Someone was here? Who?
Slowly, she moved over to the door and looked through the peephole, gasping at the sight of Kayden.
Why hadn’t he left?
Without thinking about the fact that she wasn’t wearing pants, she tugged the door open. The second his eyes fell on her, they roamed down her T-shirt and bare legs, darkening another shade with each inch of body he traced with his gaze. She hadn’t pulled on a bra, and the shirt barely covered her ass.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
His gaze rose back to her face, an expression she couldn’t read on his own. “I never left. I couldn’t. Not without being certain you were all right.”
She wasn’t. Not five minutes ago when she’d been in the shower, and not now.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in this town. Like every person who threatens me, towers over me, looks at me with hate, or denies me some kind of service or care pushes me that much deeper under the surface. And I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath.”
The muscles in his arms flexed and he stepped closer, that familiar, strong hand once again cupping her cheek. “I won’t let you drown.”
“I don’t want to need you. I want to stand on my own two feet.”
He seemed to consider her words for a moment. Then his head lowered, his warm breath brushing the skin beside her ear. “You will. But for now, let me help you. Let me keep tugging you back to the surface.”
Her eyes shuttered, those soothing words breathing air into her lungs.
For a fraction of a second, they remained so still that she wasn’t even sure either of them took a breath. Then his head lowered that tiny bit, and his mouth whispered over the back of her ear. It was the second time his lips had touched her that night, and each time was more powerful.
A shudder rolled down her spine, and he did it again.
She grabbed onto his shirt, as if she needed to hold him to keep herself upright.
Those soft lips nipped at her jawbone, then her cheek.
“Is this okay?” His question whispered across her skin.
One more kiss, this time right beside her mouth, before she answered, “Yes. Kiss me, Kayden.”
A noise that barely registered cut from his chest—maybe a growl, maybe a groan—then his mouth collided with hers. It wasn’t a light or glancing kiss. It was a full, mouth-against-mouth, tongue-tangling consumption.
He tugged her body against his, and she felt all of him. Every hard ridge. Every flicker of movement.
She groaned as his tongue teased hers, her fingers sweeping into his hair, pulling and tugging. She was just losing herself when he growled and lifted her off her feet before turning and pressing her to a wall. There was the soft thud of the door closing as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her core pressing against him.
God, it was heaven. It was a thousand flutters of her belly. A million degrees of heat on her skin.
His day-old scruff swept over her cheek, the hand on her hip dipping beneath the shirt, which had risen to her waist. When that hand slipped up her side, her heart began to beat faster. Every inch it moved closer to her breast had her breaths shortening further. Then he cupped her, and as the weight of her bare breast lifted in his hand, all rational thought left her as she threw her head back and moaned.
His mouth slid down her neck, sucking as he palmed her breast, his thumb finding her nipple and rolling it back and forth.
The air moving in her lungs became short pants as her hips ground against him of their own accord.
“Where are we taking this, Tilly?”
She barely heard his words through the buzzing between her ears.
He lifted his head, and she wanted to groan and tug him back. “Tilly, I need to know how far you want to take this.”
How was she even supposed to answer that while he had his hand on her breast and her core was pressed against his rock-hard belly? “I want you to carry me to the bedroom, and I want you to make me forget anyone who came before you.”
Something dark and dangerous flashed through his eyes. Then his mouth crashed to hers once more, and he was moving, the air whipping around them until he stopped in her bedroom and tugged at her shirt. In one fell swoop it was gone, and all she wore were black panties. But she didn’t have time to think about that because his head dipped, his lips wrapping around her pebbled nipple.
