Chapter Ten #2
“Christ, love.” He cupped her face and plundered her mouth until her knees threatened to buckle. She plucked at his buttons blindly as she kissed him back with all the fervor blazing inside her.
One hand slid lower, palmed her throat briefly—just weight, just claim—before skimming to her waist. He bunched the hem of her sweatshirt in his fist and tugged it lightly up, callused fingertips grazing her flesh as the soft cloth whispered over her ribs.
His thumbs caressed the sides of her breasts through the thin lace of her bra. Her nipples tightened immediately.
Then her top dropped to the floor.
She arched. “Decker—”
“I know.” His mouth tracked her throat in slow licks and soft bites that had her knees turning useless. “I’ve got you.”
He caught the stretchy waist of her leggings and shoved them down. She shimmied her hips to help him until the garment puddled around her ankles. She kicked them aside, forgotten.
His gaze swept her like a starving man who’d found the only meal that mattered.
He hooked a finger beneath the lace at her hip and tugged. “These,” he said in a rough scrape, “have no business covering up your beautiful body.”
Her breath came in short pants, eyes dipping with desire. “Then take them off.”
He did, kneeling to peel her panties down with a patience that wrecked her more than haste would have.
His mouth toyed with the inside of her knee.
The scrape of his unshaven jaw lit a fuse straight to her core.
Another kiss at the top of her thigh, right where her pulse kicked hard, made her toes curl.
“Decker!” She searched for something to hold. He rose to his feet, fitting himself against her again, one palm braced on the wall over her head.
He kissed her again as his other hand slipped between her legs. His fingers were hot, sure, finding slick welcome and testing the shape of her with a low sound that vibrated in her mouth.
He stroked her once, a slow, deliberate glide that made her knees buckle. He caught her weight easily, bracing his thigh between hers to hold her open.
“Too much?” His lips met the corner of her mouth.
“Not enough.” She twisted her mouth into his with desperation.
His smile spread under her lips—wicked and pleased—and he pressed the pad of his finger to her clit.
A shiver rolled through her so hard her head tipped back and thumped the wall.
He licked into her open mouth at the same time, stealing her gasp as he circled and played, then dipped lower.
One finger slid inside her, stretching in a slow push that made her moan.
“God, you’re tight.” His forehead rested against hers for a beat as if he needed that anchor. “So damn wet for me.”
“Been wet for you—” She broke off on a whimper when he curled his finger, finding that place that made fireworks detonate behind her eyes. “Since you walked in and looked at me like you…”
“Like what?” He added a second finger, deliberate, filling her until her body learned the stretch and demanded more. He set a rhythm, shallow then deep, thumb dragging lightly over her clit between thrusts.
“Like you took me apart with your eyes,” she gasped.
His answering groan vibrated all through her.
He lowered his head and closed his mouth over her nipple through the lace, sucking hard enough to draw a shrill cry from her.
The wet heat of his mouth, the graze of teeth, the suction paired with the relentless curl of his fingers shredded her.
She clawed at his shoulders, at the wall, at anything, her hips chasing every stroke without shame.
“Look at me,” he ordered softly, lifting his head. When she obeyed, he bit the other nipple and sucked until her back arched, offering more. His fingers never stopped working her.
“Bossy! Oh, God—don’t stop, don’t stop.” The words spilled out, broken and needy.
“I’m not stopping. Give it to me.”
Her thighs trembled. Tension coiled low in her belly. The fuse hit the powder.
She flew apart.
The orgasm crashed through her. She cried out, head thudding back, vision blacking as she clenched around his fingers, milking them.
He issued a long, answering moan and held her through it, working her gently, kissing whatever skin he could reach while he rode the aftershocks with her.
When she went limp, he eased his hand away and caged her with both arms, forehead resting against hers again while she caught air. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. His was a heavy drum under her palm where she’d curled her fingers against the warm steel of his chest without realizing.
“Still with me?” His voice was sandpaper.
She hardly had enough air to laugh. “Barely.”
His smile hit her like another caress. He slid an arm beneath her thighs, the other around her back, and lifted her in one clean, effortless sweep.
He crossed the room in a few long strides, the world narrowing to his chest beneath her cheek. The mattress creaked as he went down with her, laying her out and following.
“Round two,” he murmured, voice gone dark. “Say yes.”
She reached for him, already open. “Yes.”
* * * * *
Decker braced his weight on his forearms so he didn’t crush her. Need rolled off their bodies, the lamp throwing amber along the shape of her kiss-swollen mouth.
“Come here.” She hooked her arms around his neck, hands plastered to the back of his head, and pulled him down.
