by J. K Harper
To her surprise, he seemed a little nervous as well. Running a hand through his spiky brown hair, he nodded. “Yeah. I like it here a lot. Come on, let me give you the grand tour. It has five whole rooms.” He huffed out a chuckle at that.
She relaxed at the sound. Still holding Grant, Shane swiveled his free hand around and said in a grand voice, “Behold the living room.”
Jessie couldn't help her giggle. Shane then gestured through a door that framed a coal-black cast iron stove. “The kitchen. Where, I admit, not much cooking goes on. I tend to eat leftovers from my aunt because she often takes pity on my lack of culinary skills.”
Feeling the grin stretch over her face at how silly he was being, and at how Grant's giggles indicated he was enjoying being held in Shane's powerful arms, Jessie nodded for him to go on. Shane pointed at another door down a short hallway and said the bathroom was behind it. Indicating the open door next to it, he said, “Guest room. There's a crib in there.” He sounded abruptly diffident. “My aunt gave it to me. I figure that can be Grant's room? When he's here, I mean.”
Those whiskey eyes fixed on Jessie's, now more direct. He ignored Grant tugging at his beard. “And there's also the bedroom.” Without waiting to see if she'd follow, he went down the hallway. As if mesmerized, Jessie followed. When she entered through the last door behind him, she caught her breath. A huge, dark oak sleigh bed was centered neatly against the main wall, which was made up of large, smooth gray and tan river stones. Covered in a rich chocolate brown comforter, a deep royal red blanket folded over its foot, the bed looked extremely masculine—and extremely inviting. Nearly floor-to-ceiling windows and a door that was all window panes itself made up the east wall, revealing a stunning view of the storm-tossed mountain slopes beyond.
She'd had no idea his place opened up to such an incredible vista. Or that she would feel so at home in it. The cabin was gorgeous, classy in an understated way that didn't make her feel like a poor city mouse. Just as she thought that, Shane turned to her with a small shrug. “It's a nicer place than I've ever lived in my whole life, and it's nothing compared to the main lodge. But I felt at home here right away. Like it was meant for me.” Tipping his head down to tickle Grant's face with his beard, he added, “I want it to feel the same way for this little guy. And for you.” He looked up at Jessie, his eyes thoughtful under his thick brows.
Before she could respond, he said, “Snow's coming. I have to batten down a few hatches outside before it gets dark. I'll let you two settle in. You and I,” and his heated gaze went right to Jessie's insides, lurching them sideways with a delicious tingle, “have all night to really catch up with one another.”
“Um, okay.” She blinked at him, feeling the tingles race up and down her body. While she was pretty sure forever wasn't in the cards, no matter what he'd said about mates, the sensual promise in his eyes was something she wasn't about to ignore. Despite her nerves, she wanted to kiss him more than anything.
Okay, fine. She could admit it. Despite everything, the nighttime couldn't come fast enough for her.
Shane was making her insides flip and melt and explode with desire. She wanted to enjoy every single second in his presence. Even if it ended up being only physical, mate thing or no.
* * *
Shane watched with slightly hooded eyes as Jessie turned away from the soundly sleeping Grant. Outside, the night sky howled with the force of the winter storm that tore up the mountain, but the cabin was snug and secure. They were perfectly safe in here. Dinner was done—thank god for Elodie still taking pity on him, though she'd mentioned with slanted eyebrows that he really should learn to cook one of these days—and the dishes were clean.
All that lay before them now was the promise of the night. A night in which Shane meant to do everything in his power to prove to this spectacular woman that he wanted nothing more than to have her in his life. And, of course, that he'd also really desperately like to taste her sweetness again. He'd been wildly craving it ever since she'd appeared back in his life.
The stunning woman in question walked back to where Shane stood in front of the fire he'd laid in the hearth, her every movement graceful and sort of liquid. He could sense the desire buzzing through her, almost as if it glowed out from beneath her skin. The firelight lit up her face and throat as she approached him, adding to the sensuality of the moment. Shane knew he was staring at her, but she didn't look like she minded in the least. During the late afternoon and evening that they'd spent playing with Grant, talking about their respective last few years, and eating dinner, she'd relaxed more and more.
