Chapter Six
Piper
Who cares about a knight in shining armor? I’ll take a mountain man in plaid, thanks.
Cradled against his big body, I feel so safe. As if nothing bad could ever happen to me again. No more bad dates or one-sided friendships. No more being alone or wondering if there is someone out there for me.
Tilting back, I gaze up at him. Lord, he is handsome. With warm water pouring down, warming our skin cooled by the earlier rain, his dark blue eyes hold mine. Reaching up, I smooth my fingers over the frown on his brow.
“No one…. I mean…” I flush as I trail off shyly.
Pace grins as he lets shampoo pool in his hand. “No one else made you come? Good. No one else will, either,” he hums as he starts working the soap into my hair.
Turning my back to him, I let him cater to me while I do my best to ignore his words. Because what does that even mean? Does he mean…no, no of course he doesn’t mean that. Even if I very much wish he did.
We don’t talk for a while, but it seems as if we don’t need to. We move with each other with ease. I return the favor and wash his hair, laughing hoists me on his back like a backpack. Then he slides me to his front, chuckling as I grasp his big body tight.
“I got you sweetheart. Trust me, yeah?”
Staring down at him, I nod. I do not even hesitate. I do trust him. From the moment he pulled me out of that tree, I’ve felt safe with him. Safe enough I let him touch me in ways I’ve never dared let someone touch me before.
The orgasm he pulled out of me still sends a shudder of pleasure through me. No one else has ever made me come. Not for lack of trying. My college boyfriend tried for until graduation to make it happen.
Before Pace, I could never let go.
Standing beside his big bed, wrapped up in the cozy robe he took off me earlier, I cannot stop smiling. Yes, I just met him, but he just changed my entire world. I had no idea it could feel so good to be touched by someone else. I could always make myself come with the right toy or right touch, but he managed to find the red button for my pleasure sensors.
“What’s that adorable smile for, sweetheart?”
Pace grins at me as I watch him pull some gray sweats on. I let out a little pout when he tucks his big, thick manhood away. I want to touch it again. I want to watch it come the way it did earlier. All over me. I am hot again just thinking about it.
“I thought we might…. I don’t know…do all of that again?”
Pace’s smile is beaming as he lifts me to set me on the bed. Cradling my face, he tucks my damp hair behind my ear. Outside it’s pouring still, lighting crackling across the skies every few moments. It lights the dark bedroom up and makes his adorable dog Smokie bark.
“Yeah, we can do it all again. We can do anything you want. I just…I need to tell you something.”
Pace lies on the bed so we’re facing each other. I shove closer to his warmth even as I grow shy. I’ve been in bed with a man before but…this is so different. He is…he is undeniably a man.
“What is it? Is something wrong? Is there….” my voice goes tight before I trail off as panic seizes me. Is there someone else? Has he touched another woman the way he touched me?
“Oh, sweetheart no. I meant what I said earlier. Never brought a woman back here. Hell, I haven’t touched a woman in…a decade? Not since…. well…”
“Since you lost someone?”
Pace turns his face away as he nods. I cradle him closer, as if I can hold him together through his pain. Tilting his head back up, I brush my mouth over his. He softens, kissing me back greedily.
“Not someone…. everyone. I lost everything. Didn’t get there in time. My mother, my older sister, little brother…just me and Smokie left. I should have been there.”
Pain fills his words, tensing his big body. It makes my chest ache because I understand his pain. Not the guilt I see in his dark eyes, no. The pain of loss, of wondering why they were taken, or if I could have done more.
“If they loved you the way I can tell you loved them, they would not want you to say that, much less believe it. When did it happen?”
Pace sighs so I press closer as if I can give him some strength. He pushes at the robe, so I let him get it off me. Then I am the one pushing at clothes, shoving his sweats down with my feet. We both seem better once we’re pressed skin to skin again.
“I was away at college. My first time being out on my own. My mother was…uncertain about it. It was always the four of us after my dad bailed on us. It was my job to take care of them.”
“I bet you took such good care of them, honey,” I whisper because I have no doubts.
“I tried. I was excited, had all these stories to tell everyone. They never got a chance to hear them. I went out for a drink with friends. My first night home. I had all spring break to be with friends. I should have been with them. It went up so fast. It was an old house,” he pauses as if looking into his painful past. “My mother loved those old Victorian homes. The wiring was just…it was too old. They never had a chance.”
Pace makes a little sound, so I cradle him closer. To my surprise, he burrows into me in a show of trust that makes my heart triple in size. This poor man. I lost my own father but to lose all that you know, everyone you love?
“I cannot even imagine. Honey, I am so sorry. Grief is not linear. It is not one and done. We carry it with us. It is fine to grieve them. If you loved them deeply your grief will be deep. It doesn’t have to be all you have of them.”
Pace pulls back to gaze down at me with an intense stare. I am not sure how to read him. His perfect mouth tips up in a slow smile. One of his hands tangled in my damp hair, tilting my head back.
