“You looktired.”
She felt him nod slightly against her shoulder. “I haven’t slept well since youleft.”
She felt the truth of his statement. This wasn’t just a line. Slade might have been a cowboy, but he was a pretty one. This disheveled thing he had going on was not his style. He was off his game, and she knew it was the tension between them at the root ofit.
“I am too. It’s late. Why don’t we get somerest?”
She kissed the top of his head and held him close. Loving the feel of him in her arms, worried about how frail and raw heseemed.
“I don’t have any answers for you right now, Slade.” She leaned back, pulling out of his embrace so she could see his eyes. “Tonight, I just want to sleep, holding you. I want to know you’re allright.”
An open mouth and quickly moving eyes prepared her for his argument. But halfway between the words forming on his lips and his next breath, he closed his eyes and simplynodded.
He followed her down the hall to her bedroom. She asked him to sit on her foot bench, and unzipped and removed his boots and socks. When she stood, she ran gentle fingers up the length of his torso and pulled at the loose-fitting fabric of hisshirt.
Next, she placed her hand on the wide belt buckle at his waist. Loosening it, popping the button on his jeans, and pushing them down his lean hips brought about more concern for him. A chill ran through her when she felt how prominent the bones were there. Slade didn’t carry a lot of fat, but he had so many muscles, feeling bone on him wasjarring.
She led him to the side of the bed, pulling the covers back, and motioned for him to lie down. When he did, she gave his arm a gentle squeeze and walked over to her dresser. She opened the top drawer and removed the glass jar she’d placed there three weeks ago when she’d left him on hisranch.
Standing next to him again, she sat on the edge of the bed, opening the jar, placing its lid safely on thenightstand.
“I made this for you right before everything blew up in our faces.” She passed the opened jar beneath her nose and deeply inhaled the fragrant scent. “I chose sandalwood as the base scent, because it reminded me of you. Sweet enough to make life pleasant, strong enough to handle its ups anddowns.”
She removed a healthy dollop of the whipped body butter and placed the jar next to its lid on the nightstand. Rubbing her hands together, she placed her coated palms on his chest and kneaded the moisturizer into hisskin.
He was silent the entire time she rubbed him down, but she could feel the weight of his gaze on her as she paid deft attention to each section of skin shecaressed.
She couldn’t tell Slade how she felt, couldn’t explain how seeing him so brittle and fragile made her want to care for him. She couldn’t risk her words getting in the way, couldn’t allow her ego to push him away, even though it was probably what he deserved. In this moment, the only thing she could do was take care ofhim.
She’d only finished his torso when she heard even breaths coming from him. He was in that strange place between sleep and wakefulness where his eyes were almost completely closed, only opening in slits when he felt himself falling tosleep.
She smiled to herself. She’d also placed chamomile in the body butter. In Slade’s weakened state, the natural sleep aid took effect quickly. She rubbed the remainder of the body butter into his skin and closed the lid before she walked to the other side of the bed and climbed in besidehim.
Almost instinctively, it seemed, he pulled her next to him. His arm around her waist, his legs tangled up in hers, his head burrowed on the pillows of her breasts. It felt calming, familiar, her senses relaxing into the remembered routine. Her mind shutting out the rest of the world, enjoying the safety of this familiarembrace.
With one last pass of her fingers through his wavy hair, Mandisa smiled as she kissed the top of his head. She may not have had any answers, but tonight, she’d havepeace.
* * *
Slade felt the familiar heat of Mandisa’s body againsthis.
He’d dreamt about her every night since she’d gone. Dreamt of feeling her beneath his fingers, of tasting the sweetness of her fleshagain.
He let gentle fingers slide from her legs, up the curve of her ass until he reached the dip in the small of her back. She pressed the heat of her cunt against his aching cock. His tip, already leaking with need, throbbed as she canted her hips towardhim.
Slade raised his head from the cradle of her breasts, decorating the skin on her neck with feather-like kisses that pulled sultry moans from herlips.
He was a man who enjoyed his sex just as feisty and energetic as the next man. But there was something about the subtle touches being shared in this moment that had him so hot, so turned on he could hardly thinkstraight.
He pulled away from her briefly, just to savor the beauty of her desire. Her eyes closed, mouth slack and begging to be kissed, breath coming in heavy huffs. How could he have been foolish enough to do anything to push heraway?
He brushed one of her long braids out of her face and let his thumb pass over the rise of her rounded cheek. When coal-black eyes opened to him, her desire shining in them like stars in the midnight sky, his mouth descended on hers, pressing until her lips parted, and she welcomed his tongueinside.
She tasted just as he remembered—warm, sweet, sexy, so full of need she took his breathaway.
He let one of his hands travel down between their bodies, pushing between her legs and moaning his pleasure when he found her folds dripping withdesire.
“God, you’re sowet.”
