So damn strong, he thought. She could hold on to him without his help, but he palmed her butt anyway, carrying her toward the motel with one firm cheek resting in each hand.
He saw an older couple, probably twenty years their senior, ahead of them on the path. He strode past them and offered a friendly greeting. And Caroline buried her face against his neck.
“Hiding?” he asked once they were out of earshot.
“Something like that.” She ran her tongue down the V-neckline of his button-down shirt. “Or maybe I just wanted a taste,” she added, her lips moving against his skin as she spoke.
“It’s a damn good thing our rooms are on the first floor with an ocean view,” he growled.
He reached the door and reluctantly lowered her to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the pavement, he missed the warmth of her body against his.
“So here’s the thing,” he said, withdrawing the room key, an old-fashioned actual key on a ring, from his pocket. “I think we need to work our way up to pizza. Get good and hungry first.”
“A date in reverse? Start in bed and go backward?”
“Yeah, and later we can blame my memory. I still struggle with sequences,” he said. “Sometimes I add the baking soda before the eggs. But don’t worry, I never forget to preheat the oven.”
“I don’t know.” She looked up at him. “It could take up to thirty minutes for delivery . . . but if you think you’ll need more time.”
I don’t think I’ll last five minutes, he thought.
But he nodded. When they got inside, he would take a step back and remind himself to slow the hell down. The key turned and the locked clicked. He pushed the door open and held it for her.
As soon as it clicked shut behind them, she disappeared behind him. “Caroline?”
“Don’t mind me,” she murmured. He could feel her breath on his neck. “I’m just going to help you out of your shirt. And while I work your buttons . . .” She released the third one, extending the V of his neckline to the middle of his chest. He’d forgotten to pack an undershirt, but he’d tossed in a box of condoms just in case.
“You can tell me all of the naughty things you want to do to me after I get you out of these clothes. How you like to be touched—” She’d released another two buttons and paused to slide her hands inside his open shirt, running her hands over his lower ribs. “Where you want my mouth . . .”
Her fingers moved to the top of his jeans and he groaned. But he caught hold of her wrists before she lowered his zipper and reached inside. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking the questions?” she asked.
She pulled away and he instantly released her.
“Sorry,” he said. Shit, he didn’t want to apologize for wanting to give her what she’d asked for. He had to do this right. “But I don’t want to frighten you. I need to know how to touch you, what you like—”
“Josh.” She moved around to stand in front of him again. But she didn’t reach for him. “Do I look scared?”
He ran his hands through his hair. “I meant I don’t want to do something that would trigger a reaction.”
“Then we better keep our clothes on and order pizza. Because when I said you look like an impending orgasm, I didn’t mean I would come from staring at you. I’m hoping you’ll make love to me until you trigger a reaction so big that I’m begging you for another the minute it subsides.”
“Caroline, I’m trying to be careful.”
“Well, stop,” she shot back. “You’ve never treated me like I might break apart at any second. Please don’t start now.”
He studied the fierce woman who’d been undressing him until he threw on the brakes. She was right. If he trusted her, he didn’t need to question his every move. She’d speak up for herself.
“All right.”
She stepped closer, but still didn’t touch him. Her chin high, her green eyes flashing with a combination of desire and determination, she stared up at him.
“Talk to me. Touch me,” she said as her fingers curled around the edge of her black T-shirt. Then she drew it over her head. She tossed it aside and reached behind her to free her bra. “Don’t hold back.”
Josh kissed his restraint goodbye and placed his hands on her bare chest. The weight settled into his palms. Her nipples formed tight peaks as he lifted and pressed her breasts together. He hunched his shoulders and lowered his mouth to her skin. And his tongue dipped into her cleavage.
Her fingers worked into his hair, holding him close. “Josh, for the record, I love the way you use your mouth.”
Love.
It was too soon to tell her he was falling for a helluva lot more than her mouth. No, he still needed to prove that this—his lips exploring her body—worked for them.
He pressed one more kiss to her breasts. Then he released her chest and lowered down to his knees. And he reached for her steel-toed boots.
“First I’m going to get you out of these ass-kicking shoes.” His fingers worked the laces. “And then I want another look at your panties before I slide them down your legs and show you exactly what I can do with my mouth.”
Chapter 14
JOSH SUMMERS HAD turned stripping off her socks into foreplay. She’d never thought of her ankles as an erogenous zone. But when he touched them, she’d felt a rush of heat and need settle beneath her black lace undies. Then the feel of his fingers against her skin as he unbuttoned her pants and drew down the zipper had pushed her so close to a climax that he might as well have been vibrating.
Now her boots rested at the foot of the motel’s queen-sized bed. Her cargo pants lay discarded in a heap beside them. She’d lost everything but her panties. She looked down at the man kneeling at her feet. He’d tossed aside his shirt and pants too, but kept his underwear. His head was cocked to one side, and his gaze fixed on her last piece of clothing.
“Not complicated,” she murmured. “Just grab ahold of the top and pull them down.”
