WHEN HER MOUTH touched him, it wasn’t a tentative taste, but a hot, openmouthed kiss that took half of him deep into her throat. Luke choked back a groan and tangled his fingers in her hair. Tessa’s moan of approval thrummed through his cock as her mouth tightened.
He wanted to close his eyes and press his skull back against the wall so he could concentrate on every press of her tongue, but he couldn’t look away from her. Her flushed cheeks and golden hair, her pink lips sliding over him. The glistening moisture on his shaft when she pulled back before taking him deep again.
“Tessa… Christ.” The idea of her innocence had clung stubbornly to his psyche, and this felt wrong. Forbidden. He had expected her to be tentative. Maybe even nervous. He hadn’t expected her to take him deep, to feel her throat tighten around him.
“Mmm,” she purred.
Shit, he was lost. There was no hope for holding out. He’d have to prove restraint and stamina later. Because right now her tongue was rubbing and her mouth sucking and…this was so wrong. This was Tessa.
Yet the feeling was better than any fantasy he could’ve spun about her. His cock grew even harder until every draw of her mouth made him grimace with ecstasy. It only took a few moments of that pleasure before his control slipped. Luke cursed and his fist tightened in her hair.
In response, she dug her fingers into his thighs and pressed so close that her mouth touched the base of his cock. He couldn’t stop from thrusting into her as his orgasm slammed through him. He couldn’t stop the low shout of primal joy that rumbled from his throat as she swallowed him down.
Nothing—nothing—had ever felt so good as her mouth working him until the very last second of pleasure crashed down his spine.
“Tessa.” He sighed, finally letting his head fall back against the wall. “Tessa,” he repeated, just to remind himself that it was really her. Because even after that, it seemed impossible.
“LUKE?”
“Mmm?” God, he’d make an effort at pillow talk if she wanted, but he felt drugged. The sheets were crisp and cool, her body was one long line of heat against him, and his skin still buzzed in some strange limbo between numbness and heavy pleasure. “What’s this?”
He opened his eyes expecting her to be looking toward some picture or random knickknack in his room, but then he felt her hand touch his side. Oh.
He closed his eyes again.
“Is this where you were shot?”
“No. That’s where I was stabbed.”
“Stabbed?” Gasping, she pushed herself up to stare down at him. He was still trying to ignore her, but he opened his eyes to take in the view of her breasts.
“Luke!” she slapped his chest impatiently.
“What?”
“How did that happen?”
He sighed when he realized all his lethargy had vanished. Tension crawled back into his muscles like swarming ants. “I was stabbed.” When she started to growl, he added, “During an arrest.”
“Oh, my God, were you okay?”
He watched her breasts as she bounced with emotion. “I’m alive, right?”
“Luke. Up here.”
He shook his head. “If you want to have a conversation, I suggest you lie back down. Or put on a shirt. But preferably lie down.”
She flounced down, her elbow pressing into his ribs until her arm finally settled its warmth across his stomach. Her fingers feathered against the scar.
“It was pretty bad,” he said matter-of-factly. “Hit the intestines. Sepsis. All that.” All that. He’d been in the hospital for weeks. He’d nearly died.
“I’m sorry,” Tessa said, her words whispering over his shoulder. “Was it here in Boulder?”
“No. L.A.”
“Oh.” She didn’t ask any more. Didn’t press him. And maybe that was why he said it, answering her unspoken question without really answering it.
“My mom came out. She stayed with me, so I wasn’t alone. I moved out here a few months later.” Of course, Tessa couldn’t know what he meant, but her hand flattened and covered the scar as if she could heal it. It had been the lowest point of his life, lying in that hospital bed. He’d known he was close to dying. He’d felt death pushing him into that thin mattress, holding his limbs down. In that moment, he’d wanted one person with him. Just one person. And she hadn’t come. After everything they’d been through, she hadn’t come.