“They wouldn’t mind if you talked with them. Besides, they need to know. Try again.” His heart thudded. Was he calling her bluff or driving her out the door?
Her flame-tipped eyelashes stroked her cheek as she studied the glass in her hand. “I’m here because I needed to feel safe.”
“Safe?” He barked what passed for a laugh. “That’s how you see me?”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Well. Yes and no.” She waved a hand. “Never mind. Forget I mentioned it. It was a mistake coming here.”
When she took her feet off the table and scooted forward, he slid over and turned, putting one leg out in front of hers. Now his face was mere inches away. Fresh air and sugared apples wafted over him, and he inhaled, her scent more intoxicating than the alcohol.
“Still feel safe?” he murmured.
Her neck muscle moved as she gulped. “Sort of.”
Why that response thrilled him, he wouldn’t dare investigate.
“Why else are you here?” No more hiding. He was going to push until she admitted her feelings or ran away. Geezus, he hoped it wouldn’t be the latter, or his life would be shit.
She bit her lower lip, and his gaze locked onto the shiny moisture.
The wind gusted outside of the house.
She looked up at him from under her eyelashes. Fear, heat, and hope swirled there. The words came out staccato. “I want . . . what we talked about before. You. Me. Together.”
He needed more from her. She was holding back, even now. He needed Shelby to be completely open with him. “Can you be more specific?”
“Now you’re making fun of me.” When she put a hand down to push off the couch, he encircled her wrist with his fingers.
“Please don’t stop. I have to hear you say it, Shel. After all this time. After . . . wanting you, I need to know without a doubt that we’re on the same page.”
When she swallowed again, he kept his eyes on the line of her throat. Down lower, near her collarbone, a pulse jumped. Good. At least he wasn’t the only one whose heart was beating a million miles an hour.
She met his gaze. “I want to try to make this work. I want you, Eric. Any way you’ll have me. I want to try and drop my walls for once. Let it be just you and me.”
He slid his hand around her neck and pulled her to him, pressing his mouth against hers. The soft seam opened beneath his tongue, and the taste of whiskey and scent of apple pie blended in a way that was deliciously Shelby.
Pulling back, he took in her parted lips and dilated pupils. Her chest rose and fell, but not nearly as fast or as harshly as he wanted. Before this night ended, he would make her desperate for him, calling out his name, desiring for him to take care of her needs. Only he could give her pleasure she deserved. He wanted all of this so badly, he couldn’t see straight.
“I’ve seen you hide inside that shell for years. It’s killed me to sit back and watch while you put yourself in harm’s way. But here are my rules tonight. No hiding. You have to drop your barriers. And I get to be in control. Complete control.” His ragged whisper snagged the air around them. “Do you understand?”
She nodded.
He leaned a few inches forward and traced the outline of her lips with his tongue until she gasped. “That’s not to say you won’t like my rules.” A nip at her lower lip drew a small noise from her. The sound set off a chain reaction in his body, ending at his tightening groin.
Standing, he held out his hand.
She took it and allowed him to pull her up.
Chapter 17
He led her into the bedroom. The shortest and longest walk of his life.
At the doorway, he paused and kissed her, exploring her softness with his tongue and enjoying the taste of apples, fresh mountain air, and the smoky and dark tones of the whiskey.
Every instinct urged him to throw her on the bed, rip her clothes off, and plunge deep into the savory and sweet that was Shelby.
Like a fine wine, she was meant to be relished slowly. And damn but he wanted to partake in her for a long time.
Easing her around the doorjamb to the wall, he leaned against her, breathing her in, planting kisses over her lips, cheeks, and neck until she shuddered. Another wave of need shot through him as he rocked his throbbing groin against hers.
With his eyes locked onto hers, he stepped back. After unbuttoning her flannel shirt, he smoothed it over her shoulders and let it fall down onto the floor. She stood there in tight jeans, a belt, a simple bra, and a clear, direct gaze. He drank in the subtle sexiness of her spare frame and slim hips. The image weakened his knees.
Tugging her toward the bed, he stroked her neck with a thumb. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes.” She bit her lower lip.
“Say it, Shel.”
“You’re in charge. And, God, I want you.”
“I want you to drop your filters with me. Know everything I’m feeling.” He slid his fingers down her neck and smiled. “Actually, you might not want to know everything yet. What I want to do with you might send you running.”
He didn’t miss her full-body shudder. But the set of her jaw made him smile.
“I’m not scared of you, Eric Patterson.”
“I know, and that’s good. But you’re still scared of yourself.”
“We’ll work through it.”
“You bet we will.” He cupped her jaw in both hands and kissed her. “Now lie face down on the bed.”
With an impish quirk to her mouth, she complied and turned her head to the side. Watching. Waiting.
Still fully clothed, because God help him if he had no clothes on right now, he crawled on the bed and straddled her hips, holding most of his weight off of her. The lean length of her torso and subtle flare below her waist made his mouth water. Skimming his fingers over her shoulders, he drew her arms out to the side.
“Close your eyes and enjoy, Shel.” He ran a finger down her spine, stopping to undo the clasp of her bra then continuing down to the waist on her jeans.
