She had adate.
* * *
“I’m so close,”she whispered. Her head fell back as one of Chris’s hands moved down the center of her body, from her neck to where she sat astride him. Her hips rolled as she rose and fell, his thick erection buried impossiblydeep.
“That’s it, Denise. Fuck yeah. Squeeze me tighter, baby.” He rubbed his thumb between her folds, wetting it then rubbing the hood of herclit.
“Oh, fuck.” Looking down at him, she braced her hands on his chest. That sweet tension gathered in her core like flood waters behind a dam, ready toburst.
He bit his lower lip and thrust up with his hips. “Christ, Denise. I’m holding back as best I can. I want you tocome.”
She took his thumb and moved it millimeters to the left. “Rightthere.”
“What do youneed?”
“Small circles. Hard. Fast,” she told him. “There. Right there. Oh, God.” Her head fell back again and she jerked her hips faster as she came, an explosion of starbursts behind her eyes following the pulse coursing through herbody.
He flipped her onto her back, stealing her breath. Hooking his arms under her knees, he spread her wide and drove into her. He buried himself deep and his whole body shuddered. Unhooking his arms, he wrapped her legs around his hips and continued to thrust. Softer now that he’d come, but no lessintense.
Turning his head, he nipped her neck. Shivers shot down her body and shegroaned.
“Unless you can go again, you need to stop doing that,” shesaid.
He stilled. “I’m pretty sure I’m dead. There’s no going again for awhile.”
She smiled and ran her hands up his back. “That’s what Ifigured.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose along her jawline, then kissed her briefly. “Be rightback.”
“‘Kay.” Waiting until he’d gone into the bathroom and shut the door, Denise grabbed her robe from the hook on the closet door and used the kids’ bath in the hall to clean up then fixed two glasses ofwater.
Chris was asleep on his back, his chest rising and falling evenly when she returned. He’d pulled the sheet up only to hiswaist.
Setting one of the glasses on the table next to him, she took a moment to admire all the glorious muscles and tattoos on display in her bed. It was definitely something she could let herself get usedto.
She threw the robe on the end of the bed and lay down on her side in her normal position, facing away from Chris. It felt weird to cuddle up next to him while he was asleep. Plus, she wasn’t much of acuddler.
In that moment between being fully awake and asleep, he rolled over and pulled her back into his front, jarring her awake again. Her arms shot out and her whole body jerked at themovement.
“Shh. ’S okay, baby. I gotchyou.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. Not only from how abruptly she woke, but also from what he said. She could tell from his slurred words that he wasn’t fully awake. They said the most honest people were drunks and kids, but people on the edge of sleep fell into that category. One reason they used sleep deprivation as an interrogationtechnique.
It was such a simple statement, but it said somuch.
She adjusted her head on the pillow and wiggled into his embrace. She could learn to be a cuddler. Her eyelids eased closed, a small smile on herlips.
“I want you to be my person,” hemumbled.
Her eyes snapped open and stayed that way for a longtime.
Chapter 23
“Hey, Denise?”Nick, one of her employees, called from the receptiondoor.
“Yeah?” She closed the kennel door and took the leash to hang up on the pegs along thewall.
“I just got a call from the county shelter that there’s an abandoned dog. They think it might have been hit by a car. They’refull.”
