Page 49 of The Last Dance You Saved
First, I’d spend hours giving her the pleasure she deserved. But it would be done my way, on my terms, and I wouldn’t rush it. I caught her wrists, pulled her hands away from me, and leaned up to latch them on the headboard. “These stay here,” I told her.
I watched as she fought her natural instinct, resisting being told what to do, and when she finally gripped the frame on her own, I smiled.
“That’s it, darlin’. Let go. Let me do all the thinking,” I told her.
“Don’t push your luck, Slick,” she tossed back.
I kissed her to shut her up, kissed her because I needed another taste of that honey and smoke before I continued my onslaught of her body. Greedy, she met me lick for lick, slide for slide, and I almost lost focus again. I loved every moment of it. Every desperate attempt to hold on to control and how she was capable of pushing me right up to that edge.
Chapter Seventeen
Sadie
TAKES TWO
Performed by Maren Morris
I watched through half-closed eyesas Rafe pulled his lips from mine and trailed them down my neck and chest before torturing my breasts again in the most delightful way. My body felt hot, needy, ready, and all I wanted was for him to sink into me. To give me release. To pull me up and over the edge I was already frantic to find. And yet, I also loved every second of the denial. The anticipation. The control he was insisting I give to him.
Because he was right. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want my brain to spiral with what we were doing, and what would come after, or the hundred other things I should be doing with my night…my life…
I just wanted to exist in these long minutes where there was nothing but sensation.
Where only pure want and frenzied desire existed.
My hands tightened on the headboard as he continued to slide that sexy mouth over every inch of me. His beard gently scraped along my skin, sending waves of sensation over me, goosebumps bursting along every surface. My breath caught as he nipped at the curve of my belly button just as he pushed aside the single scrap of lace left on my body. A guttural moan, feral and raw, escaped us both at the same time as his fingers brushed over my core.
He’d just dragged the fabric aside, just landed a heated kiss on my center that had me gasping and arching up, when he froze. His hand pressed on my stomach, pushing me into the mattress, and for a second, I thought it was a new sensual demand.Stay still.
But his voice was anything but sexy. It was full of a tension that had nothing to do with carnal activities when he said, “Don’t move.”
The sound hit me next. Not from him but from the other side of the bed. An unmistakable rattle. An unmistakable slither and coiling sound that made my stomach sink as if I’d dived from the cliff above the lake back home when everyone knew it was foolish.
I fought every instinct I had that wanted to turn my head and look at it. Every flight instinct screaming at me to leap from the bed and put distance between me and the snake waiting there.
“It’s pissed,” Rafe said quietly. “At being here as much as at us being too close.” Rafe moved ever so slowly away, and the speed of the rattle increased. I finally couldn’t stop myself from turning to face the danger and saw the snake had its head pulled up and back, ready to strike.
Panic rushed through me. I’d felt this kind of wild fear once before. The time I’d had a gun shoved into my forehead, and I’d known I was going to die. Nothing in my body seemed to function correctly, as if everything was frozen while simultaneously working in overdrive. My naked skin suddenly seemed all sorts of wrong. I’d left myself completely exposed and horribly vulnerable.
“Let go of the headboard, Sadie.” And when I started to bring my arms down, Rafe stopped me with a quick and quiet demand. “Don’t move them. Just let go.”
I did as I was told while trying to control the thunder of my heart.
The black-and-white stripes on the snake were different than the rattlers we had back home, but the sound coming from its tail left no doubt of what it was and what it could do to me. Even knowing it was likely as scared as I was, that it was our reciprocal fear that would have it striking, the reptile still felt evil. Dark eyes watched every breath I took, the long tongue flicking in and out, almost mesmerizing.
Rafe took another slow step back, and my gaze darted to his. I was sure he saw the panic in mine, but he seemed calm, assessing the situation in order to come up with a plan. He was much more collected than me, but then again, it was easier for him to be cool-headed when there was plenty of distance between him and the angry creature. A rattler could leap at least half their body length during a strike, and Rafe was now well out of reach.
The vicious beat of my heart had me scrambling for a breath I was afraid to take, and my vision turned spotty. I fought desperately for a single inhale, trying to be ready for the moment Rafe said it was safe to move, knowing with a surety that stunned me that he would do everything he could to ensure I was unharmed. And that simple thought eased the pressure enough for me to breathe again.
Rafe stepped toward the middle of the footboard, and the snake’s head twisted and turned, the smooth ripple of its body echoing Rafe’s movements. He grabbed the edge of an old quilt slung over the footboard.
“I’m going to count,” Rafe said, his voice a deep, low lull that had the rattler’s tail shaking faster. “And on three, I’m going to toss the blanket over him, and you’re going to roll out of bed.”
His gaze met mine, making sure I’d heard him, making sure I understood. And I did, but I was too afraid to respond. Too afraid to even nod in the slightest. How was I going to get my frozen body to move?
“He’ll strike the blanket, Sadie, because that’s what will be coming at him. He won’t even pay attention to you.”
His voice was composed and sure, but I saw the way his jaw was locked, saw the anger and fear thundering through his dark depths.
