Page 64 of Loving You Always

“You took the words.” Walsh walked up behind her, feathering kisses down her neck, skimming her bare spine with his fingers. “Don’t wear this again.”

Her breath came in short gasps from the steam his mouth and fingers stoked inside of her. He squatted behind her, possessing the small of her back with his mouth, running his tongue over the base of her spine, licking between the bones.

“I thought you liked it.”

“Me and every other man at the Met tonight.” He rose to his full height, liberating her hair from the pins until it flooded his hands. “I thought I was gonna have to knock some heads together before the night was over.”

Walsh pulled the almost nonexistent straps from her shoulders with his teeth. He scooped his big hands under her arms, lifting her until they were eye to eye. He plunged into her mouth, hungry, seeking, ravishing. Kerris clawed her fingers around his head, clutching him closer, deeper. She felt the cool slide of the silky material against her skin when it finally succumbed to the laws of physics and gravity, pooling on the floor beneath her feet. Walsh held her suspended in the air. He laid her down on the huge bed, locking eyes with her before he discovered her body with worshipping hands—like Magellan or Columbus, exploring a glorious new world, but one of flesh and delicate bone. He licked at the beauty mark above her right breast, a drop of dark chocolate in the silkiest honeyed cream of her skin.

“I never tire of this.” The emotion simmering in Walsh’s eyes sent a wave of heat and then a shiver along her bare skin. “Of tasting you.”

Kerris’s hands, urgent and seeking, pushed the jacket away from his shoulders, glorying in the width, the breadth, of him. She pulled at the buttons of his shirt, forcing her fingers to slow even as her breath came in short pants.

He laved the velvety curve of her neck with his tongue, anointing the skin with gentle bites that had her writhing beneath him as they devoured each other’s mouths and frantically explored each other’s bodies. Her clothes long discarded, chest heaving, Kerris wrapped her legs around his and pushed into him, only his slacks separating her from what she needed more than air. She was hollow. She was an empty ache without him. It wasn’t enough.

“Walsh, oh God. Inside. I need you inside.”

“Kerris.” He pushed her name out, ragged between harsh breaths. He pressed his forehead to hers. “We have to stop. Baby, we can’t.”

“Yes, we can.” She bit his earlobe with delicate ferocity.

“They’re your ground rules. You didn’t want to do that to him.”

Him. Cam.

The name poured ice water on her passion, the steam of shame and guilt rising up off her heated flesh. She sat up, grabbing for the edge of the richly colored duvet, pulling it over her bare breasts.

“Oh, God, Walsh.” Embarrassment watered her voice. “I just…I forgot. I didn’t mean…I didn’t want…”

“I wanted.” He collapsed onto his back, arm flung across his eyes. She heard the deliberate slowing of his breath. “I still want.”

“I’m glad you stopped.” Kerris wished she’d had the willpower and presence of mind to. “You could have…well, I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

“As much as I want you, it wouldn’t have been worth your guilt. And I know you would’ve felt guilty.”

How many men would think like that?

“You’re right. I would have felt awful if it came up in the divorce hearing. If they asked if we…you know…actually had sex, and I had to say we’d…well, you know.”

“Divorce hearing?” Walsh lowered his arm from his eyes to look at her. “When is that?”

“Less than a month away.”

“Will Cam be there?” Kerris heard the strain in his voice.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Kerris tightened her fingers around the cover concealing her naked breasts, working up the nerve to ask a question she had considered more than once. “Do you ever miss him?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Walsh started sitting up, but Kerris pushed him back down.

“Do you?” She leaned over him and searched his eyes for the truth.

“Sometimes, I guess.” His eyes held hers for a few moments before he looked at some point over her shoulder. His eyes turned flinty. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Walsh, one day—”

“Let’s get something straight.” Walsh carefully removed her hand and dragged himself to sit with his back against the headboard. “The only one day I care about is ours. Yours and mine.”

“I don’t want you to wake up someday resenting me for taking away someone who was such a huge part of your life.”

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