Chapter Thirteen
Her heart beat double time. The look in his eyes, on his face, made every nerve in her body tingle. Every one that wasn’t already tingling. She started to unzip a boot but Harlan stopped her.
“Let me.” He unzipped it very slowly, kissing every inch of her skin as he exposed it. Finally, he reached the end, drew off the boot and tossed it beside the bed. He started in on the other one, murmuring as he kissed her leg, “You realize these boots are sexy enough to kill a man, right?”
Her laugh turned to a moan. With one hand he continued to unzip her boot but the other teased her at the top of her thighs, sliding his fingers beneath her panties. His fingers slicked over her, then pressed deep inside. Her muscles clenched as his fingers thrust inside her, his thumb played over her. She nearly exploded right then and there.
He moved up beside her and kissed her mouth. She felt him hot and hard against her leg, slipped her hand down to stroke him, to wrap her fingers around him, slide all the way up and all the way back down.
“God, Savannah,” he groaned.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
She stroked her hand up and down again.
“That feels so...good.” He put his hand over hers to still it. “Too good. It will all be over if you don’t stop.”
Savannah grabbed the condom from the bedside tabletop, tore it open and rolled it down over his cock. Harlan pushed her onto her back and kissed his way down her neck to her chest, to suck her nipples until she bucked beneath him. Opening her legs, she welcomed him, gasping with shock followed quickly by pleasure when he entered her. He stroked in and out of her, slowly, building her climax with each thrust. Opening her eyes, she locked gazes with him, indulged in a deep, carnal kiss as she came in a starburst of pleasure. He drove into her deep and strong, once, twice, and he groaned with a shuddering climax.
He kissed her, very sweetly, then rolled off her and pulled her close. After a moment, he went into the bathroom and came back a few moments later to slide back into bed with her.
They were both quiet. Savannah felt a deep contentment, something she’d never felt so strongly. She lay in the circle of Harlan’s left arm, his right rubbing lightly up and down her own arm. Earlier she’d seen he had a tattoo on his arm, an armband of letters, but she’d been too occupied with the rest of him to notice what it said. She noticed it now.
Savannah. He had her name tattooed on his arm.
“Harlan?”
“Hmmm.”
She traced a finger over the letters of the tattoo. “When did you get this? It doesn’t look new.”
“Because it’s not. I got it about eight months after we both left Whiskey River.”
Eight months?That he’d gotten a tattoo at all surprised her because ink had never been his thing. But a tattoo of her name that long after they broke up? “Why?”
He rolled onto his side to look at her. “Why did I get it or why did I wait until months after we broke up?”
“Both.”
“I was working on a construction crew in El Paso. When we finished one night, we all went out to a bar that wasn’t too picky about IDs and got drunk. I remember going to a tattoo parlor because one of the guys wanted to get one. I decided I needed one too. That’s all I remember. I woke up the next day with your name tattooed on my arm. It took me a long time to get over you. Obviously.”
“But you got married. Didn’t she object? I’d have thought you’d have it removed, especially when you married another woman.”
He laughed. “Hell yes, she objected. But I told her what I told every woman who asked me. I said it was a reminder that things don’t always turn out like you expect.”
“That sounds like a crappy excuse to me. I wouldn’t have bought that. Did your ex?”
“Not really. But once she figured out it was non-negotiable, she decided it wasn’t worth fighting about.”
“Was that the real reason you didn’t have it removed?”
“No. I didn’t want to remove it. It reminded me of you. The first girl I ever loved.”
