“But…” She blinked rapidly, as if she needed to in order to see past the sexual haze that surrounded them.
Good. At least he wasn’t alone in losing his mind.
“So you’re saying this isn’t just…”
“Hell, no. Not for me, and if you’re being honest, not for you either.” He curled his tongue around a nipple while his hand skimmed down her rising and falling belly, slipping into the waistband of her jeans.
She sucked in a breath to give him better access. “Jared…we’re wearing too many clothes.”
Lifting up, he tugged her pants off, tossed them over his shoulder, leaving her gloriously bare.
She squirmed, then shot him up a little smile. “Now you’re wearing too many clothes.”
“We’ll get there. I like you naked, Lily. I like the smooth feel of your skin…” He stroked a hand over her ribs, rasped a thumb over a nipple. “And I love the scent of you.” He stroked a thumb over her wet, hot center, making her gasp and rock her hips for more.
“When I’m with you,” she managed. “I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”
“Oh, you’re coming.” He slid a finger into her while his thumb made another passing sweep over her creamy flesh. “You’re going to come again and again and again…”
“Jared-”
“Right here.” With each stroke of that thumb, she rocked her hips against him, urging him into her rhythm, but he was already right there with her. Damn, she was hot. Hot and wet, and his. He was crazy to want her this way, a woman who’d just as soon never face the undeniable growing emotions they had for each other, even after only a few days.
But he did. He wanted her for always.
Hell of a fix, given that she’d run for the hills if she knew his thoughts. So he kissed her deep. He had his tongue inside her mouth, his fingers inside her body, was as close to her as he could get, and yet, it wasn’t enough. Hell, they could do this every night until they were old and gray and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be enough.
Because he loved her.
“Jared…please. Please, now.”
“Yeah, now.” He stroked her again, heat coiling low in his belly when she gasped his name like a prayer, a mantra.
He definitely liked the sound of that, and let himself look at her, soak her in. Her eyes were closed, her hair wild around her face, falling around her pillow like shiny silk. Her mouth was open, as if she needed it that way just to breathe, and with her head back, her throat was exposed.
He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
Leaning over her, he put his mouth to her neck. She sighed, the soft sound going straight to his gut.
And lower.
Her hands came up to his shoulders, running restlessly down his back as she murmured some wordless plea.
She wanted him. She wanted him inside her, and maybe, just maybe, she wanted inside him, too.
He kissed his way to her shoulder, then a breast, and she cried out his name in a voice he knew would headline his dreams for the rest of his life. Beneath the hands he had on her, he felt her muscles tense and tremble, felt her hips rocking with pure, mindless pleasure.
She was close.
He nudged her over with his fingers, feeling the tension rumble through her, which was erotic as hell, but not nearly as erotic as the taste of her, he knew, so he dipped his head and put his mouth on her. And she fell again, the sharp edge of her pleasure nearly taking him with her.
While she still shuddered, he kicked off a boot. “Condom.”
“Inside there,” she gasped, and pointed to a zippered pouch on her pack.
He had the packet in his teeth, and was trying to lose his other boot and pull off his shirt at the same time.
“Jared?”
Damn it, he had a knot in his damn bootlace. “Yeah?”
Her hair was wild about her face, which was flushed. Her body, sprawled out beneath him, was damp and dewy, and the most mouthwatering thing he’d ever seen. “How about now? Can you hurry now?”
He’d never laughed while being hard enough to pound a nail through stone. “I swear I’m trying.” Finally he got his boot off, and she helped him with his jeans, taking a second to glide her tongue along his length, leaving him a quivery mess of sensation, and then…oh, God…and finally, finally, he pushed her back, rose over her, and thrust home.
She was hot, slick and so ready for him, he nearly came right then. There had to be a name for this, he thought dimly, this mind-blowing sensation he felt being inside her, feeling her breathe with him, her heart in sync with his.
Oh, wait. There was a name for it. Love. “Lily.”
Arching up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, sending him even deeper within her, so damned deep he could happily drown. Her fingers dug into his buttocks now, urging him on. Her hips were rocking, her muscles tightening on him as she came again, or still, it didn’t matter because she was taking him with her into the wild current, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“So good,” she murmured, her breasts pressed hard to his chest, her mouth working its way along his jaw, her breath scraping in and out of her lungs, panting in his ear now. He could feel her heart beating, or maybe that was his. Yes, that was his. He ground himself against her with every thrust, latching his mouth onto her neck and holding on, staking his claim, sinking his teeth into her skin as he…completely…lost…it, wondering if he would even live through it.
From some dim recess in his mind, he felt her go over, and then he heard himself say it, the words he could no longer hold back. “I love you, Lily…”
And then he let himself fall.
LILY OPENED her eyes. She was cradled against a hard, damp chest. Nice. Limp as a noodle, she slowly floated back to earth-
And then remembered.
Had he really said-
No.
No, he hadn’t uttered those three little words. She’d only imagined them, dreamt them up while coming so hard her toes were still curled.
How was it possible that this kept happening between them, that each and every time got more intimate, more deep, in fact so deep that she couldn’t imagine being without him?
Good thing then, that this was their last night, wasn’t it? Yeah, definitely best just to stay right here, in the moment, and she pressed closer to his big, warm body, thinking in the moment was a pretty damn fine place to be…and let herself drift off.
WHEN JARED OPENED his eyes, dawn was just a pink-and-purple ribbon in the sky. He was wrapped up warm and toasty in Lily, which suited him. He pulled her close and breathed her in.
In her sleep, she cuddled closer, putting her face into the crook of his neck and letting out a soft hum of pleasure, her body far ahead of her brain in the accepting-him department.
He just hoped to God her brain caught up with the rest of things soon.
As in today soon.
With a soft sigh, Lily opened her eyes. “I had a dream that you said…”
“Yeah. It wasn’t a dream.”
She blinked once, slowly, and then he felt her body tense as she sat up.
The loss of her body heat was nothing compared to the gaping hole he felt in his heart when she backed from him. “Look,” he said. “I know. I get it. This is scary shit.”
“Only because you changed things.”
“Change doesn’t have to be bad.”
She let out a mirthless laugh. “Tell that to my old career.”
He was quiet a moment. “You’re not the only one who’s faced big changes this year.”
She immediately softened. “I know,” she said, touching him. “God, I know.”
