He withdrew from me then sank back in, inch by inch. It felt impossibly good to the point it was almost torturous. I let out a soft sound of satisfaction, but it was muffled under his kiss, and then he began to move, easing to a steady pace.
The rock of his body against mine made fire rage, tightening a coil in my center.
It was as if his hands were everywhere. But his mouth, which stayed on mine, was unrelenting. Even when it became too difficult to draw air into my body and forced me to tear my lips away, his went to the sensitive spot just below my ear.
The coil inside me twisted tighter.
I clung to him and my hands drifted to his back, but I remembered to stop before I touched the place where his skinwas an angry, dark purple. The spot where he’d taken a bullet for me.
Instead, I reached one hand behind my head and balled the sheet into a fist, and wrapped the other behind his neck, curling my fingers into his hair.
I didn’t care if I was panting, or moaning, or if my legs were too tight around his waist. It didn’t matter if his brother might hear us. All I wanted—all Ineeded—was release, which each of his thrusts promised to give.
“You feel so good,” he whispered. It sent pleasure glancing up my spine. But then his pace slowed and he blew out a long breath as if he were struggling to even himself out.
“Don’t slow down,” I pleaded. I was going to lose my mind standing right at the edge of ecstasy, and irrational panic flooded my thoughts that he was going to hold me there indefinitely.
He obeyed my command. His arms went under my shoulders and scooped up my head, holding it in place, his face just over mine. His dark and intense gaze locked on mine. It made time stop.
And it was my total undoing.
I cried out as I came, my eyes slamming shut as pleasure coursed throughout my body, all the way to my fingertips tangled in the sheet above my head. I heard him groan and felt his muscles tense, and his thrusts became uneven and deep until he jerked inside me, prolonging my pleasure.
It seemed to last forever.
Afterward, it took him longer to catch his breath than it did for me, and when he rose to stand, his jaw tightened in pain.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked.
He made a noise, some sort of half-laugh. “No, L, you didn’t hurt me.”
Before I could ask him to elaborate, he stepped back and walked toward the bathroom. While he was gone, I shifted onthe bed, moving to put my head on the pillow and get under the covers.
When he reappeared, he climbed in beside me beneath the sheets, his hand sliding over my stomach. It was so he could urge me onto my side and pull me back against his sweat-dampened chest. As we curled up together, he smoothed my hair back so he could be close.
“Just so you’re aware, I’m capable of doing that for longer,” he said, “if you’ll let me.”
His mouth traced the shell of my ear, and it gave me a delicious shudder. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”
“No.” His lips abandoned what they’d been doing, and I’d swear I could feel the anxiety seeping out of him. “I have to tell you something you might find upsetting.”
I turned under his heavy arm, only to be met by a grim expression.
“The last thing Bill told me was they couldn’t locate your sister. I should have said something sooner. I’m sorry.”
I didn’t understand. Why would he think this would be upsetting?
“If she got divorced, I’m sure she moved.”
His lips pressed into a line, and he looked at me like I was missing something. “The Marshals Service is pretty good at finding people. That’s what we do, and it’s concerning that we haven’t.”
Oh. My pulse spiked. “You’re worried this is Frey?”
“I don’t think so. You haven’t talked to her in years, so it doesn’t make sense he’d go after her. But,” he added, “it’s possible, and you needed to know.”
The room was cold, and even in his embrace I shivered. He reached down to pull the thick duvet over us, and there were faint lines of concern around his eyes that made my heart hurt.
“Had you ever killed anyone,” my voice was a ghost, “before that man in the hotel bathroom?”
