“You’re hurt.”
“Who told you that?” he teased, running his hand lower into her pantaloons.
She arched against him and folded a knee over his thigh. “I saw it for myself.”
“That’s only on the outside,” he said, nibbling on the side of her neck. “On the inside I’m as good as ever, and I want you.”
Her groan was adorable and intensified the deep throbs of his desires. She was perfection from tip to toe, and finding her sweet spot all warm and moist was better than any gold they’d discovered.
“Lucky, we can’t,” she insisted.
He laughed at how halfhearted she sounded. “We’ll be quiet.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “You’re hurt.”
“I’m hurting for you.” He teased her more thoroughly. “And it’s mighty painful.”
She tilted her head up, kissing him deeply at the same time her hand ventured past his stomach and caressed him though his drawers—the specific part that wanted her more than his lungs needed air. His throat grew thick and a growl rumbled its way up and out.
She giggled as she pulled her tongue out of his mouth.
“Aw, darling, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered.
Easing his hand out of her pantaloons, he suggested, “Then, let’s get rid of these clothes.”
Her pause said she was going to protest again, so he kissed her until she was rubbing against him with the same amount of fervor pumping in his veins. He wanted to take the time to truly appreciate the splendor of her body—the firm breasts, the warm, moist heat between her legs—but he was pushing his luck in convincing her to make love. Her hand had moved back up to his ribs, where it was gingerly checking for injuries.
“I’ll lie still,” he whispered. “Let you do all the work.”
The steady stare she settled on his face wasn’t one to reckon with. Though passion glittered her eyes, concern was there, too. “You promise?”
“I promise,” he answered, tugging at her underclothes.
She brushed aside his hands. “I’ll do that. You lie still.”
If this was his reward, Cole vowed to crack a rib regularly. She slid out of her underclothes and then folded back the blankets and drew his drawers down so slowly, so enticingly sweet he was ready to explode from the need thumping through his veins. Her skin glistened in the darkness, and he reached to run his hands along her arms, but she pulled them away.
“You lie still,” she whispered.
“Maddie,” he growled. “You’re torturing me.”
She giggled. “No, I’m not.”
Yes, she was. Her hands roamed up his legs, over his knees, along his thighs, teasing his very being to agonizing heights. When she wrapped her fingers around him, his breath locked in his lungs. She played him like a gambler does a full house, until Cole swore at his own desperation and grabbed her arms, pulling her onto him.
Cracked ribs didn’t stifle his stamina as much as she did, and when she slid over him, her velvet channel taking him fully, he tensed every muscle to simply relish in the sweetest pleasure imaginable.
Cole had no choice but to accept the steady and even course Maddie set. It was pure perfection and propelled them forward steadily, sweetly. The flawless union suited him beyond all other sailing he’d experienced. Her thighs, parting and joining as she hoisted upward and glided downward, set loose an imaginable force he could no longer resist. When her head flung backward, her breasts arched into the air as her fulfillment neared, Cole grabbed her hips, holding her to him as his own completion hit.
Her lips were clamped together, muffling her cries of victory into whimpers, and Cole grasped her neck, tugging her down to kiss away the groan bubbling in the back of his throat.
Afterward, as she slowly moved off him, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled the covers over both of them with his other hand. “I do believe, Maddie, girl, finding gold is only one of the things you’re tremendously good at.”
She giggled, nestling her head on his shoulder. “Go back to sleep,” she whispered. “You need your rest.”
Thoroughly sated, he kissed the top of her head. “That was more healing than sleep.”
“Go to sleep,” she demanded sweetly.
Despite what they’d just shared, how he’d witnessed her body was unharmed, Cole’s thoughts shot to Mad Dog. How the man had laid his soiled and cruel hands on her, and that he was still out there, somewhere.