Her arousal had also spiked ever higher, which Shane had scented so clearly it had him struggling to not just ravish her already. Only the presence of his amazing little son, as well as his awareness of the delicate balance of the situation with Jessie, had kept him reined in.
But now Grant was sound asleep, Jessie was giving clear signals that she more than welcomed Shane's advances, and he was more than ready to claim his woman.
Finally.
Her sweet scent reached out to envelop his senses as a little smile tugged at her mouth. "He's out cold," she murmured. "Kind of funny, isn't it? This isn't exactly like the way things were the last time you and I spent in each other's company."
Despite himself, Shane snorted. "I'll say." Yeah, having a baby sleeping in the other room was definitely different. Every single protective instinct Shane possessed was on the alert, tipped toward going to overdrive at a moment's notice.
Yet he was also achingly aware of the gorgeous, sensual woman standing beside him. Her lips were slightly parted, plump and glistening in the firelight. She gently worried her lower lip between her teeth. Glancing up at him with those blue-gray eyes, she looked like a sexy angel.
To hell with being careful. He needed to ravish his gorgeous mate until she couldn't even remember her own name. "Everything I want is right here, right now," Shane said, a possessive growl shattering his words.
Before she could say anything, he added, "And it starts with a kiss." With that, he reached out and pulled her succulent, very willing body towards his, holding it against every hard inch of himself and reaching down to claim her mouth with his.
Jessie moaned as he finally tasted her lips, the sound swallowed between them as her arms went up behind his neck, pulling his head down closer to hers. Her eagerness only excited him more, and he slid one hand down her back, rubbing small circles until he got to the bottom of her shirt. He slipped his hand under it to feel her silken bare skin just above the top of her jeans. Gently running his fingertips over the skin at her waist, Shane groaned.
He pulled back just long enough to murmur, "Fucking hell, Jessie, you're just like I remembered. Only better. You're the sexiest woman I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life. I'm doing my damned best to be quiet, babe, but I can hardly think straight right now."
Her half-lidded eyes gazed up at him as she shamelessly thrust her pelvis against his. "It's okay," she whispered, her voice slightly ragged. "Grant is a really sound sleeper. He won't wake up. Whatever it is you want to do to me, you have my full permission."
Shane's dick jumped at that, swelling even more with a blast of excitement that was almost painful. "Sounds perfect." Without another word, he easily scooped Jessie up into his arms, grinning as she gasped. He carefully deposited her into the soft, synthetic rug in front of the roaring fireplace, gently nestling her into it before straddling her with one leg on either side, sinking down onto his knees and resting his weight on her thighs where he trapped them between his legs. Jessie's eyes widened even more in her mouth opened as if to speak, but he shook his head, gently placing a fingertip against her soft lips.
"No talking, beautiful. I just want to show you how you make me feel." His own voice was ragged as he said those words. He knew he was going to have a bit of a time reining himself completely in. Her masses of golden hair waved around her face, a few strands caught on her cheek and mouth. He gently pushed her
hair away from her face. Curving his hand along her cheek, he slid it down the side of her neck, over her collarbones, to the front of her shirt.
Pausing, he quirked an eyebrow at her and let his grin turned dangerous. "Well, just a little more talking. How attached do you feel to this shirt of yours?"
It was a pretty peach-colored number, with a silky row of pearly buttons down the front. Jessie shook her head, clearly confused. "Not very. Why?"
Shane gently traced his hand over the sweet swell of her breasts beneath the blouse, this time eliciting a sharp gasp from Jessie. "Because of this," he growled, and in one smooth quick move ripped the blouse open, scattering buttons like shimmering little seeds.
"Oh!" Surprise but, more importantly, breathless anticipation punctuated Jessie's voice. Her beautiful breasts, encased in a black lace bra festooned with a tiny rose at the center, lay heaving and exposed in their creamy beauty before Shane's fascinated gaze.
