Page 26 of Claimed By the Cowboy
Her breath catches as my calloused fingers close around hers, and I pull her to her feet. My gaze slides over her, catching on her puckered nipples straining against the material of her sweater. I tear my eyes away from those tempting morsels but only get as far as her mouth—her lush pink mouth with its perfect cupid’s bow. I’ve spent the last ten days remembering how her lips felt against mine, how they tasted. Up close, I can see that the bottom one has a faint crease in the middle that I want to lick.
Finally, my eyes lift to hers, and what I see in those deep brown depths undoes me. The same want. The same yearning. The same visceral need.
“Kitty,” I say roughly as she instinctively sways toward me, caught in the same sensual spell that’s robbing me of every ounce of willpower.
She moves closer, her breasts brushing my chest, her eyes locked on mine. “Kiss me, Tom,” she whispers. “Please.”
Heaven is pressed up against me, breathless and begging. Staying away from her has been hell. Ten days of holding back when all I’ve wanted isthis. To touch her, taste her, devour her like a man starved.
And Iamstarved.
Every stolen glance at the breakfast table, every accidental brush of her hand while we worked side by side, every smile that lit up her face—it’s been killing me.
I’ve tried to bury it. To tell myself I can learn to love Delaney. That I should be grateful to marry a good woman and fulfill my promiselike a man of my word.
But this girl… This girl has made a liar out of me.
Because right now, with her soft gasp against my neck and her fingers curling in the fabric of my shirt, the only vow I want to make is toher.
I give in with a groan, slanting my mouth over hers. It’s not a gentle kiss. It’s claiming, possessive, the kiss of a man who’s done fighting his instincts. She kisses me back with equal hunger, her tongue meeting mine greedily as I slip it into the sweet heat of her mouth.
My hand slides through her hair, cupping her nape and angling her head to deepen the kiss. I can taste her need, feel it in the way her small frame trembles when I nip at her lower lip.
“Kitty,” I groan against her mouth. “We should stop before I do something we’ll both regret.”
“What if I want to see what happens next?”she asks breathlessly.
I pull back to study her face. I think about Delaney, about the arrangement, about all the sensible reasons this is a terrible idea. Then I look into Kitty’s eyes and see my future written there.
I capture her hand, raising her wrist to my lips. A grazing kiss across her rapid pulse point makes her gasp. “Do you ache the way I do, Kitty-Cat?” I ask, the nickname rolling naturally off my tongue.
She gazes up at me, nodding helplessly.
I tug her closer, my lips hot on her skin as I dip my head and scorch a line up her neck. She smells of nature and cherry blossoms and the heady, feminine scent that’s driven me crazy since I last kissed her.
Her lips find my jaw, tentative and reverent. My breath stutters.
“I’ve wanted this,” she whispers, “since the barn.”
“You and me both, darlin’,” I groan, kissing across her cheek to the corner of her mouth before claiming her plump lips again.
Her hands fly to my shoulders, squeezing with delight as I ease my tongue into her mouth and sweep it against hers. When she moans, I do it again. And again. Fuck, she’s so responsive.
I draw back, breathing hard, seeing the look oflonging in her eyes.
“W-why did you stop?” she huffs, looking miffed. “Shouldn’t you be trying to get your hands on my boobs or something?”
I choke on a laugh and nearly bite my own tongue. “Jesus, woman,” I wheeze, grinning like an idiot. “Romance isn’t dead—it’s just flat on its back trying to recover from that line.”
She turns beet red. “I didn’t mean?—”
“Oh, no, you absolutely did,” I say, delighting in her embarrassment. “And for the record? Yes. Yes, I should be trying to ‘get my hands on your boobs’ as you so eloquently put it, but I’m pacing myself.”
“Pacing yourself?”
I lean in, nuzzle her neck, and murmur, “Darlin’, you’re a five-course feast in a world full of gas station snacks. I’m gonna savor every damn bite.”
I kiss her again, slower this time. More reverent but no less hungry. My hand skims down, cupping her waist, then sliding up until my thumb brushes the underside of her breast.