Don’t mind me, she thought. I might come before you get them off.
“Hmm.” He ran his hands up her calves, over her knees, and paused at her thighs. Then he leaned forward, captured the top of her panties between his teeth, and drew them down to her thighs. “Like that?”
Oh God, yes!
But she went with a swift, sharp nod. Not that he could see her affirmative gesture. His gaze remained focused on the dark curls between her legs as he drew her underwear down her legs. She stepped out of them before he asked and the slip of black lace joined her pants on the floor.
“Place your foot on my shoulder,” he said.
She allowed him to guide her left foot into a position that left her knee raised practically to her chest. Balancing precariously on her other foot, she felt open, exposed, and ready—for a physically impracticable event.
Kneeling in front of her five foot five frame, his mouth was level with her chest, not her . . .
“Impossible,” she murmured.
“No, Caroline.” He looked up at her with his trust-me grin. “This will work. Believe me.”
And here, in this room, when it came to pleasure and sex, she had faith in him.
With his hand on her right hip holding her steady, he sat back on his heels and brushed his tongue over her bare flesh. She ran her hands through his hair and held on hoping she wouldn’t fall away from . . .
Oh my . . . goodness. . .
Josh had offered to give her a demonstration of just what he could do with his mouth and wow had he delivered. She closed her eyes and narrowed her focus to his tongue. Pleasure rippled through her like the waves she’d watched earlier. And it overrode her other emotions.
She pulled on his hair, silently begging for more. More pressure. More teasing, tantalizing stokes designed to turn her legs into a trembling mess . . .
He read her mind and gave it to her.
She’d been a fool to wait for this. For over a year, this man had been bringing her pies, brownies, and cupcakes. But if she’d let down her guard, if she’d agreed to go out with him before now . . .
Later, much later, she would have a moment of silence for all of the orgasms she’d missed out on because she’d been too afraid to fall for this man.
“This is so much better than pie,” she groaned.
He chuckled as he drew his mouth away. “Even the pecan?”
“Yes.” Her fingers still woven through his curls, she tugged his head back into position and he complied.
Another lick . . .
“Oh wow, that’s better than key lime with homemade . . .” She moaned. “Whipped . . . oh God . . . cream! Yes!”
“Next time I make ‘oh God cream,’ ” he murmured, his mouth still oh-so-close to the most needy, intimate parts of her body, “I’ll cover you in homemade topping.” He stole a lick, then added: “With a cherry on top.”
“Not another dirty word out of you until you make me come,” she said.
He laughed again. But there was nothing cruel about the sound. Not this time. Not here. Not with this man.
She tensed for the rush of memory. Another man. In another place. Laughing at her, not with her. Promising pleasure she didn’t want. And delivering fear. So much fear she’d lived and breathed it for months. She’d let it rule her life. All because of that bastard.
“Caroline?” the man kneeling in a seemingly impossible position at her feet asked softly.
She pushed the memories away. They wouldn’t disappear. What Dustin had done to her, how much he’d taken from her . . . the invisible scars would fade but never disappear.
But they were no longer immobile barriers to her future.
“OK, maybe one or two more naughty images,” she said, wanting to hear his voice while the hand not holding her hip steady explored and stroked her.
“You know, I’m willing to share my whipped cream,” he murmured. “Anytime you want a taste, you can rub some over my chest—”
“Just your chest?” she challenged.
“Use your imagination. My dirty mouth has some unfinished business.”
And then he buried his head between her legs again. She closed her eyes and let the sensations hold her right here, in this moment. His tongue drew tight circles around the bundle of nerves primed by his words and his touch to send her falling . . .
“Josh,” she whispered. “Josh.”
She repeated his name, over and over as she came bucking against his face, accepting all he had to offer.
AFTER HIS ACCIDENT, if someone had told Josh that he’d get a second shot at the life he wanted while crouched on the floor of a motel in Eureka, he would have called them crazy. But right now, listening to the woman he loved call out his name over and over, he knew he’d found what he’d been looking for. He didn’t need the big house nestled in the valley, or the fancy kitchen . . .
Just Caroline.
“Josh?” she murmured. And it was no longer an oh more, more, more, Josh, but a question.
He drew his mouth away from her and looked up.
“We need to move to the bed or the floor,” she said, her eyes still glazed over with pleasure. “Your choice. But I can’t maintain this position any longer.”
“The bed,” he decided as he placed his hand on her left foot and gently lowered it from his shoulder to the floor. But he kept ahold of her hip. As he rose up from the ground, his free hand reached for her. His fingers pressed into her backside. Using his firm grip on her hips, he guided her toward the bed, turning her until she lined up with the queen-sized mattress.
“Lie down,” he murmured, releasing her. “I’ll be right back.”
He rushed over to his duffel bag and rummaged through it until he found the box of condoms. He tore open the packaging and pulled one out.
And realized he was still wearing his freaking underwear.
“Josh?” she called from the bed.
