When he woke, he realized there were other benefits to the arrangement. Kara was so warm and soft and plastered against his body. His arm, which had cushioned her neck all night, was asleep, but she was making the rest of his body feel too good for him to notice.
As he opened his eyes, he ran his gaze over her face. She’d taken a few minutes to wash the makeup from her face and pull on a sexy tank top and matching shorts to sleep in in. Her face was even more beautiful clear of product.
He willed her to open her eyes so that he could get lost in the deepness of their blue. But her dark lashes remained closed. Her lips were too inviting and as he brushed his mouth across them, tasting them, he felt her shift in his hold.
“Mmm,” she moaned against his lips. Her body shifted until they were chest to chest. He could feel her puckered nipples through the silk, against his bare chest.
His free hand snaked under the tank top, cupped her breasts, then he used his fingertips to pinch the peaks gently. Her entire body arched into his, rubbed against his.
Again, he felt the immense desire. He was powerless to fight what he felt for her. He nudged the shorts down her hips, then he cupped her, slid a finger, then two, inside her, parting her legs with his knee. She rolled over and lay flat on the bed while he slid his fingers in and out of her slowly.
“Oh god,” she said against his mouth. “Please.”
Her hips moved with his motion as he watched her face, watched the pleasure cause her cheeks to flush. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, held it there between her teeth as tiny soft moans escaped.
His eyes roamed over her body, over her peaked nipples he could clearly see through the soft tank top. Down her flat belly, her exposed belly button, to where his hand moved slowly in and out of her. He watched his fingers slide in, disappear into her, and come out slick.
He could smell the sexy perfume she’d worn the night before, her shampoo, the fabric softener on the sheets, her sex.
The desire to taste her had him shifting over her. His hand continued to move as he licked his way down the same path his eyes had just taken. He paused and sucked each nipple through the material, wetting it, causing her skin to peek even more through the silk. He dipped the tip of his tongue into her belly button, rolled around it, before moving lower to where his fingers disappeared inside her.
Finding her clit, he licked and then sucked lightly until her hips bounded off the mattress and her fingers dove into his hair while she cried out his name.
He shifted above her again and watched those blue eyes of hers go wide as he slipped into her, fully embedding himself until he held firm and lowered his mouth to her ear.
“I love the look of you, the taste of you,” he said softly as he remained still inside her. “I love the feel of you wrapped around me.” He kissed her neck softly as her legs wrapped around his hips. “I love you,” he said as he started to move inside her.
He wanted to ignore how she had stiffened when he’d admitted his feelings to her. Wanted to, but after they had both been pleased, she disappeared into the bathroom and he’d gotten a phone call from Daryl, telling him he should return to the ranch immediately.
“Kara?” He knocked on the bathroom door.
“Yes?” she replied without opening the door.
“There’s some sort of emergency at the ranch. I need to go,” he said, wishing she’d open the door.
“Oh, okay. I could—” she started, and he heard her moving around.
“No, stay. I’ll…” He felt stupid. He shouldn’t have told her. Not like that. Not after everything that had happened last night. He should have planned for candlelight and flowers. Not bruises and police reports. “I’ll talk to you in a bit.”
“Okay,” she said through the door.
He gathered his things, finding his socks and shoes by the front door. When he drove up to the house, he could see instantly what the problem was. Every piece of furniture on the wide front porch had been cut to pieces with the axe that normally sat in a log on the side of the house. Some of it had just been tossed into the yard. The planters his mother had always filled in the spring with brightly colored flowers were in pieces all over the yard. He’d continued the tradition of filling them with plants every year since her death.
Even the sign that hung above the front doors, which he and his father had made years ago, had been yanked down and snapped in two.
Daryl was standing on the steps waiting for him.
“Have you been inside yet?” he asked Daryl.
“No.” He sighed. “Too bad you had me keep Lenny and Squiggy down at my place last night. They might have scared off whoever did this.”
“Willy,” he said, unlocking the door. “This was Willy.” He groaned as he stepped inside.
“I’ve called the police,” Daryl said, stopping just inside the door.
The inside matched the outside. Most of the furniture was broken. Mirrors, glass vases, picture frames, and small tables.
Nick made his way through the house and noticed the back door torn completely off its hinges.