*   *   *

What Tess had wanted to say to Carter was that he could easily make her fall in love with him. Hell, she felt like she was halfway there already and she hadn’t known him for much longer than a week. The last thing she’d expected when she moved to Nacogdoches was to crush on her neighbor. And a neighbor with kids at that. Tess had sowed her oats, though. She was more than ready to settle into a committed relationship with a rock-solid guy.

And Carter was about as solid as they came.

She turned too fast toward the paint tray and at the same time as Carter. Their rollers collided and paint splashed up onto his bare forearm. “Sorry,” she said with a laugh.

Her gaze roamed up his arm to his face, where a large smattering of sage green dotted his forehead. Her giggles turned into earnest laughter. Carter swiped at his head, which only served to cover his forehead in paint. Her stomach ached as she laughed, and he reached out with his roller and ran it up the length of her arm.

Tess squealed and lashed out with her own roller, as she coated Carter’s arm. He dotted her nose and cheeks with paint and snatched the roller from her hand before she could retaliate. She reached for the paint tray, determined to get him back. He took her down in a tackle and they rolled to the floor in a riot of laughter and tangled limbs.

“No fair,” she said through bouts of laughter. “I don’t tackle people for a living.”

Carter chuckled and the sound rippled pleasantly over her skin. “Neither do I,” he replied. “I’m the quarterback.”

They dissolved into another fit of laughter that caused Tess’s chest to ache and her stomach muscles to bunch up. It had been so long since she’d laughed like this. It felt good. Soon, she realized that she was the only one still laughing and she opened her eyes to find Carter studying her with an intensity that stole her breath.

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Soft and slow at first. A tease. Tess had never been kissed so decadently in her entire life, as though Carter wanted to savor every meeting of their lips. He settled himself between her thighs and Tess’s knees fell open. His body fit hers perfectly and she let out a slow sigh of contentment. Her hands found his hair and she let the silky strands slip through her fingers before scraping her nails over his scalp. He let out a low growl that sent her heart to pounding in her chest.

“Tess,” he murmured against her mouth.

The emotion in his voice speared her heart. Want, sadness, indecision. Was this the first time Carter had been with anyone since—

“We don’t have to,” she said quietly. It killed her to say it. No matter what he felt, Tess was one hundred percent sure that she wanted him. “Carter, it’s okay.”

He put his forehead to hers and let out a slow sigh. “I want you so much I can’t even form the words to explain it, Tess. I’m—shit,” he said with a disgust snort. “I’m afraid.”

Dear god, he was gutting her. “Afraid of what?”

“Of caring for anyone that I might end up losing.”

Carter Christensen broke the mold. “Maybe this doesn’t have to be about caring about someone.” She’d be lying if she said this was only about meaningless sex. But she wanted Carter to know that whatever he needed this to be, it was okay.

“Just a hookup, huh?”

“People do it all the time. We’re consenting adults, I think it’s okay.”

“Travis would have had you in bed the first night,” he said with a rueful laugh. “God, I suck at this.”

He was much better than he gave himself credit for. “You think too much.” Tess combed her fingers through his hair as he relaxed against her. She turned her head and kissed his forearm. Her hand wandered down until it cupped the back of his neck and she urged him down so she could gently kiss his mouth. “And I don’t want Travis or anyone else.” She kissed him again and his lips lingered this time. “I want you.”

Carter’s mouth seized hers. No longer playful. Not tentative or unsure. He didn’t savor her. This time, he claimed her. Their tongues met and parted in an urgent tangle as his lips slanted across hers. He kissed her until Tess was breathless and her blood raced hot through her veins. Carter nipped at her bottom lip, and Tess’s pussy clenched. He ventured across her jaw, down her throat to her collarbone. Tess arched into his touch as Carter fisted the hem of her T-shirt and dragged it up the length of her body. She helped him to strip it off of her and let out a low moan as the heat of his mouth found the swell of her breast.

Tess’s nipples hardened and she arched into Carter’s touch. His mouth was a brand and he devoured her, moving from the outer swell inward. He found her nipple through the fabric of her bra and nibbled. When Tess gasped, he bit down a little harder and she cried out as she pressed up toward his mouth. If the contact felt this good through her bra, she didn’t think she’d survive the skin-on-skin contact.

Urgency dictated her movement as she reached between them and fumbled with the button of his jeans. He shifted his hips up to give her access, and she worked his zipper down with one hand while she shoved the other past the waistband of his underwear to grope greedily for hard, hot flesh. Tess took him in her hand and stroked from the swollen head to the base of his shaft. A tremor passed through Carter’s body as he groaned. Holy shit. Tess thought she might come from nothing more than his reaction to her touch. It filled her with a euphoric sense of power, and she stroked him again, slowly.

“Tess,” Carter said through panted breaths. “That … feels so good.”

She squeezed tighter as she stroked him this time, brushing the pad of her thumb over the crown. Carter shuddered once again and anything between them that had been tentative dissolved in a storm of passion.

Carter’s mouth descended on hers. Urgent, demanding, hungry. He cupped the back of her neck. Held her the way he wanted as his mouth slanted over hers. He sucked her bottom lip, nipped at the sensitive skin, lapped at her until her lips throbbed from the punishment. With shaking hands, he reached behind her and she arched her back so he could unclasp her bra. He ripped it from her and his open mouth came down over her nipple in a shock of heat. Tess gasped at the intense sensation as he swirled his tongue over the tight bead before taking it between his teeth.

“Carter, don’t stop.” Tess couldn’t remember a time she’d felt so good. If she was being honest, she couldn’t’ remember the last time she’d done anything like this in the broad light of day. It excited her, sent a wild thrill through her bloodstream that pulsed low in her abdomen and made her so wet that her own arousal soaked her underwear.

Carter shifted so that he rested on his hip beside her. He took the opposite breast roughly in his large hand and kneaded her flesh before giving it the same frenzied attention with his mouth. Tess’s body beaded with sweat, heat and desire swamped her. Her back bowed off of the floor and when she didn’t think she could take another moment of intense sensation, Carter shoved his hand past the waistband of her yoga pants and slid his fingers through the wet lips of her pussy.

Tess cried out. Her fingers found the tangles of his hair and she gripped the strands in her fist as he suckled her nipple, bit the hardened peak while the pad of his finger circled her clit. She was fully under Carter’s spell now. Lost to him. It was a dangerous road to venture down. One that might end in another broken heart. But Tess didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything other than what she felt. This moment was bliss and it had no comparison.

Seven

Carter felt as though he was having an out-of-body experience. Without any control over his actions, he had no choice but to watch. By giving him permission to simply feel without the crippling emotional connection, Tess had opened the floodgates of a year’s worth of pent-up sexual energy.