Feeling incredibly pleased with myself, I stretched out on the blanket, pulling her against me before starting the program. She nestled into my shoulder and sighed happily as the music began.
“I can’t believe you did all of this. I feel so spoiled.”
Mission accomplished,I thought. I had wanted to spoil this girl for years. There was nothing worse than seeing her on a cold Minnesota winter’s day in her old threadbare coat. Or those terrible weeks when I’d notice her cheekbones getting more and more prominent in her normally cherubic face and knowing it must be a bad stretch at home, that she wasn’t getting enough to eat. On those occasions I would always insist that she stay over for dinner. Too often, she would decline. She admitted to me once that it felt wrong to enjoy a nice family meal in our warm house when she knew Andy wouldn’t be getting the same.
This woman was sogood. Beautiful inside and out. Of course I wanted to spoil her.
“I didn’t need all of this, you know,” she whispered. “I would have been happy just to see you.”
I cupped the back of her head. “Maybe you didn’t need it,” I agreed. “But you sure as hell deserve it.”
Gracie turned on her side to face me.
“There is one advantage to not being able to go out.” She swung a leg up over my hips, straddling me and leaning down to take my lips in a feverish kiss.
I groaned, bringing my hands to the curve of her ass and pulling her body in closer. Tighter. It never seemed to be close enough with her.
Every other time we’d been together like this it had felt desperate. Explosive. And while that had most definitely been fun, there was something special about being able to take my time. To explore and treasure her. To peel off every layer of her clothing until she was naked and trembling below me. To drawout each little gasp of her pleasure, to travel my lips and tongue across every inch of her sweet soft skin.
“Liam, please,” she moaned once I’d turned her into a panting, gasping puddle below me. I shifted to my knees so I could stand and she made an unhappy noise. “Where are you going?”
“I’m taking you to the bed,” I said, slipping my arms below her shoulders and knees.
She grasped my shoulders, digging in her fingernails hard enough to make me hiss in pleasure at the sting. “I don’t want to wait that long.”
I laughed, burying my face in her neck, letting myself fully enjoy the moment of levity. The comfort and ease I felt around this woman. The pure contentment in my body just from being this close to her.
“It’s three feet away, Gracie,” I finally said. “Pretty sure you can manage.”
But once I’d deposited her on the cloud-like mattress, it was my turn to groan.
“What is it?”
“Condoms are in my bag,” I muttered. And my bag was stashed in the closet—which, at the moment, felt like an insurmountable distance away. I reached for the nightstand. This was a pretty high-end hotel—maybe they stocked condoms in the bedroom.
But Gracie grasped my wrist, stopping me. “I have an IUD,” she whispered, and for once she didn’t blush. In fact, she held my gaze, expression sure and unembarrassed. “And I was tested after my last partner.”
“Me too,” I whispered, throat dry at the implication of what she was saying.
She held my gaze. “Then I want you like this. With nothing between us.”
If I thought the shy version of her was hot, this bold, asking for what she wanted version was a million times sexier.
“Fuck, Gracie,” I muttered, burying my head in her neck in a helpless effort to keep my shit together. The mere thought of being inside her, skin-to-skin, was enough to nearly make me embarrass myself right then and there by spilling into the sheets.
She gave me time to gather myself, running soft circles over the expanse of my back with her short fingernails. It felt insanely good, and part of me wanted to just stay there like that forever. But a bigger part of me was eager to get to the heaven I knew waited between her thighs.
I lifted my head, positioning my hips in the cradle of her legs, and held my breath as I slid inside with one, slow stroke.
Our deep moans were mirrors of each other, and I lowered myself to press my forehead against hers.
“You feel so fucking good like this,” I gasped. “Unbelievable.”
“You too,” she panted into my ear, then lifted her hips against mine, making me curse incoherently.
“This is not going to last as long as I want,” I warned her. Especially not if she kept doing things like that.
“We have all night, right?” she murmured, smiling against my skin.
