Page 11 of Merry with a Ranger

“Christ.” One hand dropped to skate along my back, forcing its way between me and the wall. “You’ve been stuck like this for all that time…” The penny drops hard and fast. I didn’t need to look at him to see it. “Fuck me. You’re my—” He coughed into my hair, and the hand on my back dug into my skin beneath my dress. “You’re in WITSEC, aren’t you? Witness protection. Did your father Marshal up or something?” His dry humor fell endlessly.

I didn’t bother to respond. “They’re always watching. Just not…like you think.” I leaned my forehead on his shirt and breathed in. Salt, whiskey and caramel. My cheek rested against his chest unbidden, and he let me steal a moment’s comfort, still braced over me while his heart raced. “You’re not a surfer, are you?”

He laughed, a hollow sound that rang around us. “Before this all gets shot to shit and I can pretend for half a second that I’mgonna have that picket fence with the girl I dreamed about for the last ten years, you gonna let me kiss you, Bonnie Little?”

He said Little. Not Lawson.

A sob tried to break free from my lips, but it seemed like Nash was done asking permission. His mouth found mine, his kiss as smooth as that caramel I scented on him before. Deft fingers wound through my hair, tilting my head to the angle he needed. I managed a long inhale on instinct before an all-male noise rose in his throat and his kiss changed into something darker, harder.

Whatever sort of picket fence Nash Mercer wanted, I was here for it.

His other hand banded around my waist, pushing me back into the wall. One knee speared between my legs, then the other, pushing my legs open to the limits of my dress. He cursed, freeing my waist to grip the fabric and yank upward. One hand settled on my thigh in a possessive grip that left me arching into him and his mouth returned to mine in fervor.

Hips grinding roughly into me, his tongue delving deep, Nash engulfed me until I swore nothing remained of Bonnie Little except an echo of a girl who craved a man she couldn’t have.

But he was here right now, and I wanted him like I’d never been allowed to have anyone.

Linking one thigh over his hip, I levered myself up, clawing his neck as I kissed him back, sloppy and frantic and with no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing.

“Damn, girl. You taste just like you used to. Texas summers and stolen midnights together. You remember those? I used to come and get you, drive you to the lookout and–” He pressed his body to mine in a slow grind I felt to my bones.

“Fuck,” we whispered together.

“Girl, that mouth.” His curled up in a slow smile that echoed to the tips of my toes. “Gonna get you in so much trouble.”

“I remember everything.” I tried to ignore the way my body lit up the closer he pressed until everything important evacuated from my body.Air, blood, thoughts.“Nash, I’m– I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He froze at my confession, those strong hands releasing me to press back over my head as his body arced against mine. “Say that again, love,” he demanded.

But neither the words nor my mouth would cooperate. I shook my head, sucking my bottom lip into my mouth.

His gaze zeroed in on the movement when it popped back out. “Are you telling me?—”

We teased and played with each other back in the day, back in Texas, but we were young, and he never pushed me for anything he didn’t think I was ready for. Ever the gentleman, Nash Mercer, so before him, I remained a virgin.

I’d always wished he hadn’t been quite so gentlemanly after all.

I blinked as his whole body backed off, and it became abundantly clear what he thought. “Oh, no. I’m not…you know. Innocent, or anything.” I looked down, but that just left me staring at the straining bulge in his jeans.Fail.So I studied his rumpled shirt instead. “No, I mean, I’ve done— I’ve— I just don’t know anything. That’s all,” I finished awkwardly.

One moment I was studying his shirt, the next I found myself in freefall in his eyes.

“Are you telling me that after ten long damn years of wishing I’d been the one to be with you back then, there’s a chance I can still give you some of your firsts?” His frown was offset by the way his eyes searched my face, seeking answers I didn’t want to give but needed to answer all the same.

I nodded, worrying my lip until it ached. “Mhmm.”

Nash settled his body against mine, pressing in the damning rhythm again. “Words, love,” he murmured, his voice a seduction all on its own.

“Yes, Nash. Anything I’ve got left to give is yours.”

His mouth crashed down on mine, and ten years dissipated in a breath. He kissed me until my head swam with the scent of him, the warmth of his arms folding me into his chest twisted into the fabric of me that no one had ever been able to change no matter how caged and limited my life had been, all these years.

Nash snapped those tethers in seconds. Sliding his hands over my hips, he pulled me hard up against him, his thick erection hitting all the right spots as his body pressed into me relentlessly. I arched back, learning what he liked, a strangled whimper sliding between my lips to seek his mouth?—

He pulled back with a groan and drew me down the stairs.

“What’s going on?” I shook my head, dizzy from the change in tempo, swaying where I stood.

Nash cursed softly and drew me back to his side, pressing a kiss to my hair. “If I get to have some of your firsts, Bonnie, then I want one I never did back then.”

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