Rebecca reached up and gripped the front of his shirt, getting his attention. “Hey, none of that. Hopefully he’ll have an easier path, but he’d be beyond lucky to be like you. You don’t see how fantastic you are. You’re a talented chef, Wes. But with those kids, you’re…magic.” She pressed her palm to his chest, the gentle heat stirring something tender and bone deep in him. “You’re doing exactly what you were put on this earth to do, and the world is better for it.”
The back of his throat was burning, her words seeping into him and waking up places that had long gone dark. He wanted to refute her compliments, to cast them off as being kind or trying to give him a boost. But Rebecca wasn’t a bullshitter, and he could see it in her face. She meant every word of it. When she looked at him, that was who she saw. A good man. A teacher. Someone his students could look up to. And of all the things people had said to him in his life, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt their impact quite as much.
On top of that, today, she’d put his student first. A boy who had terrified her with a gun and put her through a traumatizing robbery. Wes had managed not to go down the same criminal path as his parents because of people like her. Ed and Carolina had looked at him and seen the potential, the good. They’d given him another chance when he hadn’t done anything to earn it. Now Rebecca was affording Steven the same.
In that moment, a terrifying, rattle-him-to-the-marrow realization hit him. He wasn’t obsessed with Rebecca. He was falling in love with this woman.
For real.
For keeps.
A tight fear gripped him. He thought he knew what falling for someone felt like, but he’d never felt this particular type of feeling for Brittany. He’d been drawn to her wildness and the excitement. He’d labeled that “falling in love,” but it hadn’t felt like this. This was picturing the start of a new life and watching it grow with someone else, wondering how much richer this connection could become with time, seeing the future roll out ahead. It was also like stepping off the side of a cliff, not knowing if there was water to land in below—your stomach jumping into your throat and your eyes blind to the outcome.
Falling for Rebecca had not been the plan. He wasn’t sure what to do with that particular feeling. She hadn’t even said yes to a dating relationship yet. She might never. He was falling for someone who had straight up told him she didn’t believe in the gamble of long-term relationships and marriage.
Wes swallowed hard, trying to choke back the panic that wanted to erupt. “Thank you for being there for Steven. You’re an incredible woman, Rebecca.” He grabbed her wrist and tugged her closer, needing to shut down his brain and not overthink this. “And now I’m going to kiss you, so you better tell me to stop if you want to keep talking.”
She smiled a smile that reached right into him and twisted every part of him. “No more talking. I’m all yours.”
* * *
Rebecca’s brain was whirling, her thoughts and emotions all over the place, but she accepted the invitation for oblivion that Wes was offering. No more thinking. No more worrying. Right now, there was just this.
She let Wes guide her closer, and she straddled his lap as he took her face in his hands and kissed her. His mouth was gentle at first, sweet, but when she slid her hands into his hair, his lips parted on a groan and all semblance of tenderness drained out of them both.
She needed to get lost, and he was going to take her there. His tongue tangled with hers, and his big hands gripped her waist, holding her against him as they kissed and kissed. Soon, she found her hips rocking into him, the feel of his erection growing hard against her deliciously erotic.
He grunted at the slow, dragging contact. “You’re gonna kill me, lawyer girl.”
“Not the plan,” she said but lost her train of thought when he pressed his teeth into her collarbone and then licked the stinging spot.
His hand shifted to her breast, cupping her through her T-shirt and sending tendrils of tight desire snaking downward. “Does this position hurt your leg? Being on top?”
She shivered as his thumb grazed over her nipple. “I’m not even aware I have legs right now.”
He laughed and tugged off her shirt, tossing it aside, and then went to work unhooking her bra with one hand. “I want you just like this then. I want to look up and see all of you while I make you come.”
She grinned down at him as she climbed off him to shuck her pants and underwear. “So sure of yourself. Who says you can make me do that?”
His lips curled into a devilish smirk as he undressed and then stretched out on the bed. “You worried? Maybe I should take out an insurance policy.”
“And how would one do that?”
He reached out and grabbed her waist, lifting her onto the bed to straddle him. But before she could sink dow
n onto him, he slid down the mattress and positioned his head between her thighs, putting his mouth right where she was aching the most. The tip of his tongue grazed her cleft, and she gasped.
“Hold on to the headboard, lawyer girl,” he said wickedly. “This is my version of insurance. Satisfaction guaranteed.”
“Wes…” She’d never been in this position with a lover. The lamps burning bright and her scarred thigh pressed right next to Wes’s head, but before self-consciousness could overtake her, Wesley gripped her thighs with gentle hands and put his mouth fully on her.
Every muscle in her body tensed as sensation rocketed through her and the sharp heat of pleasure rushed through her like a drug. Her hands grabbed hold of the headboard. “Oh God.”
Wes hummed in response, which only made more nerve endings light up, and she closed her eyes. A hard shudder of sensation went through her as Wes schooled her on exactly what he thought of her joke about not having an orgasm. Every stroke felt like worship, every touch like sweet fire. The man knew how to savor a woman. And if she had any doubt about if he was enjoying this, it was answered when she glanced back, taking in the view of his naked body spread out on the bed.
His muscles were flexing, his hips rocking ever so slightly, and his erection long and thick and proud. Her tongue pressed to the roof of her mouth at the sight. She’d never wanted to touch someone so badly, to make him feel as good as he was making her feel. But Wes didn’t let her get distracted by the view for long. He sucked her clit between his lips, teasing it with his tongue, and before she could even process all that sensation, a shocking orgasm zipped through her. Like a rip cord being pulled.
She cried out, surprised by the suddenness of it, and her back arched with the tight, tense pulses of her orgasm. Her fingers gripped the bed tight as she rode the throes of pleasure, feeling every bit of Wes’s tongue, lips, and stubble against her skin. The man was feasting on her, and she was happy to be the meal.