Definitely the Bonnie to my Clyde. I turned to follow her as she walked into the bedroom.
“You think we’ll survive it?” I hadn’t ever been in love before, and so far, it was like its own special kind of battle I was trying to win.
She sighed at me. “I don’t know, but I sure hope so.”
I needed to change the subject before one of us let good sense talk us out of what was happening between us.
“What do you know about Drew Donner?”
She was working on folding down the comforter on the big king-size bed, so she just answered me over her shoulder. “We have a bunch of the same classes this semester. He’s nice enough, so we study together sometimes.”
“He never asked you out or anything?”
She stripped out of the black pants she was wearing, leaving her in nothing but a tank top and a pair of barely-there panties. This was serious conversation, but my mind immediately went blank and all I could do was stare at her long legs as she climbed up on the bed and sat on the edge. She still had a little red mark on her knee from her close call in the parking lot, and the reminder of her being injured now and before was enough to get my mind back on track as she studied me for a minute before answering.
“He’s made it pretty clear he would like to be more than friends, but I was never into it and I told him so. He doesn’t love it, but he never pushes the issue.”
I stalked toward her and didn’t stop until I reached the side of the bed and had positioned myself between her legs. I leaned over her until she was propped up on her elbows and I was just a breath away from being laid out on top of her.
“And why weren’t you into it?”
Her chest rose and fell and she let her weight drop so that we both collapsed on the bed and I was completely covering her. She twisted her hands into my hair and met my serious look with one of her own.
“Because I was into you, even if I didn’t want to be, and I knew no one else was going to compare.”
Damn straight no one was going to compare. This girl got to me in a way nothing else had in a very long time, and the pull between us was something that people looked a lifetime for. It didn’t matter that my world was dangerous, that she was going to have to take a risk by being with me—we were supposed to be together—and no deranged stalker or better judgment was going to keep us apart.
I kissed her hard and fast and went to move up and off of her. After all, she was hurt and there was no way I was going to do any more damage to her, but her grip in my hair tightened and she didn’t let me go.
“I’m having someone check him out. The guys at that school seem to have a hard time when you turn them down. I want to know what his deal is.”
Her eyes glittered up at me, and she curled one of her legs around my waist, which had my hands reaching for bare skin against my will.
“He doesn’t have a deal. He’s just a typical college guy. He wouldn’t hurt me. He has no reason to.”
My fingers stroked her thigh and I felt my heart rate speed up a little. I had to remember her head was probably killing her. I kissed the outside curve of her eyebrow.
“I’m still looking into him. Brysen, you just got out of the hospital this morning. Let me up and we’ll go to bed. I told you, I want to take care of you.”
One of her hands let go of its death grip on my hair to twine around my shoulders as her other leg joined the first, meaning I was now fully cradled against the center of her and the only thing between my growing erection and her warm center was her panties and my jeans.
“I missed you, Race. I want you to take care of me. Just do it this way instead.”
The argument I had about her being hurt got lost when she kissed me like we had been apart for months and not just a long couple of days or so. I let myself fall into her lips, into the seduction of her tongue as she coaxed mine to dance. I hopelessly gave in to the demand of her teeth when she used them to make her wants and needs clear. I put my hands on the curve of her hips and used the leverage I had to move us both to the center of the bed, her hands grasping at me the entire time like she was afraid I was going somewhere. She was almost naked and underneath me; there was nowhere else in the entire world I ever wanted to be.
I wrestled her top off over her head, careful of the delicate skin on the back of her head, and let her grapple with my jeans until she had them open and was using both her hands and her feet to get them out of her way. I grinned at her and climbed up onto my knees so I could strip the rest of them way, and felt my heart turn over when she used her index finger to dip into the dimple on my cheek. She smiled up at me as I hooked my fingers under the edge of her panties and started to work them down her legs. She would always be my absolute favorite present to unwrap.
“You’re something else, Race Hartman.”
Her stomach dipped and quivered a little when I bent my head and stuck the tip of my tongue into the concave little divot of her belly button.
“I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
I had to be mindful that she was fragile, breakable, and all too human. I couldn’t unleash on her all the things I normally did when I took her to bed. Normally she was my port in the storm while everything raged around us, but tonight she needed care, she needed delicacy and for me to show her she was safe with me.
I trailed my tongue down from her belly button and across the jutting ridge of her hipbone as she squirmed impatiently underneath me. She already had her legs open to accommodate where I was sprawled between them, so it was no work to get my mouth on all the parts of her that were already wet and slick with desire. I loved that she was as ready for me as I always seemed to be for her. There was passion, there was hunger, there was desire that made my balls tight and had my mouth watering for a taste of her.