I didn’t know if it was the look in her eyes, the tenor of her voice, or the feel of her fingers against me, but I’d never before wanted to fall into someone’s embrace as much as I did in that moment, with this woman. But down that path led only madness—or poor decisions, as it were—and I wasn’t in the market for either.
“Thanks,” I said flatly.
Without another word, I stepped away and grabbed her clothes from the laundry room where I’d hung them last night. I thrust them out at her, avoiding eye contact. “Get dressed. I’m heading to the resort to check for damage. We can swing by your van so you can grab some things.”
“Don’t you mean so you can drop me off? I have to lead a class for that journalist and give her a massage.”
“Fine, but you’re coming back here tonight. I can’t get anyone out to clear the tree today. Not with the festival starting.”
After what’d happened between us last night, would she sleep in the guest room like I’d intended, or would she sneak her fine ass into my bed again? Maybe have that talk with my dick she mentioned in her orgasm stupor… I clenched my teeth, forcing the thoughts out of my head. She shouldn’t be here in my home. I shouldn’twanther here. But I couldn’t deny anymore that I did. She drove me crazy, but she brought a lightness to my days that had been missing for far too long, and I’d begun to crave her when she wasn’t near.
She pursed her lips as she grabbed her clothes from me. “We’ll see.”
And then she hopped down from the counter, whipped the T-shirt over her head until she was standing in my kitchen bare-ass naked, and proceeded to get dressed. Slowly.
I’d felt every inch of her last night, had been inside her with my tongue and my fingers and my cock, but it’d been too dark to see her in all her glory. And her glory was fucking stunning. Small tits, a waist that dipped in at her sides with a subtle flare on her lower stomach, and the lush, supple curves of her hips, thighs, and ass. Curves I was sure I’d never get sick of.
“Oh, don’t look so stunned, Sheriff. You’ve seen my tits before and quite literally had your face in my pussy.” She pulled on her clothes while I stood there, still—and hard—as granite.
Once she was dressed, she braced a hand on my chest and stood on her tiptoes, tugging me by the back of the neck until she could press her lips to my ear. “By the way, could you still taste me this morning? ’Cause I sure as hell could still feel you.”
Then, with a small, soft kiss against my jaw, she stepped back, grabbed her phone and the half-drunk smoothie, and waited for me at the side door, a twinkle in her eye that said she knew exactly the state of my dick right now. And she liked it.
* * *
Ten minutes later,I pulled up to the same spot I’d parked last night, only this time, everything was different. My heart seized in my chest, the organ feeling like it was caving in on itself, as I stared at the scene in front of me. Holy shit.Holyshit. A tree, smaller but no less intimidating than the one originally blocking the path, had fallen. Directly on top of Luna’s van.
“Oh my God,” she said, hands covering her mouth, eyes wide as she stared out the windshield.
Oh myfuckingGod was more like it. My palms were sweaty, my pulse thrumming wildly, and I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. JesusChrist, what would’ve happened if I hadn’t come out to get her last night? If I’d ignored the tug in my gut to check on her and instead had just gone straight home? She would’ve been trapped inside there with no way out.
Or worse, crushed beneath the wreckage.
I reached up, rubbing the deep ache in the middle of my chest, needing another minute or twenty before my heart would settle back into its normal rhythm and this pit in my stomach would close. But Luna didn’t give a single fuck about that as she unbuckled her seat belt and fumbled with the door handle. She also didn’t give a single fuck that she didn’t have any shoes on. She tore out of the car, dead set on sprinting across the debris-ridden forest floor and cutting the shit out of her feet in the process.
Having her dashing out was like paddles to my chest, jolting me out of my stupor, and I jumped out of the car and caught up to her in front of the hood. Without letting her take another step, I hooked an arm around her waist and tugged her back to me, just taking a second to feel her body against mine. To breathe her in and reassure myself she was fine. She was okay. She was alive and safe andfine.
Then, before she could question what the hell I was doing, I swung her into my arms, bracing one around her back and the other beneath her knees, and strode toward the van.
“Hey! What—”
“You’re barefoot.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine, grump. Believe it or not, Ihavewalked around barefoot once or twice in my thirty-one years.”
Whoever let this woman loose in the world was a menace to society. She was a magnet for trouble and needed a goddamn keeper, and it looked as if I’d been volunteered for the job.
“Yeah, well, if you get cut, I’ll just have to administer first aid, and I have more important things to worry about today.”
She smiled, clearly seeing through my bullshit answer, and reached up to wrap her arms around my neck. “Be careful, Sheriff. All this worrying about me might go to my head.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumbled under my breath.
Her answering laugh was halfhearted at best as she focused all of her attention on her van. The closer we got, the tighter my chest grew, until it felt like a vise was squeezing the life out of me. Branches draped over the entire expanse from the back end to the hood, the tree trunk resting right smack in the middle. Right where she would’ve been sleeping.
Jesus fucking Christ. She would’ve been in there. Would’ve been under that.
I didn’t know how long I stood there, staring at the wreckage, Luna clutched in my arms as I held her too tightly against me, until her words finally registered.
