Chapter Twenty-Two
THIS WASN’T EXACTLY HOW Hunter had pictured their second sleepover. For starters, they were wearing clothes.
Still, as he slid into bed beside Emma, he couldn’t bring himself to regret anything.
Sure, he wished she weren’t hurt, but despite her injury, they’d had a nice night.
Watching a movie on the couch with her was so much better than watching one alone.
Her presence made the whole cabin seem brighter. More full of life.
Despite the chill in the air, his bed was warmer with her in it.
He glanced down at her. She looked so cozy in a soft, worn T-shirt, her long hair tied up in a braid.
And yeah, she looked sexy as hell, too. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the soft curves of her breasts were entirely too obvious beneath the thin cotton. He didn’t think he’d ever not respond to her presence beside him.
Averting his gaze, he willed his erection to settle down. It was enough just to have her here. To know that she was safe; to have had the privilege of taking care of her when she was hurt.
“You good?” he asked, voice husky despite his best efforts.
“Yeah.”
Twisting to the side, he turned off the bedside lamp. Sudden darkness descended over the room, but there was still just a little bit of moonlight filtering in through the gaps in the shades.
The only other time they’d fallen asleep together, it had been in a sated, sweaty pile of post-orgasmic exhaustion.
But somehow, it was entirely too natural to end up lying on his back, one arm curled around her as she nestled in against his side.
Using his shoulder as a pillow, she placed her hand over his chest.
His heart was almost too full to contain, and he turned his neck to place a firm, fervent kiss on the top of her head. The sweet scent of her hair filled his lungs, the warmth of her body suffusing him, and for a second, it was entirely too easy to imagine having her here every night.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For staying here tonight.”
She let out a soft laugh, pressing her lips to the pulse point at his throat. “I was about to say the same thing. Thanks for letting me stay, and for taking care of me.”
“Of course.”
“I know it’s not quite how our day was supposed to go…”
“Shh.” He traced his fingertips along her upper arm, the silk of her skin unbearably, entrancingly soft.
Her breath warm against his jaw, she whispered, “And this wasn’t quite how I wanted our day to end.”
Was the woman trying to kill him?
His erection throbbed, the covers barely hiding the way he was tenting his boxers. “It’s fine,” he managed.
Then she slid her knee up his leg, and he stopped breathing. She kept going and going, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stop her. A gentleman probably would, but he was only human.
When her thigh grazed the length of him, he twitched, his eyes fluttering closed. He tightened his grip on her arm, going from caressing to holding.
“Emma…”
Her soft lips pressed to his throat, then the point of his jaw.
“You’re hurt,” he gritted out.
“Not that hurt.”
And that was it. Stick a fork in him; he was done.
Turning to the side, he captured her lips in a fiery kiss, all the repressed desire he’d been keeping at bay surging forward in a rush. She kissed him back, her hand moving to his cheek. He wanted to touch her everywhere. Her waist, her neck, her breasts, her hips and soft thighs.
“We don’t have to,” he murmured between kisses. “There’s no expectation—just because you’re here—”
She held his face still, staring right into his eyes through the dimness. “I want to.”
And hadn’t he kept telling her? It was okay to ask for what you wanted.
Groaning, he recaptured her lips, sliding his hand beneath the hem of her shirt.
She helped him drag it up and off her body, and then she was reaching for his, too.
He practically tore the fabric in two. When he pulled her back into his arms, her breasts pressed against his chest, lighting him up inside.
Hooking her thigh over his hip, she ground against him, and he nearly bit the inside of his cheek.
“Jesus, Emma,” he breathed. “You feel so good. Want you so much—”
“Me, too.”
“How—”
“Whatever you want.”
He shook his head, unable to stop kissing her, even to keep talking. “You drive.”
“But—”
He rolled onto his back, taking her with him, careful of her ankle, but she wasn’t fragile. She knew what she wanted. She landed astride his hips, and a shock of pure pleasure jolted up his spine.
“Oh,” she breathed, rocking over his hardness with all of her soft sweetness.
Her nipples scraped against his chest in the most erotic, delicious torture. He took her breasts in his palms, cupping the gentle weight of them and rubbing the peaks with his thumbs until she whimpered into his mouth.
“Like that.” She cried out, grinding down on him harder. “I want that.”
“Take it—any damn thing you want, baby. It’s all yours.”
He was hers, and there was a reason that was supposed to scare him, but it didn’t. Not anymore.
“Want…” She parted from his mouth, and no, bad, why was she moving so far away?
But as she kissed down his chest, all he could do was groan, threading his fingers through her hair.
“No, Emma, you don’t have to—”
She stopped with her mouth hovering right above the waistband of his obscenely tented boxers. “Stop saying that.” Her dark eyes seared through him. “I want to.”
