20. Twenty
Twenty
Juliet
S ome time later, we moved to the bedroom, parting only long enough for Henry to let Blue back inside.
We paused just inside the door, still wrapped around one another. When a few minutes of pathetic whining at the bedroom door still didn’t gain her an invitation to join us, the dog’s footsteps padded back to the living room for the night.
I discovered soon enough that Henry had very much meant it when he said he wouldn’t rush or pressure me, even now that things had progressed—the man had the patience of a saint. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t an active and enthusiastic participant, but something about knowing he wanted me to set the pace gave me a heady sense of power.
As a result, I grew bolder with each passing minute, with each kiss and caress that spurred that raging fire into a million individual flames burning so hot I thought I might melt.
And, when I did, Henry was right there to catch me.
He swept me into his arms as he had in the forest and laid me on the bed, stretching out alongside me.
“You’re the boss,” he murmured, trailing his lips across my collarbone. “Tell me what you want.”
In reply, I reached for the zipper of his jeans, though my fingers grew clumsy when his teeth grazed the base of my throat. A fierce grin split his face when I fumbled and tilted my head to give him better access.
“If you don’t stop distracting me, I’m not going to be able to tell you a damn thing,” I gasped.
“My goodness, Juliet Morrison speechless? Now that is a surprise.”
Henry drew back, giving me a lazy smile. Even with his head raised, his fingers stroked over my breast in a way that had my back bowing right off the bed.
“Henry!” The breathless exclamation tore past my lips as he rolled my nipple between his thumb and index finger.
“Yes, Juliet?”
When I pried my eyes open, he was looking down at me with a polite expression on his face, as though we’d been discussing the weather. Only the molten heat in his eyes betrayed how much he was enjoying this. That in itself was as arousing as the things he did with his hands.
I dropped my head back onto the pillow, mumbling, “I need you to get these jeans off. Right now.”
He grinned. “Mine or yours?”
“Yes!”
Even as I blurted out the word, Henry’s fingers danced down along my rib cage to the waistband of my jeans. He flicked the button open with annoying ease, given my inability to manage that move with his, then he let one fingertip hook under the edge of the denim to tease a fiery arc from one hipbone to the other.
I made a sound, something between bliss and frustration, but in the next second, he tugged my jeans and underwear down my legs. My eyes flew open again in order to watch him discard his own before he returned to my side.
“Is that better?” he asked, cocking a brow as he smiled down at me.
One of his palms slid upward from my knee to the flare of my hip so slowly that I thought I might ignite right then and there.
“Much better,” I breathed when his hand reached its destination, cupping the curls between my legs.
He watched my face while he stroked and teased, looking just as entranced by my response to these intimate caresses as he had been by my reaction to the more innocent ones.
My skin became exquisitely sensitive under his fingers as I arched and shifted, making little sounds of need that I couldn’t have held back if I tried—especially when he slid one finger inside me and curled it until my back bowed nearly enough to dislodge him. He only adjusted his position as he put this new discovery to good use.
Distracted as I was, I still couldn’t help but appreciate how his eternal patience translated into a level of concentration I’d never been the focus of before. It was like he was cataloging the results of each stroke of his fingers, each touch of his lips.
Eventually, he leaned down and nipped the edge of my jaw. My fingers tangled in his hair, clenching against his scalp. Before long, I was panting his name as the tension built, writhing helplessly while his hands and mouth moved over my skin.
When an explosive release finally shuddered through my limbs, I collapsed in a boneless heap and his touch turned soothing. Though I caught him staring at me when I managed to focus my eyes again, I was too blessedly limp to blush. His eyes were filled with something hot and hungry, something that obliterated any remaining trace of self-consciousness that might have lingered.
After catching my breath, I summoned enough strength to roll over and shove him onto his back, my hair falling like a curtain around us as I dropped my head to kiss him. When I wrapped a hand around his hard length, he groaned into my mouth.
“You’re killing me, Red,” he whispered.
