He knew to what she referred. He told her, “I’d do anything to wipe that memory from your mind. And to make you believe in your heart it’d never happen again, if you were with me.”
“I want to be with you.”
Sam groaned. “Isn’t that just the best damn news I’ve gotten all day.”
“I’d help you out too. If I could…”
“I still don’t want you around the new horse, darlin’. Don’t even try to sweet talk me into it.”
“I wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But there has to be something I can do.”
“Keep kissing me.”
She did.
Sam had no idea what time it was when they finally rolled onto their sides, facing each other. He stretched an arm over his head and turned off the light, the only one he’d flipped on from the switch on the wall when they’d entered the cottage. Then he dragged the throw from the back of the sofa and draped it over them. His head rested on a pillow.
“Snuggle up next to me,” he said as their legs twined and he wrapped an arm around her. He stroked her hair as her warm breath teased a sensitive spot on his neck.
He was hard and wanting her, but he closed his eyes and found a huge amount of peace with the fact that she was here with him, safe and sound.
For most of the night, Sam drifted in and out of sleep, his body wound too tight from sexual tension to allow a full slumber. He was also alert, his subconscious mind toying with the fact that Sky’s ex was still out there somewhere. Stalking her? Planning his next attack? Who knew?
She stirred beside him and then he felt her warm lips graze his skin at the opening of his shirt. Her fingers curled around the material there.
His low groan filled the quiet room.
Her mouth explored the
exposed part of his chest and his groin tightened. So did his arms around her.
“You’re awake,” she whispered against his flesh.
Her lips brushed his throat and it did crazy-wicked things to him.
“Just making sure you’re doing okay.”
“I was out like a light,” she told him. “The first time in longer than I can remember that I wasn’t practically sleeping with one eye open.”
He relaxed a little. She trusted him. She felt comfortable with him. She knew he’d do everything in his power to protect her.
Sam whisked away a few loose strands from her face that had escaped her ponytail. He dropped light kisses along her cheek, her temple, her forehead. She burrowed closer to him. His mouth captured hers and they were back to the scorching-hot kissing that drove him wild.
Her fingers worked the buttons on his shirt and then her palm slid over his chest. A nail gently scraped his nipple and his cock surged with desire. Her hand swept lower, to his abs. Without breaking their kiss, he yanked the tail of the shirt from the waist of his jeans. Her hand shifted around to his back, touching him intimately. Making him burn.
Sam’s fingers threaded through her hair. She commanded his passion in a way he’d never experienced before. Charlotte had been timid, even somewhat demure. He’d been with other women with more assertive natures, but he’d never felt this strongly about any of them. Nor had he been so consumed with lust. And an internal yearning he couldn’t quite define, it was so foreign.
When Sky eventually pulled away from him, she whispered in the dark, “I want you.”
Sam’s entire being reacted to her words. And the need in her voice.
But he’d made her a promise. “I don’t have to tell you that I feel the same. But darlin’, I’m in no rush. Don’t think I am.”
“You’re a saint. And I want you.” She kissed him again.
Sam rolled onto his back, taking her with him. She lay on top of him once more, and he reveled in his good fortune to have her in his arms.
Against his lips, she muttered, “Touch me.”