Page 34 of Higher Ground
“Yeah, it is.”
Byron took a chance and stepped closer, right into her space. Emory’s breasts coasted along his chest as she inhaled.
“You know what else is worth it?”
“What?” Her breath was raspy, but then again, so was Byron’s.
“You.”
Fuck everything else.
Leaning his body over hers, Byron tilted Emory’s head up. The movement caught her by surprise, and her mouth dropped into a tiny ‘o’ as she gasped. Byron stole the sound with his lips, planting a kiss on her lower lip. He felt Emory’s shoulders slacken into him, and he pulled her closer, until their chests moved as one.
She took an age to kiss him back, but just as Byron was about to pull away, Emory stretched up on her toes and held their mouths together. She sucked Byron’s lip into her mouth, and he reached behind her to tangle his fingers in her hair.
Something pulled inside Byron’s chest. He groaned into Emory’s mouth, teasing her with his tongue. When she opened up and let him in, he sighed with something that felt like relief.
The rain flurried outside, and their kiss turned frenzied as their mouths collided in a storm of lips and tongues and teeth. Byron tilted Emory’s head to deepen the kiss, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding them close.
With one hand in her hair and the other on her waist, Byron turned them so her back was pressed against the wall. Inhibition flew away with the storm outside. He bent his knees and thrust against her core, the thick fabric of his jeans and the thin material of her pants creating a barrier that burned his skin.
He wanted more. He needed it.
His fingers danced under the hemline of her thin shirt, and he felt goosebumps erupt over her skin. Emory whimpered as Byron pulled away from her mouth to kiss his way down her neck. He nibbled at her pulse point and stretched his hand under her top to palm at her breast.
“Fuck, Emory, I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time.”
She hummed, the sound echoing through his veins and pumping blood into his cock. Byron groaned and thrust himself into her again.
“Feel how hard you make me, Emory. Feel how my cock aches for you.”
“Fuck,” Emory whispered, pulling away from Byron’s grasp. “Is this wrong?”
Byron tightened his grip on the back of her neck, turning her head back towards him.
“If it’s wrong, Emory, I don’t want to be right,” he growled. “But honestly, I don’t think anything has ever felt this right before.”
Tears welled in Emory’s eyes. Byron brought his hands to her cheeks and wiped the trickling moisture with his thumbs. Emory nodded, her head bobbing in his grasp. “Okay.”
He leant down until his forehead was resting on hers. “I’m going to need more than ‘okay’, Emory. I need you all in.”
Planting a kiss right in the centre of her mouth, Byron released his hold on her. He stepped back, reaching down to adjust the way his dick now strained against the zipper of his jeans. Fuck, it was uncomfortable, but he couldn’t do much about it right now. Not with Emory standing right there with her doe eyes and fucking perfect … everything. Not with the way she hesitated.
Byron would convince her they were right, he had no doubt. He didn’t blame her for her hesitation. Hell, he’d felt it too at first. But there was an undeniable attraction between them, and Byron had a feeling that a couple of weeks being trapped in the same house was exactly what the two of them needed. He could forget all about the future she deserved if it meant spending two weeks enjoying every fucking inch of her.
Clayton crashed two trucks together in the living room, shocking both Byron and Emory fully out of the moment and into reality. Lightning burst through the front windows, filling the otherwise dark hallway with light. Emory pulled at the hemline of her top, ran her dark gaze over Byron, and raced to Clayton. She swooped him into her arms just as the thunder crashed.
The lights flickered overhead, and expecting the worst, Byron headed for the entry table. Three torches rolled about as he yanked open the small drawer on the unit. He never knew why he kept three. Couldn’t have explained his logic to anyone if he tried. But at that moment, he understood exactly. He fished them out but froze when his gaze stretched past the open study doors. Emory had left a lamp on, and a multitude of massive books spread around her laptop.
He wondered what she was studying. And why they’d never spoken about it. All those times she said she’d stopped at the library before coming to collect Clayton, Byron had assumed she had just wanted a few moments of peace. Or that she was visiting Mya. Or maybe collecting more toys for Clayton. He never thought there was anything more to it, but seeing it now, this made perfect sense.
How soon would she be finished with her degree? And what did she plan to do after? How much longer did he have with her?
Sighing, he knocked his head with the largest of the three torches. He couldn’t think like that. He had no right to try to keep her here. His throat turned dry. It ached more than his balls did after that kiss.
Byron never expected his heart would end up on the line, but with every little moment they shared, he was realising he had more at stake in this than he first thought. He should have known, really, that Emory was so far under his skin that she’d burrowed straight into his soul. Should have been able to feel herpresence in every breath that he took. But it had taken him so damn long to realise.
He dropped his head against the torch again.
