He groaned, his fingers pausing on her throat. “Maybe that’s not so good an idea.”
She huffed softly but kept leaving kisses, moving over the hardness of his chest, over his pectoral muscle. It felt so good, so familiar, like not everything in her world had changed.
He slid his fingers into her hair and used a tight grip to turn her face toward his. The sting in her scalp made her moan.
He sighed. “How can I resist you when you make sounds like that?”
Kat licked her lip, unable to help it when she stared into his familiar dark eyes. “Please.”
“Please what?”
“I need…” She trailed off.
He traced his fingertips over her cheek. “What is it you need? Because I showed up to help, to do what I can for you, so tell me what you need.”
“You.”
“Why?” He must have seen her frown, because he went on. “If you can’t even figure out why you want this, then you aren’t ready for it.”
Kat twisted slightly, then slid her leg over him so she straddled his waist. “You say ready for it like I’m some fragile thing. I’m not. I already told you he didn’t—”
“Just because he didn’t put his dick in you doesn’t mean there aren’t still things you’ll need to work through.”
The way Bradley spoke both amused and mortified Kat. It was funny, because most people would say the same thing about her, about the way she phrased everything. She often was the one others had to shut up before she made everything worse. Where she was blunt and funny, Bradley was just blunt.
Still, she understood his point, and he wasn’t wrong. Jerry might not have raped her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still suffering aftereffects.
Yet, that wasn’t enough for her to not want him. Bradley had always been unmovable, impossible to push, to force into anything, and the grip of his hand in her hair said he wouldn’t give in until she did as he said.
It reminded her how frustrating life with Bradley could be. He never let her get away with anything. “I want to feel like the old me,” Kat admitted. “I want to feel like I’m still the same person even after everything feels different.”
He tilted his head, his expression softening. “Kat, you’re about the toughest person I know. If nothing else you’ve been through has broken you, some two-bit asshole won’t be the one to do it.” He tugged at his grip in her hair, pulling her closer.
Kat placed her hands on his chest to brace herself but didn’t push, didn’t fight him at all. “So you’re saying yes?”
He exhaled and rested close enough she could feel it blow across her lips. “How about I say we’ll see. We aren’t playing, though.”
That was fine by Kat. She wasn’t ready to play with anyone yet, but the idea of losing herself in the familiarity of Bradley’s kiss and his touch and his body sounded like exactly what she needed.
She nodded, rewarded when Bradley pulled her in the last few breaths and kissed her. It was like taking her back years ago, to when she’d been too idealistic for her own good. His kiss was comfortable in the way her favorite meal was. Familiar but exactly right to hit the spot.
Kat moaned and curled her fingers in to grip him. This was everything she wanted, this wash over her of sensation that told her she could still feel something normal.
And Bradley sure as hell had the skills to help her forget everything beyond how he touched her. He kept the one hand in her hair, that edge he couldn’t hide even if they weren’t playing. He was a Dom through and through, and even if he wasn’t going to fill that role, he was still an aggressive lover.
He proved it as he deepened the kiss, as he used his grip and tilted her head to take her harder, to slip his tongue past her lips. Fire surged through her, made her reckless and hungry and drunk off him.
Bradley slid his free hand up her side, and even through the silk of her nightgown, the touch seared her. She wanted more.
No, it was deeper than that—sheneededmore.
Kat ground herself against his lap, a gasp leaving her when his hard cock stroked her through the fabric of his pajama bottoms.
The fact he evenhadpajamas was a miracle. “You never wore pajamas before,” she whispered breathlessly against his lips.
“Like I was going to be sleeping naked around you when I didn’t know what exactly had happened.”
The care charmed her as it always did. Bradley seemed like a dick so much of the time, but then he had moments like this where he went out of his way for her wellbeing or comfort without saying a word. He wasn’t the type to need praise or accolades, to want to point out what he’d done so she’d give him credit.