Page 76 of After You

“Pounding,” she said softly, almost without sound.

Heat flared in his eyes and a slow, sexy half smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “There sure as hell canbe.”

Lord, that gruff, low voice was enough to get her ready to go all on itsown.

“But…” He stroked his thumb up and down the side of her throat. “I can be very gentle if I need to be. I don’t want to hurtyou.”

“You won’t,” she said, breathless suddenly. She didn’t know how she knew, but sex with Kyle would not be painful. She could feelit.

“Is there anything that definitely hurts or definitely doesn’t?” he asked.

She shook her head. Then cleared her throat. “I don’t know. I haven’t…done it…since.”

He took that in, and then slowly his eyes widened. “You haven’t had sex at all since your injury?”

She wet her lips and shook her head. “No.” It was practically a whisper. “You were my last. And my first. And everything.”

Kyle took a deep breath that seemed to shudder through his body, then he leaned in, putting his forehead against hers. “Damn, you can’t tell me stuff like that when we’re standing on a public sidewalk.”

Hannah could hear the desire in his voice, and his need made electricity dance along her limbs. “And I’m supposed to be pushing you away,” she said, her voice husky.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think I can.” She needed him to knowthat.

“Good.” That single word was incredibly heartfelt. And veryhot.

Then he straightened. “We have windows towash.”

She blinked at him. “Oh.”

“And I have the afternoon off,” hesaid.

“Right.”

He gave her a little smile. A very sexy, very promising little smile. Even if she wasn’t sure what he was promising.

“The sooner we wash those windows, the more time I have for…gentle pounding.”

Two words that were a little ridiculous together, but Hannah had never been more turned on in her life. “Okay, let’sgo.”

He chuckled as she took his hand and started up the sidewalk in the direction they’d come. “Hey, hang on.” He tugged her to astop.

“What?”

“Where were we going?” he asked, nodding in the direction they’d been walking.

“Oh, just to Hope’s.”

“Hope’s shop? Why?”

“I was thinking about massage oil and stuff,” she said, touching her neck almost subconsciously. But she saw his eyes follow her movement. She dropped it. “I was going to seduceyou.”

He tugged on her hand again, this time bringing her up against him. “Damn, I think I would have enjoyedthat.”

“Well, the whole rejecting-you thing was in public,” she said, suddenly feeling a little vixen-ish. She’d never felt like a vixen—or anything even close to one—in her life. In Sapphire Falls, she’d always been the good girl, the girl next door at best. In Seattle, she’d been…in pain and lost and confused, frankly.

Now, back in her hometown, with Kyle, she felt like so much more than any of that. She felt powerful in a way she never had before. Because Kyle would take care ofher.

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