by Paige Tyler
She groaned and shook her head. “Just shut up and kiss me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured, lowering his head and capturing her lips.
Kimber weaseled a hand in between their bodies, going for the hem of Dalton’s T-shirt. The moment her fingers touched skin, she traveled upward, tracing a path along his side and pushing the garment up at the same time.
He got the message, letting her go long enough to help her get his shirt over his head. She’d already known he was more muscular than when they’d been together but seeing him half-naked… Daaaammn. His pecs were thicker, his shoulders broader, his abs even more ripped. In a word, he was drool worthy.
Even though she would have preferred to stand there and gaze at him for a while, Kimber decided to delay her gratification…at least until Dalton was completely naked.
To that end, she reached for his belt, yanking it and ripping it off. She resisted the urge to sling the offending piece of leather across the room because she was afraid it would make too much noise. Instead, she curled it up, then set it on the dresser, careful of the heavy buckle.
By the time she turned back around, Dalton already had his boots off and was shoving down his pants, working them over the sizable bulge in his boxer briefs.
“You are stealthy,” she murmured, sliding her hands into the waistband of his pants to help shove them down.
He gave her a wink. “That’s me. A total sexual ninja.”
She would have laughed if she wasn’t busy slipping her hand in his underwear. What she found there was no laughing matter. He groaned as she wrapped her fingers around his shaft.
Kimber pressed a finger to his lips, shushing him. “Quiet, remember?”
She didn’t wait for a reply, instead, dropping to her knees in front of him and carefully freeing his erection. Then she hurriedly pushed the cotton fabric all the way down before getting one hand around him again. He was perfect—thick and hard—the same way he’d been in all those memories she’d never been able to get out of her head over the years.
She gripped him firmly, tugging him forward to take the head into her mouth. Even though she’d told him to be quiet, she couldn’t hold back the little moan that escaped.
Dalton didn’t complain.
Kimber moved her hand in time with her mouth, alternating between teasing little flicks of her tongue and taking him deep. She loved the sensation of him getting harder and harder in her mouth, knowing how good she was making him feel.
She would have gladly kept going, but Dalton didn’t give her a chance, pulling her to her feet just when things got interesting.
Eyes locked on eyes, he pulled off her shirt, then made quick work of her bra. She let him have his way, enjoying the hunger in his gaze as he turned his attention to her belt and buttons on her jeans. She shimmied her hips to help him out as he pushed them down, then took a few steps back to sit on the edge of the bed.
He got her shoes off, then the jeans, leaving her sitting there in nothing but her panties. She wiggled backward to the center of her bed, keenly aware of his gaze scorching her body. Where it had been smoldering before, now it was downright incendiary. She’d never been with a man who made her feel so damn sexy merely by looking at her.
Dalton stepped closer, and she thought for sure he was heading for her panties, but he surprised her by urging her over onto her stomach. She’s barely got her mouth open to ask what he was up to when he climbed on the bed and straddled her legs. She tried to wiggle a little and realized she was trapped there by his weight, helpless to do anything more than wait and see what he had in mind.
She found out soon enough as he leaned forward and kissed the sensitive, little spot at the base of her spine right above the waistband of her panties. She shivered as he moved higher, his tongue occasionally flicking out and making her body tingle all over like she’d been touched with electricity. His strong hands followed, massaging her back and sides even as his lips teased and tickled.
As he kissed his way upward, Dalton rested his chest on her back, his hard cock snuggling deliciously against her ass. Even though he kept most of his weight on his forearms, his body still pressed hers into the bed. But rather than making her feel trapped, it made her feel secure and protected. Not to mention more aroused.
Dalton swept her hair to the side, burying his face in the curve of her neck, nuzzling there before moving up to nibble on her ear. While his mouth felt incredible, Kimber found it hard to focus on what he was doing when his erection was poking her insistently in the ass. He rocked his weight gently against her, making her body purr as she thought about how good he’d feel when he was inside her.
As ready as she was to move on to that part, Kimber still let out a little mewl of protest when Dalton sat up. But then his fingers hooked into the waistband of her panties and he tugged them down. She lifted her hips to help him get the scrap of material off, feeling moisture on her inner thighs as he did. His hand immediately slipped between her legs, one finger easing into her wetness and eliciting a gasp from her. He gently thrust in and out, teasing every sensitive spot she had and making her writhe. Oh, yes. She was seriously wet and oh-so-ready. If he kept teasing her like this, she was going to come for sure.
But instead of bringing her to climax that way, Dalton slid his finger out. Kimber expected him to climb back onto her naked body, but he surprised her by moving completely off the bed. She lifted up on her elbows and glanced over her shoulder, watching curiously as he crouched down and opened his overnight bag. She wasn’t sure what he was digging for until he came up with a foil-wrapped condom.
She felt a brief stab of jealously, wondering if he always kept condoms in there. Even though she didn’t hold it against him, the knowledge he’d obviously slept with other women over the past five years tore at her. But she took a deep breath and pushed the thought aside. The past was in the past. Dalton was with her now and that was all that mattered.
