Chapter 44
COLT
Iwas pretty sure I’d never seen anything more perfect in my life. I’d been a distracted, thoughtless idiot and I planned on making it up to her.
I dropped to my knees on the tile floor. The hard surface was a reminder of my knees, which were still sore. I ran my palms up the inside of her legs slowly, watching her stomach tighten with the movement. Her skin was soft and smooth and she smelled delectable.
I pressed my mouth to the inside of her knee. Just that. Let her feel the heat of it.
“Colt.” My name came out unsteadily.
I didn’t answer. I turned my head and did the same thing to the other knee.
Her fingers slid into my hair. I worked my way up the inside of her left thigh slowly, mouth open against her skin, feeling the way her muscles tensed under my lips with every inch I covered.
When I got close enough that she shifted her hips toward me, I pulled back and started on the right side instead.
“You’re teasing me,” she breathed.
I looked up at her from between her thighs. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest was rising and falling faster than it had been thirty seconds ago. Her fingers tightened in my hair.
“I am,” I agreed, and went back to what I was doing.
By the time I finally pressed my mouth to the center of her she made a sound that tightened every muscle in my body.
I took my time with it, learning what made her fingers pull and what made her hips rock forward.
I kept my hands flat on her thighs to feel every involuntary movement she made.
She tasted like something I could spend a significant portion of my life feasting on. Sweetest nectar I ever had.
“There,” she said, the word barely audible. “Oh God! Yes!”
I didn’t stop. I kept the same steady pressure, the same rhythm, listening to the way her breathing changed and following her cues.
My tongue slid across her clit. Her thighs tensed under my palms. Her fingers curled in my hair hard enough to sting.
I kept going until I felt her whole body go rigid against my mouth.
She came apart with a sharp exhale that dissolved into a low, trembling sound.
I stayed with her through it. Let her come down. Pressed my lips gently against her inner thigh when she finally went limp.
Her hand loosened in my hair and moved to cup my jaw instead. She was looking down at me with dark eyes and flushed cheeks. Her chest was rising and falling.
“Get up here,” she said quietly.
I stood. She immediately reached for my shirt and started pulling it up. I helped her get it over my head and dropped it somewhere behind me. Her hands went to the button of my shorts. She jerked the zipper down, coming dangerously close to real damage. Then she was pushing my shorts down.
I reached around her and unhooked the pale blue bra. She let it fall off her arms. I took a moment. I couldn’t help it.
“You’re unreal,” I said.
“Stop talking,” she told me.
I stepped between her thighs. She wrapped her legs around the back of mine, pulling me in.
When I pressed forward and felt the sweet heat of her I exhaled slowly through my teeth.
She made a soft sound against my neck, her forehead dropping to my shoulder.
I held still for a moment, one hand flat on her lower back and one braced on the counter beside her hip, letting her adjust. Letting myself adjust. I was ready to explode with just being inside her.
Then I started to move. Her arms came around my shoulders and she held on. I rocked into her, slowly at first, but I couldn’t keep it slow. I had no restraint when it came to her.
“Colt, it feels so good.”
I pressed my lips to her temple. “I’ve got you,” I said quietly.
She turned her head and found my mouth with hers and kissed me deep and slow. I felt her fingers dig into my shoulders when the angle shifted. I kept moving, watching her face when she broke the kiss to breathe. Her head fell back slightly. Her lips parted.
I picked up the pace. Her hands moved to the edge of the counter and gripped it. The sound she made sent heat flooding through me. I pressed my forehead against the side of her head and focused on her, on every signal her body was giving me. I rolled my hips, arching my back and driving deep.
“Don’t stop,” she said.
I had no intention of stopping. When she came the second time, the long, shuddering wave pulled me into the powerful wave of ecstasy she was riding. I released a long groan.
We stayed like that for a while. Her arms around my neck. My hands on her back. Neither of us speaking. I couldn’t have spoken if I wanted to. She turned me inside out.
I stayed where I was for another minute, her head resting against my shoulder, her breathing brushing over my neck.
“The pasta,” she said finally.