His dick throbbed even harder as every sense he had seemed to roar to life, sweeping through him with a tingling electricity he hadn't felt since—well, since the last time he'd had this glorious woman all to himself for three incredible days. He managed just enough control to shake his head at her, murmuring, "I want to hear the sounds you make as I touch your body."
Without waiting for an answer, he reached his head down to her breasts, sliding his hips back down her legs a little bit to give him enough space to dip his face down and trace the swell of her skin where her tempting breasts curved out of the top of the bra. She didn't disappoint him in her response, groaning and gasping and breathing happily all at once in a delicious staccato of sound that rippled out along with the crackle of the flames and the occasional beat of snow on the windows outside as the wind raged around his cozy cabin. He glanced up at Jessie. Her stunning eyes were wide open, fixed on him, her mouth also open with her keening gasp as she lifted herself partway off the soft little rug so that her breasts met his tongue.
Shane smiled, spanning his broad hands over her waist, his thumbs tracing a delicate circle over her bellybutton as he slowly dropped kisses on the tops of her breasts and her collarbone. Jessie arched her chest toward him, putting her hands on the back of his head and pressing it down. Closer to her.
Good. She was loving every second of it. Pretty sure she would be a little less happy if he ripped her bra off the same way he'd done with her blouse, he moved his hands underneath her and up her back, finding the bra's clasp and easily undoing it. He slid it off her arms, tossing it to the side so the bounty of her breasts could fill his hands.
Shane just stared at her breasts, gently running his thumbs over her nipples, which gratifyingly hardened even more than they had already been. The beautiful pink rosebud tips crowned the silken creaminess of her breasts. Jessie was breathing fast, her eyes still fastened on him. Smiling at her, he dropped his head down again. This time, he lapped at one nipple with his tongue, then lightly nipped it with his teeth.
Jessie whimpered and moaned. Hearing her voice soften and stretch, yet also tense and tauten as she gave herself over to her wilder, rougher side, made Shane's dick throb so hard it almost painfully strained against his jeans.
He moved his head to her other breast, lavishing the same ministrations upon it. Tasting, teasing, nibbling. Losing himself to the incredible wonder of having Jessie with him again.
This time, he wasn't losing her. Never again.
Sitting up, he rocked back on his heels, then stood. Jessie's eyes opened as a protesting sound left her throat. She stared up at him from the softness of the rug, pushing herself up on the backs of her forearms to watch him as he stepped to one side of her. Hastily, not caring if he shredded his own clothing, he ripped off his shirt. Throwing it somewhere behind him, he unbuttoned the fly of his jeans so fast he heard the denim rip at the bottom. Careless, he shrugged them down his legs and kicked them off, leaving himself standing in front of her utterly buck naked since he never wore anything under his pants if he could help it.
"Oh, my god." Jessie's voice was a jagged, tumbling waterfall of womanly appreciation. "I thought my dreams remembered how amazing you are. But I forgot. You're much more amazing."
He was so incredibly turned on just looking at the stunning woman in front of him he was almost afraid he was gonna blow like an untried teenager. Flexing and unflexing his quads and toes in an effort to distract himself, he growled to the fucking hottest, most amazing woman he'd ever met, "I'm going to tear your jeans off now, Jessie. Then I'm gonna go to town feasting on you, because I want to taste you when you come in my mouth. How does that sound to you?"
7
How did that sound to her? How did that sound to her?
Holy freaking yowza yum was what it sounded like.
Jessie stared up at Shane and his gorgeous, rock-hard cock, a single pearly drop of liquid shimmering on the end of it. Before she could help herself, before she could even think, she sat up all the way.
Then she leaned forward and took that beautiful length into her mouth.
Shane's breath whooshed out of him on a gasp as she turned the tables on him. Jessie pulled his smooth, velvet-encased hardness into her mouth, licking and twirling her tongue along it all the way. He tasted divine. She could hardly get enough, licking him up one side and down the other. Catching the fluid at the very tip, she swirled it over her lips, opening her eyes to look up at him as she did so.
