Page 80 of Knocked Up in Alaska

When at last…at last…she closed her lips around him and took him into her mouth in torturous increments, the voice in his head sighed, Lilah, I love you. Out loud he simply groaned her name and sank his hand into her hair. He allowed himself that one solitary grasp at control while he forced himself to stand there like a gentleman and let her have her way. But the heat of her mouth, the slide of her lips, the strokes of her hands—it was quickly becoming too much. Too hard to hold on or hold back.

“Lilah…Lilah…honey…”

She paused, reversed course, then tipped her head up until wide, questioning eyes met his. “Not good?”

Despite his current state of agony, he laughed. “So good. Perfect.” Her proud smile made him want to surrender everything just to keep it there, but they didn’t have a lot of time tonight. A second round probably wasn’t in the cards. “Now, it’s my turn.”

“But”—her brows slanted with confusion—“don’t you want me to…um…finish?”

Or he could just fucking come where he stood. Instead, he reached down, got his hands on her hips, and scooted her until he could lay her back on the bed. Then he crawled over her, straddled her hips, and took hold of the hem of her sweater. “I’d rather finish together.”

Apparently, she was willing to be persuaded, because she raised her arms and twisted helpfully as he peeled it from her, then lay back against his bedspread, breathing heavy. The sight of her spread out before him, expectant, flushed with anticipation pulled him back from the dangerous brink he’d been on. He could find patience, for her. He could find self-control.

Starting now. Running a fingertip along the edge of her bra cup, he asked, “On or off?”

“I guess I can take it off.” She lifted her hands to do the honors, but he brushed them away.

“Let me,” he said, teasing her with her own words from earlier. Turning his attention to her bra, he freed her breasts from the stretchy contraption by releasing the line of three hooks up the front, then parted the fabric to bare that bounty. She lifted her hands to cover herself, but he caught her wrists and clamped them above her head with one hand. That move earned him a slightly shocked look.

“Hey, Lilah?”

Her look turned distinctly nervous. “Yes?”

“I love your body, too.” So saying, he trailed his fingertip from the plush cushion of her lower lip, along her throat, between her gorgeously full breasts, and down the center line of her torso until he reached the button on her shorts.

She shivered from his trialing touch. Her skin broke out in goose bumps. Her nipples tightened. But she raised her chin a notch and looked at him from beneath long, low eyelids. Not shy now, but imperious. “Then take it,” she said, “and show me.” She even shifted her hips impatiently.

It would take a stronger man than he to deny her. He tugged the button open, then released her hands to lower the zipper. She came up on her elbows to watch as he eased away to slide her shorts and underwear down her long, smooth legs. With a flick of her foot, they landed in a linen-wrinkling tumble on his floor. He cupped her calves and ran his hands up the backs of her legs as he crawled between them.

That wasn’t what she’d expected. He knew by the way she sat up. Since they were within his reach now, he kissed her soft, slack lips. “I love these. And this.” He turned his head slightly and placed the lightest of kisses over her heart.

Air left her lungs in a breathy exhale. Her hand found the back of his neck. Her fingers speared into his hair. She didn’t stop him, though, so he continued the lazy expedition down her body, while her fingers loosened and tightened against his scalp and her breaths grew increasingly uneven.

“I love this.” He lowered his head and nipped the curve of her waist. “This,” he went on and placed an open-mouthed kiss on her stomach, just above her belly button. “This.” He hitched one of her legs over his shoulder and kissed the water-soft skin of her inner thigh.

“Oh…”

Both her hands were in his hair now. Good. He hitched her other leg over his shoulder and kissed her other thigh. Maybe the thought of all her new options, her probable trajectory once she grew accustomed to having them, got the better of him, but while she murmured, “Oh…oh…oh…” he applied himself hard enough, deep enough, to leave a pink mark on the delicate skin. Just a tiny reminder that they were still sinking their teeth into each other. For now. Impermanence might be a fact of life and trying to hold onto someone who’d never gotten the chance to be free struck him as the worst kind of selfish, but that little trace of him would linger on her for a few days. She’d see it. Touch it. Remember him putting it there, and maybe that memory would draw her back to him a time or two more. He couldn’t let himself hold too tightly, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from hoping for a few more crumbs of her time before she moved on to chase the goals she’d had before she’d had him.

He prepared to lean in and kiss the spot again, but she ran her finger over it. He looked up and tumbled into her eyes. “Hurts?”

She shook her head. “No. It makes me want…” Her cheeks went suddenly pink. “I don’t know what I want. It just makes me want things. Badly.”

He shifted her legs, straightened until they were face-to-face, and applied his mouth to hers, giving it the same type of attention he’d lavished on her thigh. When they broke apart, they were both breathing heavy.

“Still wanting,” she gasped and touched her kiss-swollen lips.

That absent little touch was going to undo him. “It makes me want, too. I’ll show you what it makes me want.” With that, he sat back on his heels, leaned in to shoulder his way between her parted legs, and dipped his head, but before he could move in on the target, she clamped her hands between her thighs.

“Oh, no. I don’t think that’s…”

He rested his hands on her open thighs, lightly but insistently, and looked up at her nervous face.

And why wouldn’t she be nervous, you ass? You just roughed her up.

“I’ll be gentle.”

“It’s not that.” The pink swept back into her face, but she didn’t move her hands. “I…uh…don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, a baby and stuff just came through there not all that long ago.”

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