“I might.”
I smooth my hands over his skin, wiping away every droplet of water within reach. He hisses in a breath and shuts his eyes. Without him staring at me, I’m emboldened to do more. Touch more. Explore more. My hands flutter over his shoulders and down his biceps, lingering on the outlines of his muscles. They feel hard and strong underneath the pads of my fingers. I sense the power within this man, the power that he’s keeping on a tight leash.
A groan escapes him. “Dove, if you keep on like that, you’re not going to like what comes next.”
My forehead creases, the gravel of his tone setting my core on fire. “What… what comes next?”
“Look down. It ends with you up against this bathroom door with my hard as hell cock splitting you wide open.”
I tug my lower lip between my teeth. “What if I want your cock inside me? What if I want to see it? Feel it?”
His eyes fly open and nail me with a gaze so simmering, it spears me where I stand.
Touching him.
Needing him.
Saying the first dirty words that have ever escaped from my ‘oh, so pure and innocent’ scholastic mouth.
As if I can push them back in, my hand drifts away from his arm and to my lips. They’re swollen. Sensitive to a fault because a huge hulk of a man kissed them senseless.
The only way a woman should ever be kissed.
He throws up a hand between us. “Don’t say that. Please… I’m begging here. I can’t hold on much longer.” His voice drips with grit and emotion. Frustration. Want. I recognize it because it mirrors my own. Then they turn soft and full of temptation. “Don’t make me beg.”
I understand what the words might have cost him. Because I rarely reveal my emotions to anyone. Doing so equals a vulnerability I keep locked deep inside. But Gray touches that deepest, darkest part of me. He finds my tender parts and pulls them forward, evoking a rawness that I want to bring into the light and push back into the darkness all at the same time.
My pulse jackknifes, and my throat constricts into a vice grip. I glance down at myself, knowing without visual verification that gooseflesh has spread across my skin. Anxiety crackles through all four limbs, and I hold onto my sanity for dear life.
“You want to know something, Gray?” I ask, searching for something I might never be able to find. But I want to. And I might never get another chance. This situation crackles with serendipity. Although it’s something we scientists don’t believe in, I can see it unfolding right before my curious eyes even without the benefit of a hypothesis.
Aside from one bumbling, inept college boyfriend, I’ve never had sex. Those few times happened under the cover of darkness. A few frantic touches in the name of foreplay and a painful plundering of my vagina like a jackhammer breaking concrete on Hennepin Avenue.
This… this is different in the yummiest way. And I find I’m not even close to wanting it to end. Even if once the cold, hard light of sanity seeps back into my brain, I regret it.
Because right now… I only want Gray and every single thing he’s willing to give me. And from the looks of his tented towel, it’s more than enough.
“What?” His lips purse, his irises darkening with desire.
“Gray, I want it all.”
It’s part admission and part plea. It’s everything rolled into one simple sentence.
“Dove.” He says my name deeply, with a touch of authority. “Look at me. What are you saying here? What are you asking of me?”
I imagine all the demands he might make over the course of my time here. And not one of them scares me. But leaving here without experiencing Gray physically, that terrifies me more than anything. Something tells me this is one of life’s defining moments.
Epic.
Life-changing.
His hand remains steady and firm on my nape. And God, I feel every single tingle caused by the skin on skin contact. I still can’t wrap my head around the heat that consumes me whenever he’s near. He opens his mouth as if to speak but then clamps it shut again, but his eyes sweep my body, his irises filled with some nameless emotion that I could bottle up and sell. That hypnotic gaze dares me to give him final permission.
After several tense moments, I reach out and snatch the towel from around his slim hips and stare as it flutters to the floor.
He stares at the towel on the hardwood and then back up at me.
“I’m taking what I want for once in my life. That’s what I’m doing.”
