Page 10 of Guarded By the Lumberjack
"Penny."
It's just one simple word, my own name, but he says so much when croaks it out in a ragged voice.
"Calvin."
I like that my voice sounds so much stronger than his. More determined, more--readyfor what comes next. Because, while I might hold our eye contact confidently, as my hands glide up his chest, my insides are full of Jell-O and pterodactyls.
Calvin
I'm ready to give in.
It's plain that Penny is a woman; a woman who's done her grieving and is ready to move on.
God help me; I plan to be the man she does it with.
Tension between us has been tight since the night she showed up at my place. Today has added fear and adrenaline to our attraction and that's a heady combination.
"If I don't sleep out here, neither of us are likely to sleep at all, sweetheart."
Her hands wander up my chest, across my shoulders, and knit behind my neck.
"I'm okay with that."
I don't know how her lips end up aligned with mine. I swear I was just thinking of all the reasons this is a bad, fucking idea. Now I'm not thinking at all.
Penny's lips are soft and so pliable against mine. For seconds, I'm unable to breathe. Hell, I'm not sure my heart's still beating! Or maybe that's what makes the sound of the drum pounding in my veins. But my arms are locked around her and there's no way I'm letting go.
The kiss she manages to coax out of me isn't soft or gentle, my mouth claims hers. I devour her like I'm starving.
Truth is, I have been, and I didn't even know it until Penny came into my life. The sweet taste of her tongue isn't enough, no matter how eagerly it tangles with mine. I need more, so much more.
Lifting Penny by the back of the thighs, she instinctively wraps her legs around my waist. The feel of her hot center pressed against my hard cock through our clothes has me stumbling slightly before I get us steered toward the bedroom.
"You sure about this?" I ask as I lay her down on the queen size bed in the back room. "Because there's no going back with me."
Penny stares up at me, her eyes hooded, with the dilated pupils making the deep cocoa irises look that much darker. A pretty blush has colored her face and crept down her neck.
My fingers burn with the need to start undressing her, but I need to make sure we're on the same page here. If I'm just going to be her way of burning off the tension from all this, I'd be smart to keep the closed door of this room between us.
Not that my sense of self-preservation is strong enough to resist the woman laying beneath me now.
No matter what she's about to tell me, I know the only word that could keep me from claiming her now is "stop."
"I don't want to go back, Calvin."
Penny places her soft hands on either side of my face.
"I'm only interested in going forward...and..." Her little, pink tongue flicks over her lips quickly and I feel her breasts brush my chest when she takes a deep breath. "And I'd like that to be with you... if you want that?"
"I want that, baby. I want that real bad."
Words don't feel good enough. I could tell her I love her or that let her know I plan to marry her or that she's got my head full of ideas I never saw for myself before-- but it all seems too trite. So I'm going to show her.
Penny's fingers draws down my cheekbones, combing through my beard on their way to buttons at my collar.
Then I make her task impossible when I catch those hands by the wrists and pin them to the pillow above her head.
A gasp escapes her lips before I crush my mouth back to hers, then Penny moans when I give back her breath so I can kiss my way down her throat. My free hand pushes beneath her t-shirt to give me access to the breasts that have had me spending my morning showers fisting my own cock.
