Page 50 of Whisper of Surrender (Whisper Lake 2)

CHAPTER 15

By the time the door closed behind them in the hotel room, Jess’s entire body was engulfed in flames of desire. She stopped in the middle of the room as uncertainty overwhelmed her. She knew what she wanted to happen. There was no ambiguity on that front. Her challenge was not to let her mind wander to what the aftermath of this decision would be.

Ethan stopped behind her and slid his jacket off of her shoulders. Her inner muscles clenched with need as she watched his reflection through the glass of the window as he folded the garment and laid it over a chair. She knew she had it bad when seeing him do something as simple as that made her tingle from the inside out.

His hand traveled up her bare back and the heat from his fingertips danced along the base of Jess’s spine. Her hair was half up and half down. He gently brushed the pieces that fell over her shoulder off, revealing her neck. When he did, Jess automatically tilted her head to the side, offering herself up to him like he was Edward and she was Bella from Twilight.

His lips brushed the tender skin at the base of her shoulder, and she shivered beneath his light kisses. He continued traveling up her neck and stopped just below her ear.

“Ethan?”

“Do you want me to stop?” He whispered against her ear, his lips grazing the sensitive area.

“No. Don’t stop.” Needing to touch him, she reached behind her and gripped his thighs. She felt the tension in his body amp up as his muscles clenched beneath her fingers.

His lips continued moving down her neck. “This, right here, this is where I’ve always wanted to kiss.”

“You’ve always wanted to kiss me there?”

“Yes. Here.” He pressed his lips to the hollow area. “And a lot more places.”

The low, gravelly quality of his voice penetrated through her. She didn’t just feel Ethan’s mouth on her body physically, she felt it in her soul. So much of today had been a whirlwind of emotion, and it seemed to be getting even stronger. There was a tornado of feelings whipping through her.

His hand slid lower, over her hip and then beneath her skirt. Her body trembled beneath his self-assured touch as his fingers traveled up her leg, taking the material of her dress with him. Her bare skin pebbled with goosebumps as the cool air of the hotel room hit it.

Luckily, she had Ethan’s body to warm her, and he was getting hotter by the second. She could feel his temperature spike as waves of heat radiated off of him. His lips caressed her skin in open mouth kisses, and his breaths grew shallower with each second that passed.

His hand dipped between her legs and brushed over the thin fabric of her lace panties. She watched his fingers graze her most sensitive area in the mirror and her knees buckled. Not wanting to be the only one losing themselves in this slow seduction, she shifted forward slightly so she could slide her hand up and over the bulge that had been pressing into her back.

He inhaled sharply as her fingers molded around the thickness of his erection. The next thing she knew she’d been spun around so she was facing him and his mouth crashed down on hers. Her lips opened on a gasp and Ethan drove his tongue into her like a conqueror claiming new lands.

She grew dizzy with lust with each pass of his tongue and grasped his broad shoulders to anchor herself to him and to this moment. Her body ached as she writhed against him, trying to get as close to him as humanly possible.

Wild need crashed into her with unrelenting, punishing force.

“I want…to feel…you…your…every­thing,” she stammered between kisses as she tugged at his shirt with a jerky, unsuccessful effort.

But, thankfully, her lack of suave moves turned out not to be an issue.

With David-Blaine-level skill, Ethan not only stripped himself of his shirt but he also liberated her from her dress, taking it up and over her head before she even knew what was happening. She was still reeling from his magic act when she noticed that her bra had joined the growing pile of discarded clothes on the ground.

Jess had never been a girl, teen, or woman that worried about her weight. She’d been underweight most of her life, and the doctors were always suggesting that she put on ten to fifteen pounds. After her heart transplant two years ago, she’d finally been able to reach a weight that was considered in the “healthy” range, and she liked having a little bit more curve to her hips, thighs, and even belly.

Her body issues were centered around the scars that lined her chest. She’d undergone two open-heart surgeries as a baby, one as an adolescent and then the (hopefully) final surgery, her heart transplant, as an adult.

She wasn’t ashamed of her scars, and she didn’t try and hide them with turtlenecks or high collared shirts. And this wasn’t the first time that she’d been topless with a man. But it was the first time she cared about what the man who was looking at her thought, and that pissed her off. Her hands curled in fists at her sides as she felt her insecurity gain momentum.

Take a picture, it lasts longer,or something equally as lame and defensive was on the tip of her tongue when Ethan dipped his head and pressed his lips to the top of her newest scar that ran down the center of her chest. The others were faded and barely visible, but that one still got red when her blood was flowing and right now, her blood was flowing.

She looked down at the top of his head and felt his fingers grip her lower back, holding her in place as he kissed his way down the discolored, raised, mark. There was such tenderness, such care, such awe in the way his mouth grazed her skin that her eyes started filling with tears.

He tortured her with such light pressure that if she weren’t watching the contact with her own eyes, she wouldn’t be sure it was really happening.

His mouth moved up and down all four of her scars, several times. He kept his hand firmly in the center of her back as he made his way around each of her breasts, circling them with as much reverence as he had her scars.

As sweet and loving as her mind was interpreting his actions, her body was responding to it as slow, deliberate torture. A deep, throbbing need pulsed in between her legs and she heard desperate sounds coming from the back of her throat.

She and Ethan’s relationship had always been a game of tug-of-war, and this encounter was no different. Except this was next-level. It was like all the years between their first kiss and this night had been foreplay, and it was all coming to a head.

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