She swallowed hard, stealing herself for his reaction. When they’d discussed limits, she’d seen his expression at the thought of unprotected sex with her. And who could blame him? An unplanned pregnancy with someone like him could get a girl a big pile of cash. “We didn’t use a condom. Wyatt, I’m sorry, I didn’t think of it. And then everything was feeling so good, I kind of forgot. But I promise I’m on the pill and you’ve seen my medi—”
“Shh,” he said, brushing a thumb over her lip and catching a drop of blood there from his earlier bite. “I wanted you without any barriers this morning. And you told me you were protected from pregnancy. I trust you.”
His expression was so open, so relaxed and accepting that panic mainlined right through her veins. “Wyatt, what are you doing?”
“What?”
But she’d already seen the shift in him yesterday, the way he’d talked to her, held her. Tender. Caring. She’d thought it’d been part of the whole crazy day, an aftereffect of all that stress. And she could handle a lot. There wasn’t much he could do to her physically that she couldn’t deal with. But this—this could annihilate her.
She sat up, hugging a pillow to her chest. “Don’t do that. Don’t look at me like I mean something to you.”
He pushed himself upward, turning toward her on the bed. “What the fuck are you talking about? Of course you mean something to me. You think I’m putting on a goddamned song and dance show for you? Why do you think I asked for more time with you yesterday?”r: Roni Loren
Afterward, others had come up to them, apologized for assuming things, had asked Kelsey questions. She’d answered some, politely deflected others. Some partygoers had still ignored them, but that was fine by Wyatt. It showed him exactly the kind of people they were. What mattered to him most was that Kelsey had held her head high and hadn’t shown any fear or shame. His girl had balls. He’d never been more proud to be by someone’s side in his life.
And in that moment, he’d finally accepted one simple fact he’d been fighting since the first time he touched her. He’d fallen for her. Hard and fast and without doubt.
It scared the ever-loving shit out of him.
It was exactly what he told her wouldn’t happen.
She was still young.
Still sweet.
It was even messier than he imagined.
But that didn’t make it any less true.
Now he was stuck with having no idea what to do with all this . . . love.
Kelsey moaned in her sleep, a low, sexy sound that had his body rousing to attention. He moved his hand away from her hair.
“Wyatt,” she murmured, a begging note in her tone, but her eyes still closed with slumber. “Yes. Please. I need you . . .”
She shifted beneath the thin sheet, and Wyatt watched in rapt awe as her hand slid down her belly, over her navel, down down down . . .
Oh, blessed blessed Lord. He must’ve done something really good in a former life.
* * *
Kelsey blinked in the gauzy pink light, her brain still hovering in that space between sleep and consciousness. Warmth enveloped her body, and she snuggled deeper into it, hoping to fall back into the erotic dream she’d been having. She’d been on a ship, held captive by a dark-haired pirate with a surprising Southern accent. He’d tied her to the plank instead of making her walk it and had gone about torturing her with his talented tongue and long fingers, making her come over and over again while the waves crashed against the side of the ship beneath her.
But before she could slip back into dreamland, a hand drifted along her stomach and nudged between her legs. She gasped softly as the fingers moved along her arousal-slicked skin. God, how was she so wet?
“Mmm, now that’s the best early morning wake-up call I could imagine,” Wyatt murmured, his voice clogged with sleep and sexy as shit. “Erotic moans and you already warm and wet. Must’ve been some dream.”
Her eyes fluttered open to find the wispy curtains of their cabana blowing gently along the open windows. The barest amount of pre-dawn light filtered in, reminding her where she was. Not her apartment. Not alone. But on an island with her real-life pirate spooning and stroking her. And she hadn’t woken up all night. She hadn’t snuck out of bed. Her heartbeat ticked up a notch. “A great dream.”
“Tell me about it.”
She smiled, even though he couldn’t see her. “It was just my normal hot dreams about the starting lineup of the Cowboys.”
“Damn. Guess I’m going to have to work extra hard to get your mind off a whole team then,” he said, sliding his fingers along her already throbbing clit, coaxing a moan from her.
She arched into his touch, nestling her ass against him, his hard length already like steel between them. “They’ve got nothing on you, sir.”
He groaned and grabbed the underside of her knee, drawing her top leg into her chest and opening her to him. “You calling me that does it to me every fucking time, love. And all those sounds you were just making in your sleep. Fuck. I’ve been hard as stone for twenty minutes, but I couldn’t stop listening to you, watching you.” He cupped her breast, giving her nipple a soft tug. “Do you know you touch yourself in your sleep?”