Page 50 of Hero Unbound

Not that it seemed like he was going anywhere.

She let out a soft moan as he licked the skin along the side of her neck, before gently nipping the lobe of her ear with his teeth. He threaded his fingers into her hair, and she waited for the pull—the sting of pain as he positioned her how he wanted her.

But instead, his fingers massaged her scalp in gentle circles, careful not to touch the bump where the hail had hit her. The massage wasn’t a sexual move, but hell if it didn’t cause heat to flood through her even more. She could feel her nipples harden against his smooth chest.

“As much as I could stay here and taste you for the rest of the night,” he muttered, “I’m thinking a bed might be better suited for my purposes.”

Eva nodded, but some of the heat inside her cooled. It wasn’t easy for her to get turned on and, generally speaking, being on a bed didn’t help.

He smiled. “Or at least a little more sanitary than doing what I want to do to you here in the middle of the kitchen where everyone eats. One word about that gets out and I’ll never be able to live it down.”

She glanced around. He was right. She’d forgotten they were in the kitchen and her naked ass was on the counter. She tried to scoot away from him. “I can wipe this down with some bleach wipes or something.”

He put his forehead against hers. “Later. Right now, bedroom.”

She looked over at the dogs still sleeping soundly in the middle of the living room. “I guess we need to lock them in the closet.”

Theo’s fingers that had been trailing down her arms froze. “They seem pretty zonked out. Why don’t we just leave them here?”

“Really?”

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “Do they, um, get upset when they hear you having sex?”

Her face was burning again. “No, I don’t think I make much noise.”

His eyes narrowed. “Then why would we lock them in a closet? It will just upset them, and probably you too.”

She stared at him for a moment. How had she never seen that? Gareth had always insisted on putting Spice and Sugar in the tiny broom closet, but he hadn’t done it because of any poor behavior on the dogs’ part. He’d done it because he knew it would throw both her and the dogs off-balance.

Yet another thing she’d missed. Or refused to see.

“You’re right. They’re fine exactly where they are.”

“Hey.” He pressed her chin up so they were eye to eye. “You okay?”

There was still so much she couldn’t explain to him. And honestly, even if she could, she wouldn’t want to. There was no way he’d want to be with her if he understood it all.

She let out a sigh. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Stopping is totally fine. Now or at any point.”

She nodded. Stopping wasn’t really what she wanted, but she’d used up every bit of her bravery dropping that towel. She couldn’t figure out how to explain to him how confused she was. How every time she found a broken piece of who she’d let herself become, she hated herself a little more.

He pressed his lips softly against one of her eyes and then the other. “I will stop for any reason, I give you my word. But if you don’t want to stop, then you should know that I would very much like to keep going.”

She let out a small sigh as he brushed his lips softly against her cheek. Her forehead. Her nose.

“Whatever happened just a second ago,” he continued. “Whatever realization you came to…it’s okay. It’s okay to have made mistakes in our past. It’s okay that sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.”

“You don’t understand how bad it was.”

The kisses continued, forcing her to keep her eyes closed since his lips kept coming back to them. “No, I don’t. And maybe one day you’ll share some of it with me. But for right now, all I would say is that the past doesn’t have to control the present.”

His lips made their way over to her earlobe again, and his voice dropped to a low whisper. “Don’t let someone from your past—not even the person you used to be—steal the present from you. I like what we’re doing. You like what we’re doing. And as long as that’s the case…”

“We should keep doing it,” she finished for him.

He sucked on her ear, and all the heat came rushing back. “Exactly. Although, I’ll admit I have a vested interest in keeping your attention focused on the here and now. I have a very delectable naked woman in front of me.”

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