It wasn’t long before he felt himself begin to slip off into sleep as well. He didn’t fight it. Some part of him wanted to sleep tangled up in Joy. And more, to wake up with her beside him.
And he was a weak fucker for allowing himself that. Because come morning, he needed to distance himself.
Chapter 16
He didn’t leave in the middle of the night. Or in the morning.
Should have, but didn’t.
“You’re awake,” she said when he stirred.
He nodded against her shoulder. She’d stayed wrapped up in him throughout the night and somehow that did things to him that it shouldn’t.
“You been awake long?”
Now she nodded. “Yes. Listening to the sound of our breathing.”
He smiled. “That’s exciting.”
She elbowed him from her spot in front of him and the angle gave her a great shot to his ribs. He grunted.
“It was reminding me of scuba diving.”
“How’s that?” He actually thought he knew exactly what she meant but he wasn’t willing to tell her that.
“It’s weirdly quiet under the water. I mean, it’s not quiet because you hear your breathing and the sound of the bubbles coming through your regulator but everything else around you is quiet. That’s what it was like this morning. The world was silent around us, but I could hear our breathing.”
Our breathing. Not hers or his, but ours. He ignored that and asked the obvious question instead.
“You like scuba diving?”
She shrugged a shoulder, but he could see she was forcing the nonchalance.
“I did. I don’t have the money for that nowadays.”
“You did once?” He knew he shouldn’t ask the question. Not just because he knew it would probably force her to freeze up—and it did—but because he shouldn’t be trying to dig deeper with this woman. In fact, he should be up and dressed and gone.
She was stiff in his arms now and he put his head down to her shoulder and nuzzled her until she softened.
“I did,” she said and didn’t offer more than that. He didn’t push. He wanted to. Wanted to know what the hell had brought her to the point that she was driving a beat-up piece of shit car and working in a job that she was clearly overqualified for.
This woman was sharp. She was personable and didn’t need to be told what to do to get a job done. Even if she didn’t have a degree, she should have worked her way up somewhere to something more than serving breakfast and helping with outings at a small lodge in Colorado.
And the way she’d answered Jack’s question about Commfarm told him she had likely once been in the tech industry. Or maybe in a support role like in advertising or something.
And something had pushed her to this. Pushed her out of that world and into this one and as much as he might damn himself for wanting it, he wanted to know what it was.
But this time, he was strong enough to ignore that drive to help her. He rolled her over and kissed her, only allowing himself to focus on what laying next to her had been doing to his body. She’d had him hard and ready to go from the minute he woke and he was only going to let himself think of that now.
He didn’t talk as he let her moans direct his quest over her body. And when he reached between her legs and found her just as ready for him as he was for her, he rolled them again. He took only a few seconds to get a condom and roll it onto himself before lifting her, helping her to fit herself over him. She lowered herself on his cock and he groaned as her slick heat surrounded him. It was a mistake to do this.
And a mistake to do it in this position. He couldn’t stop himself focusing on her eyes as she moved, drawing out her pleasure. He moved his gaze lower to focus on her breasts, the way her waist looked as she moved her hips, the soft silken skin of her belly. He kept his eyes there, moving his hands over her breasts and down to her waist to help her grind harder and harder against him.
He growled as she let him lift her higher and take her down harder as he pumped up into her. Fuck, she was so much more. Just more.
More than any other woman. More than he’d thought he deserved. More than he could hope for.
As she came, bucking against him as her body clenched tight around him, he hit that high of release. He made a crucial mistake then, of bringing his eyes back to hers. He could see she was shielding herself from him, trying to guard against whatever was happening here just as much as he had.