Page 60 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
“What?” She trailed her fingers along his nape and over his shoulder.
“Nothing.” He smiled into her hair. “Do you want me to take you home?”
“Not yet.” She tugged his mouth down to hers. “Are those sleeping bags still behind the seat?”
The second time was slower and lazier. With one sleeping bag spread across the bed and the other providing shelter from the chilly night air, he stretched out beside her and took his time. He traced the line of her shoulder and down her arm, following the indentation of toned muscle. Lost in her, he palmed the curve of her hip and thigh.
“Beautiful,” he murmured beneath her ear, one glittering earring tickling his nose.
She fanned her fingertips across his abs and outlined the lower curve of his pecs. “Should I put the shoes back on?”
“I don’t care about those shoes.” He laid a nipping kiss on her shoulder and played a hand along the smoothness of her waist. “Everything I need is right here.”
In silence, broken only by the softest of moans and the low buzz of crickets, they explored, hands and lips charting every secret, desire twining about them in the velvety dark. He rose over her, so her thighs bracketed his waist, and he cupped the sweet little curve where her ass met her thigh. She rolled her head to one side, giving him access to the vulnerable line of her throat.
“I want you inside me.” Her whisper shivered over him. He rocked into her, sliding the head of his erection along the wet heat between her legs. On a moan, she bowed against him.
He tightened his hand on her flesh. “I thought you liked the top.”
She bracketed his face with her palms, eyes glittering in the starlight. “I want you like this tonight.”
Her voice promised other nights, and he reached for a condom, his hands shaking with need. If she wanted this, he’d give her this.
He’d give her anything she wanted.
An arm braced by her head, he returned his hold to her leg and slowly joined his body to hers. Her groan vibrated through him, and he slid almost out, then home again, establishing a slow rhythm, savoring the sensation of her body taking his, over and over. The tension stretched and receded, a curling thread of connection that drew tauter and tauter, until she bowed under him once more, his name spilling from her lips on a broken cry that claimed him as hers.
He dropped his head, breathing hard through his own climax.
After this, she had all of him for real. There wasn’t any going back.
And he knew, deep inside, that all of him wasn’t what she wanted.
Hell, deep down inside where it mattered, he knew that he wasn’t what she wanted at all.
* * * * *
“Emmett, this really isn’t a big deal.” Savannah folded her jacket over her arm and frowned. “We’ll grab a shower together, and you can ride over with me.”
“I know it’s not a big deal.” He pulled his keys from the ignition and draped his wrist over the wheel, spinning the keys on his finger. He didn’t look at her, his gaze trained on the walkway before their apartments. “I’m gonna check on Landra, then I’ll catch a ride with Clark.”
Frustration curled through her, heating her chest and neck. There was no need for him to ride with Clark, but he’d been weird and quiet ever since she’d woken, alone but tucked warmly into the sleeping bags in the truck bed. Sunrise had peeked over the lime pit, painting the vivid white lime and red clay in shades of pink and gold, and she’d found him sitting on the truck hood, watching the sun come up.
And considering she had to be dressed and in Valdosta ready to be the perfect daughter in a short while, she didn’t have time to diagnose this particular mood of his.
She must have made some sort of agitated sound because he slanted a soothing smile in her direction. “Savannah, you need to be with your family. I’ll ride with Clark.”
Youarefamily. The words trembled on her tongue and brought her up short. That made no sense, and what was she thinking? Except she was trying to take him home, and he wasn’t cooperating.
Take him home? The idea left her shaken. So different from inviting him home, from having him join a planned celebration. Without even realizing, she’d been envisioning…God. Seeing what her parents thought of him, having him take up a role at her side, being the other half of a couple with him.
“You really have to get moving or you’ll be late.” His voice oddly gentle, he leaned across to open her door. The scents of night air and sweat mingled with a muted whiskey aroma and wrapped around her. She knew that smell intimately because he’d left it all over her. “I need some coffee and a shower, and I’ll see you later.”
“Em.” She wasn’t even sure what she needed to say to him, but something was shifting and the reality made her throat tight and achy.
“Savannah, it’s all right.” He tucked her hair behind her ear, fingertip brushing one earring for the briefest of moments, and he gestured toward her door. “You’ve got to go.”
Something—something—about those words falling from his lips caught at her consciousness.
