She moaned out his name an instant before the next wave hit.Tripp drove deep, his body locking as his own climax hit a second later.
They writhed together through the heart of the storm.Clung to each other as they floated back to shore when it faded.
Tripp lay hot and heavy on top of her, his breaths rasping close to her ear.She stroked her hands over his damp, bare back, savoring the closeness, the right to explore him like this.Mapping the smoothness of his torso, contrasted with the pitted scars on his arms and the side of his face where his beard couldn’t hide the scars.The physical remnants of his suffering.
His muscles twitched beneath her fingertips.She stilled.“Too sensitive?”She’d noticed he was self-conscious about his scars, especially the ones on his face.Lying here like this, he was making himself vulnerable in a way he hadn’t before.
“No.It’s okay.”
She resumed the stroking.“So, how was it for you?”she murmured, too content to move.
He lifted his head to frown down at her in confusion.“What?”
“Was it...great?”
A big grin split his face.“Yeah.It was.How was it for you?”
She ran her fingers through his hair, her heart turning over.“It was everything I could have hoped for and more.”
Tripp growled in approval and bent to nuzzle the side of her neck.Willow twined her arms around him, an utterly blissful wave of contentment washing over her.Peace.A rightness she felt all the way to her soul.
I love you, she told him silently, her chest hurting with the pressure of holding it in.But she had to hold it in for now.
It was too soon to tell him out loud.
THIRTY-NINE
D
arren had only a moment to compose himself when he pulled the edge of the curtain aside and saw the sheriff walking toward the door from the vehicle he’d parked in the driveway.What the hell did he want?
“It’s the new sheriff,” his wife said, frowning as she went to answer the door.“Morning.Everything okay?”
Darren stepped up behind her, concealing his concern.“Sheriff.What can we do for you?”
“You’re Darren Lassiter?”
