Page 36 of Needing You

I traced a winding path up her inner thighs, relishing the way her chest rose and fell against me and her kisses became more frantic as I touched her everywhere but where she wanted. Call me a bastard, but knowing she had me and I’d do whatever she wanted, I needed her to beg for it.

“Will,” she said, frustration edging her words as she bucked against my hand.

I smiled to myself, feeling just as lost to her as she apparently was to me. I’d teased enough, so I stroked her once, then again, until she was wild against me. Giving into a long-held impulse, I dipped my fingers inside her panties and felt her wet and ready, andfuck, she felt so good.

I stroked her, finding a rhythm that she seemed to love based on theyesesandmoresandjust like thats. I pressed one finger inside her, then two. Not long after my thumb found the right spot and made circular motions in that way I still remembered worked like magic for her, she gave a strangled cry and froze, then slumped against me.

Holy god, she’d come, and I wanted the sound and feeling of it memorialized in every art form possible. Cast it in bronze and paint it on the ceiling of a chapel.

I held her to me, every bit of tenderness I owned rushing to my heart while every drop of blood and lust made my cock ache.

And then? Logic rushed in.

I’d just fingered my son’s mother. A woman I’d loved and missed so much it’d gutted me, and we’d been on exactly one date this decade.

Shit.

She sat up, and without looking at me, grabbed for my belt with one hand, rubbing her hand over my rather unignorable erection with the other.

“No, no,” I said, breathless from pleasure and the need to refuse her.

She jerked her hand away. “What? Why? Are you okay?”

Every possible emotion flashed in her eyes—fear, hurt, disappointment, need, self-consciousness.

“I’m…fuck.I’m fucking glorious.”

Her brows pinched. “Then why…”

Damn, I was screwing this up. I held her face in my hands, willing her to understand me even though my words were failing. “We rushed into this before. And that whole year together was full of …fuck, it was amazing, and we got something goddamn perfect out of it, but there was fallout. We were so focused on getting off and feeling good… not a shock for teenagers, but I think we can do it differently this time.”

She let out a breath but nodded.

“I don’t want this to be like that. I can’t do that again. So we’re going to slow down, even though it feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done to myself, and we’re doing this right.”

She smiled but shook her head. “If you want to, and I want to, then I’m not sure it’swrong.”

My rock-hard dick twitched in agreement, but miraculously, I stayed strong. “I get that. But we’ve got time. Let’s see what happens if we—fuck, I can’t believe I’m saying this—take it a little slower.”

Her eyes glittered back at me, and she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close. It didn’t exactly help the situation, but it brought some measure of comfort.

“Okay. We’ll do it your way. For now.”

Denying myself didn’t feel so bad when I saw the heat, the promise, and the hope in her eyes.

17

KATE

“How’s your food?” I asked, approaching the table where my son and his too-hot-for-his-own-good father sat. Too hot formyown good, too, apparently, judging from the way I’d thrown myself at him the other night.

“Great,” Jackson said through a huge mouthful of pancakes. At my narrow-eyed stare, his shoulders hunched slightly, and he muttered, “Sorry.”

“Come on, kid. Your mom wants me to think she taught you some manners somewhere along the way,” Will said, winking at me. And holy mother ofpancakes, that wink shot straight between my legs. He must have seen something in my expression that gave me away, because his full lips pulled into a knowing smile. “It’s good to see you. I had fun with you the other night.”

I cleared my throat, glancing at Jackson. Thankfully, he’d been distracted by a notification on his phone and likely hadn’t heard Will’s suggestive tone. “Um, yes,dinner at your mom’s housewas lovely. Did you thank her again for inviting us?”

“Yes. Twice.”

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