking care of you too.” She drew him through her wetness, the blunt head catching at her entrance.
His hands shot to her hips. “Willow—condom.”
“I’m on the pill. I’m clean. What do you think?” she murmured against his lips.
His fingers convulsed on her hips and he growled low in his throat. “I think you’re going to kill—”
She sank down an inch, tearing a moan at the same time. Another inch. He swore, fingers biting into her soft skin as he fought for control. She took him slow, the way he’d taken her, eyes never leaving his face as she seated him fully inside her.
“God,” he ground out, head falling back. “You feel…fuck!”
Her smile faded to a gasp as she rocked, rolling her hips in a way that had him seeing stars.
Then she set a rhythm, hips tilting to drag him along her deepest places, and he had to watch, had to see the way her mouth fell open, the way color bloomed high in her cheeks.
He slid one hand up her spine and into her hair, the other guiding her hips, the pace turning from gentle to urgent without either of them deciding it.
He lifted to meet her, plunging deeper, and her breath hitched. “There!”
He learned the exact angle that made her shiver. He thumbed her slick, sensitive bud, circling in time with their thrusts until she was shaking, hands braced on his chest.
“I’m close,” she whispered in a wrecked tone. “Decker, I’m—”
“Let go for me,” he said, every word a rasp. “Come on, love. Give it to me.”
Her second climax punched through her with a cry. She clenched around him, milking him so hard his vision went white.
He snapped, surging up to sit, arms banding around her as he drove into her in hard, desperate strokes. She held his face, keening his name, and he broke—burying himself deep as his release tore free, his groan hoarse against her mouth.
They clung to each other while the echoes faded, both shaking, breathing each other in. Eventually, he eased them down on their sides without separating, wanting to keep every part of her he could. He tucked her close.
“I’m not letting you go,” he roughed out when he had words again. “Just so you know.”
“Good.” Her thumb traced the edge of one of his scars. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”
He kissed her hair. Silence settled back around them, thick and sweet. The winter wind hissed softly at the window.
“Decker?” Her voice was small.
“Yeah, love?”
“Do you think…we can be this—us—even when it’s not easy? When it’s messy? With my brothers. With your…past.”
He didn’t hesitate. “I know we can.”
It felt like the room got warmer just from her smile. She snuggled closer.
After a long time, she whispered, “Round three?”
He groaned into her hair, laughing. “Woman, I’m only a man.”
“You’re my man,” she corrected, smug and drowsy.
He held her tighter, heart thudding a new rhythm under her ear—one she already knew how to dance to before they ever came together this way.
“Damn right.” He kissed her temple again, like signing his name to a promise.