Page 177 of Branded
But…bed.
That’s where I wanted her for the first time.
All spread out with plenty of light overhead so I could see every luscious inch of her.
So I moved, carrying her up the remaining stairs, looking through open doors until I found her bedroom, flicking on the lights and bringing us both across the space in efficient quick steps.
Then she was on her back on the mattress.
And then I was on top of her, my weight braced on my hands.
Hell fucking yeah.
“Raph?” she asked tentatively, and I wondered if it was more worry because of the pregnancy, because of the changes in her body, because she wasn’t sure what would or wouldn’t feel good in this moment.
So even as I pressed my nose to her throat, inhaled that soft fruity, floral scent, I made a vow that if the tentative came from that, then I was going to make it my fucking job to show her how beautiful she was, how much I wanted her, babies in her belly or not. “Yeah, sugarpie?”
A pause that had me lifting my head, staring into her face as she warred with something.
But just as quickly as I’d noticed it, the battle ended.
“Will you kiss me again?” she asked softly.
My lips tipped up. “Yeah, honey.”
Then I sat back.
Her brows lifted, dragged together. “Um, Raph?”
Fuck, I liked the sound of my name on her lips. My feet hit the floor and I kicked off my shoes. “Yeah?”
“I thought you were gonna kiss me.” Quiet words that had my dick twitching.
I reached for the button of my slacks, flicked it open, shoved them down and stepped out of them. “I am.”
“Just saying”—her voice was tinged with confusion—“that’s not you kissing me.”
“No,” I agreed, retrieving my wallet from my slacks, tossing it on the nightstand before working on the buttons of my shirt.
Her gaze caught on my chest as I peeled the fabric open.
Yeah, I liked that.
Probably too fucking much, considering I was a year out from being in a woman and just the feel of her eyes on my body brought me dangerously close to the edge of my control.
Probably too fucking much, considering I was nearly willing to go full striptease on her if it meant those hot blue eyes stayed glued to my body.
But I had a mind to kiss her.
I had a mind to kiss her somewhere very specific.
So I dropped the shirt to the floor, moved back to the bed, and instead of crawling up next to her and slanting my mouth over hers, I reached for the tag of the zipper that ran the entire inside of her boot and began sliding it down, revealing her creamy skin inch by inch.
“Raph?”
“Hmm?” I’d reached her ankle and shifted, pressing my mouth to the opening I’d created at the top, parting the leather and dragging my tongue down her leg, nibbling along the flesh of her thigh, dipping down behind her knee, finding a sensitive spot there that had her squirming. Then continuing to part that fabric, kissing along her calf, that delicate bone at her ankle, slipping the boot from her foot.
A kiss to the top of her foot, to each of the toes polished in a bright red color that matched that red lipstick of hers that drove me crazy.
