AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My fingers slowly worked the rest of her tresses back into the skillful braid she’d donned to begin with.
Once I was done with her hair, I rested my palms against her cheeks and ran my thumbs back and forth against her delicate skin. “Share the burden with me, Goldie, please,” I whispered. “Give it to me.”
She slowly shook her head, finally indicating that she wasn’t completely trapped in a tunnel of self-deprecation. “Why wouldn’t she want me?” she cried out, collapsing against my chest.
“I have no idea. I literally can not fathom why that woman would abandon you.”
“But you’re just saying that because you want me!” she cried out and pulled her face away from my chest.
Grabbing her chin, I pushed her head up. “Which doesn’t make what I said any less true. In fact, it makes it more true than anything else I’ve ever said,” I growled.
She slowly nodded, accepting words that had never meant more than they did at that moment. And then her doe eyes ran warm, darkening beneath an understanding that shifted the situation around us. “You want me,” she whispered, the connotation and tone of her voice changing, and everything within my stomach swirled with a freshly sparked fire.
“Yes.”
That one word beat out anything I’d ever said before. That one word held more conviction and raw vulnerability to it than any others ever spoken. Her warm breath washed against my face as she met me at eye level.
“And I want you,” she quietly stated. “Not for a distraction, not out of pity or sympathy.”
My skin tingled, vibrating with anticipation of what she was implying.
“I was just scared because of…” Her voice trailed off as she climbed out of my lap.
“Because of what went down with Wayde. I get it,” I gently finished for her, watching her a little confused as she padded across the kitchen floor.
“Yes.” She reached over and lifted my cowboy hat from the hook.
My heart hammered in my chest, railing against ribs that once ached, but my entire body was ignorant to everything but what she was doing. I carefully rose from the chair as she placed the hat on her head.
“Goldie,” I growled.
“I meant it the first time I put this on,” she whispered, watching me. “No matter what I said or didn’t say at the time.”
Closing the gap between us, I paused in front of her. “Once this happens…” I cautioned, seeking full explicit consent.
“I know,” she answered, slipping her arms around my neck, and she rammed her lips against mine.
Chapter 26
BRIAR
He plopped me down on the kitchen counter and slid his hands onto my hips. Fingers dug into my skin as his tongue shoved down my throat, the wet feel of his taste swirling with my own breath. Hot and heavy, every worry, everything else that drowned me was blown away as I lost control in him.
His chest rose and fell heavily with each beating of his heart that slammed so hard against his ribcage; I could feel it. Mine matched the rhythm, and I tangled my fingers in his hair, begging for more.
And more. And more.
My body was desperate for relief that would only come from him. The walls around us shattered, as every fiber in my skin roared hot with his touch. Panting, I was falling apart in front of him; his kiss was not nearly as gentle or tender as the silky caress had once been. Magnetism pulled us together, inseparable by anything around us as he broke the kiss and his teeth found the skin of my neck.
Tilting my head back, I bared as much to him as I could, accepting the rough nips that were followed by his tongue, wet and warm lapping at the marks that he made. I was a mess, in all the right ways. As I raked my fingers through his hair, his chest vibrated with an uncontrollable hum, and he rocked my hips toward him.
Pressed flush against his body, coarse strands brushing against my palms, I grabbed a handful of his tresses and jerked his head up, away from my neck. I slammed my lips against his again, and his fingers tightened on my hips, and then slipped beneath the hem of my T-shirt.
Goosebumps erupted over my entire body as his calloused touch brushed against bare skin. Not a thread separated his hands from my waist as they slunk around to my lower back and tightened me against his torso.
A sharp gasp left my lips, giving access to his tongue, and he slipped it between my teeth once more. The reckless dance between our mouths increased in fervency as my entire body pulsed with hot, slick flames. Sticky and sweet, inhaling his scent of bergamot and hay, I slid my hands from his now messy hair and grabbed the front of his shirt.
His eyes snapped open as my fingers trailed along his neck and I undid the top button. Heavy breaths escaped his lips, washing over my face and churning the fire that danced in the deepest pits of my stomach. Everything ached, in ways that had me needing more of him as I worked down the next button and the next. Whispered desires twirled on the dangling edge dripping with an appetite only filled by each other.
