Chapter 11
Grant watched Everly disappear down the hallway and leaned back in his chair, looking to the ceiling as if he might find some sort of answer written there. Pipes rattled as the shower turned on, and wicked thoughts of what he’d like to do to that delectable body sprang up in his mind.
Fucking hell.
He was in way over his head. He liked Everly.
Really liked her. All those nights he’d laid awake dreaming about coming home to her after a deployment, to be the one that got to make love to her—nothing had compared to the reality of being with her.
She was sweet and sensitive, and underneath that gentle exterior, he knew there was a spine of steel.
You could give up the Army.
He let that idea sit for awhile. STAG was a huge part of his life. Hell, it was his life. But the thought of Everly leaving his life again after she’d just come back into it? He didn’t like that either.
Grant shoved a hand through his hair. This shit was too complicated, and exactly the reason why he didn’t need to get any more deeply involved with Everly than he already was.
But God help him if he didn’t want to be with her again.
He’d told himself that once would be enough to put out the fire in his veins.
He knew now that he’d never be able to get enough of her.
He should walk away. Go chop wood or shoot a gun or for fuck’s sake, jack off and forget about having sex with her ever again.
But damn it, he couldn’t. Some small part of his heart had belonged to her since the moment they’d met, and he didn’t think that would ever change.
Grant told his common sense to take a hike for awhile and headed down the hall.
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Everly wrapped a towel around herself and dried her hair with another. She wiped the steam from the mirror and grabbed a comb, working it through a few tangles, the painful tug at her scalp a welcome distraction from her thoughts.
What the hell was she doing with herself anyway, having sex with Grant? For fuck’s sake, the absolute last thing on Earth she needed right now was to get mixed up with another man. And not just any man, but her dead husband’s best friend.
“Ow,” she hissed as the comb yanked against a particularly nasty tangle, then sighed.
Why try to pretend he didn’t mean anything to her?
Grant wasn’t just some random guy. He’d always been there, in one way or another, and he did mean something to her, even if she couldn’t say exactly what.
Even if she knew that this would end in heartache.
He made her feel damn good, and she wanted that again and again, as many times as she could before they parted ways once more.
A soft knock sounded at the door, and Everly startled, the comb clattering into the sink. “Yes?” she managed to choke out, and Grant appeared in the doorway as if she’d manifested him there with her thoughts. He looked determined. Dangerous.
Everly’s heart was in her throat. She knew what he wanted, and it scared her how badly she wanted it too. Her gaze strayed to his jeans despite her best efforts, the bulge there unmistakable. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
He stepped into her space and slid his finger between her breasts, where she’d tucked the towel.
“Giving into temptation,” he murmured, his voice sliding along her spine as he tugged the towel free and let it drop.
Her nipples pebbled despite the steamy air left over from the shower, his thumbs scraping over the stiff peaks as he bent to kiss her.
Every logical thought evaporated as he dragged his mouth from hers to trail his tongue down her neck, her collarbone. She drew a shuddering breath, and he pressed his forehead against hers.
“I don’t want to stay away from you,” he told her, his breath ghosting across her face. “I don’t care if it’s going to be hard later. You’re worth the pain.”
Everly swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat and cupped her palm against Grant’s cheek.
“I want you too. I can’t help it.” She kissed him for long, lingering moments, savoring the pressure of his lips, the slip of his tongue.
His shoulders bunched and rippled under her hands as his grip slid down her body and settled on her hips.
“I need to taste you so badly,” he rasped against her mouth, breaking the kiss. “Please, Ev.”
Heat flooded her, and she was unable to form words as Grant sank to his knees, his hands gentle but firm around her thighs. “I’m not too proud to beg. And I am begging you right now to let me eat your pussy.”
His eyes met hers over the mound of her body, and Everly’s stomach clenched impossibly tight. She nodded, but he didn’t move. His fingers gripped a little tighter. “Say it, Ev. I need to hear it from you.”
“Yes,” she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. “Do it, Grant. Lick me.”
