control it, the more ragged it sounded. “Sorry.” I tried to sit up, but he held me down.
“Don’t be sorry. I like knowing I can do that to you.”
I ran my gaze down his body, stopping at the unmistakable bulge behind his button fly. “Tell me you have a condom.”
With a sheepish smile that said he wasn’t all Superman all the time, a fact that possibly endeared him to me all the more, he pulled one out of his pocket. “It’s one of yours.”
“You were hoping-”
“More like praying.”
I laughed, and realized that was a first-laughing with a man I wanted so badly, I was shaking for him. I took the condom out of his hand and tore the packet open.
He opened his jeans.
I slipped my hands inside.
He hissed out a breath.
“Good?” I murmured, melting all over again.
“Cold,” he muttered. “Christ, your fingers are ice.”
“Baby.”
He hissed again, but since I could feel him growing, swelling, even more, I didn’t worry. In fact, I grinned. “You still want me.”
“Go figure.”
Watching him put on the condom, his jaw tight enough to be jumping, the tendons in his neck standing out in bold relief, his arms and shoulders tense, was an experience I’ll never forget. I pushed up his shirt for the sheer pleasure of watching his abs contract beneath my fingers, and had barely pulled the material over his head when he eased himself into me.
The pure gratification of the connection stunned us both into immobility. I could feel him, thick and pulsing inside me, could feel his tremors, and knew how rigidly he controlled himself. I didn’t want that, so I wrapped my legs around him, driving him forward, deep enough to make me gasp.
“Jesus.” His gorgeous eyes went blind, and he dropped his forehead to mine. “Am I hurting you?”
“Only if you don’t move.”
“I’m trying to make it last longer than two seconds,” he managed.
“It’s been longer than two seconds.”
“Rach-”
I dug my heels into the small of his back, and I bit his jaw.
“So violent,” he murmured, but still held back.
“Kel, I want you as out of control as I was!”
His eyes softened. “Ah, Rach. Don’t you know that you look at me and I’m out of control?”
“Love me,” I whispered. “Please? Just love me.”
That did it, and finally, finally, he began to move, watching himself fill me in a way I couldn’t remember ever being filled before. I closed my eyes to savor the feeling, and also, maybe, to hide a little.
“No,” he whispered, open and honest in a way that didn’t come as easily for me. “Rach, look at me.”
With a struggle, I opened my eyes, struck by the combination of tenderness and affection and heat I found in his.
“Yeah,” he breathed, his own beautiful gaze holding mine prisoner now. “Love that.”
I’d never done this, connected like this, eyes open, heart open…and by doing so, I found myself giving so much more than I’d ever given before. I gave him all of me, everything I had, and a bit afraid, I clutched at him.
“I’m right here with you,” he promised softly, and bending for a kiss, finally took me where I wanted to go.
Oblivion.
And he was right next to me the entire way.
When I could breathe again, I realized I had my face plastered into Kel’s neck and my fingers embedded low on his back. I pulled back slowly, and blew the hair out of my face.
Kel looked no less shaken as he pulled me upright on the desk. “What the hell
“Don’t worry,” I said, smiling into his unsmiling face. “I don’t think it’s fatal.”
He looked at me for another long beat, then nodded. “That’s a relief.”
But then he turned away, leaving me vaguely uneasy.
“Kel?”
“Truth or dare.”
“Truth,” I whispered.
He didn’t turn to face me. “You really think this would be happening between us if we hadn’t come here? You know, to the sexually healing B &B from hell.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it, not wanting to lie. I honestly had no idea how it was that I’d not been so attracted to him before. It had taken this trip, being within such close proximity-
“Never mind,” he said, again fiddling with the Blackberry. “We have more important things to do. Such as figuring out what the dot means for tomorrow.”
Our gazes met, and the somber knowledge flitted between us. As bad as things were, we both knew it could get worse, so much, much worse. I tried to think about it, but I was so tired, I yawned widely.
Kel tucked both the Blackberry and the laptop beneath his sweatshirt. “Bed,” he said in a quiet, authoritative voice that I was beginning to react to like I suspected his dolphins did. Kellan McInty, animal whisperer.
“You need some sleep before we figure out the rest of this swap thing,” he said. “And so do I. Back to the guest house.”
“With one little pit stop on the way.”
“Let me guess. The freezer?”
“Problem?”
“No. I don’t care if you eat every last cookie in the place. As long as Marilee doesn’t find out.”
“Why? Are you afraid of her?”
He stood there, shirt a bit wrinkled from the time it’d spent wadded on the floor, his jeans disturbingly low on his hips, looking good enough to jump.
“Actually, I have bigger things to fear at the moment,” he said.
Which left me to wonder. Did he mean the swap, the impending dot…or me?
Chapter 17
We escaped the office and made our way through the dark inn, me in front leading the way with my night-vision abilities in order to save Kellan’s toes and shins. I steered us through the living room and into the kitchen. The wood stove was still hot, with embers glowing red. We were halfway across the floor when a creak sounded from above.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Kellan had one hand in mine, and he was so close behind me that I could feel his warm breath brush my temple, blowing bangs into my eyes. He felt big and warm and safe, and right then and there, I experienced a warm fuzzy the likes of which I’d never experienced before.
Or I
“What was it?” I asked.
The sound came again.
Someone was moving around quietly, not wanting to be heard.
Kellan squeezed my hip, putting his mouth to my ear. “Can you focus on it? Who is it?”
Damn, I kept forgetting I could tell. I looked up, and sighed. “Marilee. She’s pacing her bedroom.”
