“You ready?” I glanced up as I re-entered the bedroom. She’d pulled her shirt over her head and was sitting on the edge of my bed working her jeans down her legs. The sight of so much of her smooth, soft skin took my breath away.
“Can you get my jeans the rest of the way off?”
Being as gentle as I could, I tugged her muddy jeans down her legs until I worked her feet free.
While she held my gaze, she reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. It fell forward, revealing a pair of breasts even more perfect than I imagined. They were high and full. My mouth watered as her nipples tightened into hardened buds. I was a bastard for wanting her as much as I did. Especially when she was depending on me to take care of her.
She slid her panties down next. Except for a cinnamon-colored strip of hair down the center, her pussy was bare. My cock twitched behind my zipper. I forced myself to drag my gaze away from her body and meet her eyes. She didn’t need me leering over her. For what had to be the millionth time in the past three days, I cursed myself for my weakness. She was too difficult to resist.
“Come on, let’s get you into the tub.” I wrapped her arm over my shoulders and half-carried her into the bathroom. The tub was ready, so I eased her into the warm water.
“Thank you.” Her voice held a husky edge, immediately making me wonder how my name would sound falling from her lips on the edge of her release.
I grabbed the bar of soap and a washcloth and gently started to wash the mud away from her skin. Being this close to her, having her naked body at my fingertips, felt like my own personal penance. I’d failed her once. There was no way in hell I would let that happen again.
10
WHITLEY
Feeling Chase’shands glide over my skin was even better than I’d imagined. I sank down into the tub, eagerly accepting his touch. I thought I’d be nervous baring my body in front of him, but the heat in his eyes, like he wanted to devour me whole, erased my inhibitions.
“If you get your hair wet, I’ll wash it for you.” His voice had fallen into a slow, sweet, syrupy tone that soothed my nerves. I ducked my head under the water to wet my hair, eager to feel his fingers everywhere.
He squirted shampoo into his palm, then worked it into my hair. The whole time, he mumbled softly. Words I couldn’t quite understand. Whatever he was saying, it made me feel seen. Made me feel loved. It was silly, really. We’d spent so much time arguing and trying to resist what was building between us. I had the sense it was inevitable. That no matter how much we tried to deny ourselves, the outcome was predetermined.
I was meant to find this man. To bring him out of his darkness and heal his troubled soul. I knew it deep down in the core of my being. That’s what gave me the courage to wrap my hands around his wrists and pull his body close.
“Whitley.” My name wrenched from his lips like a strangled prayer.
“Shh. It’s okay.” I pressed my lips to his, reassuring him that I wanted whatever would come next just as much as he did.
“I can’t.” He pulled back and touched his forehead to mine.
“Yes, you can. I want you, Chase.”
He’d rinsed my hair with clean water from the tap and bent down to lift me out of the tub. Water soaked through his shirt sleeves, but he didn’t seem to care. He gently set me down in the center of his bed, then worked his arms free from his wet shirt.
The light from his bedside table cast a warm, soft glow that was bright enough for me to make out a series of scars that cris-crossed his shoulder. Another one stretched over his ribs. I reached up and slid my finger across each one while he continued to strip off his clothes. When he was down to his boxer briefs, he crawled onto the bed and pulled me to his side.
He’d seen me as bare as the day I was born, so I tugged at the band of his briefs.
“We don’t have to do anything. I just want to hold you and make sure you’re okay.”
“I’ll be okay when your cock is buried inside me,” I said.
“Fuck, Whitley. Do you kiss your mama with that mouth?” A smile spread across his lips. It was the smile I’d been waiting for, the one I knew he had hidden inside.
“The only one I want to kiss with this mouth is you, Chase Hampton.” I puckered up, knowing it wouldn’t be long until we followed through on the fire that had been building between us since the moment I saw him standing on his porch.
His underwear hit the floor at the same moment his mouth landed on mine. I wrapped my arms around him, still not able to believe that the moment was finally happening.
“You’re too good for me, sweetheart. Too young. Too sweet. Too everything.” He mumbled the words against my mouth in between kisses.
“I want you,” I whispered back. “We might not make sense, but this is right. You know it.”
“I know it,” he agreed. Then he slid his thick, muscular thigh between my legs.
The second he brushed it against my sex, he set off a chain reaction. The pain in my foot faded into the background and was replaced by a white-hot need. All I could think about was spreading my legs and arching into him.