Page 56 of The Oath We Take

I give her what she needs. Lowering my thumb, I can feel the hardened nub through the cotton.

She sighs. “It doesn’t feel right.”

I immediately stop my thumb. “Sorry.”

She reaches between us and grips my wrist, holding me where I was. “Not this. This felt good.”

The tight band around my chest eases. “Thank fuck. For a second, I thought I’d crossed a line. You’ll tell me if I do, right?”

She lets go of my wrist, and I take the opportunity to flip us both so she’s on her back and I’m settled between her legs. “Hudson, I’m serious. I feel like you’re crossing a line, handlingmyissue for me byyougoing out tonight. That’s what doesn’t feel right. If you died for me, I don’t know how I’d live with myself.”

“You’d live with yourself knowing I’d died being the kind of man I want to be.”

I wiggle down the bed a little and run my nose along the damp spot on her panties. Fuck, she smells so good. Musky and sweet. I suck the cotton into my mouth, tasting her essence, and her back arches off the bed.

“Stop distracting me,” she says, even as her hands slide into my hair.

A quick glance at the clock tells me I don’t have time tonight for all the things I want to do to her, but that doesn’t stop me wishing.

The grin comes unbidden as I climb back over her. “Sweetheart. It’s my job to take care of you. It’s my job to take care of this town. There is no version of our future wherein the event there’s a problem, I send you out to do my work for me. You wouldn’t like it if I went and ran your bar for you, would you?”

This time,sheleans up and kissesme. “No.”

“Then let me go do what I’ve got to do.”

“If you’re doing whatyouneed to do, then you need to let me go do whatIneed to. I need to run my business, be present tonight, and make sure my staff are safe. I’ll even let the prospects in with their cuts, if it makes you happy. I’ll wear a concealed carry and stay behind the bar. As long as you promise to not tell Dad, and we both agree it’s just this once.”

“I like negotiating with you, Em.” I slide my hands beneath her ass, and she lifts her knees. “Fuck, I wish we were naked.”

Her arms loop over my neck. “Would you stay home if I said I wish we were naked too?”

“Shit. You put sex on the table every time we negotiate, I’m gonna capitulate more times than I should.”

She chuckles at that, the laughter lines reaching her eyes. “I’m going to remember that.”

With the worst possible timing, there’s the quiet roar of motorcycles as they pull into the lot outside. Charmer and Haynes are coming to keep an eye on the place overnight. Two more will switch out with them at four in the morning.

“My balls are never gonna forgive me,” I mutter.

Ember winces. “Sorry. But I promise to take care of them later.”

“Can’t wait. And you’re probably right. Might be safer for you to be surrounded by a lot of people, tonight. Go down to the bar, but tell your staff so they can be alert for you.”

Ember sighs. “I will.”

“Sorry I don’t have time to follow through on this.” I glance between us, watching my thumb slide over her panties, and see the damp spot has spread. I resist the urge to lean between us and suck on it again. If I do that, there’s no way it doesn’t turn into fucking, and I don’t want our first time to be a rushed and hurried affair.

“Then you’d better come home safe and in one piece so you can. Promise me that, and I promise I won’t take care of this myself while you are gone.” She strokes her fingers over her pussy and bites down on her lip.

The groan escapes unbidden. “That’s just what I need in my head while I ride. The idea of you taking one of my orgasms.”

She grins. “One of yours? You said that the day in the hallway when we…” Her cheeks blush adorably.

“When I made you come? Yeah. They all belong to me. You don’t get to give them to me; I fully intend to take them.”

I lift off her, kneeling on the bed to adjust my jeans. Unable to resist, I lower over her and kiss her one last time. My whole palm cups her pussy, and she pushes firmly against it before groaning.

“When I see you next, I’m gonna lick you out until you come. Who knows, I might even purr like the lion man in your books. And I’m gonna take my second one.”

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