Page 15 of Merry with a Ranger

His hands rose along my ribs, traced my upper arms and cupped my jaw. “Be sure, Bonnie. I’ll stop any time, but you gotta tell me, okay?” he checked, staring straight through me, into me.

I nodded, licking my lips. “Okay.” He said nothing, waited. “Okay, I’ll tell you if I need you to stop or I feel…anything.”

That mouth I needed on mine moved again. “Good girl.”

Then he finally kissed me, his lips crashing sweetly into mine, and no matter what I promised there was no chance I’d be able to tell him anything at all because I never wanted that kiss to end.

So maybe I was still that seventeen year old girl at heart after all, at least a fragment of her, but only in this room, tonight, and only with this man.

No one else, not ever.

Just tonight.

Nash groaned softly as his arms folded tight around me, tucking me into his body. He fit perfectly against me,still. Even as a gangly teen he’d been the right size. Never too big, never so overpowering or overprotective that I felt like I’d disappear and never be seen again, overwhelmed by the sheer mass of him.

Even when he kissed me on the beach and engulfed me before, I knew it was only temporary. Nash never stole my identity, took any part of me away from myself. That’s what our trust was based on. That, and wefittogether. Just enough that I knew he could wrap himself around me, hold me up if he wanted.

That sort of strength, along with every other part of him, was sexy as hell. His stomach contracted beneath my fingers as I rediscovered the flat planes of muscle there as well as some scars that hadn’t been present before. The landscape of him might have changed over the years, but the way he kissed me, hesitant in hurting me or pushing too hard, too fast, but wanting to go that step further, both of us—that had always been the same.

The difference was that after all this time, I was ready. Truth be told, I’d been ready then. It just took a catastrophic life event for the child in me to be stripped away to recognize that.

But that same girl had a chance to reclaim something tonight.

Nash’s kisses grew rougher as he pushed his tongue between my lips, searching for a deeper touch. I arched against him, desperate for the same intimacy, fumbling his buttons with an unsteady hand. My breath shattered against his lips as he laughed softly, a dangerous sound as he scooped me off my feet and lifted me over his bed, yanking back the covers with one arm.

The lights flicked off, leaving us half lit by the giant Christmas tree’s ambient glow outside his window. It was plenty enough to see by, and the warm light left me able to hide, better than the bright down lights.

“Is this okay?” Nash slid his hands under my jacket, pushing both it and the straps of my dress off my shoulders.

My throat worked on nothing at all, and I managed a nod.

“Words, Bonnie.” His voice whipped out at me like a slap. I recoiled on the bed, scooting back but he arced over me, boxing me in with his forearms planted beside my head, spreading my legs with his knees. Suddenly, the bed seemed like a threat of its own. “Give me those words you promised, Little Bonnie, or we’re going to have a problem.” His mouth dipped to trace a line along my collar bone, removing the possibility of speech.

I fell back to the pillows beneath my head, collapsing into a nest made of the scent of him and his scrunched jacket as his weight settled over me. His body pressed into all the right places as I hooked a heel behind his knee, kicking off my shoes.

“I like that,” I whispered as he licked and kissed along the hollow of my throat that seemed intent on creating noses of its own.

“I remember.” Nash ran a hand down my body to settle at my hip, tugging my dress to my waist. “You know the one fantasy I’ve had for years that we never played out? Taking you out to the bleachers at the sports field on a sunny afternoon when no one was there, laying you back all bare—” He brushed his palm beneath my dress to discover my silky thong and made a growling sound in his chest, “—take these off, and lick you until you creamed all over my tongue. Then fill you and love you in the sunlight with no one around. Just us. Find out what it felt like to sink into you while you moaned for me, all hot and wet and dirty.” He stared down at me, his eyes black and fathomless.

My traitorous body throbbed and clenched on nothing as he cupped my pussy over my panties. “That’s a good fantasy,” I managed.

His fingertips pressed right over my entrance, no doubt feeling the heat emanating from me at his filthy words that were beyond a turn on because I could imagine him doing exactly what he described just fine. It was the place we shared our first kiss, and even that turned a little X-rated by accident. He’d been a gentleman then, but then heat in his eyes both scared me in all the right ways and turned me on then, too.

So long ago.

But not so long, after all.

“You like that, huh?” Nash pressed in, rubbing my satin panties over my wet pussy.

Swallowing hard, I met the challenge in his eyes. “Show me what you’d do if we were there now,” I begged. “Please, Nash. Take me back there tonight.”

“Fuck, I love that mouth on you.” He bent down and kissed me hard until my lips throbbed, his tongue invading my mouth until I couldn’t breathe for the scent of him overflowing my senses.

Even if this was a one night thing, he was imprinted into my brain, my body—and a whole lot deeper—forever.

Nash ran his fingers along my dress and paused. “I wanna rip this right off you, but getting you back to your room and explaining might be tough,” he said in a low, strained voice. “If you want me to show you my party trick, I want you to strip for me, love.”

I shivered under his lustful gaze. “I—what?”

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