Chapter 26
Cort’s bedroom was painted pewter gray, with charcoal-stained barn board on an accent wall behind his bed. The bed was covered in a gray-and-black flannel duvet that reminded her of one of his shirts. “So this is your room,” she said, her pulse fluttering in her throat.
“This is it,” he said, turning, pausing, waiting, looking down at her, his expression intense but patient.
She pulled him toward the bed and down beside her.
His gaze was locked on hers, like he was reading her, concentrating on her.
It was profoundly sexy. She reached up, threading her fingers into the soft hair at the nape of his neck and pulling his mouth down to hers.
The kiss deepened immediately, no hesitation.
His hands roamed her back, her hips, pulled her flush against him.
She could feel the heat of him, the hardness pressing against her through the layers of clothing still between them—clothing that she wanted gone, now.
Her want made her gasp, and he swallowed that sound, kissing her fiercely while she easily returned his passion.
Her sweater hit the floor first. Then his Henley, tugged over his head in one quick motion, discarded on the floor beside hers.
She pulled back just slightly to take him in.
The lines of his smooth, muscled chest, the broadness of his shoulders, the curves of his biceps, the ropy muscles on his forearms. She ran her hands over his solid lines, warm skin, taut muscles, the ridges of his stomach she had been trying not to let herself stare at for weeks.
Now she could stare all she wanted—and she did.
She felt hungry, ravenous with her desire for him, but she also wanted to remember every second of this.
Cort was smiling. “Even now,” he said, his voice that low rumble that lit her up from within, “your mind is whirring.”
She reached for the button on his jeans. His soft groan in response nearly undid her. He slid his hand underneath her skirt, over her thighs, and kept on going until she felt like a trembling arrow in a bow.
“I’ve always wanted to touch you like this,” he whispered. “Always.”
“I’ve always wanted you to touch me like this,” she whispered back.
It felt so good to say this, to allow herself to feel this.
She wondered if, in her entire life, she had ever allowed herself to give in to such unbridled passion—and knew the answer was no, and that it didn’t matter now.
She was here. The rest of their clothes were gone and they slid between his sheets, which crackled and sparked in the darkened room—and she half believed it was them, their sheer want turned into electricity.
His mouth found the curve of her shoulder, then went lower, brushing along the swell of her breast before his tongue circled her nipple.
Lower, his fingers explored and more sparks crackled between them, little fireworks.
“God, Becca…”
She pulled him to her, needing him closer, needing all of him. Her voice was thick with desire when she said, “I don’t want to wait anymore.”
He paused only long enough to get a condom from his bedside table drawer, opening it and rolling it on while she waited, her body trembling with need.
In seconds, he was hovering over her, bracing himself with one forearm as he waited just a split second, a question in his eyes that she kissed him deeply in response to while guiding him inside her.
Slow, tantalizing, delicious. She arched into him, moaning his name over and over, while he moaned hers back. Her toes curled; her body shook.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he whispered. “Not just your body. You. All of you.”
She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulled him deeper, her nails raking lightly down his back, and when he kissed her again, slow and full of so much feeling she could barely breathe, she felt that she had unraveled completely, and it was perfect.
He pressed his mouth to her ear as her breath caught, his voice a growl now, telling her how much he wanted her, how good she felt. “Mine,” he whispered. “You feel like mine.”
“I am yours,” she gasped, and she meant it in that moment, and thought fleetingly that she would mean it for always.
A soft cry, and her body clenched around him. “I used to dream of what you’d sound like,” he said, his voice shaking as he gave a final, shuddering groan that matched hers in intensity.
“Becca…”
“Cort.”
They stayed tangled together afterward, skin warm and damp, limbs twined beneath the quilt.
He stroked her back in slow, lazy circles as their breath returned to normal.
“This doesn’t feel real,” he finally said.
“And yet,” she said with a smile, reaching out, touching him back. “You are real. And so am I.”
He kissed her, pulled her close, drew her tight against his chest as the moonlight spilled across the bed and they fell asleep.
—
Cort’s shower was running in his en suite bathroom. For a moment, Rebecca stayed still in his bed, surrounded by the scent of him on the pillows, feeling luxuriously content. She stretched, smiling at the pleasant ache in her muscles.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Cort said, emerging from the en suite with a towel slung low on his hips, his hair damp, his smile a little shy, but not by much.
“Good morning,” she murmured, reaching for him as he sat on the edge of the bed and bent to kiss her.
He reached down to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her cheek.
“How did you sleep?”
“Better than I have in weeks,” she admitted. “You?”
“Like a dead man.” He leaned down, pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “You tired me out.”
Her cheeks warmed as she recalled how, in the middle of the night, she had woken, filled with yearning for him again. She had waited just a few moments before waking him up with her touch. The entire time, he had looked at her like he wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not.
“Trust me, I liked it,” he said. “I’d happily have interrupted sleep for the rest of my life, if it meant being woken up like that.”
His finger traced the bare curve of her shoulder. “But now”—he glanced at the clock on his bedside table—“I’m late for work. Hope my boss won’t be mad. She’s really tough.”
“She’ll let it go this time,” Rebecca said, pulling him back down onto the bed again, hoping it might be possible for them to never leave this room.