All that mattered was that he was alive.
TWENTY-FOUR
Four weeks later
The hard knock at the door of the inn’s suite Lyrica had moved into surprised her.
It was close to midnight, and the rain-drenched Kentucky night was filled with steamy heat and a loneliness unlike anything Lyrica had ever known.
She’d gotten used to sleeping with Graham. She missed him, even now, a month later. She would awaken in the deepest part of the night reaching for him, realize he wasn’t there, and lie until dawn, staring into the darkness.
Rising from the bed, she padded to the patio doors, pulled the curtain aside, and froze.
It couldn’t be.
Fumbling, her fingers suddenly refusing to cooperate properly, she fought to unlock the door and pull it open.
“I’m going to spank your pretty little ass,” Graham growled as he stalked into the bedroom, glaring at her, his expression filled with male irritation as he moved to the bed and sat down.
“What did I do this time?” Her hands went to her hips as she stared back at him, her gaze raking over him closely to make certain he was okay. “Aren’t you supposed to be home resting? Kye said the doctor ordered no exertion. You’re to stay in bed and rest until you’re healed.”
“Dammit, it’s been a month. How much fucking healing do you think I need?” Irritation flashed in his eyes.
“However much the doctor prescribed,” she snapped back, but once again, there was no heat.
“Undress.”
The order had her blinking back at him in amazement.
“What did you say?” She couldn’t have heard him correctly. Could she have?
He was unbuttoning his shirt, watching her broodingly until he shrugged it from his still-powerful shoulders while toeing off the leather sneakers he wore.
“I said, undress,” he growled.
“And I should do that, why?” Joy erupted inside her like a sun exploding from the fiery heat it contained.
Oh god, she’d missed him so desperately.
“So I can fuck you until you’re too damned exhausted to ever run from me again,” he snarled, hunger, need, and so many other emotions she’d prayed to see in his eyes during the weeks she’d been confined at his home filling his eyes. “Until some of that damned Mackay stubbornness you obviously possess is tamed just a fraction.”
“Won’t happen.” She was unbelting her robe, though, letting it slip from her shoulders before moving slowly to him.
Rising from the bed, he tore at the clasp of the khakis he wore, shedding them before she could reach him, his fingers curling around the stiff length of his cock.
“Probably not,” he agreed. “But let’s say I keep trying anyway.”
“Let’s say you do.”
He reached out, pulled her to him, his lips covering hers as a needy, hungry moan left her lips. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her lips parting beneath his, taking his kiss and the power of his need and returning it. His hands moved over her back, her sides. Gripping the material of her gown, he released her lips only long enough to relieve her of it, then he was sipping from them again, hunger and heat building with rapacious intensity between them once again.
> Turning, Graham had her on the bed in seconds, her legs spread as he moved between them, his lips pulling from hers as he guided the throbbing crest of his erection between her thighs.
Nudging at the entrance of her vagina, her slick heat flowing, coating the mushroomed head, he glared down at her.
“Run from me again and I’ll paddle your ass.”
She grinned back at him. “Are you trying to deter or convince me?”