I drew back with a jerk, my brows drawn together in concern that my plans might be foiled. “Do you have condoms on you? I should have thought of that earlier.”
He laughed as he smoothed one finger over the furrow between my eyebrows. I shifted slightly over him and he growled low in his throat before replying.
“Yes. Back pocket of my jeans.”
I released him to roll off the bed. When I glanced over my shoulder, he was studying my ass intently as I bent down to locate the condoms.
“Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” he asked, his voice husky with desire.
My brows lifted as I returned to the bed. “Not really, no, but if you’re carrying these around, I’m going to guess you find me at least passably attractive.”
Though I was joking, Henry caught my wrist in a gentle but firm grasp as I knelt beside him.
“I only started carrying them when things were getting a little more heated between us,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to think I’m a complete cad. I promise I wasn’t making any assumptions.”
I gave a breathless laugh as I leaned down to kiss him. “A cad, hmm? I think you’ve spent too much time reading an old lady’s journals, Mr. Walker.”
He grinned. “I think ‘cad’ was one of Nan’s favorite words.”
“That doesn’t shock me. In any case, I’m glad you thought to stock up, or this might have been an exercise in frustration.”
“We can stop any time you want.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair and drew me back down, placing tiny, playful kisses along my lips.
“What I want,” I murmured against his mouth, “is you inside me.”
I handed him one of the condoms and tossed the others aside as he rolled it on. Henry gazed up at me like he wanted to devour me as I straddled his body. When I guided him into place and sank slowly downward, his eyes fell shut on a strangled groan.
Every sense sharpened, heightened at the feel of him buried so deep, like puzzle pieces slotting into place.
His words echoed in my head— anything but casual. I hadn’t planned to add a new relationship to the mix when I showed up here, but he was right. Whatever was growing between us felt serious. Meaningful. Utterly beautiful.
As I lifted away again, his fingers gripped my hips, dragging me slowly back down. My hands caught his shoulders for balance when he shifted so he was only half-reclined, angling us until he was so impossibly deep that I gasped. One of his arms banded around my lower back and the other tangled in my hair again, drawing my lips down for another kiss—this one scalding hot, the teasing playfulness long gone.
I felt the soft moan that escaped his lips reverberating inside my own chest, a siren song that I happily surrendered to.
Breaking the kiss, I sat up and rode him, arching until the tips of my hair cascaded across the arm at my back and over his thighs. His teeth caught one puckered nipple and the air left my lungs in a swift woosh.
Before I could draw another breath, he rolled us over so I was blinking up at him from my back.
“Juliet,” he whispered.
My name sounded like a prayer on his lips, then his mouth was everywhere all at once. My cheeks, my jaw, my throat. I locked my legs around his waist, drawing him deeper as he rocked his hips against mine.
When his hand snuck between us, stroked and circled, then pressed against my clit, I whimpered his name. He thrust harder, faster, keeping time with the frantic sounds coming from the back of my throat.
I clenched around him, my muscles quivering. His teeth nipped at my earlobe and I arched beneath him, giving a sharp cry as I shattered once more. A bare second later, he followed me over the edge, burying himself deep as the release swept through him.
For a few minutes, he stayed there, letting the last of the waves lap at us both. Once I was sure my heart wasn’t going to beat right out of my chest, I unhooked my legs from around his hips and he carefully withdrew. He pressed a kiss just over my racing heart before he rolled off the bed to throw away the condom.
The room was already dark when he slipped back into bed and tugged me against his side. I settled in, draped across his chest.
“I’m never moving from this spot again,” I declared, sounding as drowsy as I felt.
Henry chuckled against my hair as he drew the blanket up and over us both. “Sounds good to me.”
“That was—I mean—wow,” I murmured into his chest.
“An inferno?”
With a low hum, I nodded. “An inferno.”
There in his arms, I’d finally found something to hold onto. As my eyes drifted shut, I let the colors of flame swirl behind my eyelids, painting a landscape of heat, pleasure, and comfort.