That sounded wonderful. As he carried her to his bedroom, she buried her face against his neck. She couldn’t stop smelling him, wanted to memorize his scent so when she dreamed of him, because she would, his smell would be there in her dreams, too. “Down,” he said when he stopped at the edge of the bed.
She didn’t want to separate from him, didn’t want to lose his heat and his hands on her skin. He chuckled when she tightened her legs and arms around him.
“This isn’t going to work if I can’t take my clothes off.”
In that case. Since she definitely wanted his clothes off, she let her legs slide down his body and unwrapped her hands from around his neck.
He stepped to the door, closed and locked it. “Don’t want a surprise visit from Everly.”
“Good thinking.” His gaze was on her, hunger in his eyes. She lifted the hem of her camisole and pulled it over her head.
“There’s not a place on that sexy body of yours, Skye, that I’m not going to taste, touch, make love to.” He stalked toward her.
If you crossed paths with a jungle cat, you weren’t supposed to run. Running would trigger a cat’s love of chasing their prey. The man headed back to her with determined strides, his eyes devouring her was that cat, the one you weren’t supposed to run from. But she wanted to, wanted him to chase her down, to catch her, to toy with her.
To never let her go. No, she couldn’t think like that. What they had was just chemistry. He wasn’t her forever; she wouldn’t allow it. The chance of losing everything again wasn’t worth the risk. As long as this thing between them lasted, and as long as it stayed their secret, she would enjoy their time together. When it was over there would be no regrets.
“You’re thinking awfully hard there.” He tapped her forehead. “No thinking tonight, no deciding this is a bad idea.”
“I wasn’t thinking this is a bad idea.” A question popped into her mind, though, because of what he said, making her remember the night she’d broken up with Danny. He’d tried to force her to have sex with him, believing he could use sex to change her mind. She’d used her knee to put a stop to that idea. “If I did decide this was a bad idea, if I told you no, you’d stop, wouldn’t you?” She was sure she knew the answer, but she had to hear it from him.
His brows furrowed, his eyes searched hers, and she wished she hadn’t asked the question because he saw too much.
“It might kill me, but yes, I’d stop no matter at what point you told me no. Did he force himself on you, your ex?”
There was no use denying it, and again, she wished she hadn’t brought it up. “He tried, but I made him sorry.”
Rage filled his eyes then. “I’m sorry I didn’t know that when I had him in front of me.”
“I don’t want to talk about him.” Or think about him. She tugged on his shirt. “What I want is you naked. If that doesn’t happen in the next few seconds, I’m getting dressed.”
Well, that did the trick. He shed his clothes faster than she thought possible, tossing each piece on the floor as they came off. All but his boxer briefs. He gave her a sexy smirk as he snapped the waistband. “These come off when your panties come off.”
She tried to keep her eyes on his face, but they refused to obey. Her gaze slid over his chest dusted with light brown hair, down to a trim waist, to the arrow of hair disappearing into his boxer briefs, his arousal impossible to miss.
“You keep looking at me like that, Sheriff, and I’m going to embarrass myself.”
“Oh, I think you can control yourself.”
He stepped forward until their bodies touched, then he lowered his mouth to her ear. “You’d be wrong. You want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t been with a woman since you,” he whispered into her ear as if telling her a secret. “Because I only wanted you.”
She was stunned. How could that be?
Chapter Thirty-One
He’d shocked her. Good. Tristan shrugged. “It’s true.”
“Why? You’re a man.”
He glanced down at himself. “Glad you noticed, but what’s that got to do with anything?” How had they gotten offtrack? By now, he should have his mouth on all the places on her he wanted to taste, to see if she was as sweet as he remembered or if his memory had played tricks on him.
“A man has needs.”
“Let me guess. That’s the excuse Pretty Boy gave you for cheating on you?”