He rolled the condom down his shaft, then climbed onto the bed again. Leaning forward, he trailed gentle kisses along one shoulder and down to her mouth. She twisted around a little to meet the kiss, swearing she could feel him shudder as their lips touched. After a moment, he pulled back to look at her.
“There’s no way you can know this, but I’ve dreamed of being with you again every night since you left,” he said hoarsely. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted, even if I refused to let myself believe it.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that she’d done the same, but he shushed her with another kiss.
“Shh,” he whispered. “You don’t need to say a word. I wanted you to know how much this moment means to me. It’s important to me that you know.”
Kimber nodded. She could wait until later to tell him that his words meant just as much to her.
She started to flip over on to her back, but he stopped her with a hand, a mischievous smile crossing his face. Nudging her onto her stomach, he straddled her legs like before. She wasn’t sure what Dalton was planning until he leaned forward and pressed her to the bed. That’s when she remembered how delicious it had felt earlier to have his hardness against her bottom as she’d dreamed about him taking her that way.
Dalton grasped her hips and lifted them a little, then slowly eased into her wetness from behind all the way to the hilt.
She buried her face in the blanket to muffle her gasp of pleasure.
Dalton pinned her to the bed, his hands coming around and capturing her wrists where they rested above her head. Then he leaned forward, his mouth brushing her ear, his warm breath making her quiver. “Does that feel good?”
The sensation of him moving inside her had her body spasming, and her words came out in a breathy rush. “Yes!”
He chuckled. “Quiet, remember?”
Before Kimber could do more than nod in agreement, Dalton pulled out, then immediately plunged right back in. Their position drove his cock so deep she was sure he was touching her in places that had never been touched before.
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br /> Or maybe Dalton simply did a better job of it than anyone else ever had.
Kimber let out a low groan as he began a slow, rocking motion, thrusting deep, then pulling out ever so slightly before doing it all over again.
“You feel so friggin’ good,” Dalton whispered, his voice soft in her ear. “So damn tight.”
“That might have something to do with how big you are,” she said.
Dalton chuckled as he continued to slowly thrust. Kimber tried to buck back against him, the urge to speed up impossible to resist. She couldn’t do much lying underneath him, but the act of rhythmically tensing her body in an attempt to move was enough to make her pussy clench even more. It also dragged a groan out of Dalton.
She smiled. “Quiet, remember?”
Dalton muttered something she didn’t catch and pounded into her more forcefully. She sure as hell wasn’t going to complain, not when each thrust produced little starbursts of pleasure that had her gasping.
“Harder,” she whispered.
That familiar tingling that always came before orgasm started to build deep inside her. She might want this to keep going all day and into the night, but her body needed what her body needed…and right now, it needed to come.
Dalton tightened his grip on her wrists and pumped harder, slamming his hips into her ass and driving himself deep. Kimber knew she had to be quiet, but that was impossible with the orgasm building inside her. So, she pressed her face into the blanket and clamped her teeth down on the soft material. Then she let herself go, screaming into the material as she came.
Her climax crested higher and higher until her whole body was shaking with it. Then it pushed her over the edge like an out of control roller coaster. As earth-shattering as it felt, it only got better when Dalton buried his face in her neck and came with her. Hearing him groan his pleasure was like heaven.
He continued to ride her after that, tight, hard movements as orgasmic tremors rippled through them both.
“Stay,” Kimber urged when their combined climaxes subsided, afraid he would move away. “Don’t go.”
Dalton chuckled softly in her ear. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. Ever.”
They stayed like that, heart rates slowing, bodies cooling. But after a while, Dalton had to deal with the condom situation, so she resisted the urge to complain when he slipped out of bed. She sat up long enough to drag the blanket back, then snuggled under it until he came back. The moment he was beside her, she curled up against him and rested her head on his chest.
“That was amazing,” she said softly. “Better even than I remember from before.”
“I think we’ve both gotten better with age,” he murmured, his voice sleepy. “Which is hard to believe since we were always good.”
She laughed. “If we get any better, it might be dangerous to our health.”
Dalton snorted.
Kimber cuddled closer, enjoying that almost as much as making love with him. Okay, maybe not that much. But close.
As she lay there thinking about how perfect everything was right then, Kimber found herself wondering where she and Dalton went next. It was inviting to imagine this was the start of something good between them, that they were heading toward a long-term relationship, but she stopped herself. While this was incredible, the events of five years ago had taught her that things could change in a heartbeat. No matter how she felt about Dalton, it would be crazy to think she knew what was coming next. Still, she’d be lying if she didn’t admit she was falling hard for Dalton…again.
So, she satisfied herself with lying there in Dalton’s arms and being happy in the moment.
Beside her, Dalton started breathing more deeply like he was on the verge of sleep. She wasn’t far behind. Pushing back the blanket, she crawled out of the bed and padded across the carpet.
“Where you going?” Dalton asked.
She glanced over her shoulder as she opened the bottom drawer of the dresser. “I’ll be right back.”
Taking out a PJ set, she closed the drawer, then walked over to his overnight bag and dug through it until she came up with a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt.
He looked at her in confusion when she tossed him the clothes. “You don’t sleep naked anymore?”
