“More kisses?” I teased, my tone gravelly as I played on her words from weeks ago in my mother’s kitchen, when I’d licked that sticky pie syrup from her trembling mouth—as I flattened my tongue against her skin and dragged it up and between her breasts to the slope of her neck where I sucked,hard.
A sultry, gasping groan fell past her lips, and I felt her nod enthusiastically.
“Good, because I want more, too.” Keeping my mouth fused to her neck, I moved one hand away from her breast and dragged it down her waist, over her hip, along her thigh, and down to her knee where my fingers tucked under the fabric of her dress. That red fabric bunched over my wrist as I dragged my palm back up her smooth thigh, letting my fingers dig into the flesh of her hip before sliding just a little further and tucking them under the soft lace of her panties, taking a handful of her ass as I moved in to kiss her on the mouth, long and slow. “I want more of those sounds.”
With my mouth on hers and my hand between that lace I was dying to see and her heated skin, I let my fingers follow the edge of her panties, moving from the back to the front as I slid that scrap of lace to the side. Andi panted against my mouth, and her whole body went tight as my fingers found that sweet spot between her legs. A teasing stroke earned me another moan, this one sounding more shocked than the others.
Interesting.
“I wanna know what kind of sounds you’d make if I kissed you here.” Another teasing stroke. Another shocked moan. I dragged my lips down her neck and to her breast again, sucking that peak into my mouth as my fingers teased her slick heat. “Would you like that, princess?”
“I…” Pant. “...oh God, um…” Another pant. “I think so.”
“Youthinkso?” I teased and nuzzled against her heated skin, inhaling and savoring that wild sweetness I’d come to associate with only her.
“I’ve…um…” I felt it then as her body locked up tight…and not in a good way. Shit. I drew back slowly, meeting her worried gaze. “No one’s ever…done that…to me.”
My hand was still between her legs, but my fingers weren’t teasing anymore. I’d stopped moving the second I felt her freeze, worried a little myself that I’d gone too fast too soon. But now…
“I wasn’t playing coy that first time you kissed me,” she said, sounding so small. It hit me square in the chest—like an axe splitting wood, that sound tore me in two. “I really don’t know if I’m any good at any of this. I’ve been with one man, and he never bothered with…well…any of this.” Her voice had gone softer and softer the more she spoke until it just faded out on an embarrassed-sounding laugh before she brought both hands up and covered her face. “God, this is so stupid.”
“Hey,” I said, peeling her hands away from her face and gently capturing her chin between my forefinger and thumb as Iforced her to meet my eyes. “Don’t do that; don’t hide from me. We’re so past that, princess.” Both of my hands were cradling her face now as I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, the tip of her nose, her lips. “If you want to stop right now, we will. If you want to go in my house and just sleep, we can.Orif you want me to take you back to the ranch, I’ll do that too.” Her glassy eyes met mine as her lips parted on a shaky inhale. I tucked her hair behind her ear. “But if you want to keep going…” I touched her temple, “...I’m gonna need you to get out of your pretty little head, becausethis—” I motioned between us, “—this is two people learning not to let their pasts define them. This is about letting go.” I traced her face and tucked my fingers in her hair. “I want to let go with you…but you’ve gotta want it, too.”
She dropped her forehead to mine.
“Tell me what you want, Andi,” I murmured, barely hearing the words over the pounding of my own heart goingplease be me, please be me, please be me.
Seconds, minutes…fuck, years passed in that quiet space we shared in the cab of my truck as I waited for her reply. This wasn’t even about the sex, even though that was something I definitely wouldn’t turn down. It was about her. Us. My heart pounding out the rhythm ofplease be mewasn’t just for the sake of wanting to be with her in the physical sense…it was just about her—about wanting thatsomethingwith her…whatever she’d let me have.
I felt her soft hands frame my face then and her warm breath ghost over my lips as she released a shaky exhale. “I want…”
Please be me, please be me.
Her tentative mouth found mine. Touching my lips once, twice. “I want you to keep kissing me.” Another kiss. “I want you to keep touching me.” A deeper kiss. “I want you to take me in that house…” A kiss to my jaw. My neck. “...and I want to let go…with you.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Andi
The walkfrom Zane’s truck to his bedroom was one I’d never remember but could also never forget.
I couldn’t tell you what the outside of his house looked like, but Icouldtell you how he picked me up out of that truck and demanded in that tender way of his for me to lock my legs around him.
I couldn’t tell you what room we stepped into when we finally got into the house, but Icouldtell you how he kicked the door shut and then pressed my back against it—kissing me so thoroughly as he ground his hips into mine.
I couldn’t tell you what spurred him to move us from there to his room, but Icouldtell you how my bare feet never touched the floor. How careful he was when he brought us down onto his bed. How hungry his eyes went as he took me in, laying there naked from the ribs up. How husky his voice was when he told me he wanted my dress gone altogether. And how my heart tumbled over itself when heaskedif he could take it off.
I nodded and let him take my hands, pulling me into a sitting position as he reached for the hem of my dress—bunching the skirt in his hands as he drew the thin, summery material up and over my body. My skin broke out in gooseflesh with its absence,but not because I was cold. No, this reaction was purely from the way Zane’s blue-flamed eyes drank me in. There was something about that look that made me feel…something. Wanted, yes, but at the same time…powerful. BecauseIput that look on his face.Ihad him unable to look away.Ihad him gritting his teeth and adjusting his erection behind his jeans as his gaze dragged over the dips and curves of my body.
“Andi, you are…” He sucked in a breath and tucked his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes did another flyover. “Exquisite.”
My cheeks warmed at that, and damned if it didn’t feel like someone had let loose a flutter of butterflies in my stomach. “I want your shirt gone, too, cowboy.”
A grin pulled at his mouth as he dropped my dress to lay over the footboard. “Yes, ma’am.” He then reached behind his head, gripped the collar of his T-shirt, and pulled it over his head in one swift motion—tossing it to the side with my dress.
I’d seen him shirtless plenty of times, but in all of those times before now I’d never been able toreallytouch. So I did. I started at that dip at the base of his throat and dragged my fingertips along his collarbones. Over his broad shoulders. Down his biceps and along the ropey muscles in his forearms. God, I loved his arms—the way his tendons and veins stood out when he flexed or shifted his grip. A true working man’s arms. My palms curled around them, marveling in their strength, as I slithered my hands up from his wrists and to his shoulders before flattening them against his chest. The muscles there were sharply outlined, and my eyes followed the pattern of my fingertips as they traced and explored farther south. Moonlight cast a silvery glow throughout the room, catching on the contours of his torso—emphasizing the clean lines of muscle along his ribs and his core as he moved.
My mouth may have watered just a little while I shamelessly took him in.