“I never thought of it that way. It’s just been me hiding away with the guilt for a long time.”
“Guilt because you made it out, but they didn’t? If it was your sister or your brother who had made it out, would you want them to hide away with guilt? Or live with their memories? Laughing with them, sharing a life with them, even if it was shorter than they deserved. That is what you should be hiding away with. How much you loved them. How they loved you. That is what you should hold onto. Not guilt.”
Once again, he gazes down at me with an intense stare. His fingers stay woven in my hair, and he yanks my head back. I am not scared. Not of being hurt by him. At least not this way. Pace has read my body like a book since he pulled me out of that tree. He seems to know what it needs before I do so I trust whatever he is about to do will be good for me.
Heat flickers to life between my thighs as he licks a path down my throat. His teeth sink into my neck, where my pulse thrums wildly. His body moves to pin me beneath him, and I love the weight of him. I still feel safe. My fingers tunnel in his dark hair, tugging when the heavy weight of his cock rubs against my sex again.
“I trust you,” I whisper as darkness floods the bedroom. “Pace, I trust you.”
“You shouldn't. I want to do things to you…. things I never even knew I could want before you. Do you truly trust me, Piper?”
Pulling back, his dark eyes search mine. I do not hesitate. “Yes.”
“Hell, Piper…. don't move. Let me look at you for a minute.”
Pace kneels on the bed, grasping me beneath the knee to tug me close to him. I slide down, my arms shooting over my head to grasp the metal headboard of his antique copper bed. A little shudder runs through me as he stares down at me, hunger in his dark eyes. I stare back because, lord he is a beautiful man. His powerful legs tense as he pushes forward to loom over me, a large hand dragging down my front, between my breasts, over my hips, then down between my thighs.
“Prettiest sight I’ve ever seen,” he hums, voice low, raw, hypnotic. “I want a little alone time with her,” he tells me before he reaches over me, wrapping my wrists with something. His belt. I hear it clang against the bed as he pulls, securing my hands.
Another shudder works its way through me. I am being so vulnerable with him. He can do anything he wants to me. But I meant what I said. I truly trust him. It makes no sense because I never trust anyone. How can I trust a man I just met and know nothing about?
Our gazes lock and I know—Pace is trusting me, so I can trust him.
His rough hands grip my thighs, pushing them up. I flush for a moment because it bares me to him. His little growl of appreciation chases away my shyness. Beneath his gaze, I am beautiful, sensual, hungry for his touch, body aching for him. I gasp when he bends and hot, wet pleasure washes over me as he licks me open with a greedy stroke of his tongue.
The room is dark besides the glow of the crescent moon outside. I watch his big body fit between my thighs, his rough hands pulling me closer, his mouth feasting on me. His tongue licks, his teeth nibble, and then he sucks at my swollen bud. I cry out, rocking against his tongue, against the way he kisses my pussy the same way he kisses my mouth. Hungry. Demanding. Consuming me, his tongue wild, his teeth brutal.
“Pace,” I cry out as a climax builds inside of me. “Oh, please. Please, I don’t...I can’t...”
“Yes, you can . You better come for me. I won’t stop until you do. I don’t care if you couldn’t before, you can now. For me, baby. Come for me,” he demands in a raw, gravel rough voice, his tongue pushing inside me as if consumed with making me come.
He is right, I can. I never could with anyone else before, but as the waves of pleasure build to an unrelenting wave, I come. I come so hard, I shout his name, not caring if it echoes through the mountain. I see colors and feel the breeze on my fevered skin, smell the fresh air mixing with sex. I try to pull back because I feel as if I am drowning. Pace bands his arm over my hips, pinning me down to refuse me.
“Oh, no. Not going anywhere, sweetheart. I am not done with you,” he hums, sucking harder at my swollen flesh, his fingers gripping my thighs to keep me still beneath him.
“Pace, I can’t again...it’s too...no, no. Oh God!”
His fingers push inside of me, curling to find a spot that has all the colors in my vision twirling. Is this what it should have always felt like? As if I am coming apart even as he holds me together? I shudder with the waves of a crashing orgasm, fingers clawing at the headboard as it thumps against the wall. I am rocking against his mouth, pleading for more when seconds ago I was begging him to stop.
“I won’t stop, baby. I told you I won’t quit,” he grunts, kissing my thighs, my hips, and my stomach as he looms over me again.
Staring up at him, I nod. Because I believe him. My pleasure matters to him. Me trusting him matters to him. I can’t be sure why we connected this way just hours after meeting, but we’ve most definitely connected. He undoes my hands, bringing them to his lips to press kisses where red slashes from his belt mark my skin.
“Good. I won’t either, Pace. I won’t quit on you either,” I promise.
Pace lies beside me again, turning me to face him. His eyes shine in the darkness as they search my face. Looking for a reason not to trust me. Doubt or even deceit. He finds neither. I’ve never made a promise to a man, not just hours after meeting him, not moments after he made me feel all the things he has just made me feel.
Pace saved me from that tree, but I think I can save him right back.