“Oh.”I gasped as my hand curled around the straining bicep.A warmth grew in my chest.
“I thought you were beautiful damn near a decade ago.”Thehot, wet lick against my pulse caused my back to arch.“With your dark hair andfair skin, you were like a living Snow White.”That mouth of his was on themove, coasting down my throat, scattering my thoughts.“I don’t have a type,Abby.I don’t go for just blondes or whatever.”With his other hand, he workedmy shirt to the side, baring my shoulder.“Checkered?”
At first, I didn’t get what he was referencing, but then Ifelt his finger trailing the lacy strap of my bra.“I think checkered print isunderrated.”
He laughed and then he pressed a kiss to the hollow of mythroat.“And something else I want you to understand, Abby.You’re not average.You could never be average.”
My breath caught.“You barely know me.”
Blazing a trail of fiery little kisses across my collarbone,he dragged his hand down my side, over my waist, to the flare of my hip oncemore.“Nothing about you screams average.Never did.I know damn well thathasn’t changed.”
This had to be a dream.
His hand squeezed my hip as he coasted those lips all theway back to mine, kissing me slowly, deeply.Blue fire still burned in his eyeswhen his gaze met mine.
Then he slowly pressed down, the hardest part of him againstthe softest part of me.I gasped at the feel of the heavy bulge.Liquid heatpooled.A tempting warmth built inside of me, a raw fire.God, I hadn’t feltthis way in…
“That’s what you do to me,” he said, nipping at my lip as herocked his hips against mine.Desire darted through my veins.Goodness, hewas—there were no words.“You get what I’m showing you?”he asked, lusthardening his words.
Part of me did.There was the other part that couldn’tcomprehend his interest, and finally, another part that wanted to stop talkingand start kissing again.
But that second part of me won out.“Where do you see thisgoing?”
He didn’t answer immediately, and in that short space,reality kicked in.Maybe this wasn’t the best time to ask that question, butwhat were we doing?Last night had been the first time we’d talked in years andnow we were kissing?Hell, we were doing more than kissing.I was flat on myback and he knew I was wearing a checkered print bra.
And I also now knew that all areas of his body wereexceptionally well-proportioned; something in my wildest dreams I never thoughtI’d ever have personal knowledge of.
I thoroughly believed in insta-lust.Criminy, I’dexperienced it several times at the gym, but I was never one to act on it.Orwas I?I never really had the chance to do so.I’d never given myself thechance.
But this seemed so fast, because it was fast.Possiblyrecord-breaking fast, but he, the guy I’d admired from afar for quite sometime, thought I was beautiful.And he thought there wasn’t a single thing aboutme that screamedaverage.
My wry gaze flicked over his handsome face as the secondsticked by.Uncertainty slammed into me.“Colton, I—”
His mouth silenced my words, but the softness of his kiss,the tenderness behind it, quelled the brimming disquiet.When he spoke, hisnose grazed mine.“That’s a hard question to answer, but you know what I doknow, Abby?Despite how you came back into my life last night, I was thrilledto see you.I came over this morning because I wanted to see you again and Ididn’t want to wait for a better excuse.I’m impatient like that,” he added,and I felt his lips form a grin against mine.“And I kissed you and I am rightwhere I am because I want you.I think you can feel that.”
“I can feel that,” I said, my voice throaty.There was noway I couldn’t feel that.
“And I think the way you kissed me back tells me you areright where you are because you want to be here.”He kissed me softly, stirringup the flutter into a crazy spiral.He lifted his head slightly and stared downat me.“I don’t know where this is going or what to expect, but I know what Iwant and I’m the type of guy that goes for it.Why would I wait getting thatmessage across?It doesn’t feel like something that’s going to change in a weekor a month.”
The type of guy who goes for it.
Was it really that simple?He wanted me, so he was going togo for it.Why waste the time?Could it really be that simple for me?Because Idid want him.I wanted him so badly it was a physical ache.And why did Ireally need to even think about the future, where this could lead?We were bothconsenting adults, and there was no mistaking the fact that he was attracted tome.Could I pass this up?
Pass up the chance to feel again?To be alive?
Because that would be what I was doing if I listened to thetiny, annoying voices in the back of my head.In the hours spent here and therewith Colton, I’d felt more than I had in the four years since Kevin passed on.The most I felt was through the words and stories I edited.Was there somethingwrong with wanting to feel alive again, for wanting more?
I hoped not.
“Okay,” I whispered, placing my shaking hand on his cheek,drawing his mouth back toward mine.
Colton came willingly, and his breath hitched before heclosed his mouth over mine.There was nothing sweet about this kiss.Our lipsparted, and his tongue was a hot, moist demand inside my mouth.He tookcomplete control, as if he was staking his claim, and there was apossessiveness in the way he kissed that shattered memories of any other kiss.
He splayed his palm flat against my cheek, still for amoment, and then he glided it down my neck.His hand stayed there, the touchgentle and so at odds with the fierceness of the kiss.I moaned, my bodyarching toward his, wanting to melt into him.Between my thighs, I pulsed and Iached.I was so into the taste and feel of him, but that voice was in the backof my head, this time preaching a different story.
Could I actually get naked in front of him?
Speaking of getting naked, I was pretty sure the Hanes boyshorts I was wearing were the least possible sexy thing I could have on, alongwith the checkered bra.
