Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Abilene
Sunday
“Jesse?”
My voice sounds strange. Soft, breathless, like it’s been stolen from me and handed back in pieces.
I blink, trying to make sense of the shadows stretching across the horse stables, dust swirling in golden shafts of light.
Why are we here?
Why is he…
“Abilene,” Jesse murmurs, stepping toward me with that slow, confident walk he has, the one that always makes it seem like he’s approaching danger or desire, and he’s fine with either. “I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
I open my mouth to say something, anything, but the words dissolve when he reaches out and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear.
His touch is warm. Too warm. It sends a shiver racing down my spine.
“I think about you,” he whispers, “more than I should.”
My heart slams so hard against my ribs, I swear the horses can hear it.
“Jesse,” I breathe, “we shouldn’t be—”
“I know,” he says, stepping closer, close enough that I can smell sun-warmed hay on his skin, close enough that his breath brushes my lips. “But I don’t care.”
His fingers skim down my jaw, and my knees go weak. The stables feel too small, the air overwhelming, my pulse too loud.
Jesse’s lips touch mine. The gentleness undoes me more than any force could. A soft sigh escapes me, and that’s all the permission he needs.
The kiss deepens.
Heat coils low in my belly as he pulls me closer, his hands sliding to my waist, fingers curling like he’s been waiting years just to touch me.
The stables disappear. Everything disappears.
There’s only the warm, urgent press of his mouth, the intoxicating taste of his breath, the way every inch of him is flame against my skin.
My hands go to his chest, solid, strong, familiar in a way that makes my stomach flip, and he groans against my lips, a sound that sends sparks racing through my blood.
“Oh, Abilene,” he whispers between kisses, “I’ve wanted this… wanted you…”
His mouth trails along my jaw, down my throat. My head tips back instinctively, a soft gasp escaping.
Everything feels unreal.
Too perfect.
Too heated.
Too…
A sudden shift.
The light changes, flickering, fluttering like candle flame.
The horses vanish into hazy silhouettes. The walls blur around us, wooden planks turning soft, indistinct.
Jesse’s hands slip from my waist only to reappear on my hips without any sense of movement. His hands edge lower to where I’m throbbing for him.
My legs stumble apart.
His thumb slides beneath my waistband, slow and daring. Lightning flashes under my skin. I want to tell him to stop. I want to tell him to never, ever stop.
His other hand comes up, fingers threading through my hair, tilting my head until his mouth is at my ear.
“I think about you all the time,” he breathes, so low that my spine curves for him. “Every fucking time I touch myself.”
My knees buckle, but he holds me up, strong arms bracketing me against the warm, sunlit wood, caging me without trapping. It’s the safest I’ve felt and the most dangerous.
He kisses my throat, my collarbone, the tiny hollow where my pulse hammers like a trapped bird. Just heat and gravity and the pull of something old as the land itself.
His hand dips lower, cupping me firmly through my jeans. My hips jerk, need boiling up inside me, embarrassing and helpless.
He grins into my neck, lips brushing the feverish skin.
“Oh fuck…” I say, and his thumb strokes bare skin, the button on my jeans already unfastened, my zipper halfway down.
He bites my shoulder, playful, and a little bit mean, and I whimper, really whimper, at the jolt that rockets straight to where his hand is working.
He tugs my jeans and underwear down over my hips and thighs so I’m half naked in broad daylight, footsteps and birdsong and some old wind chime from the neighbor’s porch echoing up the hill.
I don’t even care. He’s pressed so close I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
And I don’t want to.
Jesse’s hands, those strong, work-roughened hands, slide back up my thighs. The air hums with heat, with want, with that dark pull between us that feels older than both of us.
“Look at you,” he murmurs roughly. “Shaking for me already.”
I’m trembling everywhere, breath catching in tiny, humiliating gasps. My back arches instinctively, chasing his body, his warmth, his weight.
He grins like he knew I’d do that. “Good girl.”
The words hit so deep I swear the ground tilts.
My knees nearly give out, and he catches me without effort, hauling me closer until my chest presses hard against his. His grip on my hip tightens, possessive, guiding me exactly where he wants me.
“You feel what you’re doing to me?” he growls against my throat. His hips shift, and a soft, startled cry escapes me. “Yeah. That.”
His hand drifts up my spine, fingers spreading, holding me in place as he lowers his mouth to mine.