Chapter Thirteen
Gray
I reach up and trace the curve of her jawline, afraid she’s going to disappear in a poof of regret. My heart hammers against my chest as I watch her watching me. Her eyes meet mine, then drift lower and she hisses in a ragged breath. It’s part fear but part desire, and all Dove. She tugs at her glasses as if she can’t believe her eyes. After several long moments, her hand snakes out clasps around my throbbing length.
She blinks twice. Pauses. Exhales. “It’s so hard. I’ve never touched one before.”
Stars.
I see them behind my eyelids, and I could swear I just touched the hand of God.
Unable to keep the sensations from swallowing me whole, I pitch forward and scoop her up into my arms. She may think she has control right now, but I’m going to take it back.
“Christ.” The word escapes my mouth on a low growl. I release the breath I’ve been holding on one long, slow exhale.
“Gray?” She tugs at those glasses again and I’m long fucking gone. I can’t believe she’s still asking me questions at a time like this. But damn, part of me likes it. Welcomes it. This curious, brainy little girl who needs to know everything might be the death of me.
“Yeah.” The grit in my tone equals something I don’t even recognize.
Another pause where I hold my breath. “Is it going to hurt?”
I cradle her close to my chest, mentally cursing every motherfucker she’s ever been with who hurt her. If I ever run into any of them, I’ll rip off their cowardly balls with my bare hands.
“No, baby girl,” I rasp into her ear. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt. No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I only want to make you feel good.”
She snuggles into my neck, her tiny hands coming up to twine around the back of my neck. She looks so vulnerable in my arms.
Light and shade.
Soft and hard.
Petite and massive.
Once I reach the bed, I lay her down on it gently as if she is the daintiest butterfly and the slightest touch will tear her fragile wings. Snaking my hand out, I snatch her glasses off her face and lay them on the nightstand. “Will you be able to see without them?”
She blushes, the sexiest shade of rose spreading across her neck and upper chest. “Yeah, I just won’t be able to read.”
I suppress a chuckle. “Well, this isn’t the DMV. I’m not going to ask you to read any eye charts or anything. But I want you to be able to see me. Every single thing I’m going to do to you before we leave this room.”
Her eyes widen into orbs of green the color of the buds in April. “Good. I want to see everything. Feel everything.”
At her words – her courage – I allow my smile to widen and my heart to split wide open. “Let’s start right now.”
My cock roars to life, throbbing and aching for her touch again. Her scent wafts toward me, lilacs and sunshine and perfect tiny woman. I know it’s going to haunt me long after she’s gone. Every time I lay my head on my pillow, I’m going to become lost in a sea of emotion, memories, and pain.
She’s going to leave you, Gray. You can’t stop her.
But she’s here now, splayed out on my bed. Due to my midnight fantasies, I knew I wanted her even before I met her. Showing her what I’ve wanted to do to her ever since I laid eyes on her is the easy part; living without her will be the hard part.
With a ragged exhale, I remain focused on Dove’s doe-eyed gaze. She’s taking it all in. Taking me in. I h
ope she likes what she sees. Going to work on the tiny buttons of her shirt, I make short work of them and gently peel the fabric away from her torso, exposing her lacy bra to my hungry gaze.
Her hands flutter up to cover herself but before she can get them there, I grab them both and plant them above her head.
I cluck my tongue. “No. Don’t ever cover yourself. I want to see you.”
“Can you turn the light off instead?” Her voice wavers and then cracks.
“You’re beautiful. Stunning really. Why don’t you want me to see you?”
She tugs her bottom lip between her pearly teeth, but all that does is draw my attention to her perfect mouth. “It’s too… much. I’ve only done it in the dark.”
I can sense her inner turmoil about the electric connection between us, the desire that I know she perceives as a foreign sensation. It radiates from her every pore, and I can smell it on her.
As a compromise, I pick a shirt up off a nearby chair and throw it over the table lamp. The flannel filter gives the room the perfect ambiance, almost as if I’d lit a candle.
“Better?”
She nods, then her lips curl up, stealing the breath from my lungs. I feel as though Dove and I have lived our whole lives just to meet in the dense forest and set each other on fire.
