Chapter 11 #2
Below them the town’s lights came on. Not all at once, but one at a time, each on their own schedule.
The diner’s sign. The gas station at the east end of town.
The streetlights down Main, and then the smaller, warmer lights of houses, kitchens and porches and living rooms, each one a sign of somebody’s day coming to a close and their evening starting.
“I can see the store,” she said, pointing. “Second light from the corner. Dad leaves the one on over the workbench when he goes out. He says it’s for security.” Her voice trailed off and her mood went a bit still. “I think it’s really because Mom always left it on.”
He looked at the small light and felt something move in his chest.
“I used to look at this town from up here and count the days until I could leave it,” he said. “Now I look at it and…” He shook his head slowly, searching for the words. “It’s everything I want. It took me fifteen years and getting seriously injured to figure that out.”
She turned her head and watched him closely in the last of the light. “And me?” she asked, soft and direct, because she was Bree, and Bree didn’t mince words. “Am I part of what you figured out?”
“You’re most of it,” he said honestly.
Her breath caught. He heard it, and felt it where her shoulder pressed against his arm.
“Fifteen years, Bree.” His voice came out low.
“I thought about this town, and this desert, and my family, and in every one of those thoughts, there you were. I didn’t let myself think too hard about that, though.
You were too young when we left, and then I was too far away.
And then it had been too long. I had a hundred good reasons to not look back.
” He turned to face her. “I don’t have any of them anymore. Not a single one.”
“Good,” she whispered. “Because I burned through all of my excuses somewhere around the stair lift.”
He laughed, and she rose up on her knees on the quilt and took his face in both hands. She moved in close and kissed him, softly at first, then with more surety.
It wasn’t like the kiss at the back door, all those weeks of wanting breaking loose at once. It was slower than that, and gentler. She kissed him with all the longing she’d held back for so many years, with endless patience, and undeniable desire.
He wrapped her in his arms and laid her back on the blankets under a sky filled with stars. Then, he set about learning her every response and sensitive spot. He kissed her thoroughly. Without hurry and giving her his whole attention.
“Pax,” she breathed when he let her up for air, her hands in his hair.
“I’m right here.”
“I know.” She smiled up at him in the starlight, that full, warm, unguarded smile that he would have crossed continents for. “That’s the good part. You’re right here.”
His heart shattered and reformed. This was what had been missing from his life for so long. It was who had been missing. His Breelee. Being with her was as necessary as breathing now that he’d come back home. He couldn’t deny it any longer. She was his.
His to care for. His to protect. His to love.
He bent to kiss her again, all the pent-up feelings in his heart reaching out to her.
She must’ve felt it too because her little hands began undressing him, unbuttoning his shirt and pushing it off his shoulders.
That emboldened him to do the same for her.
Then they were skin to skin and he felt the softness of her breasts against him.
She made him yearn for more, but he was taking his cues from her.
He wouldn’t rush her or push her too far.
This was all new territory for them both, even though they’d been friends for what seemed like forever.
But she didn’t make him wait. Her fingers found the button of his jeans and he was lost. She pushed his jeans and briefs down and then she was grasping his hard cock, making him nearly lose control, it felt so damned good.
“Bree, honey…” he panted, wanting to slow things down a bit so he could make this as good for her as she was already making it for him.
“I need you, Pax. No more waiting,” she gasped, stroking him gently.
Her words set him on fire. He’d been hot for her before, but now his body was in inferno mode.
He removed the rest of her clothes and laid her out on the quilt.
The night air was cool, but they both were fired from within by the passion building between their bodies.
She was so beautiful, he could barely breathe, and her star-filled gaze as she looked up at him made him feel the inevitability of their joining. Like it had always been meant to be.
Bree and Pax. Pax and Bree. They belonged together.
He touched her gorgeous curves with reverence and building desire. She squirmed a bit under him, finally letting go of his cock as he positioned himself over her.
“Are you sure you want this?” he asked, having to give her a final chance to say no, even though it would kill him to stop now.
“I want you, Pax. Always have. Even when I was too little to know exactly what that meant,” she whispered, warming him. “But we’re both grown now and we both know what this means, right?”
“Right,” he echoed. “It means you’re mine, Bree. And I’m yours.” He hoped she knew how deeply he meant that, but now was no time to give her the low-down on shifter mating.
He felt in his heart that she was his mate, but this first joining would tell him for certain.
He couldn’t imagine any other woman that could fill that most essential role in his life.
It had always been Bree. From the first moment they’d met, even though they’d been too young to realize it way back then.
“I want to be yours, Pax. I’ve always wanted it,” she whispered, reaching up to bring his head down to hers so she could kiss him. At the same time, she looped her legs around his and widened her thighs, ready to accept him.