Page 67 of In Colton's Custody (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

rom between hers and uncurled his fingers, a lump formed in her throat. Had he refused the comfort she’d offered and needed as much as he seemed to? He surprised her, though, as he leaned closer. Those work-roughened hands that she’d been unable to forget since that first time he’d touched her glided up her arms on the outside of her robe until they came to rest on her shoulders.

His fingertips pressed into her flesh as he drew her to him. Then he closed his eyes and dipped his head to take control of the kiss, brushing his lips over hers several times before tracing the line between her lips with the tip of his tongue. She opened for him on a sigh.

He claimed her mouth with desperation, but she was no docile passenger on the journey, her need strong-arming her judgment, her patience stretched taut and then fraying. Asher painted a line of nips along her jaw, up the side of her neck and to that sensitive place behind her ear.

“You’re so amazing,” he breathed against her damp skin.

She wasn’t sure when she’d gone from kissing him while seated to standing and facing him. When had her robe wrestled its way open again, her bare feet becoming sandwiched between his boots? When had she begun to find those boots sexy, anyway? She didn’t care as she stretched up to meet him when he dipped his head to take her mouth again.

Her arms scaled his and wrapped around his neck as she fit herself intimately to him, each feminine curve finding its home in the unyielding planes and the impatient fullness of him. While one of his hands remained at the small of her back, anchoring her to him and making her certain of his desire, the other hand slid inside her robe.

His fingers skimmed the side of her nightie over the lower curve of her breast, her waist and her hip, awakening skin that strained for his touch. Then he slid his hand around her, splaying his fingers over the fullness of her bottom.

It wasn’t enough. Willow wanted more. She wanted everything that Asher Colton was willing to give.

When he broke off another heady kiss, she let out a frustrated moan. Asher smiled against her cheek.

“You’re killing me, Willow. I haven’t wanted anyone like this—well, in a long time.” He cleared his throat, straightening slightly. “Tell me to go home if you don’t want to do this. Just say the word and I’ll leave.”

“I don’t...want that.”

Immediately, Asher’s arms went up as if he was facing a police officer’s weapon, and then he lowered them to his sides and stepped back.

Willow blinked several times. What had just happened? She’d struggled to get the words out, but she’d said them, right? She’d said she didn’t want him to leave. Had he changed his mind? Then her own words repeated in her head. I don’t...want that. She swallowed. He’d misunderstood, she’d misspoken, or some crazy combination of the two.

“Sorry.” He didn’t meet her gaze as he backed up farther. “Um, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Asher, wait.”

He paused. “Look, this is embarrassing enough. Can we just—”

“Please, listen. That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”

This time he faced her and waited. “Well, what did you mean?”

“I was trying to say that I didn’t want you to go.”

He drew his brows together as if he couldn’t trust what he’d heard.

“What are you saying?”

She cleared her throat and lifted her chin. “I want you to stay.”

Chapter 19

Asher didn’t bother with words as he reached her in three long strides, his mouth taking hers before his arms had even closed around her waist. She responded to his kiss with a desperation that inspired him and terrified him at the same time.

Was this the two of them just trying to escape their fears over answers that tomorrow would bring and situations that would never be as easy to navigate as she’d promised they would be? No, he wouldn’t think about those things then, not with lovely Willow wrapping herself around him, inviting him in. There was no way in hell he wouldn’t accept her invitation.

“How about we relocate?”

“Sounds...good.”

He grinned at her breathless response as her fingertips pressed into his back.

Without asking where to go, he scooped her up in his arms and headed for the closed door of the only room he hadn’t visited in her apartment. Her bedroom.

“Always the gentleman cowboy, aren’t you?” she asked as he turned the knob.

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