Page 39 of Sheltering Lawson
Wanting to keep that comfortable easiness between us, I knocked his elbow out from under him and climbed on his body, lying full length. “That’s much better.” I folded my arms across his chest and peered into his eyes. “So how long have you wanted to get me into bed?” I asked, provocatively.
Chuckling, lights starting to twinkle in his eyes, he wrapped his arms loosely around me. “Am I expected to actually speak with your beautiful body on top of me. I might have a cape tucked somewhere, but I do believe you’re my kryptonite.”
I reached out and toyed with his hair, then gazed down into his face. It wasn’t any hardship; he really was quite gorgeous. “Come on, concentrate.”
“Do I have to be completely honest?”
“Now, would a superhero lie?”
Chuckling he gave me such a cute little boy look. “No.” He pretended to think until I tickled his ribs, then he scrunched up and said, “Okay, okay. Geez, you little sassbucket.”
“Sassbucket?”
“Yeah, get used to it.”
“Okay. I think I like it.”
His expression altered, and even in the faint moonlight filtering in, I could see his eyes darken, his gaze going soft and tender. “From the second you revived looking like a tired, hungry little waif, you kinda stole my heart.”
My breath caught and I tried to play it off how much those words bore down into the core of me and sat there like warm sand. I wiggled my hips and he made a soft male sound.
His gaze turned hot and intimate. Gazing at me, he framed my face, then lifted up, brushing his mouth lightly against mine. “Ooh, now you’re playing with fire, Tinkerbell,” he breathed, caressing my bottom lip. “The first time I wanted you underneath me had to be when you saw the apartment. When you realized that it was yours and the gratitude, the way your eyes and whole face lit up. It did me in, babe, knowing that I had something to do with putting that look there.” He gave me a slight smile. “You could have had me right then and there.”
“Is that so?” I stuck out my lip and said. “Did I lose my window of opportunity?”
He mock frowned and said, “I don’t know. Convince me.”
My heart started to hammer, and suddenly it was impossible to breathe. Leaning forward I brought his mouth into full contact with mine.
The kiss was slow, soft and so unbelievably gentle that it left me absolutely breathless, and my whole body turned to jelly. This man…this sexy, sweet, devastating man. A sudden urgency sizzled through me and I framed his face, moving my hips to urge him, and it didn’t take much to make him as hard as a rock between my legs.
Snagging both my wrists, he flipped me off him, holding my hands against the bed. “You ready for some more,” he whispered, moistening my bottom lip. “This time were going to take our time.”
My heart thumped hard. I didn’t think I could stand it. I really didn’t. He’d only started and it was too much already. “You really are superhuman.”
He threw back his head and laughed. When he met my eyes, I was thoroughly charmed.
“Sassbucket, indeed.”
“How many times can you do it in one night?”
He grinned. “How many condoms do we have?”
I raised my hips and rolled them against that tantalizing hard-on. “Enough to make me one satisfied sassbucket.” I loved his deep chuckle, then I really couldn’t talk anymore because of the lack of oxygen.
He did take his time—oh, my, did he. It was just like the kiss, slow, soft, gentle. And Ethan was so thorough—inch by inch. I had no idea a man could be that dedicated to detail, and he set off reactions I’d never, ever experienced before. Now that I knew what I was missing, I couldn’t get enough. He took it slow and easy, he nearly drove me to insanity and my hands where grabbing anything I could to keep from coming out of my skin, the bedding, him, his hair, his slick muscles. I was sure I was going to die when he finally thrust into me, driving me up and over into a soul-shredding release. It was so fantastic, so explosive, it was as if I came right out of my body. And he was the only thing that held me together. But then I was certain Ethan was going to hold me together no matter what.
All I had to do was be brave and like that butterfly transition into the woman who was completely free. No looking over my shoulder ever again.
All it would take was finding the courage in my own heart as soon as I could get it back from Ethan.
Trouble was…I didn’t want him to let go of it.
Chapter 13
HALEY
The faint hint of dawn had already crept into the room when I opened my eyes, a heavy lethargy swimming through me, the weight of Ethan’s arm around my middle anchoring me. I felt as if I didn’t have a muscle left in my entire body.