I helped her off the counter. She moved around, pulling her clothes back on.
I found my shirt on the floor behind me and pulled it over my head.
She was already tying her hair back with something she’d produced from thin air, the way women always managed to do, and moving back toward the stove like she hadn’t just taken me completely apart.
I topped off her wine glass. She took a long drink and went right back to cooking. Watching her move around the kitchen was erotic. Or maybe I was still enjoying the hangover from the orgasm she’d just pulled from me.
I picked up my phone, pulled up my playlist, and connected to the speakers.
Chris Stapleton filled the house. She was moving her hips slightly without seeming to notice she was doing it.
I noticed. I was already getting hard again, something I was pretty sure was impossible for a man in his thirties.
“You stir,” she said. “I’m checking the chicken. Don’t let those tomatoes burn.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I kept stirring and told her a bit more about the Judd issue.
“He’s scared,” she said, when I finished.
“Yep.”
She looked at me over the rim of her glass. “How many investors does that leave him with?”
“Two that I know of. Maybe three if one of the others holds.” I shrugged. “He can’t build anything without capital. The committee review is going to drag out his timeline. He’s hemorrhaging money and he knows it.”
“So he’s trying to make you bleed too.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
It felt like the most natural thing in the world to be in the kitchen with her. The music shifted to something a little more upbeat. She was twirling around, singing along with the music. She hip bumped me, almost knocking the spoon out of my hand.
“I think we’re good,” she said. “Let’s eat.”
We filled our plates with pasta and the chicken. We carried the plates to the table. She brought the wine. I brought the bread she’d toasted.
I sat down across from her and realized I was starving. “I worked up an appetite,” I said.
She laughed. “Me too.”
“We won’t tell my mom I had my dessert before dinner.”
Her cheeks burned. “You’re so bad!”
I laughed and took a bite and it was, genuinely, the best thing I had eaten in recent memory.
“Damn, this is so good.”
“It’s pretty basic.”
“Maybe it’s the taste of you that makes it better.”
Her cheeks were bright red. I loved seeing her flush. Was it a little crude? Maybe. But it was true.
We were halfway through dinner when I decided to bring up something we had to talk about.
I exhaled slowly. “I have to go back,” I said. “To Texas.”
She went still. The way her jaw tightened just slightly before she relaxed it. She nodded once. “Okay.”
“I know what we talked about, but I can’t just abandon everything.”
She nodded, sipped her wine, and was doing her best to act like she was unaffected. I wished there was a better way to tell her, but I figured honesty was the best option.
“There’s a lot there,” I said. “The business has been running without me but it needs attention. There are contracts and decisions that have been deferred because I’ve been here.
My attorneys need me in the same room for some of this.
” I paused. “And there are personal things. My parents. I need to talk to them face to face. There are things to sort through.” I held her gaze. “It’s not a quick trip.”
She nodded again. Another drink from her glass. She drained it. I reached for the bottle and refilled her glass. She was very composed.
“How long?” she asked. Her voice was steady. Too steady.
I thought about it honestly. “I don’t know. I can’t give you a time frame. I don’t want to say a month and then have it take three.”
“Three,” she squeaked the word.
She pressed her lips together. I could see the shine in her eyes and she was blinking a lot. I didn’t want to upset her. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I didn’t want her to think I abandoned her.
“Summer.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“Look at me.”
She looked at me and I saw the pain in her eyes. My chest squeezed.
“I need you to hear what I’m saying,” I said quietly. “All of it. Not just the part about going back.”
She waited.
“I have to go back,” I said. “But I’m not going back to stay.” I let that sit for a beat. “I’m going back to wrap things up. Close things out. Have conversations I need to have in person. Pack what matters.” I watched her face. “And then I’m coming back here.”
She blinked. “I believe you.”
“You don’t look like you do.”
She forced another smile. “I do. I’ve waited years for you. I can wait a couple of weeks. Months if I have to.”
“Baby, I’m not going to let you down,” I said. “I’m coming back.”
She smiled again, but I couldn’t say for certain if she believed me. I was going to have to prove it to her.