He glanced over his shoulder.
“I want to watch this part,” she said.
“Yeah?” he arched an eyebrow as he turned and walked over to the bed. He tossed the condom onto the comforter and hooked his thumbs under the elastic band. Slowly, he drew down his last article of clothing. Her lips parted as he revealed his aching, eager dick.
“Next time, I’ll do a striptease worthy of Magic Mike.” He pulled his underwear down his legs and stepped out of them.
“I don’t need a dance,” she said. “You. I just want you.”
“You’ve got me.” He reached for the condom.
“You know,” she began. And his hand froze, holding the unwrapped condom over the head of his cock. “I might need you to paint me a picture of what you want.”
Paint her a picture?
But his brain kicked back into gear, and he searched for the right words.
“Caroline.” He covered himself and walked back to the foot of the bed. “I want you.”
He climbed up on the bed, his knees pushing into the mattress between her legs as he covered her body with his own. His elbows rested close to her shoulders, holding his weight off her body. “I’ve wanted you for so damn long. And I swear, I’ll tell you everything I’ve imagined. How. Where. But right now . . . right now just know that it is all with you. You’re my fantasy.”
“Yes,” she said with a soft laugh.
She reached between them and wrapped her hand around his cock. She drew him closer to where he needed to be as her legs wound around him.
“Now?” he murmured.
“Now,” she confirmed.
He pushed past her hand and slid inside her. He’d thought about this moment, moved through it in his dreams. He’d tried to prepare for each stroke and anticipate her reaction. He’d wanted to be ready . . .
And now he let it all go. He had faith in her. She’d tell him if she needed more, less, a different position . . .
He thrust into her again and again, holding nothing back. And she moved with him. Her body rocked up to greet him, opening to him. He didn’t worry about hurting her or taking her too hard or fast. She was taking him right back, consuming him.
Her nails dug into his back as she arched beneath him. He wasn’t lost in pleasure. He was right freaking here in their Eureka motel room, making love to her. This was it, what he’d been searching for. He’d found what he wanted. And he was all in, no holding back. No matter what the future brought them. She was his. And he’d hold on to her, love her, care for her with all his heart.
“Caroline,” he roared. Then he lowered his mouth to hers and claimed her lips, kissing her as the climax ripped through him.
I love you.
Now, buried inside her, wasn’t the time to say the words out loud. Soon. But not now.
Chapter 15
CAROLINE STARED AT the brick pathway leading to the yellow colonial. Long, white columns stretched the full two stories of the impressive home. The house had wings, stretching from either side. They could easily fit Noah’s three-bedroom farmhouse in this mansion and probably the barn too. Though they might want to leave the old mechanical bull on the front lawn to annoy the neighbors. But that would ruin the mansion’s equally impressive landscaping.
Manicured hedges lined the brick path leading from the sidewalk to the front entrance. On the right, a paved driveway wound around the side of the house. Trimmed grass filled the space between the bushes and the pavement. A glimpse of a stone pathway leading to a garden was visible around the left of the home.
“Ready to get out?” Josh asked. “The guard at the gate called up. She knows we’re here.”
Caroline nodded and reached for her door. “We should have made a plan on the drive.”
Instead of talking about what they would say now that they�
�d finally arrived at the end of their road trip, she’d spent the drive down from Eureka staring out the window. She’d made love to Josh Summers last night. After all this time, she’d gone to bed with him. She’d spent the night curled around his strong, powerful body. And she’d woken up with her head resting on the red-gold hair covering his chest.
She’d blown past impossible, pushed failure aside, and claimed her second chance. And now she didn’t want to let go. She wanted to hold on to him with all her heart.
But she’d fallen for a man who didn’t lie. He refused to pretend. Meanwhile she was afraid to use her real name. One glorious, orgasm-filled night didn’t erase the federal warrant hanging over her head.
Josh appeared at her side as her feet touched down on the sidewalk. “Ready?”
The white front door swung open and Helena waved down at them, a smile plastered on her face.
“She looks happy to see us.” Josh grinned and raised his free hand.
“Appearances can be deceiving.”
But he drew her forward, leading her down the brick path. Halfway to the front door, he inclined his head toward hers. “Say what you wish someone had said to you.”
“Chop off his balls?” she muttered.
“That seems a little extreme if we’re wrong and her husband’s just a giant ass who likes to yell at his wife,” he said.
“True.”
They reached the front steps and turned their attention to the woman who looked about as manicured as her hedges. There wasn’t a strand of hair out of place on her blond bob. Her pale pink dress screamed ‘designer.’ And her peep-toe white patent leather heels made Caroline’s combat boots look decidedly out of place. But who wore heels in their own home?
“Hello,” Caroline said.
“What are you doing here?” Helena hissed through her smiling teeth once they’d reached the top of the brick steps leading to the front door. “Are you crazy? I can’t believe you followed me home after eavesdropping on one little phone call!”
Josh drew Caroline closer to his side. “We were in Northern Cali anyway—”
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