Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
S ky stood under the warm stream of water, one thing on her mind. The same thing that had been on her mind for the last week. Well, not so much a thing but a person.
Becket.
He was downstairs cooking dinner while she washed off the smell of dogs. In fact, unless one of them was at work, he literally hadn’t left her side since the incident on the bridge. He’d been sleeping here, making her food, caring for her.
She sucked in a sharp breath. He’d been…God, he’d been so much more for her than she’d ever expected.
The cocky, know-it-all-Becket was gone, and in his place was this kind, gentle, protective version of him. He’d even taken her to another family dinner, and every touch and intimate glance her way had felt real.
Was it real? At some point, had they shifted from fake dating to real dating and just not discussed it?
She closed her eyes, letting the water beat down on her face and chest.
They weren’t friends. Friends didn’t share a bed, right? Friends didn’t wake up in each other’s embrace with his hard stomach pressed to her back or her cheek on his chest. And they weren’t enemies anymore.
She just needed to ask him and get it over with.
Mind made up, she turned off the water and stepped out. As she dried, her gaze caught on her reflection in the mirror. On the bruises that were fading from her arms. The healing scratches splattered across her body. After the car accident, she’d been covered in them. Now, you almost wouldn’t be able to tell anything had happened.
She still couldn’t believe Becket had jumped in after her. Because that was crazy, right? He’d jumped off a freaking bridge and risked his life for her.
Fear kicked at her ribs. The same fear that had been living inside her for the last week. He’d risked his life for her. He could have drowned trying to get her out.
She shook her head. Nothing was going to happen to him because of her. And her bad luck was not returning.
Ha. Maybe if she repeated that enough she might believe it.
She left the bathroom and stopped at the sight of broad shoulders and a very muscled back in the bedroom.
Desire slammed into her belly. Even from behind, he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.
Becket turned, and his washboard abs made her skin feel sensitive and tingly. She forced her gaze up to his eyes. Eyes that were darker than usual as they took her in just as she’d done to him.
“Hey,” she said softly.
“Hey. Sorry, I got pasta sauce on my shirt.”
He’d started leaving some of his things here. Clothes. Toiletries. Little bits and pieces of his life so that even when he wasn’t here, it felt like he was. “That’s not like you. Usually, you’re the cleanest cook I know.” Actually, he was the cleanest guy she knew. He said it was a military thing. She was pretty sure it was just a Becket thing.
“Guess I was distracted.”
His gaze lowered to the towel wrapped around her body. Her breasts suddenly felt heavy. She liked it when he looked at her. It made her feel beautiful and desirable. And it made her want things that part of her whispered she shouldn’t want.
“Is this real?” The quiet question was out before she could stop it.
Slowly, he crossed the space between them. “Does it feel real?”
“Yes.”
He stopped in front of her. “It feels real to me too.”
“You haven’t tried to kiss me in the last week.” She almost cringed. That kind of sounded desperate.
So gently she barely felt it, he ran his fingers down her arm. “I wanted to give you space to heal.”
“I feel good. Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Always.”
His fingers ran back down her arm, all the way to her wrist. She shuddered. Then he lowered his head and kissed her bare shoulder, making her abdomen flare to life.
“Becket…” she breathed.
“Mm.” He kissed her again, but this time her neck. On the third kiss, she tilted her head to give him better access. “So soft.”
Her eyes shuttered and she pressed her palms to his hard stomach, anchoring herself.
His lips moved over her cheek, slowly growing closer to her mouth. She could almost feel his lips on hers…but suddenly he stopped and lifted his head. Just a fraction, but it was enough to make her want to groan in disappointment.
His dark eyes bored into hers. “Do you want this, Sky?”
“I want you,” she whispered, the words truer than any other she’d spoken. Then, to prove her point, she rose to her toes and kissed him.
The second their mouths sealed together, her entire body came to life. It was like a beam of electricity shooting into her. That was what he did to her.
A deep growl rippled from his throat. He tugged her closer so her body was flush against his. She gasped, and he slipped his tongue inside her mouth.
The second she tasted him, she wanted more. It was only their fourth kiss, yet he tasted so infinitely familiar.
She slid one hand behind his head, threading her fingers through his hair. Hair that was far softer than she would have thought. She smoothed her other hand down his chest, feeling the steady thumps of his heart beneath her palm. So strong, just like the rest of him.
In one swift move, he lifted her, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned and lay her on the bed, his warmth above her…surrounding her. Light kisses grazed down her neck. When he reached the towel, he loosened the top and tugged it open.
She watched the heat in his eyes turn molten as he took her in.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he whispered. She didn’t have time to think before he lowered his head and took one pebbled nipple between his lips and sucked.
She cried out and arched, pressing her nipple deeper into his mouth.
He licked and sucked, his teeth grazing across her bud, driving her wild.
Then he switched to her other breast and did it all over again. Flicking her nipple back and forth, then running his tongue in a circle.
