Page 33 of The House on Memory Lane

Need.

Desire.

Promise.

Laney pressed her hands against the hard planes of his chest, then trailed lower. He held himself above her, braced on his forearm, and he started to shake as her fingers tickled the subtle ridges of his abdomen. She bit her lip and eased her palm against the flat of his belly behind his waistband. Her eyes widened as she realized he was commando, and he returned the raised eyebrow look. Touch me, he silently begged, but she pulled back to undo his jeans. Her knuckles rubbed against skin as she worked the button, and he jerked his hips toward her. The rasp of his zipper was sweet relief, and he couldn’t hold back a groan as she wrapped her hand around his shaft.

He needed to touch bare skin.

Damn it, he needed to taste bare skin.

He rocked back and forth in her hand first, his palm resting flat on her sex, then pulled away. He sucked in a ragged breath. First step, get her to the bed.

Kyle loomed large above her, bare chested, jeans unbuttoned and obscenely low on his hips. He looked lean and hard.

Very hard.

She sucked in a breath of her own and wriggled out of her skirt. He slid his arms around her and hoisted her over his shoulder as she yelped in surprise. He slapped her ass for making noise. She would have protested if that wasn’t against the rules. Her rules. And if being spanked didn’t make her slippery with want. She blushed at the realization.

He crossed to the bed in a few long strides, and before he let her down, he stripped off her socks and underwear. Only then did he relax his grip around her waist, and she slid down his body. But he stopped her before she got to the good stuff. Instead, he held her hard against his chest, and his fingers got busy. One hand flicked her bra open, the other palmed her bare ass, teasing her slick wet heat with the lightest of strokes from behind. Her hips flexed, seeking firmer contact. He shuddered against her, and eased her back on the soft mattress. He shucked his jeans, then followed her down. She ached from wanting him, and his descent took far too long. Panting hard, she grasped his erection and lifted her hips to drive him home, but he shifted as well, evading what they both wanted.

He shuddered again, and then she saw it. His control was shredded, and he didn’t want this to end. What had he asked for? More than a stolen moment.

He wanted this to last all night. They didn’t need to rush.

She stretched out, laying herself bare beneath him.

This was so different than what they’d once had. She’d thought their summer together had been perfection. Discovering sex with Kyle had been magical, but she’d been naive. It hadn’t been perfect. At the first sign of stress, their fledgling relationship had crumbled. Coming together after all this time, finding passion again in the long buried ashes...different barely scratched the surface in describing it.

As Kyle mouthed his way down her body, as he lifted her thighs to his shoulders and held her hips right where he wanted them, Laney realized this was more than they’d ever had. It wasn’t perfect. It was complicated and messy, but as his tongue stroked her, lifting her high and tossing her into a wave of pleasure, it hit her.

This is real.

Time stood still as he loved her with his mouth, then his hands, and finally his whole body, hip to hip, chest to chest, mouth to mouth. He held her gaze as he thrust into her again and again, sure and steady, as if to say, this could be our every night. This should be our forever. Matching tremors wracked through their bodies, as if his orgasm triggered hers and vice versa. As if they were one.

He pinned her against him as he rolled to his side. She almost cried out at the loss of his weight. She didn’t know what time it was, but it was certainly late.

He stroked her back, his fingers running leisurely up and down her spine. They were both covered in sweat, and tingling trails lingered in the wake of his movement. Perspiration had never felt so wicked before. She shivered, and he indicated they should get up. He led her into the shower, where they quietly washed each other. It wasn’t that the heat between them had gone, exactly, but this wasn’t the overt sexuality of earlier. This was caring. Connection.

Under the hot stream of water, they held each other, foaming bubbles sluicing off their bodies. Laney almost broke the silence a few times, but what was there to say?

Chapter 15

The warm, heavy body draped around her was Laney’s first clue that she’d fallen asleep in Kyle’s bed. She blinked. It was still the middle of the night because she couldn’t see anything, although that could also be because her face was buried in Kyle’s shoulder. His left arm and leg were thrown over her body, his hands twisted in her hair. A bead of sweat rolled between her breasts. She tried to roll to her back, but her bedmate had her pinned between impressively defined biceps, even at rest, and his forearms looped behind her shoulders. She nudged him and he tugged her closer, his lips brushing her forehead.

“Don’t go.”

“I won’t. I just need—” some space “—to go to the bathroom.”

He grunted and released her, his fingers trailing over her body as she slipped out of bed. She stood at the curtain, watching as he flopped over onto his stomach. His arms spanned the width of the bed, his feet hung off the end. He took her breath away, even in his sleep. It wasn’t just that he was rugged and handsome. He also oozed pheromones. She shook her head. No, it wasn’t simple chemistry. They were good together. Great. Best ever, by a mile. But not just because of attraction. The spark got them naked, but then the things they did together, the choices they freely made with one another, all of that was extraordinary. A level of intimacy that she’d shied away from for far too long, that she’d let become so foreign it should make her blush. She touched her cheek, acknowledging that standing in the dark, watching her lover sleep, she probably was blushing a bit.

But she didn’t feel any reluctance or embarrassment, didn’t regret anything that they did. Because everything they did together felt right, and oh so good. With previous lovers, it was all about finding what worked and what didn’t, and she often established boundaries. Laney couldn’t think of anything that she wouldn’t want to do with Kyle. She waited for her face to flush at the naughty thoughts that were racing through her mind, but the only physical response was a tremor in her belly. She couldn’t give him forever, but she could give him an unforgettable right now.

She padded first to the washroom, then to the kitchen. They never did get to dessert, and her stomach rumbled as she saw the white bakery box spotlighted on the island when she flicked on the lights. Her eyes flicked to the bedroom. Would he mind? She could see his raised eyebrow in her mind’s eye and laughed quietly. She deserved a midnight snack.

She peeked inside and let out a quiet gasp at the glistening blueberry cheesecake. A delicate perfume of fruitiness made her mouth water, and she quickly sourced a plate, fork and serving knife. The fruit sat plump and shiny, scattered at random across a thin red-purple glaze poured over the top of the creamy white cake. Laney didn’t want to mar the perfection, but she was dying to know what that fresh scent tasted like in her mouth.

“Can I join you?” She whirled around, the server gripped in her hand, and Kyle flashed a sleepy grin at her jumpiness. “Sorry to startle you. I got cold and lonely.”

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