“Fuck me, that feels good,” he growled. His hands reached down to her head, catching her hair and burying themselves into it. His fingers clutched her skull, very gently pushing down as he groaned. “Careful, Jessie.” His warning was half laugh, half serious. “It's been a while for me. I'm gonna have a hard time holding back if you keep doing that.”
She smiled around his thick length, pursing her lips over the head and sucking out the salty-sweet drop. Shane gasped, his fingers almost painfully convulsing on her head. Pulling back, she whispered, “It's been a long time for me, too. Since you, actually,” she admitted. She was too excited to care how pitiful that sounded.
Shane's grip on her head tightened again. “Good.” The word was a pure growl. “I'm caveman enough to like that no one has touched you since me. Though I'm damned sorry it's been that long. You deserve to have your body worshipped every single day.”
He looked right at her as he spoke. Even though she was the one on her knees, she felt like she was the one on top. The one in charge.
The one truly being worshipped by this stunning woodland god of a man.
“Shane.” His name was a whisper on her tongue as she stared back up at him, mesmerized by the sincerity of his voice and his eyes. Their gazes locked for a long, heady moment, the world narrowing down to the two of them in this snowbound cabin, their baby sleeping soundly in the other room, everything right.
Then he sank to the soft rug beside her, leveling the playing field. “Jessie,” he groaned. “It's so damned good to have you to myself again.”
Without another word, he flipped her onto her back in the plush softness of the white rug. She gasped as his fingers traced her skin. They skimmed over her hip bones, along her thighs, back over to caress her stomach and hold her breasts. Her nipples tautened as she pushed herself into him.
“Yes,” she gasped. “I've missed you so much.”
Shane's amber eyes seemed to glow, his entire face rippling with his desire as he slowly bent his head down once again to the soft bounty of her breasts that he held in his hands.
* * *
Moving his fingers out of the way, Shane first lapped one, then the other sweet nipple, circling his tongue around the hard little peaks. Jessie's fluttering breaths and gasps sounded musical to his ears. The fire crackled in the hearth, the wind roared and whistled outside as he gently scraped his teeth over her nipple. Soft cries of encouragement fell from her lips.
Bit by bit, Shane felt his control slip as he slowly quested his way down her generous body with his lips and tongue. Her fingers curled a
gain into his hair, urging him on. Her hips lifted upward beneath his shoulders as he worked his way down toward them.
When he hovered his face over her closely trimmed golden curls, inhaling her scent like the ambrosia it was and feeling dizzy from it, he paused.
"No!" she protested, pushing his head down.
Shane chuckled, then leaned down to lightly huff a heated breath over the sweet damp folds that awaited his touch. Jessie's answering cry was inarticulate.
Without waiting another second, Shane plunged his tongue into the delicate, glistening folds that awaited him. Honey and nectar, cinnamon and spice, everything that made this stunning woman so very nice, flipped inanely through his brain as her sweet taste exploded into his mouth. He feverishly licked her sweet crevices and folds, dragging his tongue up and down and around in rhythm to her keening cries and gasps. Pulling his head up once, he growled, "I've missed your taste so much, Jessie," before diving back down again into her succulence.
Jessie trembled and shook beneath him as he worked his tongue thoroughly over her slickness, then into her hot depths. Licking and stroking, he swirled and twirled his tongue, hummed his lips over her clit, and lazily circled her inner walls with one thumb.
"Shane, Shane, Shane," she began chanting, her voice rasping over his name, hardening his dick even more. Her taste subtly changed, becoming more intense, with a savoriness to it that he lapped up with the greed of a starving man.
With a groaning cry, she fell over the edge, her inner walls clenching and flexing around his thumb, her voice keening through the walls of the cabin on the billowing waves of her ecstasy. Her voice pulsed and echoed slowly back down until she finally relaxed back against the rug, her ragged breath and the crackling flames the only sounds in the room.