Page 14 of Rescued Hearts
I wondered how my hands would look tangled in it. If it was as soft as it looked.
“Stop,” I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut.
Tess was my client. She trusted me. She opened up to me with information I knew she hadn’t told anyone else. She was a vulnerable young mother who needed my help. But she was also kind. She was soft in every sense of the word. And she was stunning. Sexy in a way that clouded my judgment. Like she didn’t know how special she was. Completely unaware that a look from her could bring me to my knees and nearly had multiple times tonight.
I forced myself to ignore what was happening between my legs. Refusing to give my thoughts any ground to stand on. The water was so cold that it was barely tolerable while I washed the smoke off my skin. My eyes rolled shut when my hand brushed against my hardening dick.
Bracing against the wall, images flashed in my mind like a slideshow. Tess in my bed, her dark hair fanned out on my pillows, giggling like she had in the parking lot. Tess pressed against me like she had when we danced, her body small and delicate against mine. Tess’s eyes wide with joy and excitement because of something I’d said.
The one that stuck, though, that had me biting my lip to suppress a groan, was Tess here in the shower. Her body wrapped around mine, while I showed her how she was supposed to be treated. Like someone to worship, not someone to own. Her fair skin covered in water droplets, her eyes hazy with lust, her hair like ink spilling over her shoulders.
I’d give up anything to experience it. Just once.
But I knew one time with Tess Hayes wouldn’t be enough.
I let out a low groan in surrender and gripped my cock, pumping it once. I was rock hard. Harder than I’d been in a while.
This was so wrong. So fucking wrong.
But I couldn’t stop.
My jaw dropped with a moan, imagining her dainty hands tangled in my hair, her legs wrapped around my hips while I drove into her. I stroked myself with the same pace I’d use on her. Hard but just slow enough to make her beg for more. Her little moans would bounce off the tile when I delivered. They’d be soft like her voice at first, but then loud and desperate the closer she got to coming.
God, I was so hot for her, I was shocked the water wasn’t steaming off my skin.
I gripped myself harder, picturing how tight she’d feel while she fell apart, moaning my name. My fingers curled against the tile, my mind going blank as I came harder than I had in months, maybe even years. Her name nothing more than a shuddered gasp on my lips.
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the water and my own breathing, while I remembered where I was. Who I was. Who I just fantasized about.
What have you done?I shook my head, not knowing the answer.
I was her lawyer. She was depending on me to protect her and Luke, not get off to the thought of having sex with her. It didn’t matter how she looked at me or how her laughter felt like basking in sunlight. None of that mattered when I was the only thing standing between her and a man who terrified her.
My forehead met the cool tile, and I let the water run over my back, disappointed with myself.
Tess deserved better than this. Than me. She didn’t need more men complicating her life. I was supposed to be safe, reliable. Not another guy who blurred the lines for his own comfort and needs.
But I couldn’t stop remembering how her eyes widened when I told her I loved her rambling. Like I might’ve been the only person who’d ever listened to it. The thought of someone stifling her, silencing her, broke my heart.
It made me want to be the man who listened to her forever.
I dried off in silence and pulled on a pair of boxers before I got in bed. My sheets were cold. The bed too big. The house dark and quiet.
If only my mind could’ve been the same. Normally, I detested the silence because it was a reminder of how alone I was. But now, I was begging for it.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Her laugh at the bar. The way she froze when I touched her knee at Colt’s. The way she watched Luke play with a tender look in her eyes.
I didn’t know how I was going to handle this.
But one thing was for certain: Tess meant far more to me than any other client ever had.
And that terrified me.
The next morning,I was exhausted after probably the worst night’s sleep of my life. But I knew I’d only feel worse if I sat and wallowed, so I got dressed and went for a run.
I ran back to the Bull Pen, and it felt like going back to the scene of the crime. Glimpses of last night flashed through my mind. Memories of Tess and the way her joy made me feel. I shook my head, clearing my mind, and drove to the Wild Creek Diner, starving and in desperate need of a distraction.
The bell rang over my head as I stepped inside. It was busy since it was a Sunday morning, but I managed to snag an empty stool at the bar. I glanced around at the couples and families enjoying their breakfasts, my chest tight with envy. I wondered if I’d ever have a family of my own to take to breakfast, tocreate memories with. If I even knew how to do something like that. Mine never came here, thinking it was too beneath them for their patronage. But we never did much of anything together unless it was being photographed. Our monthly state dinner, as I liked to call it because of its formality, was the exception.
