“Did I hurt you?”Please, no. He stroked her back, praying that some of the best sex of his life hadn’t been awful for her, and held his breath.
“No.” She sat up and held his face in her hands. “I just got a little emotional is all. I didn’t think in the midst of all of this I could experience that much joy.”
“I didn’t know I could experience that much joy, period.” Oops. Too much?
Her relieved laugh loosened the sudden tightness in his chest. Her soft kiss had him trying to remember where he’d stashed the rest of the condoms. “You don’t have to say things like that,” she said, sitting up with a sigh.
What the hell? “Um, no filter, remember?” His pulse hadn’t completely slowed and he struggled to focus because something important was going on. “Especially right now.” He nipped at her lips, finding it difficult to stop. Half-naked together in a forest forever didn’t sound so bad. Reality could go fuck itself. “Did some asshole make you think you weren’t the most fascinating, desirable woman on the planet?”
She stilled and he sensed her folding in on herself. “All of them,” she whispered.
“Dipshits. Give me their names and I’ll happily break their kneecaps.” Or worse.
Her huff of laughter warmed him even as his body cooled. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on the feel of her in his arms, the slight rasp of her breath, her smooth curves fitted neatly against his, an unfamiliar feeling coursing through his veins.
He used his shirt to remove the condom, shoving the bundle out into the vestibule. Reluctant to lose any skin-to-skin contact, he ignored their half-removed pants and wrapped her fully in his embrace, lying back so he could pull the sleeping bag over them. “A tiny part of me wants to thank those dimwits though. If they’d realized what they had, you wouldn’t be here with me, and I’m having a hard time regretting that.”
Rising onto her elbows, she stared at him in the dark for a long moment and then kissed him like he’d never been kissed before.
His stomach took a dive. They’d been on the run together for little more than a day and they were already swirling into territory he’d never navigated.
Sure, he had a tendency to meet a woman and fall fast and hard—including, at one point, for Kurt Steele’s now-girlfriend—but what he’d felt for those women paled in comparison to the inferno that already blazed in his chest for Lindsey.
Those others had been mere crushes, fun fantasies. This was…well, something more. He wasn’t ready to put a name to it yet—not with all the uncertainty they faced—but it was more than a simple starry-eyed infatuation.
And the intense need to shelter, protect, and provide went well beyond anything he’d felt for those he’d rescued as part of his job. Even theideaof losing Lindsey made him heartsick. He didn’t know how she could be so important in so little time.
She just was.
Fuck.
Todd put everything he was feeling, everything he couldn’t say, into the kiss. Tasting, caressing, squeezing, entangling.
When she pulled back, they were both breathing heavy. She laid her head on his chest and absently skimmed his side with her fingers, stoking the embers of desire.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice a little slurred.
“My pleasure.” The reasons behind her gratitude didn’t even matter. It wasallhis pleasure.
He tried to memorize everything. Her wild curls, the faint tickle of her fingertips, the beat of her heart against his chest. He stroked her hair and closed his eyes, his skin cooling, content to serve as her mattress for as long as she’d allow.
Hours later, she startled in his arms, waking them both.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Her voice was groggy and confused. “I think I was dreaming, but I don’t remember anything.”
He stroked her hair, caressed her back, smoothed a hand over her buttocks. “It’s three-thirty. We still have a couple of hours before we need to get up.”
“I’m not sure I can sleep right now,” she murmured against his chest, one hand slowly trailing down his arm.
Instantly, he wanted to be inside her more than anything. Sleep could go hang. “What do you want to do?”
“I have a few ideas.”
She kissed him and he was lost, rolling her beneath him to keep her warm. They became a frenzy of hands and mouths and puffs of white breath, and he somehow managed to maintain enough sense to wrangle a condom from the small stash in his bag—something he’d need to replenish soon. Hopefully.
When he entered her, they moaned in unison, finally one in body as much as in spirit.
