Page 56 of Every Heartbeat After

A spark runs down my spine, stoking the flame in my core. “Wouldn’t it be better if I did it for you?”

A groan rips from his throat. His fingertips trail down my back and dig into the soft flesh of my ass so hard it’ll probably bruise, and for some reason that thought thrills me.

“We can’t do this right now. You’ve been through a lot today. I came in here to help you, not to seduce you.”

I quirk a brow. “And what if I seduce you instead?”

“Consider me thoroughly seduced.” He shakes his head at me. His pupils have dilated, blotting out every shade of green in his eyes. All that’s left is the darkness. He looks positively sinful with water pouring from his stubbled jaw. “Need I remind you, you haven’t yet asked me to kiss you again.”

“NeedIremindyou,” I retort, since we’re apparently going for debate-speech-level formality here. I lock my hands against his tailbone and pull him closer, though there’s no space left between us. “You already kissed me today. At the accident. It was a peck, but it counts.”

His lips part, an exasperated grin tipping the corners upward. “After all that happened, that’s what you remember?”

I shrug. “I’m just saying, bet’s off.”

“It was never a bet.” He says it quietly. More to himself, it would seem, than to me. Then he leans down, and amid the unrelenting stream of warm water, our lips meet. I vault onto my tiptoes, dragging my breasts over his chest as I go. It draws a moan from deep in my lungs, which spills into our kiss. He swallows it like he’s a drowning man searching for air. Our lips part, tongues slipping alongside each other. Kit’s hands knead my ass, fingertips getting so close to where I want them yet never close enough. He deepens the kiss, and just when I think I will shatter from the pressure of my desire, he drives me backward into the cool shower wall, holding me together with the weight of his body.

I can no longer tell where he ends and I begin. Only that, when a growl rips from my stomach, it rattles us both.

We part on shaky breaths. Not because I want to. In fact, I cling to him desperately. But Kit loosens my grip easily, plucking my hands from his body and placing them at my sides. His cock is hard and pulsing between us, clearly as upset as I am at the turn of events.

“We’ve got to get you fed.” Kit reaches for the tiny hotel shampoo bottle and uncaps it, squirting a dollop into his palm. “Turn around, and I’ll take care of you so we can get out.”

“Ugh.” I do as he says, reluctantly giving him my back just as my grumble bounces off the walls. “I wish that meant the same thing to you as it does to me.”

Kit buries his hands in my hair, lathering until the scent of a beach holiday coats the thick air. Coconut and hibiscus and some unique musk that I always associate with the Carmen. He kneads my scalp, drawing a moan from my lips. At that, he uses my hair to pull me into him, so his cock is nestled in the seam of my ass. His lips meet my throat, and he grazes his teeth over my pulse point before whispering, “Believe me, I will take care of you in every way possible. You think it doesn’t kill me to see you dripping wet and naked, your perfect nipples so tight with want, your pussy so ready for me that I can feel its heat against me now?”

I gulp, and he licks the hollow behind my earlobe. “It does, Tess. But I can’t have you the way I want you if you’re exhausted and hungry. So let me do this for you. There will be time for everything else later.”

My bones turn to liquid. I dissolve into him, pliable to his every touch. He bathes me thoroughly. Washes and rinses my hair. Drags a washcloth over every sensitive nerve ending, then quickly repeats it all on himself. He towels me down, and even though we both know I could do it, I let him. Because I can tell he needs this, almost as much as I need him.

We eat pasta, eventually trading the sunset for the flickering blue light of shitty cable. I don’t bother changing out of my towel, and neither does he. Eventually, when our stomachs are full and my lids weigh heavy, he guides me to the bed and pulls back the covers, gesturing for me to climb in. We curl into one another, every inch of us bare, and drift off to sleep to the distant sound of waves crashing.

It’s the best sleep I’ve had in years.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Kit

Tess strollingdown a sidewalk in Loveless with the wind plastering a sundress to her legs. Tess painted blue by an overhead aquarium, chin tilted up to take it all in. Tess curled up on a ratty couch next to my mother, cooing affectionately over my baby pictures. Until now I thought I’d seen this woman in all her most beautiful forms.

But waking up to find her sleeping beside me, naked and sprawled out beneath a fluffy, white comforter? Nothing else could ever compare.

I lie completely still, afraid even the slightest movement will wake her and end this fantasy come to life. Golden spools of her hair form a fan around her head. Her pink lips are pursed, skin creamy and smooth in contrast. A freckle I hadn’t noticed before mimics a piercing on the shell of her nose. The comforter cuts across her ribs and her arms rest on top of it. Her breasts are exposed, perfectly round and pert with rosy nipples that leave me salivating. I want to devour her as much as I want to leave her be, in order to avoid defiling someone so angelic.

Impossible. It feels impossible that she exists. That I’m here with her now. And yet the rightness of it is something I’m more sure of than anything before in my life. There was a shift between us yesterday. Whatever it was left both our walls down, more so than they’ve ever been. Now all I can think about is finding a way to keep it like this for as long as possible.

I want to believe that we’ve really turned a corner. That she won’t change her mind again and retreat the moment she wakes. I want to fulfill every promise I made to her in that shower, with her body slick against mine. But apprehension stirs my gut. I’d be stupid not to consider the very real possibility that she’ll regret this as soon as the sleep has fully cleared from her eyes. It’s the anxiety of that which pulls me reluctantly from the warm bed.

The sun has yet to fully rise. Only a few milky strands of its light illuminate the room. The coffee shop in the lobby won’t open for another hour and some change, so I settle for the cheap coffee maker that sits on the counter of the kitchenette in the corner of the living area. It hisses to life, spitting out one and then another cup of black coffee, which I doctor from the selection of sugars and creamers on the tray to hopefully resemble the drink Tess enjoys every morning.

She doesn’t stir for the noise of the coffee maker, or me slipping on my shorts from yesterday. When I push open the sliding glass door in her bedroom, it’s the sound of the not-so-distant waves that finally pulls her into consciousness. She stretches like a lazy cat disturbed in its nap. Her back arches, the fullness of her breasts shifting. Then I’m the one shifting, adjusting my erection into the security of my waistband.

I half expect her to cover herself when she remembers she’s naked, but instead, when her lids crack open and she turns toward me, propping her head on her palm, I’m greeted with an uninterrupted view. She catches me looking, and responds with a bleary smile. “You’re up early.”

I clear my throat and drag my gaze up to meet hers. “Unfortunately you can take the man out of the Air Force, but there are some things about the Air Force that you can’t take out of the man. And also, you were snoring.” I wink and hold up two steaming cups of coffee. “I thought we could watch the sunrise together.”

She chuffs at the blatant lie—if anyone was snoring, it was me—but rolls toward the edge of the bed and sits up, the comforter falling to her waist. She grabs the nearest piece of clothing, which happens to be the shirt I left on the floor, and yanks it over her head.

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