And he was helpless.
Surrendering to this woman, he let her pull down his underwear to mid-thigh. He would have torn it the rest of the way off, but she was in control right now, her knees to either side of his. She looked up at him, and their gazes met.
And then she licked a gentle stripe all up the length of him.
The sudden shock of pleasure nearly punched the air from his lungs. She kissed his tip before gliding her tongue back down to the base and then repeating the sequence from the top.
Foul words escaped his lips. He didn’t know where to put his hands, so he curled one in the sheets and rested the other on the back of her head—not directing or demanding. Just trying to hold on.
After a few more teasing passes, she curled her fingers around him and lifted him up. His breath stuttered, his quads ready to burst with the tension of holding still.
Then she took him in her mouth, and his entire brain bled out his ears.
“Emma,” he gasped. Her lips pursed around him, her tongue slick and deft. As she moved her head up and down, the wet heat was nearly too much. It was all he could do to lie there and let her do what she wanted to him without losing it. “Your mouth…”
He carded his fingers through her hair and tried to think about baseball statistics, but there was nothing he could do to distract himself from how good she was making him feel. Just when he started to worry he’d embarrass himself, though, she released him.
She climbed back up his body like the minx she was.
“Incredible,” he babbled before she sealed her lips to his once more.
She was still wearing a pair of little shorts, which was a travesty. He smoothed his thumbs across the dips above her hip bones, then tucked them into the waistband.
“Can I?”
She nodded, and together, they got her naked.
He finally kicked off his own boxers, and it was all awkward, with the way she was working around that hurt ankle of hers.
He wanted to tell her again that they could stop anytime she wanted to, but he wasn’t a masochist, and he didn’t need another talking-to. She knew herself. He trusted her.
“Tell me what you want,” he begged her.
“This.” She settled over him again, her wet flesh dragging against him. She slid across him a couple of times, and it would have been fine—just that. But then she asked, “Condom?”
He’d never moved so fast—or so carefully—in his life.
He somehow managed to get his bedside drawer open and the condom out and open and on him while barely dislodging her.
She pushed him back down into the mattress, her hands braced on his chest, and she was so gorgeous, looming over him like this.
Her dark hair falling out of its braid, her wet lips full and lush.
Her breasts and her smooth, pale skin and the curves of her hips.
She rocked against him a few more times before gliding forward. He sucked in a breath, reaching between their bodies to get himself angled just right.
She sank down on him with a sigh, and it hardly mattered that it was the best damn thing he’d ever felt. Her head tipped back, baring her throat. Her mouth fell open, her eyes fluttering, and her pleasure was his pleasure.
“That’s it,” he murmured, dirty nonsense falling out of his mouth. She was heaven—wet and tight and taking him in all the way to the hilt.
She kept him in deep for a while, grinding against him in little shifts of her hips that would drive him out of his mind if she kept at it, but he didn’t care.
“You feel so good,” he told her. “I love feeling you—love seeing you like this.”
“Like what?” She laughed against his lips, their kisses loose and wet.
“Like you’re happy.”
Because he was, too. Happier than he’d ever imagined he could be.
As if she could feel how monumental that was, she kissed him deeper, and he closed his eyes.
She moved on him with longer strokes now, and he slipped his hand between them like a question.
She groaned her assent, and he touched her where they were joined, trying to get it just right, remembering how he’d taken her apart with his tongue the last time.
Her little pants and shudders were his guide, and before long, she was bouncing even faster over him. Ecstasy barreled down on him, but he was determined to drive her over the edge before he let go.
And then she was there, gasping. “Hunter—”
Her body squeezed down on him like a vise.
Groaning, he pressed harder at her with his fingers. She pulsed around him over and over, and he couldn’t take it a second longer.
Grasping her by the hips, he drove up into her for the final few strokes.
“Yes, yes,” she urged him, moving with him, her brow to his.
His climax crashed over him, and he shuddered with the spasms, pulling her close. She gasped against his mouth, still clenching around him until after his peak had crested. Collapsing over him, she buried her head against his throat.
He held her there while the haze of pleasure slowly cleared.
“You okay?” he panted.
“Never better. Except for the broken ankle, of course.”
“Sprained.” He craned his neck, trying to see down toward her feet while she was still deadweight on his chest. “Did we make it any worse?”
“No.” Shaking her head, she rose enough to kiss his lips, though it was hard to with how widely she was smiling. “That made it much, much better. In fact, we should probably do it again.”
“Is that right?” He couldn’t help grinning himself, tickled with her goofiness, and with the happiness and confidence radiating from her.
“For medicinal reasons.” She paused, sitting up a little straighter. “Assuming that’s okay with you?”
“Like I said.” He brushed her hair back from her face, his heart melting just that tiny bit more. “I’m all yours.”