Page 51 of The Bachelor

“That long?”

Shane laughed at her boldness. She could be so damn sweet and then say something just as equally sassy.

“Damn, girl. I do love a challenge. Though you’re the one who started it tonight, for the record. But now I’m about to finish it.” She gasped as he lifted her up, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. “Hold on.”

“Shane,” she breathed, and her tone sounded more turned on than startled.

She wasn’t heavy in the slightest. Plus he enjoyed the way she bounced against him as they walked down the hall, and the way she kissed at the corners of his mouth, like she couldn’t wait.

He was grateful his mother had forced him into the habit of making his bed. There was nothing but a smooth clean white expanse to lay her down onto. He lifted one of her legs so that her foot rested on his shoulder. He undid the zipper on the inside seam of the heeled boot so that he could yank it off and toss it behind him onto the floor. She watched him with hooded eyes. She didn’t seem drunk to him but he decided to double-check anyway.

“How much did you drink tonight?” He didn’t look at her. He didn’t want her to think that he was somehow judging her or questioning her ability to make decisions. He focused on lifting her other foot and removing her boot.

“Two beers. I barely sipped that third one.”

He nodded and kissed the back of her knee. The jeans had been an excellent tease in the bar but now he just wanted them off. She was wearing ankle socks with horses on them. Sometimes she was so damn adorable he couldn’t stand it. Peeling the socks off he lowered her leg and lay down on the bed beside her. Reaching for her he guided her body over onto his, enjoying the feel of her sprawled across the length of him. It was none of his business but it didn’t stop him from asking, “Have you dated anyone since you’ve been here in the city?”

They both knew what he was asking. If he was still her one and only. He could tell himself it was because he needed to know if she’d gained any experience or if he needed to be careful, understanding. But that wasn’t why. He was asking because from a primal male standpoint he wanted to be the only one who had touched her intimately, whose cock had taken her, who had coaxed her to an internal orgasm. He had never been the jealous kind, but with Avery, he was territorial. He looked at her and thought, mine.

She stared down at him with big lustrous eyes. “I haven’t dated anyone.”

It was well within her right to call him out. To tell him it was none of his fucking business. But she didn’t.

“I haven’t either,” he told her. “I’ve been very distracted by thoughts of a certain redhead for the last few months. And now that I’ve got her in my bed, I’m not letting her go this time.”

Her eyes softened in understanding. “The redhead doesn’t want to go anywhere.”

“She tell you that?”

Avery laughed softly. “Shane…”

There was everything in the way she spoke his name. Intimacy, easiness. He cupped the back of her neck and brought her face close to his so that he could kiss her. There was no more talking. This was about feeling.

As the kisses grew harder, more urgent, Avery started to move her hips so that the apex of her thighs ground against his dick. He grabbed her ass and gyrated her harder, need overtaking reason. It would make more sense to take their clothes off and do this, but he wasn’t in a position to be rational. Her hair fell across his face like a veil and he was lost, wrapped up in her scent, her sweetness.

She sat up suddenly and ripped her sweater off and let it tumble to the bed beside her. He realized he couldn’t see her as well as he’d liked, so he reached over and flicked his bedside lamp on. He used the moment to reach in his nightstand and pull out a row of condoms. Then he settled back down and watched her running her hands back into her hair, to swipe it off her face. Her sensuality was instinctive. She knew how to arch her back to bring the swell of her breasts forward. How to toss her hair. Tomboy, his ass. She was wearing black lace, which was the perfect bold splash across her peach-toned flesh. He wanted to kiss every freckle she had.

Shane didn’t feel the need to do anything besides watch for a second or two. Reaching behind she unhooked her bra and let her breasts spill out and he immediately broke his vow. That was an invitation too great to resist. He reached up and palmed her breast, turned on by how his hand almost fully covered the swell. She was too petite to have huge breasts and that was fine by him. There was something sexy as hell about the way his hand looked so large, so rough covering her delicate flesh. He still had the calluses of a youth spent doing physical labor and the softness of her skin was yet one more thing about Avery that made him feel like a man. She drew out every basic male instinct he had.

He pinched her nipple, enjoying the way she gasped. She bent down then, kissing him hard, digging her fingers into his hair. He felt tense, barely under control, an edgy desire clawing at him, the urge to take her hard real and pervasive. Fighting the need to strip her jeans off and just plow into her, he shifted her up so he could suck her nipple into his mouth. She cried out in pleasure. While he tugged and pulled he used his thumb and forefinger to roll her other nipple. The little cries that rhythmically came out from her nearly destroyed him.

“You like that, pretty girl?”

“Yes, so much. I need you. I need more.”

Pushing her back, he rolled her onto her back, unable to resist. With hard motions he jerked those tight jeans down, causing them to turn inside out. She had matching black panties on and seeing her on his white comforter, wearing nothing but that tiny scrap of dark lace, her red hair spilling across his bed, he knew he had reached a place he couldn’t come back from. This was a precipice. If he did this, he might never be the same.

He didn’t want to be the same. He wanted to be the man who loved Avery every day from here on out.

Avery shifted her legs apart.

Holy hell. Shane ripped his shirt off over his head. He couldn’t get out of his jeans fast enough. Cramming the condom on, he bent down and pressed his mouth onto that sliver of lace. The moan she gave nearly pushed his tight control over the edge, but he used his finger to slowly, carefully, teasingly draw her panties aside and display her body to his gaze. It took everything he had to draw the moment out, but when he flicked his tongue over her tender flesh and she rewarded him with a deep shudder, it was worth it.

Then he dropped her panties back in place. Avery gave a cry of disappointment and reached down, grabbing his head, urging him back. Not one to deny her, he took her panties down over her hips and gave her what she was asking for, wanting to express how amazing he thought she was, how much he had been waiting to taste her again.

“Damn, you taste good, baby. Fucking heaven.”

TWENTY-FIVE

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