“That was the idea.” She pushed the words through a rapidly narrowing airway.
“Mmm. So, we’ve got rain. Did you build a fire, too?”
“No. I don’t know how. Do you?”
He smirked. “Like any good Boy Scout.”
“You’re not a Boy Scout.”
“Nah. I get the sense that’s not what you’re looking for right now, anyway.”
Her pulse shortened. “Well, I delivered on the weather. The fire’s your job.”
“Among other things,” he rasped, and kissed her.
Aubrey lost time after that. Her world shrank to him, to the way he brought every aching, needy part of her to life. She existed in the liminal space between the places he touched and the places he had yet to discover. Nothing else mattered.
They progressed down the hall one foot at a time. Her hands roved over him, her fingertips coming awake against the abrasive wetness of his shirt. She threaded her fingers through his hair and kissed him until she forgot what it felt like not to.
In the living room, Nick pinned her to one piece of furniture after another as they consumed each other’s mouths. Somehow, his shirt ended up on the floor, then his pants. Had she done that? She hoped so. She held him at arm’s length and drank in the acres of unblemished skin, the delicate press of bone against flesh, the twin lines that narrowed into the waistband of his boxers.
Dear god, he stole her breath. Her sanity. Especially when he had thatlook, open and naked and ravenous.
They finally made it to the fireplace. Nick broke away long enough to get a blaze going, though Aubrey couldn’t say howhe did it. Time spun by in a delirious whirl. She bore the weight of herself like never before. There was so verymuchof her inside her own skin, so much everything, so much love and longing she could hardly contain it all.
When the flames gained a foothold, Nick laid her on the furs with heartbreaking tenderness. He kissed his way down her body, alternating featherlight touches with hungry ones. He paused at her belly button, his thumbs hooked beneath the hem of her tank top, a question in his eyes.
She gazed down her cheeks and nodded. “Take it off. Take it all off.”
His lashes swept low as he bent to his task. He arced his tongue along every curve and peeled her clothes off. He chased each unveiling with trailed kisses and the skitter of heated breath.
Aubrey trembled. He stripped her bare and acquainted himself with every inch of her. It felt incredible, and also exquisitely, painfully vulnerable, in a way that made her understand she would never be the kind of person to do this with someone she’d just met.
Tremors gripped her in earnest as Nick climbed back up and met her nose to nose. He worked his boxers down and off and settled between her thighs. One hand cupped her jaw, reassuring her with the steady press of his fingers.
“You’re shaking,” he said.
Aubrey hauled in a breath. She’d meant to reciprocate—to touch him everywhere, to explorehimwith her mouth, to lay him on his back and do everything she could to please him. Not the other way around.
Yet the significance of what was happening pinioned her to the blankets, made her legs ease wider and curl around his hips. Her nerves rattled more than she’d realized they could, but something deeper moved beneath, some elemental needto give herself up. To yield. To submit to him in every way possible.
“I’m nervous,” she said. “But I want you.”
“Me, too.”
“Which one?”
“Both,” he said.
She took his measure. He didn’tlooknervous, with his open gaze, the firelight twinning in his eyes. She had no idea how much time had passed, but either it had grown dark outside or the storm had taken the light, because shadows swirled around them. That, and the heat of the fire, added to the burn where his skin met hers. She swore someone had doused her in gasoline and tossed a lit match.
He trailed a finger down her side, then placed a gentle kiss against her throat. “Just tell me what you want.”
You.The word joined itself to each beat of her heart.
He shifted his hips. He was so close. He wasrightthere. Just another inch, and—
“You’re even more beautiful than I imagined,” he said. “And if this is as far as we go, it’s still more than enough for me.”
