“Am I right about you being sick?” she asked.
Jeb’s silence confirmed that she was. “I’m waiting on test results, but the docs think it’s my heart. Might need bypass. Might need something more. I won’t know for a couple more days, and I hadn’t planned on telling you until I knew for sure.”
Leigh drew in a long, slow breath. “Does Cash know?”
“No. He doesn’t take my calls. And before you say anything, I know he’s got reasons for that. So do you. But thanks for hearing me out. If you want, I’ll tell you the test results when I have them.”
“I want that,” she assured him.
It seemed to Cullen that Jeb blew out a sigh of relief. “Good night, Leigh,” he added and ended the call.
Once again, Leigh just stood there, but she looked even more exhausted than she had been before Jeb’s call.
“I’m sorry,” Cullen told her.
She nodded, put her phone away and then turned to him. Their eyes met. Held.
“Don’t sleep in the guest room tonight,” she whispered, taking hold of his hand. “Come to bed with me.”
LEIGHFIGUREDSHEshould just tell Cullen this was a mistake. Maybe then he’d do the right thing and back away from her.
She knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be doing the backing away.
This was despite the lecture she’d given herself about waiting until after the investigation to get involved with him. She should wait. But the fear and emotions were crushing her like an avalanche, and Cullen was the one person who could make that stop. For a little while, anyway.
“The timing for this isn’t good,” Cullen said. “You want to talk about Jeb?”
Leigh didn’t have to take time to consider her answer. “No. I don’t want to talk about anything at all. It doesn’t have to be sex tonight...” She groaned, pushed her hair from her face and kept her gaze nailed to his. “Yes, it does.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, and she got a flash of that hot smile that had no doubt lured many women to his bed. But tonight she was doing the luring. Leigh rethought that though when Cullen pulled her to him and kissed her.
His kiss was exactly what she needed. She sank into it. Sank into his arms, too. Because, mercy, she needed this.
She needed him.
The years they’d been apart vanished, and it felt as if they’d always been together like this. Alwaysshouldbe together. But now wasn’t the time for Cullen to hear that or for her to realize it.
Cullen picked up on her need for him by her deepening the kiss, and he didn’t waste any time backing her into her bedroom. They moved together without breaking the kiss or the arms she’d locked around him.
“I should give you a chance to reconsider,” he said, getting off her boots before easing her back on the bed. He looked down at her. “Don’t reconsider.”
Now it was her turn to smile, and Leigh pulled him down on top of her. All in all, it was a great place for him to be. The weight of his body on hers only fueled this ache she had for him. The kisses did as well when Cullen took his mouth to her neck.
She remembered this part. The foreplay and fire. The urgent heat that started to build inside her. Cullen was very good at the building. At making her need him more than her next breath.
He did something about her breath. He made it vanish when he lowered the kisses to her stomach. He shoved up her top, his mouth teasing her bare skin and kicking up the urgency even more.
Leigh reached for his shirt, but he pinned her hands to the bed and kept on kissing her. Going lower until he reached the zipper of her jeans. With his own hands locked with hers, he simply used his mouth. And his breath. Cullen kissed her through the denim and kept kissing her until Leigh could take no more.
She rolled with him, reversing their positions so she could go after his shirt. She wanted her mouth on his chest. Wanted to touch him. And she did both. She took a moment to admire the view—the man was built—but she couldn’t stave off Cullen.
Once she had his shirt off, he did another flip, straddling her so he could rid her of her shirt. He flicked open her front-hook bra and gave her a quick reminder that breast kisses were hot spots for her. He fanned the heat even higher, managing to kiss one breast, then the other, before he moved lower to shimmy her out of her jeans and panties. He kicked off his own boots as well.
Then, he kept kissing her.
Leigh had no choice but to hang on and enjoy the ride. She fisted her hands on the quilt, anchoring herself, but she knew that if he kept up those clever flicks of his tongue that she’d climax too fast.
“We do this together,” she insisted.