Page 60 of Mountains Divide Us

I wanted to trust her, and for the most part, I did, but until she told me what she’d been holding back, I couldn’t give in. Didn’t matter how much I wanted to. I’d been alone a long time for a reason. As much as I felt like some crybaby to think about her “guarding my heart,” it was the bare truth. It took me eleven years to get over my ex-wife stealing away with my dreams of a family in her hands. I had a feeling getting over Samantha Russo might be a lot harder, and it would take the rest of my life. What was left of it anyway.

“Your turn,” I said.

“What do you want to know?”

“I wanna know why you got sad in the school parkin’ lot. What’d that asshole do to you?”

Suddenly, my furniture became really interesting to her as she picked at the upholstery stitching on the arm of the chair.

“Samantha.”

She sighed loudly. “He was just a bad boyfriend, and then we broke up, and I was left feeling… I don’t know. Less than.”

I was trying to see the truth in her eyes, but she was having a hard time looking at me. “He hit you?”

“No, nothing like that. He was just a jerk. When I—when I needed him, he made me feel like I wasn’t worthy of his time.” Under her breath, she mumbled, “Or basic human kindness.”

“That son of a bitch.” Disembowelment was too good for him.

She smiled at the curse, giving me eye contact again. “You’re very protective of the people in your life, aren’t you?”

“I could be.” If I’d let anyone in. If she wanted to stay in my life, I’d protect her forever.

“I think I should go.”

What? “Why?”

“This”—she motioned between us—“it’s too much. You want something from me that I don’t know how to give you.”

“It’s true,” I said. “I want you, but I want more than just sex.”

“I want you, too, but every time you breathe in my direction, my underwear gets wetter. They’re soaked clean through right now. I can’t think around you. But you’re not going to do anything about it tonight, are you?” She blinked, then looked down, twisting the bottom of her sweater between her fingers. “I think, for you, sex is something you do after you let someone in. Maybe the difference is in our ages, but for me, physical intimacy is the thing I need in order to let you in. Does that make sense?”

My hold on her hips got tighter, my fingertips pressing harder into the soft give of her skin. If I gave into her now, before we really hashed things out, what did that say about me? No, I wasn’t willing to relent, but it seemed she wasn’t quite ready to bare her soul to me. But I also wasn’t willing to leave her wanting. I’d found myself desperate for her to let me in, but there had to be a way to achieve that without risking the pain I’d surely feel if she bolted. I had to be honest with myself.

It would hurt.

“You want more?” I asked. “Right now?”

“Yes. I do. Is that wrong?”

“It ain’t wrong. Kiss me.” Relaxing back in the chair, I spread my legs wide, and she leaned over me tentatively. She remembered her glasses, though, and slipped them off quickly, setting them on the table by my glass. Refocusing on me, she smiled, and when she slid closer and her lips touched mine, that was when she felt my hard cock beneath my jeans. She gasped into my mouth, and I pressed up.

“Oh.”

“Think I can make you come with your clothes on? No hands?” Resting my elbows on the arms of the chair, I held my hands up.

She looked from one to the other, then her eyebrows arched for the ceiling.

“Bet I can,” I said, pumping up between her legs, reaching up to kiss her like I was a baby bird looking for a meal.

She fed me. She held my face in her hands, her thumbs rubbing circles over my chin as she kissed me. Her eyes were closed, and her quiet moans flowed into my mouth.

She’d worn a long skirt, but the fabric wasn’t heavy, so I lifted my thigh, pushing the skirt higher. I did the same with my other leg till the skirt was pooled in my lap.

“You didn’t say I couldn’t use my hands,” she whispered, and she readjusted the fabric, rolling it up and pushing it back and to the side, exposing her panties. The silky pink cotton matched her hair.

I rolled my hips into her, pushing the bulge of my dick against her mound, working at it over and over till she was wet and her pussy lips spread apart for me beneath the panties. Her head fell back. Her mouth was open, and her heavy breaths were all I could hear.

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