“Gray…” At the whisper of my name, everything in me tightens. She tempts me in every way, even though I know how this story ends.
With me in agony.
But for now… she belongs to me.
I curl my fingers into the mattress, trying to refrain from going too fast and scaring her. Her barely spoken question about lovemaking hurting affects me in a way I’m not ready to admit. It draws out my protective side. I want to make sure nothing negative or painful ever touches her again. As if she’s made of the thinnest veil of gossamer silk, I trail a finger down her chest, between her breasts, toward her stomach. The muscles tighten. Strain. Her chest rises and falls on the force of her tiny pants. I only have eyes for Dove’s perfection. If something remains broken within her from the ghosts of the past… perhaps I can mend them.
Or die trying.
Cupping my hand on the back of her head, I cradle her in place, leaning forward. For a heartbeat, all we do is stare, our breaths mingling together.
“Kiss me, Gray,” she whispers, her words licking over my skin like a prayer. “I want to know what sex really feels like. Call it an experiment. I have a hypothesis and I need to conduct a trial.”
I groaned, my body shaking. “Then just call me your professor.”
She cringes, her pert nose crinkling up. “Ugh, don’t make me think about him. Not attractive. I adore Professor Adams but he’s not the hottest man on the planet.”
“Everyone but me will be nothing but a distant memory.” She moans underneath the force of my kiss, so I weave my fingers through the glorious mass of her hair, pulling the ponytail holder off and tossing it aside. Before this fantasy ends, I want her hair falling free around her heart-shaped face. After another tortured moan, I move my mouth down her neck. With my tongue and lips, I run a path down the slender arch of her throat, licking, sucking, and trailing butterfly kisses over her sensitive spots. I sucked on the curve of her collarbone, loving the way she arches her back, lifting her nipples, begging me to taste them through the lace of her bra.
“My skin’s on fire. Like a malfunctioning Bunsen burner. Funny… I didn’t think I’d need one for this experiment.”
The chuckle at her reference rumbles up from my chest to escape out my lips. “I never used one.”
Her eyes narrow even as my lips continue their trails along her fevered flesh. “Not even in high school?”
My eyes lift to meet hers. “I might have been absent that day. I avoided science like the plague. I’m lucky I graduated. Football helped me make it through.”
“Don’t stop.” She lowers her gaze to my mouth, and I look at the pulse in her neck that flutters and throbs.
Only a tornado could get me to stop. Maybe not even that.
And her brain tempts me even more than her body. The part of me that feels less than in the shining light of her obvious brilliance gets swept to the side. Because in the bedroom – between the sheets – I can and will excel.
“Dammit, Dove, you can’t even know what you do to me,” I say, my voice gritty and foreign-sounding.
“I hope it’s good.”
I run my tongue along the seam of her lips until she opens them to my searching tongue. She shivers in my arms, and that’s the only permission I need to plunder her mouth with the force of my desire.
“It’s so, so good, baby,” I whisper, trailing kisses from her jawline up to her sensitive earlobe. Her moan rips through me, egging me on.
She thrashes and writhes underneath my hands and lips. With a roar, I realize there are too damn many clothes between us. Hers. I want to feel her all of her.
Naked flesh to naked flesh. Not even the whisper of words keeping me from her.
I revel in Dove’s silky skin, her soft floral scent and her vulnerable submission. Her trust in me. I’m going to wring pleasure from every inch of her curvy body, exploring her most secret places until she screams my name.
And I’ll make her mine.
Chapter Fourteen
Dove
I thread my hands through Gray’s thick hair, stroking my fingertips down the hard planes of his face until they land on his beard. He moans and leans into my touch. I welcome the sound, hope my touch pleases him in some way, unsure of myself and what I bring to this. Something about being here in the woods, with this man… Well, it just feels right.
Fated.
