Page 10 of Dreaming of Us

As we stood to leave, Kristy came back over. “Bye, Colton. Have a pleasant night.” I saw her glance at me from the corner of her eye before she said her next words. “Tell Katy I said hello.”

“I don’t talk to Katy anymore,” Colton said gruffly as he took my hand and turned to walk away.

“Really? After what I heard a couple of years ago, I thought you and she?—”

“We don’t talk anymore. Have a good night.”

I was surprised at Colton’s clipped tone, but the way he’d cut off her words had a little shiver of something I couldn’t quite name run through me. When he put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, though, I nestled into his warm embrace.

As we passed a table on our way to the exit someone calling out my name had us pausing. “Miss Braylin! Don’t you look lovely tonight!”

Mrs. Arbuckle was sitting with her son and daughter-in-law. I was so relieved to see her face with a healthy shade of pink on it. She looked much better than the last time I saw her.

“Mrs. Arbuckle. You look wonderful.” I smiled down at her as she waved her hand in the air.

“You can’t keep an old battle axe like me down.”

“Thank you for protecting my mother.” Mr. Arbuckle Jr. stood from his seat and placed a kiss on my cheek. At Colton’s growl from beside me, Mr. Arbuckle Jr. pulled back and held out his hand with a chuckle. “No harm intended. I am just very thankful that Mother had a guardian angel watching out for her that day.”

Colton took his proffered hand with a grunt. “My girl is definitely something special.”

“Well, we don’t want to keep you. Have a wonderful night, you two.”

We said our goodnights and walked out of the restaurant. As soon as we were both buckled up and Colton was backing out of his parking space, I looked over at him with one eyebrow raised.

“Did you seriously growl at that man old enough to be my father?”

Colton’s grin was wolfish, his teeth bared, and the white gleaming in the parking lot lights. “I don’t like seeing another man touching what’s mine.”

I considered his words, wondering if I should put them in the red flag category, but decided that I didn’t mind his jealousy over me. Not one bit. “That’s good,” I murmured as I stared at his handsome profile. “I don’t think I’d like another woman touching what’s mine, either.”

He made a low sound and took my hand in his, linking our fingers together before bringing our joined hands to his lips. His warm breath fanned over my fingertips. He kissed the tip of one, and then another. I watched, my mouth slightly open as I panted as he kissed each finger. By the time he was done, my whole body was trembling.

“Tell me something, sweetheart,” Colton asked in a gravelly voice.

My answer was a breathy whisper. “What?”

“Are you wet for me?”

“Oh god,” I panted, squeezing my thighs together as my free hand clutched my skirt into a tight fist. “Yes.”

I was too worked up to pay attention to where we were going, but when Colton lifted his hand to push a button on his visor I looked through the windshield to see he pulled into the driveway of a lovely ranch-style home. I wasn’t able to take in much before he had pulled into the garage and shut off the engine.

Colton pushed the button again, and the garage door closed, trapping us inside the dimly lit garage. Before I could extract myself from the seatbelt holding me in place, Colton was already yanking my door open. I let out a gasp as he grasped my hand firmly and pulled me to my feet and away from his car. The car door shut with a loud thud, making me jump, and then his hands were around me, picking me up from the concrete floor.

He only walked a few steps before I found myself sitting on the warm hood of the car. I could hear the engine ticking under the hood as Colton’s mouth descended onto mine, stealing my breath away. Kissing him was nothing like how I had dreamed of a million times. It was so much better.

He consumed me as his tongue demanded entrance into my mouth, and then took possession of it. There wasn’t a single inch that he didn’t claim. My heart was beating so hard as his tongue swept over mine that I wondered if he could hear it over my whimpers.

As he broke the kiss and began sliding his lips over my cheek and down my jaw. He growled low. “I can’t wait, baby. I need to taste you. I’m dying to have your taste on my tongue before I claim you.”

I let out a strangled cry of consent when he paused at my neck. As soon as he heard me, his teeth grazed over the sensitive skin there, making goosebumps dance over my arms. “Good girl.”

I wasn’t going to survive. I was going to melt into a puddle of need, and want, and bliss before I ever got to feel what it was like to have Colton Hammond inside of me.

“I wish I had known you years ago.” His words were muffled as he made his way into my cleavage. “I would have moved heaven and hell to have you by my side.” He pulled at my dress and made a satisfied grunt when it stretched enough to slide down over my breasts to expose the black lacey bra I had worn.His hot mouth descended over my nipple, pulling it with his teeth before laving it with his tongue. “I’m never letting you go, Braylin.”

A sob left my chest as I gripped his hair in my fists. I tilted my head head to the ceiling and stared with unseeing eyes as I felt him tug the cup of my bra down as he moved to my other breast. Then his wet mouth bathed my nipple in heat that had my core pulsing with need. I never knew that it could feel like this. It was as if there was a direct link to my clit as he nipped and sucked at my nipple.

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