chapter TWENTY

Rylan blinked his eyes open to an early morning glow seeping in through the curtains. Blearily, he closed his eyes again. He’d never been good at getting back to sleep, but if he could just roll over and kick his feet free from the covers, he might be able to.

Beside him, Kate gave a soft moan, and just like that, a layer of fog cleared from his mind. The two of them were still spooned up together, though by some mercy, he’d managed to end up with a few inches of air separating his dick from her ass. Not that it helped much. She was sleep-warm and slack against his chest, their fingers intertwined beside her head, her breasts pressed softly to his forearm where it draped across her ribs.

His morning arousal gave a little kick, and he shifted his knees forward, sliding his shin against the back of her calf. Her skin was so smooth, felt so good against his own.

His guilt from the night before crowded in on him, though. He closed his eyes and fought the tide of want pulsing through his veins. He started to tug his arm back, but she stirred, humming and squeezing his hand. He swallowed, ready to pull away when she half turned over and snugged her ass against his hips.

Lightning flooded through him.

“Kate,” he groaned, and it was strained even to his ears. He extricated his hand from hers and gripped her hip, trying to keep her still. Not pressing forward, no matter how much he was dying to, just in case she wasn’t okay with this when she woke the rest of the way up.

“Hmm?”

God. She was still moving against him, probably completely unaware of what she was doing.

His voice came out raspy and low. “You’re killing me.” He tried to scoot away, but to no avail.

Fuck this. He shook her this time. She was all pliant and warm, stretching her arms and craning her neck and feeling so fucking sexy against him he could hardly handle it.

And then all at once she froze.

Yeah. That wasn’t a gun pressed to her rear.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, releasing his grip. Maybe she’d let him get away from her now. He could go rub one out in the bathroom. Or maybe take a cold shower. Something to keep him from losing his fucking mind with how much he wanted her.

From taking something he didn’t deserve.

“No.” She sounded more awake now. Reaching back, she curled a hand around his thigh, preventing him from going anywhere, and goddammit all. He wasn’t made of stone.

He wrapped his arm back around her, stroking the underside of her breast and mouthing at the smooth skin of her shoulder. “Baby.” He shook his head in warning. “You’re playing with fire here.”

“You haven’t burned me yet.”

She had no idea.

He squeezed her tight, fighting against the instinct to roll his hips, but it was a losing battle.

Sliding her hand higher up his leg, she pushed into his touch, and he gave up. He cupped her breast. Let himself enjoy the soft flesh pressed all along the length of him. She made a little contented sound and craned her neck. Lifting up, he caught her lips, kissing her deep and wet. She tasted like sleep and sex, and she was moving with the gentle rocking of his hips now, rubbing her thighs together.

And he’d come to a resolution last night. He’d decided to keep the status quo intact, keep all the ways he’d misled her to himself, and there’d been a good reason for it. Sure, it gave him two more days to enjoy all the light she shone into his life. But it let her hold on to this as a good memory, too. It afforded him another chance to treat her with all the care and kindness she deserved.

He could do that. He could take this pleasure for himself. And give it back to her every way he knew how.

He closed his eyes. Dropped his voice even lower as he succumbed. “Are you wet for me?”

Her only answer was a breathy whine and a shifting of her legs, and yeah. Every time he’d spoken to her like that, she’d squirmed and acted all uncertain about it, but her body’d never had any doubts at all.

Growling, he scraped his teeth against her neck. “Guess I’ll have to find out for myself.”

With one last tweak of her nipple, he slipped his hand down, over the smooth plane of her abdomen to the tops of her thighs, and to that soft, sweet place between.

“Oh, baby,” he groaned, turning his face into the pillow. “You’re soaked. Were you having naughty dreams?”

“Maybe.”

What he would give to see inside her head. Barring that, he slipped his fingers over slick flesh, dipping two just inside to get them nice and wet before sliding them up to tease at her clit. She squeezed his hip, digging her nails in.

“Feel good?”

“Yeah.” She moved against him, thighs parting for his exploration, teeth scraping against his bottom lip. “Do you have another condom?”

He had a whole box. Pulling his hand away from her cunt, he grabbed her wrist. Put her own fingers right where his had been, because that was okay. She had to remember that she could do that. “Keep yourself warm for me.”

She must have been pretty far gone or still a little bit asleep, because there wasn’t any of the reluctance from the other night. She just curled in on herself, the motions of her fingers on her flesh sounding soft and wet in the quiet room, and fuck. He could stay there, listening and watching—maybe tasting—all day.

He huffed out a breath and tore himself away. The rest of the condoms were where he’d left them in the pocket of his bag. He tore one off from the strip and opened it up. Wrapping a hand around himself, he gave a few rough tugs at his cock before rolling the latex on, then stalked back to the bed to wrap himself around her.

She hadn’t stopped touching herself. He was dying to get inside, but he made himself slow down. With his knee, he nudged her top leg forward, making more space for him to get at all that sweetness. He ran his fingers along hers, through the slickness and across her clit, then down. She took two fingers easily, clenching around them, tight but not too tight. Wet and unbearably hot.

“Can I?” he asked.

“Yeah, God. Come on.”

Fuck, she was close already, and what a change that was from the first night. It made a warmth that had nothing to do with sex burn through his rib cage. She was so open now, so trusting. So willing to let him see her pleasure.

It was beautiful.

He drew his hand away, reaching between them to grab a hold of himself and guide his tip into place. He groaned aloud at the easy slide into her body, and it punched a noise out of her that made him even more desperate for it. When he was all the way in, he wrapped his arm around her and bit down hard at the meat of her shoulder.

“You feel so good,” he managed.

“So do you.” She moved to shift her hand away, and he shook his head.

He grasped her wrist before she could get too far, bringing her fingers back to the place where they were joined. “No. Don’t stop.”

“But you’re—” She honestly sounded confused.

“Fucking you,” he finished for her. “Yeah, believe me, I know.”

“So . . .”

“So keep touching yourself.”

“You don’t want to . . .”

He wasn’t sure where she was going with that, but he shook his head all the same. “I want to fuck you while you finger that sweet little clit. Can you do that for me, Kate?”

The moan that wrung from her was a twisted mix of mortification and arousal, and it made him start to rock his hips, unable to resist the temptation to move within her. Even those short strokes had him clutching her tighter, and yeah. He wanted her mad for it. He wanted her to remember this.

“Can you?” he asked again. “Can you make yourself come on my cock?”

“Yeah.” It was high-pitched breath of a word.

And it was all he needed to hear.

He drew back farther this time before driving back in, running his hand up and down her side. He’d always loved having sex spooned together like this—the proximity and the heat of it, all the access it afforded to a girl’s clit and tits.