The throbbing in her core intensified, beating through her belly. She craved this man. She craved to be touched and kissed and loved by him.
Like he heard her thoughts, he released her nipple and trailed kisses down her belly then her hip bone. When he hovered over the apex between her thighs, the air in her lungs stalled.
He parted her thighs, wrapping his thick arms around them, and lowered his head. Then his tongue ran over her clit, and her entire body jolted. He did it again, but this time he placed a hand over her belly, keeping her exactly where he wanted her.
Every time he licked and tasted her, the room hazed and swirled. She fisted the bed sheets as he played with her, the need and desire building, making her ache for him.
When Becket wrapped his lips around her clit and sucked, she almost toppled over the edge. Desperately, she grabbed at his arms, tugging him up. He rose, only to crash his lips back to hers. The kiss was hungry and raw. It was a collision of mouth against mouth, tongue against tongue.
She reached between them, popping the button of his jeans, then lowering the zipper. She reached inside his briefs and wrapped her fingers around his cock. The shift in him was immediate. His muscles tensed, a new stillness taking over his limbs.
She started to explore, moving her palm over his length. When she reached his tip, she rolled her thumb over him.
He hung his head, and the growl that escaped his chest was primal. “Sky…you’re killing me.”
The warmth of his breath whispering over her skin sent goose bumps trailing over her throat. She quickened her strokes and adjusted her pressure, learning what he liked by the shifts in his breathing. The tightness of his muscles.
Only a few more seconds passed before he released another long, deep growl. His mouth dropped to hers again, tongue plunging inside.
When he pushed off the bed, she wanted to cry out and haul him back. He quickly shoved down his jeans and briefs, and her mouth went dry. God, he was gorgeous. And so incredibly big…every inch of him.
He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled a condom from his wallet. His eyes never left hers as he opened it and rolled it over his length, and every second that passed had her heart beating a little faster.
When he returned to her, she could feel him between her thighs, nudging at her entrance.
“This is real,” he whispered.
She cupped his cheek. “More real than anything.”
Another darkening of his eyes. Then, slowly, he pushed inside. Filling her. Stretching her. Making her his.
* * *
Becket closed his eyes, trying like hell to calm the fucking storm inside him.
She was tight. And she felt too damn good clamped around his cock.
His heart beat so hard he could hear it. And it was taking every ounce of self-restraint he had to remain still. The heat of her walls around him, combined with the feel of her beneath him, was fucking torment.
He took advantage of her exposed neck and sucked, rewarded with a feminine moan. Every sound from her made lava burn through his veins.
With his mouth still on her, he reached for her breast and rolled his thumb over her nipple. More earth-shattering cries. She wrapped a leg around his waist and tugged him deeper.
Fuck. That last bit of control snapped. He lifted his hips and thrust into her, hard.
Her nails bit into his shoulder, and he plunged into her again and again, sinking so deep that the heat of her body surrounded him on every return.
Perfect. She was fucking perfect .
She rocked her hips, matching his thrusts. Deepening them.
When she nipped at his lips, he growled. She did it again, this time following it up with a soft graze of her lips against his, almost teasing.
He dropped his head and crashed his mouth to hers, getting lost in her. Fuck, he loved kissing her. Everything about this woman called to him, and he was fucking helpless.
When he pinched her nipple, she cried out, her nails digging deeper into his flesh.
He quickened his pace, moving harder. Faster.
Need danced between them, the sounds of their breathing and movements loud in the otherwise quiet room.
The muscles in his arms vibrated, and he told himself to slow down. To take his time and stretch this out. But he physically couldn’t. Not with Sky making those sweet sounds. Not with her legs tangled around him and her hips lifting to meet his.
He slipped his hand between their bodies and rubbed his thumb over her clit in a circular motion.
She grabbed his upper arms and arched, keening as she fell. Shattering beneath him.
When she screamed his name, it almost broke him.
He pumped harder, stroking her, prolonging her orgasm. Watching as she completely abandoned all inhibition.
He kept thrusting until his own body finally tensed and he exploded, growling as he dug his head into the crook of her neck.
When he finally stilled, they both breathed deeply, every one of his inhales a breath of her. Her sweet scent that at some point he’d become utterly addicted to.
A few more breaths and he lifted his head to see her eyes hooded, a slow smile curving her lips. “Why did we waste so much time fighting when we could have been doing that ?”
He laughed. He could barely fucking speak, and she came out with that?
He rolled to the side, dragging her into him. “I don’t know, Peaches. It was our mistake.”
“A huge mistake.” They lay there for a few seconds before she gasped. “Your pasta!”
“I took it off the heat. It’s probably just gone cold.”
“Sex and cold pasta, that’s my kind of evening.”
“Yeah? You know what my kind of night is?”
She looked up at him, her cheeks still a pretty pink, eyes still half closed. “What?”
“Anything that includes you.”