Page 39 of Love Over Time

“Scandalous.” She laughed, standing inches from me, cheeks red.

I reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers. “We should go,” I whispered.

Her perfume sent a shot of desire through me. My whole body felt alive, just standing here, breathing the same air as her. She sighed, and that was my undoing. I cradled her neck and kissed her the way I’d wanted to do since I first saw her in the study downstairs. And for once, she didn’t pull away. Instead, her teeth grazed my bottom lip before she deepened the kiss.

“Are you sure?” I tugged at the velvet straps of her dress and slid them off her shoulders. Her dress fell to her waist, and my self-restraint fell along with it. She buried her fingers in my hair. A gesture that felt so intimate and familiar. When she urged me toward her, I bent down and captured her hardened nipple in my mouth. Was it so bad that I wanted her to replace the horrors in my past? Nikki was the only one who could make me forget about the life that was stolen from me. Thatshewas stolen from me. She was back, and I couldn’t let her walk away. My tongue circled the tip of her breast while I kneaded the other one, full and supple. She felt so good.

“Sure of what?” She breathed into my ear, a sexy mix of a moan and a sigh.

I chuckled. “What are we doing, Nikki?”

“Oh, umm.” She stared at me, brows furrowed, as if considering her options. “I’m tired of hiding and shoving my feelings aside.” She reached inside my tuxedo jacket and untucked my dress shirt. Her hands on my bare skin put all kinds of bad ideas in my head.

“Nikki, this would be a good time for you to say stop.” I pressed my forehead to hers. It hurt to want her this bad.

“This thing between us, I don’t see how I can stop it… I don’t want to.”

Gripping her waist, I walked her to the wall and pinned her against it. The pounding in my chest drowned all sounds around us. “Let me taste you.”

There was that sigh again. She let her head fall back in some sort of surrender. I kissed her neck, gentle at first and then harder. Taking my time, I nibbled on her chest, on the curve of her breast, and any patch of soft skin I could find before I fell to my knees between her legs.

Chapter Fifteen

The Mesquite Tree

Nikki

He lifted the front of my dress and tucked it inside the waistband, where my spaghetti straps hung loose, one still strung around my nipple. I sighed and shoved my fingers into his hair again. Henry slid his hands up the underside of my thighs and fastened my leg over his shoulder. With his gaze never leaving mine, he moved my thong out of the way and drew circles on my slit with his tongue, over and over until I gave in to his touch. He breathed me in.Omigod. When he’d said he wanted to taste me, he meant it.

“Henry.” I thrust my hips forward.

“I’m right here. Do you trust me?” His words vibrated across my core.

“Yes,” I whispered. Or maybe I screamed it; I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t hear anything except my heart drumming in my ears and Henry’s voice. My body ached with need, a need for Henry. In spite of everything that’d happened and all the time we spent apart, my feelings for him never subsided. I couldn’t keep lying to myself anymore. I wanted to feel again.

He pulled gently on the strap tangled on my breast as he drank more of me, blowing soft air, licking until I finally exploded. My orgasm came hot and slow, in waves at first and then all at once.Holy shit. All this time, I’d never allowed myself to fantasize about Henry or what he’d be like because I knew this couldn’t happen between us. Because I’d thought I needed to let him go. I was wrong. Henry and I were meant to be together. He was the only one for me. I leaned on his shoulder, disoriented but also alive.

“You taste better than I imagined.” He kissed and sucked around my navel, kneading my ass as he rose to his feet. When he met my gaze, he licked his lips and yanked at my strap to tease my hard nipple some more. I was a puddle of desire at his feet, and based on that satisfied smirk on his face, he knew it. He knew he could have any part of me right now.

I placed my hand on his chest, where his heart pounded as hard as mine. Maybe it was the side effects of the orgasm. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight anymore. But right now, we belonged together. We owed this to ourselves. After so many years of loneliness, we’d earned this moment. “I want all of you.”

He pressed his forehead against mine. “Me too,” he groaned, a low, sexy groan. “But not here.”

What was wrong with me? This was his mom’s room. I slammed my body against the wall to keep myself from screaming in frustration. He cradled my neck and kissed me, sweet and gentle, meant to cool me down as he slid the straps of my dress up my arms and over my shoulders.

He pushed his erection against my leg. “Believe me when I tell you that it physically hurts to leave you right now.” He sighed. “Let’s go home.”

I pressed my palms against the wall behind me to keep from reaching out to him. “You better hurry,” I whispered.

With a pained expression on his face, he left the room. I sat on my heels, pressing a hand to my forehead.Love is for fools. What the hell am I doing? I can’t fall for him again.Henry made it so hard to concentrate on anything else.

Come on, focus. The job comes first, always.I was in Paradise Creek for Lisa.

I repeated this mantra a few more times until the humming in my body subsided and I had this…desire for Henry under control. After a few calming breaths, I stood and adjusted my dress.

I hadn’t come to Cavalier Manor to have sex with him. I’d come here to test a theory. To find out if Tessa was guilty or just another victim. Henry was convinced his mom had lied to him all these years. After our encounter with Scott a few nights ago, a small part of me agreed with him. He hadn’t said it, but I was willing to bet that not only did Henry believe Tessa planned all this in complicity with his uncle, he also suspected she had something to do with his dad’s murder as well.

The day Henry and I had come to the manor to rescue Tessa, Henry had been so distraught to find his mom gone we didn’t do a proper sweep of the bedroom. I knew better than that. We hadn’t even checked the bathroom where Tessa kept money stashed away. I went into the bathroom and headed straight to the standing cabinet in the corner, where I went through all the medicine bottles. What exactly was Tessa’s illness that she needed all this crap? I shook all the bottles until I found one that didn’t rattle but was heavy. The date on the bottle was from a few months back. I twisted the cap off and took out a roll of money. If Tessa was the mastermind Henry thought, why would she keep this around?

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