Page 106 of Threat of Danger
She looped her arms around his neck and began moving over the hard, throbbing length of him. Were they too close to the fire? He felt ready to burst into flames.
“I don’t think I ever stopped being in love with you,” he told her.
She stopped and searched his expression. “I didn’t think you were in love with me in the first place.”
“I was too stupid to know. I didn’t figure it out until I was in the navy. Out of everything at home, I missed you the most.”
She closed her eyes.
“Did you miss me?” he asked.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. “I didn’t allow myself to think about you.”
“But now you know you always loved me?”
“Is it enough if I know that I’m falling for you right now?”
“I’ll take what I can get.” He took her lips.
What they were doing went miles beyond just sex. He hadn’t known until this moment what he’d been looking for when he’d returned home. He knew now. He’d been looking for Jess. And she was here, in his arms.
And he still didn’t have a freaking condom!
He’d bought two boxes after the last time: one for his bedroom, one for his car. Neither of them was doing him any good right now. Jess had no idea how close she was to seeing a grown man cry.
He brought her to completion with his fingers, and when her sweet body contracted around him, he lost it and surrendered to his own pleasure, making a sticky mess of her thighs.
Long seconds passed before he gathered himself enough to clean her off with a handful of fallen leaves. They were replete, breathing hard, and grinning like idiots when a loud noise came from the woods: branches breaking, rocks rolling underfoot.
“Sasquatch!” She leaped up and dragged on his damp shirt.
Derek grabbed the thickest branch at hand and stepped between her and any possible coming danger.
Zak stomped out of the woods. “Jesus, man!”
“Sorry.” Derek dropped the branch and cupped his privates to cover them.
Jess stepped in front of him. He dragged his pants on behind her back while she explained how they’d fallen into the river.
When she finished, she asked Zak, “So that was you calling out in the woods earlier?”
Derek came around her. “We thought it might be a bear.”
“Oh, no.” A dreamy smile spread on Zak’s face. “That was Bertie. One of the friendlier squatch. Hasn’t shown himself to me yet, but we’ve been talking for a while now.”
He turned toward the woods and let out a sound so grating it could strip the bark from the trees. A sound very much like the one they’d heard earlier.
So itwasZak, Derek thought, shooting Jess a smug look but politely saying nothing. He’d just had the best sex of his life. He could afford to be magnanimous.
Except, a second or two later, Bertie answered back.
“Holy goose bumps shitcrackers,” Jess whispered, nearly climbing onto Derek’s back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tuesday
“WOULD YOU MINDradioing the police?” Jess asked Zak, pretending that she wasn’t freaking out completely.