She laughed as she stepped into her shorts. “No. And I seriously recommend you don’t, either.” She pulled on her tank top. “Not unless you want to deal with the embarrassment that will come when Emma runs in and jumps on the bed in a few hours.”
Dalton stared at her, and she realized he really hadn’t thought about the fact that a five-year-old had no concept of privacy.
“Should I sleep on the couch instead?” he asked. “I don’t want to freak her out.”
She shook her head as she climbed in beside him. “Emma knows her grandparents sleep in the same bed, so she won’t think twice about the two of us doing the same thing. You can stay. If you want to, I mean.”
He pulled on his clothes, then leaned in to kiss her. “I’ll stay for as long as you want me.”
Kimber tried not to read too much into that, but as Dalton snuggled up against her and wrapped his arm around her waist, it was harder to do than she’d ever imagined.
CHAPTER EIGHT
YOU KNOW, YOU don’t have to buy her every single thing she asks for, right?” Kimber said as Emma ran ahead of them toward the Primate Discovery Center, a plush wolf gripped tightly in one little hand, a banana smoothie in the other, and a I Love the San Francisco Zoo balloon tied to her belt.
Dalton shrugged, feeling like a kid who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Yeah, I know, but when she looks at me with those big, puppy dog eyes, I can’t resist. It’s like she’s using some superpower on me.”
Kimber laughed. “You’re a Navy SEAL. You’re supposed to be tough. Are you trying to tell me you can’t stand up to a little five-year-old girl?”
He grinned. “When it comes to my daughter, apparently not.”
Kimber’s lips curved and it looked like she would have said something else, but then Emma ran back over and grabbed his hand. “Hurry up, Daddy. I want to see the monkeys.”
As Dalton let her hurry him along, he couldn’t help but notice something was missing. “Where’s your smoothie?”
“I finished that already,” she said in a tone that made it seem like he should have known that.
She tugged his hand more firmly. Damn, she was like a pint-sized Energizer Bunny.
Kimber had been right about Emma only sleeping a few hours yesterday. By mid-afternoon, Emma burst into the room and climbed into bed with them. Kimber had also been right about another thing. Emma hadn’t batted an eye at finding her parents in bed together. She’d simply snuggled between them and asked if they could order pizza for dinner.
Dalton smiled to himself at the memory. Kimber had put her foot down and said no to pizza, even though he’d thought it had been a wonderful idea. Instead, they’d all made a home-cooked meal together. While he would have been more than happy with a double meat, double cheese pizza, the grilled chicken, veggies, and mac and cheese they’d made were delicious. Cooking alongside Kimber and Emma had made it even better. He’d never had so much fun in the kitchen.
After dinner, they’d moved to the living room and piled onto the couch to watch a cartoon together. Dalton didn’t have a clue what the TV show was about—some princess with insanely long hair running around having adventures with a lizard, but he found himself laughing every time Emma did, which was pretty much constantly.
Getting to tuck Emma in bed again last night had been another one of the evening’s highlights. And yeah, he’d had to promise her once again that he’d be there when she woke up. He was okay with doing that. Being with his daughter was definitely something he could get used to.
Then again, making love to Kimber like he had after they’d gone to bed was something he could get used to as well.
“You like monkeys a lot, huh?” he asked Emma as he held the door
of the primate house open for her and Kimber.
Emma nodded her head enthusiastically, then raced inside, clearly knowing exactly where she was going.
“My parents bring her here all the time and she spends hours in here every trip,” Kimber said. “She once told me she wants to be a monkey when she grows up. I haven’t had the heart to tell her there’s no college program for that.”
Dalton chuckled. “Speaking of parents. I overheard you talking to your mother on the phone before we left. It sounded like the conversation got a little tense.”
Kimber grimaced as they followed their daughter into the dimly lit building. Emma was standing at the window of the first enclosure, waving at the monkeys inside like they were good friends. “I told them about the kidnapping. Emma would have said something to them at some point, and I thought it’d be better if they heard it from me.”
“I’m guessing they didn’t take it well?”
Kimber shook her head. “Understatement there. They freaked. At first, at least. But they calmed down once I assured them Emma was okay. On the bright side, they were thrilled to hear I’d decided to go to you for help instead of the cops. They were even more delighted when I told them that you were still here.”
Dalton did a double take. “Really?” He’d met Kimber’s parents once five years ago, and while they’d gotten along fine, he doubted that was the case now. “I can’t imagine that your parents think too much of me considering you had to raise Emma on your own.”
“It was never like that,” Kimber said. “They’ve known from the beginning that I was the one who walked away. They’ve always supported my decision, but I don’t think they ever understood it. Or agreed with it. They urged me to call you on more than one occasion. But…well…you know the story from there. Regardless, they’ve never blamed you for how things turned out.”
He was surprised to hear all that. Actually, he was friggin’ stunned.
She smiled. “In fact, they invited us over for a barbecue tomorrow.”
Dalton didn’t say anything for a minute. Kimber’s parents might be okay with him, but it was still going to be a little weird hanging out with them. But he’d put up with the family thing for their daughter’s sake.