He kissed her slow to start with, obsessed with the taste of her, pulling her lower lip into his mouth just to feel her answering gasp.
Her thin lace bra was the only shred of cloth left on her body. He pinched the clasp in his thumb and forefinger, and it gave way with a satisfying snap.
The cups fell away, baring warm, perfect skin. Her nipples shrank to tight points, and he groaned into her mouth, circling with his thumbs until her back arched like he’d plucked a string inside her.
“God, look at you.” He bent to take one soft peak into his mouth.
“Decker!” Her voice frayed on his name.
He trailed his mouth lower, over the delicate ridge of her ribs, sliding his hands down her sides to her hips.
He nudged her knees wider, and just the sight of her soaking pussy nearly undid him.
He stared for the space of a heartbeat because he couldn’t not—because he wanted the picture burnt into his brain—then he went down between her legs for a second time and licked her open with a slow stroke that had her hips bucking off the bed.
Her hand flew to the back of his head, not to push him away, but to hold him there.
He smiled against her, part pride, part hunger, and did it again.
Long, unhurried licks that learned her all over, then the flat weight of his tongue and the gentle pull of his mouth when he closed over the tight, needy bud at the top.
She tasted like fire and want and everything he’d been starving for.
He eased his fingers into her, one first, then two when she melted around him, his knuckles pressing to feel the tremor run up her belly.
“That’s it,” he murmured, the words vibrating into her. “Take it.”
She did.
She chased every flip of his tongue, hips finding the rhythm he gave her and riding his mouth.
Suddenly, he felt her go tight all over and then loosen as the first wave rolled through her.
He gentled his mouth and drew on her clit until it grew too sensitive for her. When he crawled up her body, his mouth found hers so she could taste herself on his tongue. She dragged him in by the shoulders, legs opening wider, an invitation and a demand he had no intention of refusing.
“Inside.” Her voice was a raw rasp. “Please.”
He couldn’t rip his clothes off fast enough for her. She tore at his zipper and shoved his jeans and briefs off.
Staring into her smoldering gray eyes, he reached down and lined himself up with her core. He pushed in slow, a thick, relentless stretch that had both of them cursing through their teeth.
Heat swallowed him inch by inch, the greedy clutch of her making his vision blur for a second. He bottomed out and stayed there, forehead resting to hers, breathing like he’d sprinted across the back pasture.
She rocked her hips. “Move!”
He hitched her knee higher over his forearm and gave her what she wanted. His hips snapped with the change in angles, and her mouth fell open on a sound he’d never forget.
“Don’t stop!”
“I’m not stopping.” Couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Not when she clung to him like that. Not when her body responded like it was made for letting him love her.
And he did love Willow. With everything inside him.
He slid his hand down and found her with his thumb, slick and swollen, circling in time with each thrust. She jolted like he’d plugged her into a socket. He kept the pressure steady, the angle ruthless.
And watched her break.
She came hard. A cry ripped from her lips. He kept driving…and let himself go.
His release tore out of him on a hoarse sound he didn’t recognize as his. Every thick jet of cum that flooded her bare walls ripped away another part of him and gave it to her.
He stayed buried inside her sweet folds, his breath ragged against her mouth. His body locked on the final thrust until the world settled back into place one heartbeat at a time.
He rolled to the side and kissed the tip of her nose because he could, because he wanted to do something sweet after filling her with everything that hadn’t fit into words.
She sprawled over him, her legs tangled with his. He felt her heartbeat against his ribs, fast and strong, and damn if his eyes didn’t sting with the knowledge—clear as the North Star over the ranch fields—that he was in love with her.
The declaration burned on his lips, but he held them back.
Not yet. Not tonight.
He’d hold the words like living hot coals in his chest and keep her warm with all the other things he could say instead.
“I’m glad you came looking for me.” He kissed her temple. She snuggled closer, already drifting into the healing sleep he wanted to spend the rest of his life defending.
“I forgot to open that package.” Her voice was slurred with sleep.
His entire body tensed. “What package?”
“It arrived before Rhae’s party. Some delivery for the ranch.” She yawned.
“Where is the package now?”
“In the mudroom. I’ll get it in the morning.” She drifted off almost immediately.
He should be thumping his chest for wearing her out with his skills in bed. Instead, he lay awake and listened to the sounds of the lodge and the wind whispering at the windowpane.
The package could be nothing. Or it could be another gift.
They didn’t have any leads on the gifts she’d received, and he wanted to tear the world apart to find whoever it was. His instincts screamed that it was much more than a few small trinkets.
Whatever came next, he would be there, ready to protect the woman he loved.