Her deep sigh did wonders for his soul.
For minutes or hours or weeks—who knew?—he stroked every inch of visible skin, raising goose bumps and eliciting sighs. He kneaded the muscles of her back and shoulders, careful not to hurt her. Delicate and tough. Soft and hard. She was every contradiction he ever wanted all wrapped up in a sensuous package. Plunging two hands into her hair at the nape of her neck, he massaged her scalp, loving the heat seeping from her skin and into his fingertips.
Another pass with his hands over her torso, meant he skimmed the edge of her breasts and the indentation of her narrow waist. His hands nearly spanned her there.
Her sighs turned into moans, and she shifted her hips beneath him. Every movement of her butt sent jolts of desire right into his heated, hard groin. But no, this was about her pleasure and getting her to let down all of her barriers.
Guaranteed, anything that made Shelby squeal with happiness would also send him into orbit. As it stood, his jeans had become two sizes too small.
He dropped kisses from her neck down her spine and to her waist.
“Oh, God, Eric. You’re torturing me,” she gasped.
“Roll over,” he murmured.
When she complied, Eric slipped the bra off and away. The pink nipples of her firm breasts pebbled under her gaze. He salivated, wanting his mouth all over her, tasting her skin, her . . . everything.
She reached up for him, but he shook his head. “Hands up here.” He guided her to wrap her fingers around the wrought iron rods in his headboard. “Don’t move them, got it?”
Her eyes darkened until the gold glints were mere rims on her irises. “This is what you want?”
He paused. Would she go for his vision of perfect pleasure? Could he compromise? Not tonight. If he wanted her to drop barriers, then he could do so as well. “Hell yes, that’s exactly what I want. Are you okay with that?”
Licking her lips, she smiled, “Oh, yeah.”
He straddled her once mo
re, his cock hating the denim between them, wanting to be inside of her like yesterday. Crouching over her, he exhaled over a breast and cupped it. It fit perfectly in his hand. He sucked the hard nipple between his lips and flicked his tongue over it as she moaned and writhed. Moving to the other breast, he did the same, kneading the pillowy skin and laving the tip.
Her sharp intake of breath made him lift his head. “Are you okay?”
“Hell yes. Is that all you’ve got for me, cowboy?” When he pinched a nipple, she threw her head back. But she still hung onto the headboard.
“Hell no, that’s not all.” He kissed her hard and ground his denim-covered erection into her pelvis. “Can you tell what I’m feeling?”
“I have a pretty good idea.” Her eyes flicked to his jeans and back to his face. “Don’t exactly need to be psychic for all the clues.”
He grinned and ran his hands from her elbows to shoulders and down to her breasts, where he squeezed with both hands, making her gasp. “I want you open to me. Body and mind, Shelby. Nothing held back.”
“Dude. I’m working on it.” She froze when he gently closed his teeth on her nipple again.
“All of you. Or not at all. Got it?”
“Got it.” She shivered as he trailed his lips down her flat belly. Her eyes fluttered closed.
He slid his hand under the waistband of her jeans and worked his palm down to cup the heat pouring from between her legs. She needed to be wearing less clothes, immediately.
Working the buckle, he unclasped it and unbuttoned her jeans. The zipper came next, and he peeled the denim off her hips and long legs, taking her socks with the jeans. Only a thin piece of nylon remained between Eric and paradise. He ran his fingertips over her softness until she opened her legs. Another hook with his finger, and he pulled the garment off and flung it into the next room.
For a full five seconds, his lungs stopped working.
Beneath a small patch of orange curls, she was all pink softness and glistening heat. He would never get enough of her. Lying between her knees, he kissed his way up one thigh until he reached the junction of her thighs. The musky, hot scent of her arousal made his head spin more effectively than an entire bottle of Jack Daniel’s ever could. And no twelve-step program would fix this addiction.
Only cure? More Shelby.
He licked up her center and she bucked under his mouth.
“Don’t move,” he growled. Clamping down on her thighs, he gave a slow swirl with his tongue. Then sucked in the delicate flesh until she cried out and squirmed.
He pressed her knees up and out, separating her folds, creating a smorgasbord for his senses. Running his tongue up one side and down the other of her soft skin, he laved back through the middle and then gently sucked in the sensitive nub.
“Oh hell.” Her head rolled from side to side as he plunged his tongue in deep and then back to the soft outer skin.
More. He wanted her out of control in his arms. He wanted to provide the pleasure, be her steady rock. Needed this more than he needed air.
While he kept his tongue working on her, he slid a finger into her liquid heat. Another moan told him he’d found a good spot, and he crooked his finger in rhythm with his mouth. She began to moan in the same rhythm and pushed her hips up toward him. He wrapped a hand around her upper thigh and held her still while he alternated hard and light touches, shallow and deep thrusts with his finger.
Then he added a second finger, and her inner muscles clenched, making other parts of his body insanely jealous.
Soon.
After more deep thrusts with his fingers, she rose beneath him, her hoarse cries the most beautiful sounds he’d ever heard. With a ragged moan, she shuddered beneath him for a minute. He kissed her thighs and eased his fingers out of her.
