Denise wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her water-filled boots together behind his back. Rain seeped past her lips and mingled with their kiss, making it wetter and hotter. His wide-legged pace ate up the distance across the yard and he was climbing the stairs in mereseconds.
Halfway up, he stumbled on a step. Sharp wood risers dug into her back and hips when he fell forward, all but dropping her on thestairs.
“Ow! Shit. Sorry.” He braced himself above her, blocking the rain from falling into her eyes. “Youokay?”
“I think so,” she said. Pain radiated from the center of her back and hips where she’d landed, but the bruises would be worth ittomorrow.
“We should probably walk upnormally.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t want to give you room to think.” He used a finger to hook a wet strand of hair off hercheek.
“Aboutwhat?”
“About whatever it is you think about that makes you shutdown.”
His gaze was too intense. She looked at his mouth, his lips wet from the rain and their kiss. All she had to do was say the word and he would walk away. He’d pretend he hadn’t found her losing her shit in the middle of a thunderstorm. But how many times could she push him away before he stayed away for good? She was so tired of being alone. Even when she went back to Sarah’s and Kaden and Kimber, she’d still bealone.
She looked back up. Chris waited patiently while cold rain pounded onto his back. “I’m not going to shutdown.”
He hesitated, as if he was going to ask her something, but decided against it. She almost asked himwhat, but the same hesitation stoppedher.
What abouttomorrow?
She didn’t want to think about tomorrow when she had to face the reality of being a single parent and all that entailed. Right now, she just wanted to think about him and the next fewmoments.
Curling up, she kissed him. His hand cradled the back of her head as he slanted his mouth over hers. They stayed there until another rumble of thunder rolled over their heads. She pulled away. “No thinking. For the next ten minutes, atleast.”
He scowled at her. “Ten minutes, my ass. Up.” Pushing away from the stairs, he helped her stand then turned her and prodded her up to thelanding.
She pulled her wet feet out of her boots and pushed open the door. Spinning as soon as she cleared the threshold, she threw herself into Chris’s arms, latching onto his mouth once more. He shifted their bodies so he could close the door, stumbling back against it as he took herweight.
“Shoes,” he mumbled against herlips.
She stepped back and watched him bend at the waist to untie his hiking boots. He’d changed out of his suit at some point. Water pooled at their feet as it dripped from their bodies. Tugging at her shirt, she shimmied out of the clinging material, dropping it in a sopping pile. He paused and looked at her shirt, then sped up hismovements.
“Fucking laces are knotted,” he muttered. He reached into his back pocket and a pulled out a knife. Flipping it open, he slid it under the laces of his right shoe and flicked his wrist. He closed the blade and stood while kicking out of hisboots.
“Eagermuch?”
“Fuck,yes.”
She glanced up from the stuck zipper she was trying to work down. His gaze was fixed on her chest. She noted her simple white bra had become see through. He’d apparently noticed the samething.
He lunged at her, taking her to the ground in a controlled move while his mouth latched onto her nipple. Sweet baby Jesus, he’d better be able to get her jeans off. Heat radiated from him, warming her front while the cool floor under her caused her toshiver.
Or maybe it was all him. He pulled the cup of her bra down, flicking her pebbled nipple with his tongue. She moaned and thrust her hips against him. He tugged at her pants, wrenching at the zipper until it gave, then peeled them down her legs. On the way back up he put his hot, open mouth on the exposed skin of her hip, sucking briefly before licking the samespot.
Her eyes closed and she rolled her hips up, pressing harder against his mouth. For once she wished she was the type of woman who wore sexy, lacy underwear instead of simple, cottonbriefs.
“I’m about to be doin’ a whole lot better,” Chrissaid.
“What?” She popped her head up inconfusion.
He nuzzled the juncture of her thighs. “Your underwear says, ‘How you doin’?’ I was letting you know, I’m about to be a whole lot better. So are you.” His teeth scraped against her clit, through herunderwear.
Liquid warmth spread up and out. “Chris, I want to feel you insideme.”
