Page 55

‘Don’t talk about it; you’re going to freak me out,’ Skye insisted as she yanked off her boots. It didn’t matter that his parents knew they were sleeping together; it was still weird. If Skye had had foresight on her side, she would have realized that and stuck with the barn. But now that they were here, she was too desperate for him, too greedy for all the things he could do to her.

Dressed in only his jeans, his feet bare, TJ reached into the shower and turned the water on. As they waited for it to heat, he leaned against the sink and tugged her between his knees using her belt loops.

Skye went willingly, but her acquiescence didn’t eradicate all her nerves. They were there, dancing in her stomach, and needing something to distract herself with, she ran her hands over his head, smiled when he groaned and murmured, ‘I love that you do that.’

‘I like the way it feels against my hands.’

‘I like the way you feel against my hands,’ he countered, making her roll her eyes playfully.

TJ grabbed the hem of her shirt, but he waited for her to nod before lifting it up and over her head. He threw it on the floor next to his, and right before he brushed those big, callused palms down her sides, Skye had the thought that their laundry co-mingling on the bathroom floor was very domestic – intimately so.

But then TJ leaned forward and placed a single kiss on her forehead, and all coherent thought fled. Her body took over. Her heart quickened in her chest, heating her blood so that her skin flushed. Pressure collected between her thighs, and wanting to hurry, chasing the first rise, Skye lifted her sports bra up and off.

There was no self-consciousness now, just the desperate need to be satiated.

And TJ did not disappoint.

His hands covered her breasts, moulding and massaging as a rough groan left his lips. ‘Fuck, I can’t get enough of you.’

Skye trembled.

Because she believed him.

And for the first time, she gave him the words in her own heart in return. ‘You make me feel really beautiful, TJ.’

It was a first for her, a feeling that could only be fully realized in absolute safety and trust.

Knowing it brought tears to her eyes.

‘What’s this?’ TJ asked when the first one slipped over her lashes. He reached up, used his thumbs to brush them from her cheeks.

Although she hated that Holden was there, in her head in what should have been a selfishly intimate moment, she couldn’t deflect. ‘He stole so much from me.’

TJ ran one hand down her back. ‘Tell me.’

Because she wanted him to understand her, she tried. ‘You learn to be careful, to defend yourself – emotionally, because physically, you don’t stand a chance. You become cautious, hypervigilant. It becomes second nature. So, instead of just making friends or having fun or talking to a cute guy in a bar or having casual sex, there’s this whole other set of emotions you have to work through before you even open yourself up to the possibility that you’ll be fine. And usually, by the time you’ve worked through all that fear, the moment’s passed, leaving you behind. You miss out on so many normal things. It’s not living. It’s surviving.’

‘Not anymore,’ he said, and she understood that it was a promise. ‘He won’t ever touch you again.’

She didn’t argue with TJ. She was too afraid that she’d like whatever promise he made next too much. Instead, she reached for the button on her jeans and popped it open before sliding her zipper down.

TJ’s hands found her waist. His eyes dropped, watching her like a hawk, darkening with every inch of skin she exposed. ‘Don’t you want to talk about it?’ he managed.

Skye actually laughed. ‘No. Not anymore. Not tonight.’ When she had the jeans down to her knees, she used his shoulders to steady herself and stepped out of them.

‘I love your body,’ TJ said reverently. ‘Every part of you fits perfectly in my hands.’ As if he needed to prove it, he reached behind her and gripped her ass. He tugged her forward, bent his head, and trailed whisper-light kisses down her neck.

Skye’s body pulled inwards as the pleasure from just that touch bordered on unbearable. She throbbed. ‘Please touch me.’

TJ’s smile curved against her skin. But he brushed his fingers up her inner thigh, asked, ‘Here?’

Too needy to play along, too impatient to tease him in return, Skye grabbed his hand in hers and guided him to her aching centre.

TJ shifted her underwear aside, cursed when he stroked through her and felt how soaked she was.

He stood suddenly, his movements frantic. But when Skye took a step back, he hesitated. He slowly reached out one hand, waited for her to take it, and when she did, he turned her so that her back was plastered to his chest, his hard erection beneath his jeans, pressing into her spine.

One of his hands held her hip; the other snaked around her torso and under the waistband of her underwear to find her again. His middle and index finger slid through her repeatedly, slowly stoking that fire within her.