Page 74 of Four Dates and A Forever
She must have seen the panic in his eyes because she ever so softly cupped his cheek. “Neither am I.”
She captured his lips in a gentle, probing kiss that kick-started his heart. Slowly she took his lower lip between hers, cradling it before slowly pulling away, only to go back in for more. He wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, with her on his lap, their lips brushing back and forth in what had to be the most real connection of his life. No hands, no tongue, just a gentle coming together.
A minute, an hour, hell maybe it was a year later something shifted, heated. She twisted on his lap and pressed herself all the way into him.
“Elsie, when you say us, do you mean—”
This time when she kissed him, she gave his mouth a little nip, followed by a harder one. And suddenly he wasn’t all that interested in talking. Us meant us as far as he could tell. A clear indicator that they were both on the same page, which,hallelujah, it had taken them years to arrive at and now here they were on the precipice of something special and—
Oh yeah,she was no longer running her hands over his pecs. Her hands went all the way down and she was using those elegant fingers to stroke him. First on the outside of his jeans, then,bingo, right down his pants and, thank god, he’d decided to go commando.
“Elsie—” he groaned, his eyeballs rolling to the back of his head.
“Uh huh,” she mumbled, and with a simplezip, rustle, shove,his jeans were around his hips. “Lift up,” she commanded, and who was he to deny a lady’s wish? So he lifted up and she dragged his pants lower and lower still until… until… finally they were on the ground and so was she—kneeling before him looking like she’d waltzed right out of last night’s dream.
She looked up at him and,hot damn,that look on her face meant that he, Regular Rhett, AKA the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet, was one hundred percent about to get lucky—if his jeans weren’t already an indication.
She rested her hands on his chest and with a single push he was leaned back—all the way back—in the chair, his full monty upright and ready for a game of kiss and blow and,holy god, one lick from her mouth and he nearly came off the chair.
She gripped him at the base and gave another lick before taking him in her mouth. He told himself to play it cool, let her set the pace—until he found his hands in her hair. A move she was fully on board with since she moaned, the sound reverberating through him. She went in for a full base-to-tip motion and his lungs stopped working. Black spots started around the periphery of his vision and when she went in for another taste he nearly blacked out.
“Red,” he whispered, tilting her head up to meet his. “I want to come so bad, but I want to do it inside you.”
Without one last pump of the hand, she stood, just out of reach, and unbuttoned each button of that sundress, shoving it off her shoulders. Her breasts. A pair of black panties—see-through black panties that made his mouth go dry—then,poof,the dress went bye-bye, leaving her in nothing but black lace and matching fuck-me pumps.
He reached his arms out, but she shook her head. Reaching behind her, she undid her bra, letting it fall to the floor, then slipped out of her thong. In a move that had his heart fist-bumping his ribcage, she pulled her hair from the ponytail band and let it spill around her. Long, silky auburn waves falling to nipple length, playing a game of naked peek-a-boo.
She started to step out of her heels and he held up a hand. “Leave them on.”
Only after she was completely naked did she strut toward him in those dick-teasing heels, her hips swaying with the confidence of a woman who knew her worth. A woman who knew exactly what she was doing to him. A woman he hadn’t seen since emerging from her divorce.
The sexy, confident, take-what-you-want woman from his past was front and center.
He froze for a brief moment, his brain skittering to a halt as uncertainty crept in, making him wonder, not for the first time, if he was worthy enough. Before he could ask or even find the answer himself, she was straddling him—in his chair, surrounded by all his guitars, looking like a wet dream. He’d imagined a scenario like this for nearly a decade, yet reality far surpassed his imagination.
His hands slid to her very naked ass and she rose slightly so he could get a better hold before sinking back down. Her hands went to his chest, gripping his shirt, and disposing of it with what was by then a well-practiced move. Then she kissed him and every second of that weekend came rushing back. The feelings, the emotion, the love.
Love?
Where had that come from? Like? Yes. Lust? Hell yeah. But love? Is this really what it felt like? He’d only ever felt it once before, with Elsie in her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it apartment, but he’d shrugged it off as raw hunger and youth. That night he’d followed her back to her home for one reason: to get lucky. He’d stayed because he couldn’t walk away. Then he’d run, fast and hard in the opposite direction because he knew leaving was the right call. It was the hard call, but the right one all the same. And he still believed that.
But now their paths had crossed once again, and what if this was the universe’s way of providing them a second chance to get it right? But they still weren’t on the same path—it was more of a meeting at a crossroads where their lives intersected for a few blissful weeks.
What would happen come Monday when he left for LA?
“Elsie,” he said, loving the way her name sounded on his tongue. She must have liked it too because her mouth went from his neck to his chest, gifting him a sweet kiss right over his heart. And while he wanted to see where this game of Candyland would end, he cupped her face and brought her gaze to his.
Before he could speak, or at least ask her if she was open to more, she put a silencing finger to his lips. “No empty promises,” she said, emotions thick in her voice. “It’s easy to say things in the moment that are taken back when the world rights itself.”
“What if I still feel the same when the world rights itself?”
Her eyes were glassy, she was looking at him so intently, as if she were trying to see inside his head.Don’t do it,his alarm bells screamed,back away and protect yourself from what could be the biggest disappointment of your life. But his head and his heart were at war, battling it out. His heart was adamant that this was the time to open up and let her see what he’d been hiding all this time. Let her see the hurt and anguish and disappointment and all the raw emotions from his dad’s death, then Kyle’s, and finally his divorce that he kept hidden from the world behind his “I’m good” grin.
Not even his brothers knew the extent of the baggage he’d piled up along the way, and then Steph’s walking away reconfirmed that he might not be enough.
Rhett made himself hold her gaze and then the way her expression changed had him feeling edgy and out of control. “There were rules for a reason. We agreed for a reason. And we have to trust that reason,” she said.
That was the wrong answer, and he knew she could see it in his gaze.
