He ground out her name as savagely as a curse, and maybe it was. He powered into her now, his thrusts hard and unforgiving. Her control seemed to snap its tether at the same moment his did. She held fast as he buried his face in the curve of her neck and the hard jolt of his mounting release rippled through his big body.
She had no choice but to hold on to him as he began to move with the ferocity of a storm. He pushed her higher, then higher still, toward the peak of a steep cliff that seemed to have no end.
She wasn’t afraid of getting close to that sheer drop. She wasn’t afraid of the tempest of Knox’s need as he chased his own release. She held on to him, ready for the fall.
Welcoming it.
They tumbled over the edge together.
CHAPTER 14
Lowering his head under the cold spray, Knox braced his hands against the shower walls and let the water needle his shoulders and back.
He’d come back to his attic quarters a couple hours before sunrise, realizing the only way he was going to let Leni sleep in peace was if he put some healthy distance between them. Considering the rampant hard-on he sported under the icy punishment of this third shower since he’d returned, he didn’t think any amount of miles or time would be enough to chill his desire for her.
He had spent almost all night making love to her, some dim part of his brain trying to rationalize that the sharpness of his need would smooth out once he’d had his fill. Problem was, feeling her beneath him, feeling her body respond to his, shatter with his, only honed that need into a razor-sharp hunger unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
Not even with Abbie.
That admission clawed at him. It shamed him, but he couldn’t deny it. He had adored Abbie for her free-spirited nature and her seemingly endless capacity to love people and bring them into her world, her life. A shameless flirt, she had been impossible to ignore. Her irrepressible light had drawn him and every other male in her orbit as easily as moths to a flame.
Leni couldn’t be more different. Calm, steady, responsible. Reserved and cautious, yet caring. When she opened herself to someone, it was a true gift. A rare one, from what Knox had observed.
And she had given that gift to him last night. In fact, she’d allowed him in from the first night he’d arrived in Parrish Falls.
Her kindness and quiet strength had attracted him even more than her fresh-faced beauty and sultry curves. Her fear for the welfare of an innocent child had all but guaranteed Knox couldn’t walk away and leave her to deal with her problems on her own.
For most of the time since he’d laid eyes on her, Knox had been telling himself he regretted his decision to stop at Leni’s diner. Last night blew that lie to pieces.
He was never going to regret seeing her lost to the pleasure he had given her. She had surrendered herself to him completely.
She had trusted him. Skin on skin, not a single barrier between their bodies or their connection to each other.
It humbled him, that she would accept him after such a long time without anyone else. He was far from deserving of a gift that precious. Just one more thing he’d taken from her and could not regret enjoying, bastard that he was.
Now, every gasp and moan, every shuddering tremor that had rocked her, was seared into his mind. Every ecstatic scream he swallowed with his kiss echoed in his blood, in his marrow. What they shared last night would never leave him, no matter how much time or distance he was determined to put between Leni and him.
Knox cursed as he closed his eyes and cranked the shower temperature from cold to Arctic.
He’d barely left her bed and all he could think about was getting back into it with her. If he’d thought a single taste would sate his hunger, he was realizing the depth of his mistake this morning. How he would manage to stay under the same roof with her now and not want to get her naked again was beyond him.
He didn’t even want to consider the added complication of the boy.
Staying in Parrish Falls wasn’t in the plan when he’d arrived there. Staying any longer than necessary was only going to make things worse—as if he needed to bury himself inside Leni in order to realize that.
Fuck.
He turned off the water, then stepped out to hastily towel off. His skin still felt overheated despite the cold, his cock still stubbornly refusing to back down. He stuffed it into the jeans he pulled on, hoping like hell he could get his thoughts—and his libido—under control for the rest of the day.
The upcoming night would be a battle he’d have to fight once he got there. It would be a mistake to let things get any more complicated or involved. A momentary weakness was bad enough. A repeat performance would not only be unfair, but cruel.
Leni had warned him not to make promises to Riley he couldn’t keep, but what about her?
She obviously wasn’t the kind of woman who took a new man into her bed whenever the whim struck. Lenora Calhoun was the kind of woman who put down roots and nurtured them. She was the kind of woman who would put her life on hold to look after a motherless child.
The kind of woman who deserved white picket fences and a life free of struggle or pain. Not to mention an eternal blood bond with a male who was worthy of her. One whose hands weren’t already stained with a lifetime of blood and violence.
Christ, what the hell was wrong with him?
