Page 59 of Last Chance Love

Yet I hesitated when our lips nearly touched, and I could feel his breath for a moment before stopping, and I knew he was holding his breath. It was one of those things I remembered in a sudden blast of understanding and memory. It was something I remembered him doing many times in the past. It was one of those things he only did when he was extremely excited and trying to keep himself in check. It had always been a sign when we were together that it was a green light for me to push him as hard as I wanted.

Maybe it was easier to tell myself it was impossible to stop once I’d started, or maybe that was just a convenient excuse. It didn’t matter, though, because I still closed the distance between us and let our lips touch. Our lips were dry and a little chapped from the dry air we were constantly exposed to, and I was betting my breath wasn’t exactly fresh after not getting the chance to brush my teeth the night before or after I was dragged out of bed by Mona.

Yet right then, it was just the two of us, alone in the cabin and free to enjoy this moment. I slid my hand down to grip his shoulder and hold him in place while I continued the kiss, neither of us moving. It was soft and gentle, our lips pressing together when he finally leaned forward. I had to turn my head so our faces wouldn’t mash against one another.

His hands found my waist, and he squeezed gently, his breath a familiar shuddering sound that sent a shiver down my spine. It was difficult not to simply pull him back onto the bed with me where we could see what else was the same between us, but I knew better. I had already pushed things farther than I meant to, and he was in no state for the sort of things I wanted to do to him.

Which was enough to remind me that this was the time for me to back off before things got too heated. I slowly pulled my hands from his shoulder, placing them in his lap so I could push myself up. His body went rigid, his breath catching again, and I went still as my hand came to rest on his thigh, and my fingers found the distinct, very hard outline of his cock.

Not that I was surprised, he had always been a sucker for getting kissed, and it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of room to talk when the confines of my pants were snugger than usual. Our eyes opened as I slowly pulled my mouth from his, feeling a faint ache in my chest at the distance between us.

My fingers had a mind of their own, it seemed, and I found myself stroking back and forth as far as they would go along his shaft. His eyelids fluttered at my touch, and I heard the faintest noise from his throat. It was all too easy to realize that even if I couldn’t doeverythingI wanted, it wouldn’t be difficult to do other things. I only needed to get on my knees between his legs, open his pants, and?—

“Oooookay,” he breathed softly, bringing his hands from my hips and placing them over mine. His fingers wrapped around my hand and gently nudged it back, and with a disappointed reluctance, I slid them down to his knees and pushed back onto my chair.

“Sorry,” I said, even as I had to fight to keep my eyes above his waistline.

He gave me a wry smile and a shake of his head. “I wasn’t exactly fighting to push you away?”

That was true. After all, he had drawn me in and wasn’t the quickest when I’d started feeling him up. “Well, I should probably try not to take advantage of a guy in pain and on meds.”

“Weren’t you the one who said the meds wouldn’t make me loopy?”

“It’s the principle.”

“And I don’t think the pill has set in. Weirdly enough, thatdidease the pain a bit.”

“Hormones and blood flow, maybe shifting around a bit,” I said with a snort, not ducking my head like I wanted to because I knew where I’d look.

“Yeah, the blood is still flowing,” he said, reaching down with his uninjured hand. I couldn’t help but trace his movements as he gripped his still hard cock and shifted it in his pants. Undoubtedly, to get it into a more comfortable position but that didn’t stop the internal twitch inside me, the desire for it to be my hand instead. “Pervert.”

I laughed, pulling my head up to look him in the eye. “You did that on purpose. You always liked to mess with me in situations where I couldn’t do anything about it. I used to think you had an exhibitionist kink or something.”

“I most definitely do not,” he said with a snort.

“No, but you got off on teasing the crap out of me, which I figured out after a while,” I shrugged. “I didn’t mind.”

His eyes twinkled with amusement. “No, you never did seem to mind much from what I remember.”

I remembered a few things, but I wasn’t going to start remembering his naked body and the things we learned to do with it right now. I was already too revved up. Pushing myself even further would be a form of torture I wasn’t willing to experience.

“Still, sorry,” I said with a shrug, not knowing what else to say.

“Are you really sorry?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

I opened my mouth and then stopped as I remembered the first, hurried kiss we’d had when he’d practically dove at me. It had been a little mean to string him along for a second, but watching him flounder in the horror and embarrassment of what he’d done had been too damn adorable. I remembered feeling like I wanted to live in that moment forever, which lasted only as long as it took me to kiss him back, and thenthatwas where I wanted to live forever in my mind.

Come to think of it, there were a lot of moments like that.

“Ass,” I told him affectionately before sitting back in my seat, glad my dick decided to calm down now nothing was happening and I could sit comfortably again. “Fresh coffee? Should be enough for a couple more cups.”

“Sure,” he said, surprising me with the lack of angst or drama. If anything, he seemed more at ease, which was a strange thought.

I got up to refill the cups, and sure enough, there was just enough in the pot for us both. I cleaned the pot before setting in a new filter with grounds and refilling the machine so it could be used the following day with just the flick of a switch.

When I came back, that same sense of calmness was about him as I sat down and looked at him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. Of course, that was easier said than done, and his eyes were locked on the window, looking out over his bed onto the plains just outside the ranch’s borders. It looked positively roasting outside, but the air conditioning unit built into the cabin seemed to be doing a better job than the one in mine, so it was comfortable inside.

“I don’t want you to think I stopped you because I didn’t like it or because I thought there was something wrong with it,” he said after a moment, finally pulling his eyes back to mine. “Honestly, I don’t know what to feel about what happened.”

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