Page 34 of Heartbeats and Hashtags
“I’m your personal security,” I murmur.
I hear her take an sharp inhale of breath. The air feels suddenly heavy around us.
“Is that…all you want to be?” she asks. I know what she’s asking.
I hesitate. My brain telling me one answer and my manhood another.
“I think…it’s for the best.” My voice cracks.
Everly pauses. My whole body is tense.
I wait for Everly’s response. Her directness with the question shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. When I think she’s about to answer, I feel her soft lips caress the back of my neck, her hot breath leaving the hairs at the back on edge.
A low growl escapes my throat.
Oh,fuck. Any resolve left has crumbled,shattered. The excuses for why this is wrong disappear, and all I can think about is how much I want to turn around andshowher how much more I want to be for her. I want to be hereverything.
She’s still kissing my neck, slowly, planting her lips all around the exposed skin. Her hand presses against my abdomen, and my heart beats so fast I wonder if she can hear it. She trails her hand lower, and my breath hitches. She holds my hardness in her hand and lets out a small gasp.
I am completely undone.
I turn quickly, earning another gasp. I smirk. It’s dark in here, but my eyes are adjusting, and I can just make out the whites of her eyes.
No longer resisting, I kiss her. Her mouth is soft, and her lips part, opening for me. I move my hand behind her neck, lightly holding her in place.
I part from her for a moment.
“Is this okay?” I whisper. “We can stop. We don’t have to –”
“Cole,shut upand kiss me again.”
I oblige. This time I don’t hold back. I hold her body tightly against mine. My lips claim hers with a hunger. The world around us fades, leaving only this moment. That is all there is. This momentright now. My fingers tangle in Everly's hair as I deepen the kiss, exploring the contours of her mouth, her tongue dancing with mine.
My hands trail along her body, and I moan, cupping her ass in my hands. The amount of times I have wanted to do that since meeting her is criminal.
I become the leader of our desire, each movement deliberate and commanding. The taste of her, the feel of her responding to my lead—it is intoxicating. Everly moans softly into my lips, giving me all the encouragement I needed that she is OK with this.
As we break the kiss, a shared breath hangs in the air.
I feel her hand drawing down my abdomen to my crotch, but I gently hold it before it reaches. She makes a small noise of irritation. I chuckle low.
“Do you not want…”
“I do,” I reassure her.
I kiss her forehead.
“But…not like this, not now,” I whisper to her. Every cell in my body wants to continue, wants me to bed her, and show her how much I want to. But I know I need to think carefully about how to proceed. We’ve just stepped over a line. Everly is still in danger, and I am still the one assigned to protect her. But now I have tasted her, heard her soft moans…
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let her go.
EVERLY
Ipanic when I wake up wrapped between two strong arms. Then the familiar scent of of subtle wood hits my nose, and I relax. Slowly, memories of what we did last night, the kiss…Ohshit. I’d tried to take it further, but he’d stopped it. I felt my face burn up, feeling like a naughty teenager being caught watching porn on the family computer.
He obviously regrets the kiss, and I can’t blame him. It was stupid of me. There’s no real proof he is even interested in me that way. And kissing your client is probably against the rules. Sure, he had stood up for me at the beach, but isn’t that what any good bodyguard would do? Notice I was uncomfortable and get me out of the situation? There was that moment in our first training session though, and I swear I hadn’t made up the way he looked at me, like I wasprey. But…there was nothing concrete. The rejection last night stung.
Maybe this is all my wild fantasies from fleeting moments. I was feeling lonely and sad, and if you put two horny single people in a bed together, then well…it’s inevitable there will be some action. I decide to save him the embarrassment and me the total mortification of him rejecting me again and I go with the classic tactic of pretending nothing happened. Foolproof.