He growled, his fingers clenching her legs, and lifted one of them over his shoulder.
She leaned back and gripped the counter for balance as he gently spread her apart with his thumbs.
“I must be the luckiest bastard alive,” he said, more to himself than to her, before he closed the gap between his mouth and her body and pressed his tongue to her most sensitive spot.
Any lingering shyness or embarrassment evaporated as his mouth worked magic on her, his tongue stroking her sensitive flesh over and over. And then he sucked her clit between his teeth, and fire seared through her body.
Everly cried out and writhed, instinctively trying to pull away from him at the intense sensation, but his hands held her tight.
She clenched a hand in his hair, tugging at him until those blue eyes met hers over her belly.
The crinkles at their corners told her he was smiling, even though she couldn’t see his mouth.
“You like that, huh?” he asked with just a hint of smug male satisfaction.
“Yes.” She gasped, and her own voice sounded unrecognizable. “Fuck, yes.” She pushed him back down and realized she was grinding against his face, panting as the flames inside her burned hotter and hotter.
Grant sucked her tight bud into his mouth again, flicking his tongue across her, and Everly exploded, his name escaping from her lips on a long moan. Her knees threatened to buckle, and she was vaguely aware of Grant supporting her with his hands as her orgasm burned through her.
“You’re so gorgeous when you come.” He kissed his way up her belly, between her breasts, and finally met her lips with a kiss that tasted like her.
Little aftershocks zipped through her body. “That was…incredible,” she said, still breathless.
“You okay?” he asked, smoothing a few stray hairs away from her face.
“Never better.” She felt sexy, uninhibited. Desirable. And somehow still ready for more of him. She unzipped his jeans and then slipped her hand into his boxer briefs, stroking the solid length of him as a shudder ran through his body. “I want this inside me. Now.”
Grant kissed her quick and hard. “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a grin. He pulled a foil package from his back pocket and handed it to her, then stripped off his clothes. She sheathed him with the condom, then he turned her around to face the mirror. “Hold on, baby. This is about to get good.”
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Grant had hoped to meet Everly in the shower, but this was even better. He bent her over until she was forced to hold onto the countertop for balance again, then braced his legs outside of hers and plunged into her in one long thrust.
Holy fucking shit.
She was perfect, so tight and slick that he wanted to pump into her hard and fast until he was spent. But Everly deserved more than that. He summoned every ounce of willpower he could and forced himself to slow down.
He bent until he could trail kisses along her neck, her shoulder.
“So goddamn sexy,” he growled in her ear.
“So many nights in the desert I dreamed about doing exactly this. Getting naked with you. Tasting you.” He pulled almost completely out of her, then pushed back into her tortuously slowly, his balls so tight they almost hurt.
Everly’s sharp cry broke through the haze of pleasure, and he stilled. “Am I hurting you, Ev?”
“No. No,” she panted. “I just—I need you to move. You don’t have to be so gentle with me. I won’t break.”
Those words nearly undid him. He wrapped her damp hair around his hand and tugged—just enough that she hissed with pleasure—while his other hand slipped between them to stroke her sensitive clit.
He thrust into her again and again, their bodies slick with steam and sweat.
Everly pushed back against him more frantically, matching his thrusts, and her inner walls tightened and then pulsed around him.
He let himself go, spilling himself into the condom, the ringing in his ears only interrupted by the sound of Everly moaning his name.
Had anything ever felt like this? Like the world faded away and only she mattered when they were together. Everly straightened and he withdrew from her, quickly disposing of the condom, then wiped the steam from her skin with the towel he’d taken off of her earlier.
“Let me,” she told him, returning the favor. She swept the towel deftly over his body, her fingers brushing against his skin as she dried, and he felt himself growing hard again, like a teenager with no control.
Everly ran her fingertips down his shaft. “So soon,” she purred. “I thought you’d need some time to recover after that.”
“You have that effect on me, babe,” he told her, his hands reaching up to shape her breasts as he caught her mouth with a kiss.
This was reckless. This was irresponsible. This would end in heartache.
This was a dream come true.
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