Page 111 of You, As You Are

Maisie let loose some of her hold on her desire, letting her back bend and push her breasts into Iain’s chest. She’d think that it wouldn’t be possible for their bodies to fit, but it was like they’d been made to go together.

The chilly tip of his nose brushed up her neck and he murmured, “You’re cold.”

She didn’t feel cold; she felt on fire as her hands found his waist.

“Iain …” Maisie didn’t know what she was doing. Touching him,holdinghim – the lines they’d set out weren’t just being blurred but thrown outside where they could shut them out and toss away the key.

His beard scratched along her neck to behind her ear where his mouth lingered. “Don’t scare me like that again,” Iain pleaded, that firm rasp in his command going straight to the pulse beating faster towards the only place of Maisie where theydidn’ttouch.

She wet her lips. “You were scared?” A part of her shouldn’t have been so thrilled that he was worried about her.

Iain lifted his head and met her eyes. Emotion that she’d never seen in him before shone there, in the green around the heaviness that invaded them. “Scared enough to want to ruin our agreement.”

“Which one?” she asked breathily.

The tip of his nose dusted across hers. “On when there’s no one around.”

“If the need arises, and only when the group is around, you can kiss me.”

Well no one was here. It was just the two of them, completely alone. So close that the lightness of Iain’s breaths touched her lips.

Maisie’s fists curled into his shirt as she let herself lean into him. “Perhaps … you could pretend like there is.” Each of her heartbeats slammed against the walls of her chest at the risky line she danced along. “There’s a whole crowd of people watching us.”

Her signal that this was what she wanted blared bright-green.

Iain began to shake his head. “You drive me mad, Daffy,” he said roughly, one thick forearm nestled in the low of her back, pulling her up into his body. “What I want to do with you shouldn’t be done with people watching.” But then his mouth was on hers and his hand was in her hair, holding her to him.

Too many reactions happened inside Maisie all at once. Her eyes slammed shut, her mouth moaned, her body tightened andsought the firmness of Iain’s. The way he kissed was devouring. It was every part rough and passionate that Maisie had craved. His fingers dug into her damp hair from the base of her head like she was a lost treasure he’d found again and never wanted to let go of, while her hands slid over the muscles of his back she’d been mesmerised by and her nails dragged down his spine.

Iain groaned as their mouths found a rhythm, and the sound drove her aching hips to punch forwards and roll the bulge in his jeans against her stomach. She stood up on her toes, ignoring the protest her knee gave, to feel that solid mass lower –closerto where she urged to be touched. And Iain dipped to give it to her. Her arm slung around his neck as she whimpered, feeling the restrained curve of him slide over the seam between her thighs.

All of the friction between them was like a hundred bolts of lightning charging all at once. Both of them were out of practice, their kisses messy and ragged as they shaped into the next, or maybe just too damn desperate to finally be giving in.

They’d danced around one another for weeks, been gentle with one another for days – a little passion-fuelled roughness was what they’d both been restraining.

“This isn’t—this isn’t a part of the plan,” Maisie exhaled when she had the tiniest opening to do so, her mouth still pressed open to Iain’s as they breathed each other. She licked her lips and inadvertentlyhistoo.

Iain’s forehead rolled against her own like he was on the brink of diving forwards and claiming her again. “Plans change.” His voice was just as coarse as hers, as out of breath as she was.

The large hand on her waist holding so much of her tightly brought emotions – happy ones that portrayed as sadness and prickling eyes – barging into Maisie’s desires. Her body softened. The fabric of her fleece against her bare breasts made her nipples tightly aware of every time Iain’s chest expanded against hers. He smelled so much like rain, and the vision of himrunning through the forest, appearing between the trees to get to her, resurfaced.

“What plan do you have for us?” she asked.

“That wholly depends on you.” Beard brushed against her jaw, Iain’s mouth making its way along in peppered kisses that left her core all wobbly. “You set the speed here, Maisie. Just tell me what to do.”

“It’s on both of us.” How Maisie had such a coherent thought, she didn’t know – but this would never just be about her; she’d never take his own needs away. Her palm slid up his nape to twist her fingertips into the curls at the crown of his head. “What do you want to happen?”

“Me?” Iain rasped, “I want to strip you down and take our time until there’s absolutely nothing left to give. Until you never want to leave my arms.” His words were a warm shock laid out along her neck. Her skin rose in goosebumps all over.

The declaration that this wasn’t just about kissing or releasing some pent-up frustration this weekend had caused made Maisie sink into Iain’s arms and come back feeling more empowered as a woman than she ever had done before. She hadn’t just heard it butfeltit – the vibrations of his chest as he’d spoken.

He wanted her undressed.

He wanted her spent.

Wanted all of her, as she was. Wet and damp and a bit of a mess.

The rise and fall of her chest was still too quick.

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