The kiss is devastating. Hungry. Dominant. Impatient.
He kisses me like he can’t breathe without it, like he’s starved and I’m the only thing he’ll ever want again. My hands fist in his shirt, dragging him closer, desperate and unthinking.
I’ve never wanted anything this badly. Not even air.
His fingers slide under my shirt, palm splayed over my stomach, gliding upward with sinful, coaxing pressure.
My breath stutters. My head drops back. A low sound tears from my throat, helpless, needy…
He loves it.
I wrap myself around him. I press every part of my body up against him, trying to let him know that I freaking need him.
In a blink, my shirt’s gone, pulled over my head and flung somewhere behind him, and I gasp at the sudden rush of cool on my skin.
“Turn,” he murmurs.
I do. Immediately. Without thinking.
He drags the rest of my clothing off from behind, slow at first… then impatiently. The sight of my bare skin is undoing him.
I make a small, breathless sound. Half embarrassment, half feelings that are far more dangerous.
And oh.
Oh.
He’s…
Beautiful.
Strong.
Broad-shouldered, warm and solid and Jesse in a way that makes my head spin.
“Abilene…” He drags a knuckle down the center of my stomach as he drags me back to face him. “You look…” He breaks off, breath shaking. “I can’t even pick the right word.”
Heat pools low and heavy in my belly.
I surprise myself by moving first, sliding onto his lap, straddling him, hands on his chest. His eyes flare so sharply it lights me up wickedly.
“You’re adorable,” he husks, “thinking you’re the one in control.”
His hands grip my waist, hard enough to make me gasp, and he rolls his hips just enough to send a shockwave through my whole body.
My breath stutters.
He grins. “You feel that.”
It isn’t a question.
I nod and lift my head, just enough to bite his bottom lip. Thankfully, that’s all he needs.
With one intense thrust, he’s inside of me, driving me wild.
He sets a deep, relentless, devastating rhythm that sends pleasure spiraling through me so fast I can’t keep up. Every push, every roll of his hips strikes through me like a lightning bolt, curling my toes, making my legs lock tight around his waist.
My spine bows.
My breath shatters.
My fingers claw at him, trying to anchor myself.
The pleasure builds too quickly, too fiercely, a molten pressure climbing higher and higher until my whole body is trembling with it. I’m trying not to fall apart yet. I want to savor him, savor this, burn it into memory.
But he doesn’t give me a chance.
“Abilene,” he groans in my ear, wrecked with hunger, “I’ve got you.”
The sound, the tone, the way he says my name…
It pushes me right to the edge.
I’m already unraveling, breath catching on tiny gasps, my thighs trembling around him.
“Jesse…”
He drives me deeper into the bliss pouring through my veins, his movements confident, controlled, absolutely ruinous.
I don’t stand a chance. Not with the way he holds me. Not with the way he moves—he knows exactly how I’m falling apart beneath him.
I can’t slow it.
I can’t stop it.
I can’t savor anything…
I’m going to fall.
He’s going to push me over no matter what.
And I want it.
“Oh, Honeybee…” His voice cracks with want. “If you keep making sounds like that, I’m not gonna last.”
My heart slams twice.
My hands slip up to cup his jaw, pulling him down into another hungry kiss. He groans into my mouth, a deep, desperate sound that vibrates down my spine.
His hand fists in my hair, guiding my head back as he mouths down my throat, teeth scraping lightly, wickedly…
“Jesse…” I choke out, thighs trembling.
“Tell me what you want,” he orders darkly. “Right now.”
“I want…”
He presses closer, pinning me just enough that my breath breaks into a moan, my body arching helplessly into his.
“Say it,” he whispers, sharp with desire. “I’ll give you anything.”
Lightning flashes, bright, violent, splitting the stable in two for an instant.
The world flickers. His touch is molten heat and vanishing smoke at the same time.
My pulse surges.
His mouth finds mine in a deep, consuming kiss…
And the entire world breaks.
The stables warp. The light dims. His hands blur at the edges.
“No, don’t…” I gasp, reaching for him.
The world detonates.
I bolt upright in bed with a sharp cry, chest heaving, sheets twisted around my hips like I’d been fighting him off or pulling him closer.
My body is shaking. My breath won’t slow.
And the worst, most terrifying part?
I can still feel his hands on my skin.
I can still hear his voice in my ear.
And I want to fall back asleep just to find him again.