“I was going to give you more time,” he murmured softly. His eyes were a little unfocused. Stunned, even. “Get you to comearound to seeing that your heart would be safe with me. I should’ve remembered that you’re by far the braver of the two ofus.”
Her heart leapt into overdrive, like she’d just run a mile around the track. “What are you trying to say?” Because what Sierrathought Flynn was circling around to seemed too good to be true.
“That I love you, too. I didn’t want to be selfish. Didn’t want to tell you how much I need you before you were ready to hearit.”
Wow. Now her heart was pretty much thumping as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. “I’m ready. In fact, I think I’d like you tosay it again.”
Flynn framed her face in his hands. One thumb traced the curve of her lips as her smile grew. “I love you, Sierra Williams.”
“Just Sierra,” she whispered. “The other name isn’t really mine.”
“It’s a good stopgap. Until, maybe, you think about trying on a new one. Something from the middle of the alphabet.”
Omigosh. Could he really . . . did he really mean . . . Sierra squeezed her eyes shut. “Don’t tease me.”
“I’m not.” He planted the softest, lightest kisses in the world at the outer corners of her eyes, his cheeks brushing herlashes. “I’m talking through what’s in my heart. No strings, no ticking clock. Just a guy telling the prettiest, sweetestwoman in the world how he feels. And how he hopes their future might shape up.”
This man. This wonderful man was blowing her mind. Exploding her heart into little confetti-like shards of pure joy. It waseverything she’d always wanted, yet never dreamed of achieving.
Almost.
Her eyes popped open. Because if they were really even skating close to talking about this, Sierra had to lay something onthe table.
“I’ve got a nonnegotiable plan for my future.”
One of Flynn’s eyebrows shot up. But he looked amused, not challenged. He dropped his arms and made a beckoning wave of hishand. “Lay it on me.”
“I want to foster children. I want to give a home to kids who need one. I want to keep as many children from feeling aloneas I possibly can.”
“You mean as we possibly can.”
The sharp bite of bark against her back was the only thing convincing Sierra that this wasn’t a dream. “Don’t promise me themoon, Flynn, if you don’t have one heck of a long tow rope to pull it down here and set it in front of me.”
“My parents were both gone before I learned to drive. I know that feeling of loneliness, at least in part.” He spread hisarms wide, palms up. “I’m completely on board with fostering.”
“No rearranging our lives while we’re still getting used to intertwining them. I just wanted to lay it out there. As partof my future.” Sierra looked down at her journal. A place where she could start making lists of dreams that Flynn would helpher to make come true.
He eased the book from her tight grasp and set it on the ground. “How about we cement this unofficial officialness of ourfuture by celebrating the present?”
“What does that mean?”
Flynn braced his arms on the tree trunk, caging her in. Which was exactly where she wanted to be. “It means I want you.”
“Oh. Well, I want you, too.”
“See? We’re great together. On the same page for all the important stuff.” Flynn captured her mouth. His tongue immediatelyprobed, sweeping and sucking and tangling with hers. “This is going to have to be fast. We don’t want to push our luck toomuch with not being discovered by other hikers.”
“Fast is good. If it’s with you. However we do it is always fantastic.”
Flynn pulled a foil packet from a cargo pocket and unzipped his shorts. Rolled on a condom. “I feel like there should be romanceto go with saying I love you for the first time. You deserve candles and flowers.”
“You gave me a flower,” Sierra reminded him, nudging the journal with the toe of her sneaker. “This entire date is the mostromantic thing that’s ever happened to me.” She pushed her shorts to her ankles and stepped out of them. Pushed her man tothe ground, then straddled him. “The only thing I deserve is a toe-curling orgasm.”
“You’ve got to start giving yourself more credit, sweetness. I say you deserve two.”
His hands settled on her waist before suddenly lifting her like she weighed no more than a feather. Flynn settled her righton top of his face. His mouth, to be precise. And precision is exactly what she got as his tongue gave two long licks beforestrumming across her clitoris.
Sierra fell forward onto her hands. Flynn was making the earth spin. Shudder. Or maybe that was just her. She only knew thather knees barely held her up as pleasure spiraled through her with intense speed. Her nails scrabbled past the leaves intothe dirt. Then, when Flynn scraped his teeth along the path of his tongue, she screamed as she came. It had taken no time at all, but the results were as mind-blowingly spectacular as ever.
Again, Flynn’s strength surprised her when he moved her back down his body. With aftershocks still pulsing through her, Flynnentered in one fast thrust. And he just kept going.
He set a relentless pace, not giving her time to catch her breath or help or even rearrange her legs. Flynn just kept hishands on her hips and controlled her movement for her, lifting and turning Sierra a little as he pounded that long, thick,amazing cock into her.
“Fall forward,” he urged.
She put her hands on the ground just above his shoulders. Flynn surged up, capturing her left breast in his mouth. A yankof his teeth pushed her top and bra below it. Once her nipple was wet, he blew cool air across it. Goose bumps—what felt likeboth inside and outside—raced along her entire body.
“That’s cheating,” she panted. “It doesn’t count as two orgasms if you just prolong and build upon the first one.”
“How about we argue semantics after you scream