“Wow,” she panted, her chest and neck flushed, her nipples tight.
With the image of her arms fixed over her head, legs splayed open beneath him, watching him with an intensity he had never seen before, he couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to be connected fully to her.
“Shelby, I—”
“Dude. Why do you still have clothes on?”
He grinned. “You have a problem with that?”
“You bet I do.” Bless her but she kept her hands on the iron rails of the headboard. “Are you going to fix this situation?
“Right away, ma’am.” He shucked his clothes in record time.
Chapter 18
Shelby had seen Eric with his shirt off, working on the ranch. And sure, he had looked good then. She’d seen him in swim trunks when they were in high school. He had looked pretty fit at that time.
But the naked man who knelt above her was something else, amazing to the tenth power. Cords on his arms and shoulders bulged as he held his weight off of her. And it turned out his hard chest wasn’t solid like a piece of wood. It contained fascinating ridges of muscle that rippled all the way down to his . . . .
Wow. There was another big surprise, no pun intended.
Even if she didn’t detect the waves of stark desire and need rolling off of him in hot blasts of sexual hunger, she could figure this one out. He was very interested in her. Like, standing-at-attention interested.
She wanted to reach up and trace the lines of his body with her fingers, but he insisted that she keep her hands on the headboard. Shelby wasn’t one to cede power, but all he wanted was to give her pleasure and be a man in complete control of her body. If it made him happy to be totally in the driver’s seat for sex, and it made her happy in the process? That was the definition of a win-win in her book.
So was the way he made her toes curl when he used his mouth on her . . .
Damn. The way he looked at her—like she was Thanksgiving dinner and he was a starving man—made her shiver.
He hadn’t touched her, only knelt over her, watching her reaction. To what? To his presence? She liked it, no question.
He licked his lips. “The next thing I want is to make you to scream my name.”
It took her a second to find her voice. Her heart scampered in her chest.
“I’m on board with that idea.”
Another grin and he kissed her, hard. She tasted his clove scent, a hint of her own passion, and the undertones of whiskey. Worked for her. When he lifted his head, she smiled.
“You still don’t want me to move my hands?”
“No.”
“Can I use my mouth?” She flicked a glance downward.
His pupils dilated so much, that his eye color went from dark blue to black. “Like, uh . . . ?”
She nodded.
He swallowed. “You want to?”
“Oh yeah.” She re-gripped the iron rods. A confidence she never thought she possessed grew inside of her. “And since I can’t use my hands, you are in charge of how much I use my mouth.”
“Hot fucking damn.”
“You got that right. Get over here, cowboy.”
With his knees on either side of her chest, he leaned forward and grabbed the top of the headboard with one hand. The other handed guided his erection right into her open mouth.
She sucked the tip and then the rest of him down to the back of her throat.
“Geezus fucking Christ almighty,” he gritted out.
How long she worked him, she had no idea. Time stopped. Her entire existence centered on the hard and silky glide as he slid in and out of her mouth and the panting moans as he hovered over her. She started off slow then fluttered her tongue along the underside of his erection. He eased in and out, giving her time to breathe, but stayed in her mouth. The bed shook with his shudders as he fought to maintain his own control.
He groaned as he dropped his sweaty forehead onto the back of his hand which was death-gripped around the top of the headboard.
“Damn. That feels so good, but I’m not going down with the ship like this.” He eased away and sat back on his heels. “I want to be inside you when I come. I want you screaming my name so loudly that my ears
bleed. Got it?”
“Still no moving my hands?”
“Don’t you dare. I love this view.”
“You do?”
“You have no idea.” He licked his lips. “But I do want you to do something for me. Open your legs as wide as you can.”
The command in his voice almost made her orgasm on the spot. The hunger in his stare shook her to the core.
As he stared down at her, she bent her knees and spread her legs out wide. Totally open to him. Totally vulnerable, not so much as to what he would do to her, but what he thought of her. Her filters had dropped, and if he disapproved of anything he felt or saw, she would know it immediately.
The idea scared the hell out of her.
“Hey, you okay?” He stroked her neck and arms.
“Yes.”
The half smile he shot made her heart flop over. “Good. Because, God, you’re so sexy.” He reached over to the bedside table and pulled out a foil package. In a flash, he had sheathed himself, his erection jutting up and out, pulsing.
Liquid pooled between her legs as her vagina throbbed with the need for him inside of her.
“Please, Eric. I need you.”
“Me, too.”
He stroked her damp folds then separated them. With an appreciative-sounding expletive, he entered her, but only a few inches.
She whimpered, lifting her hips.
“Patience,” he said, sweat beading his brow.
“Says the pot calling the kettle black.”
A mischievous smile crept across his face. “I’ve waited years for this. I can draw this out for a very long time, darlin’.”
When she tried to buck again, he held her hips still and pressed her knees up, spreading her open even farther.
And inched in again. She gasped, taking in his thickness. All her nerve endings caught fire at once, and she gripped the railing over her head as hard as possible.
Then he withdrew.
A whimper came from her mouth. “Please, Eric.”
“Please, what?”
“More.” She yearned to connect with him, for him to fill her up. “Don’t stop.”
“If you insist.”
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