Page 23 of One Night Bride
I frowned and tried to tug her back, but she was stronger than I anticipated. Instead, she rounded the table and gave both my parents a hug. Dad tapped her shoulder awkwardly, and Mom gave a little sigh. When Esme came back over, they’d both melted right there in their chairs. If the pang in my chest was anything like they were feeling, I understood why they now looked at Esme like she was some kind of angel.
She laced her fingers through mine, and as I led her upstairs to my childhood bedroom, I had a realization that almost made me trip on the stairs.
I was developing feelings.
Like, real, big, love-type feelings.
I could picture a long life of nights just like this one, with Esme and my family. My brothers teasing us. Seeing her smiling face at the table. Her giving me shit and then tugging me away to warm a bed together.
The bedroom was dark, so I turned the light on low. Seeing my room through her eyes was a novel experience. I’d slept on that bed and fantasized of girls. Hid dirty magazines in the back of the closet, thinking Mom wouldn’t find them and being shocked when she always did. Paced the floor and dreamed of a business other than ranching.
“Um, so…” Esme turned in a circle, biting that lip of hers and making me hard just to look at her. “There’s only one bed.”
My brain went fuzzy and all I focused on was her. We’d already shared a bed, so I didn’t really see what the problem was, but I could see she obviously had an issue with it.
I stepped up close to her, putting my hands on her tiny waist. Her gaze flew to mine and I saw desire in those chocolatey-brown pools. Fuck. I wanted her. Badly.
“Please don’t attack my naked body when I’m sleeping, okay?”
Her mouth flew open and her eyes flashed. I liked that look better than worry. “Please! More like you’re going to attack me!”
I shrugged, moving her out of the way to get to the bathroom behind her. “At least you’re so mad you didn’t even balk at the fact that I sleep naked.” I moved swiftly into the bathroom and shut the door in the nick of time.
A loud thunk against the wood had me thinking she’d just thrown one of my own boots at me. I grinned, happier than I’d been in a long time. When I came out—with boxers on, unfortunately—she was already tucked into bed, wrapped in the comforter like a mummy. The lump of her body was teetering precariously off the edge of the bed.
This fucking grin wouldn’t leave my face.
I slid into bed, reaching down to squeeze the shit out of my dick. He was thinking he was about to get lucky again. My arms itched to reach out and pull Esme to me. To bury my nose in her hair and breathe her in. To keep pretending that this was all real. Somehow I drifted off to sleep with the scent of Esme all around me, but not touching me, and my erection permanent.
I woke with the first ray of sun, my body tuned to farm hours whether I liked it or not. Something tickled my nose. I swiped the hair away, only to find my other arm out of commission with a human barnacle glued to my side. I looked down to find Esme blowing a puff of air against my chest as she slept half on top of me.
Fuck, I liked that.
She was warm, and soft, and exquisitely beautiful. She could be so fierce and tough in the daytime, snapping at me, giving orders to her assistants, and keeping me on my toes…when she wasn’t stepping on them. Seeing her innocent and relaxed was a tempting peek into the real Esme. The twenty-four-year-old who still had her entire life ahead of her.
Shit, now my erection was the thing of legends, rock hard and pulsing with a desperate need to be inside this woman. To know her intimately all over again, this time with my ring on her finger. She stirred, maybe from hearing the thunder of my heart below her ear. I froze, anticipating her reaction. She might freak and roll right out of bed. I wasn’t awake when she left my bed in Tahoe, so I wasn’t sure if she’d been horrified or reluctant.
From my vantage point, I saw her eyelids blinking her awake. Her fingers jumped where they lay on my chest, then they began to slide back and forth, exploring my skin. I felt her touch all the way to the tips of my toes, the sensation doing absolutely nothing to dull the erection. Her fingers slid south, tracing the lines of my stomach before they swooped down to the waistband of the boxers I’d worn to bed to keep her from freaking out.
I hissed out a breath and nearly came right there, which would have been an embarrassing performance to say the least. Also similar to how things went growing up in this bedroom, but not the kind of thing I wanted to be doing at twenty-eight years old. Reaching down, I grabbed her wrist and flipped us over, settling between her legs before she had a chance to protest. It took all the willpower I’d ever possessed to keep from grinding my cock against the warm nestle of her body.
“Good morning, honeypoo,” I drawled, loving her sleepy look. She had a red spot on the side of her cheek where she’d been pressed up against me. Her hair wasn’t perfectly styled like usual. She looked sexier for it.
Her lips tilted up in a sweet smile and my dick finally took a back seat. I didn’t care so much about getting in her pants as much as seeing that smile lobbed in my direction every damn day. I leaned down and closed the two-inch gap, pressing my lips to hers to see if they tasted as sweet as they looked. She gasped against my mouth and then launched into the kiss, her hands coming up to sink her fingers into my hair. She tugged, and I groaned. She tangled her tongue with mine and I nearly shot right off the bed.
This was definitely not what I expected when she woke up.
But I’d take full advantage of it and do what I didn’t get a chance to do in Tahoe.
My hands trailed down her torso, lifting the sorry excuse for a tank top that covered her. I cupped her breast and kissed down her neck. Her leg came up to hitch over my waist and she shamelessly lifted her hips to grind against my cock. I fucking loved it. I loved everything about her body, the way she responded to me, and the way she filled out a pant suit. She’d been perfect in a public bathroom and she’d be perfect in my childhood bedroom.
Hitting her breasts, I nipped at her through the cotton with my teeth, leaving a wet spot as her nipples puckered. She moaned, and I shifted lower on her body, pushing the covers back and exposing the pajama shorts she wore.
“Seagulls?” I asked gruffly, more turned on than I thought I’d ever been.
She sucked in a breath, her breasts rising and falling fast like she’d been running a marathon in her dreams. “It’s an Auburn Hill thing.”
I didn’t care. She could have worn little blue aliens on her pajamas and it wouldn’t have changed how I felt about her. Plus, she wasn’t going to be wearing them much longer, anyway. I pulled them down her legs until they bunched around her ankles. My shoulders shoved her thighs apart, and I thanked my broad physique for spreading her wide open for me. A tiny triangle of hair arrowed down to the essence of her, where she was already wet and aching. Hot damn, my girl was wetter than an otter’s pocket for me.