I still, fear stealing my words for a heartbeat, stalling them in the back of my throat. “Gray, I’m leaving. Are you sure we should be doing this?” I worry my bottom lip with my teeth. After I state the obvious, he might stop, and I don’t want him to stop. I know he’s more experienced. What if we do this and he finds me lacking? What if there’s awkwardness and regret and I can’t do the walk of shame back to my motel?
I wish and hope that when this is over, there won’t be consequences. But there will be. And yet I’m going to dismiss them until the harsh light of day hits my cheeks tomorrow morning.
He strokes my hair back from my face, tenderness radiating from his heated gaze.
“I’ve never been more certain of anything. I feel like we met each other in another life, and we have unfinished business. I know that sounds crazy…”
The notion hangs in the air like a sweet promise of something more than just one passionate night.
“I understand what you mean.” And I do. I worry my lower lip with my teeth, my heart galloping at high speed. Without another word – another touch – I know that this is never, ever going to be enough.
He releases a ragged breath, as if he’s ravaged by the notion of never seeing me again. I close my eyes, praying that he does feel something. Anything other than just simple lust. That I’m not being used to lessen his baser needs.
Somehow… that would gut me more than my leaving when it’s over.
Instead, he slides his huge palm to the nape of my neck, tracing waterfalls of touch through my thick mane of hair and pulling my mouth to his. Time ceases to matter. My leaving ceases to matter. The only thing that matters is Gray and the sensations he evokes in my body like a virtuoso caressing the keys.
He tastes of fresh air and sunshine and all that is natural and good in this fucked up world. I can’t help but twine my hands around his neck and arch into him, teasing the seam of his lips with my tongue and taking control of my self-imposed experiment. He moans, the sound tugging at my core, and then his arms snake up the pillow and cage me in.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he says on a hiss of breath as he walks his fingers down my side, causing a cascade of shivers. “Let me show you.”
With a yank, he sweeps a hand down my hip and takes my pants with it. Next, my lacy bikini panties and bra join the
pile of clothing quickly building up on the floor. Once I’m laid bare, the kiss of air cooling my heated skin, I feel exposed. The need to cover myself screams in my head as the tiny voice there shouts about my not being good enough. But I push it away as Gray strokes up the tender skin of my inner thigh until I quake.
Damn. How many times over the past twenty-four hours have I imagined the texture of his rough, work-hewn fingers caressing me?
Everywhere that azure gaze touches me, I ache. Deep. Strong. Without mercy.
“Open, Dove.” It’s a command and a plea all at the same time.
I let my legs fall open just a few inches, unsure, some hypnotic and magnetic pull yanking at my knees. Gray inhales as he gazes at my slick flesh, quivering for him.
“That’s not far enough.” There’s a hitch in his voice that causes me to hesitate.
He lifts his gaze to my flushed face. My eyes narrow and I allow my legs to fall all the way open, exposing myself to Gray in the most intimate way possible.
“Beautiful,” he whispers – more breath than word – saying everything with the simplicity of the adjective.
He doesn’t stop looking. He doesn’t stop touching. Electrical impulses skate across my skin, flicking at every nerve ending.
My breath catches in my chest at the anticipation of what is about to happen. Gray rears back on his heels and settles between my legs. Like the good little scientist that I am, I watch his every move, taking mental notes. If I had a microscope, I’d whip it out just so I could inspect every single plane of his face and sinew of his muscle.
Moonlight ripples around the man, lighting him from the heavens. “I like the way you watch me. Do you want me to touch you, Dove?”
“Yes,” I admit. “So much.”
“Why don’t you ask me then?”
My throat constricts. He’s all gentleness and strength and an enigma that reads more like a promise than a question.
My hand flutters down and slides up my inner thigh, testing the silkiness of my own skin. “Touch my pussy, Gray. Make me come.”
His hand splits me open, the fingers slowly spreading through my folds. The pleasure hits me, flooding me with a new surge of heat and wetness. The first touch of his fingers sends me soaring, hitting heights I didn’t even know possible. But not the apex. Not yet.
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