“I think you should stay,” she said, all but stealing his next breath.
“You do?” he asked like an imbecile.
“Yes. Bigfork is beautiful in the winter and you haven’t been here for very long. Once they clear the snow, they’ll cordon off part of the lake for ice skating. Especially if the weather stays this cold.” She chattered another couple of seconds like a tour guide listing the many amenities that could occupy his time while he was in Bigfork.
But she failed to list herself among them.
“What about you?”
“Well, I live here.” She looped her arms around his neck and placed a quick kiss on his lips. “I don’t need to see the sights.”
“I mean what are you doing while I’m here?”
She shrugged casually. “Working, most likely. I only took off through Monday.”
He frowned. “Mimi.”
“What?”
“Can I...” He was out of his element, which was frustrating. He never hesitated to ask for what he wanted. And what he wanted was the attention of the woman on his lap for a few more days. Hell, weeks. He didn’t know. Just...more. He pulled in a breath and blew out a gruff invitation, “Do you want to grab dinner some night while I’m here, or not?”
“Charming.” But she smiled when she said it.
“Sorry. I’m...tired.”
“Well...” She offered a careless shrug like he wasn’t hanging on her every syllable. “I might have a free night next week. You have my number.”
It was a blowoff if he’d ever heard one. And he’d delivered a few in his day.
She kissed him, lingering at his bottom lip to give it a gentle bite. “I don’t want to think about work. I want to think about...” She reached between his legs. “Right now.”
He let out a grunt and she crushed his lips with a kiss while her hand kept stroking. There’d been a brief objection in his brain but damn if he could access it now. Her touching him had erased any brewing argument—sound or not. He was vaguely aware he should be stopping her to continue this discussion and put it to rest for good, but another stroke and her moaned “I want you” against his lips successfully deterred him.
He unwound the piled blanket from her body and shifted her on his lap. Her lips never left his. He had her divested of the white cotton panties in a blink. She yanked down his boxer briefs as far as his thighs and positioned herself over his heavy erection.
Sweat beaded his brow. He cupped her nape with one hand and rested his forehead on hers.
“Wait.” His voice came out on a harsh breath. “Condom. Or...not...”
She froze. The whites of her eyes were bright in the moonlight streaming in behind him. She gulped and that was the moment he knew they were on the same page. Despite her flippant reaction to his asking her out, Mimi was invested. In him. At least for the moment.
He brushed her hair over her shoulder. “We can move this to the bedroom, or we can stay here and have nothing between us.” It was a risk, and more than a physical one. “Tell me it’s possible.”
“Do you mean am I on the pill? Am I clean?” She pressed a finger to his bottom lip. “Yes to both, but...”
“Too much?” he guessed. No barrier put them back where they were ten years ago. In her cramped twin bed where nothing—not even a thin coat of rubber—had stood between them.
“I loved how you felt. Just you. Just us.” And more than anything, he needed that connection now. For reasons he couldn’t explain—or maybe reasons he wouldn’t admit.
His heart gave a dangerous lurch forward.
“Are you... A lot has happened since then,” she said.
“Not as much as you think.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and cradled the back of her head, her hair’s silken strands tickling his forearm. “The last woman I slept with without a condom was you.”
He felt more than saw her pull her head back.
“For old time’s sake?” she asked, her smile nervous rather than sly. It was more than that and she knew it, but in this dim, moonlit space on their last night together, he’d give her the out.