by Nina Lane
“Yeah, but there are limits to what I can do and where I can go.” He gestured to his chest. “High altitudes can be dangerous. And Luke wouldn’t let me run the Fair Trade Foundation because it requires traveling to remote locations that don’t have much medical care. I could do a lot of that, but knowing the worry it would cause my family…”
He shrugged. “Better to stay put.”
That was the reason he’d stuck to the narrow path at Sugar Rush. After his mother’s death, Evan hadn’t wanted to be responsible for upsetting his family further. He still didn’t.
A mixture of deep admiration and sadness rose in Hannah toward this warm-hearted man who’d spent years putting his family before his own ambitions. Only when his brother had taken away something Evan believed in had he stepped forward to make a change.
“Do you have any regrets?” she asked.
“None I could do anything about. I’ll probably always wish for a whole heart, even though I came to terms with living with a defective one years ago.”
She slipped her hand into his. His fingers closed warmly over hers. His heart was anything but defective. She’d never met a man with a stronger heart than his, one that had unlocked her own.
Chapter
NINETEEN
“Take it in slowly,” he murmured.
“It’s awfully big.” Hannah eyed the glossy knob doubtfully, even though part of her wanted to suck the whole hard length into her mouth, both out of curiosity and the desire to make Evan happy.
“Wet it with your tongue,” he said.
She darted out her tongue and licked the red tip.
“See, it’s not so bad.” He brushed the hardness across her lower lip, his gaze darkening. “Now open wide and let it slide in.”
Her heart thumped. Hannah parted her lips and waited. Evan gently pushed the cherry-flavored Sparkle Pop into her mouth. The overly sweet taste flooded her tongue along with a fizzy sensation like soda pop.
“Close your lips around it,” he ordered.
She did. They were sitting cross-legged on the bed in a motel room, facing each other with their knees touching. Hannah took the lollipop stick from him. The fizziness in her mouth intensified.
“It sort of hurts,” she complained.
“Hurts so good, baby.” Evan unwrapped another cherry-flavored pop and put it in his mouth. “I’ll do it with you.”
They sucked on their respective pops. Bubbles popped in Hannah’s mouth.
She wrinkled her nose. “When’s it going to explode?”
“You never know.” Evan watched the movement of her tongue as she slid the pop out of her mouth and back in again. “It’s a pleasure explosion that happens without warning.”
“I don’t like explosions at all, warning or not.”
“That’s not the impression I got last night.” He gave her a smug, very male look.
Hannah poked him in the chest with the sucker before sticking it back into her mouth.
The candy popped and fizzed. She didn’t love the feeling, but Evan was looking at her with such hopeful expectation that she firmly told herself to see it through. Not to mention he was adorable sucking on the candy, his eyes almost glowing with unhidden pleasure.
Hannah sucked her pop harder.
Ah, the things we do for…
She quickly diverted that train of thought.
… the cute boys we like.
She squeezed her eyes shut, steeling herself for the “explosion” as the candy dissolved slowly in her mouth. She bit the outer shell. A burst of sweetness flooded her mouth, bubbles cracking and popping like little sparklers. She gasped, her surprise fading to both pleasure and amusement.
“You need to be the new face of Sparkle Pops,” Evan remarked around a mouthful of candy. “You could swirl your tongue around the sucker and say things like Come get your burst on.”
“I suspect that would appeal to the wrong demographic.” Hannah chuckled around the crunchy candy and tossed the empty stick into the trash. “This is the silliest thing I’ve ever eaten.”
“But you look damned hot doing it.”
Evan winked at her, biting the Sparkle Pop off his stick. He screwed up his eyes and braced himself as his candy exploded.
Hannah grabbed the front of his T-shirt and yanked him toward her. Their mouths collided in a hot, open kiss that popped with cherry fireworks. The fizzing sensation combined with the feel of Evan’s lips went straight to Hannah’s blood, lighting her up with bursts of color. Their tongues tangled in a sudden frenzy, the candy still sparkling and melting until she no longer knew which lollipop was hers and which was his.
“Ah, hell, this is how candy should end.” Evan brought his hands to the sides of her head and tilted her face so he could settle his mouth more securely over hers.
He shifted them both, pressing her back against the pillows and sweeping his tongue into her mouth. As the candy dissolved and disappeared, Hannah melted into his sticky-sweet kiss. She drove her fingers into his hair as her body surged with desire. Everything about him aroused her, from the feel of his chest pressing against her breasts to the way he tightened his grip in her hair with such possessiveness, as if he would never let her go.
She slipped her hands under his T-shirt and spread them over the warm, muscled planes of his chest.
“Take this off,” she whispered, tugging at the hem.
Evan lifted himself off her only long enough to yank the shirt over his head and drop it to the floor. As he unbuttoned his shorts, Hannah wiggled out of her shirt and pants. Evan was already half hard beneath his boxer briefs, and her breath caught.
“Wow,” she said, her blood warming. “Sparkle Pops turn you on, huh?”
“Sparkle Pops and you.” He ran his hands over her body, rubbing his thumbs around her hard nipples, the dark areolae visible beneath her bra.
Hannah shifted, her breath increasing. Urgency lit between them. She rose slightly to unfasten her bra and release her breasts.
“Ah, fuck, you’re so pretty.” Evan lowered his head to capture one of her nipples between his lips, the warmth of his mouth sending a shock of arousal through her.
He slid his hand down her belly and between her legs, rubbing her panties into her cleft, where her wetness had already seeped through the cotton. His muffled groan rumbled over her skin.
“So ready,” he murmured, his eyes smoldering. “Wet and hungry. You want my cock here already?” He slipped his finger beneath her panties and into her slick opening.
Hannah groaned, arching into his touch. “Yes.”
“Then you need to come first.” He lifted his head, a smile curving his mouth. “I want to feel it before I make you beg for my cock.”
“Oh my God, Evan…”
Flames shot through her. Hannah squirmed, still unable to reconcile the warm, gentle Evan Stone of everyday with the dirty talker who fired her arousal from zero to infinity in seconds. He moved to the side, his hand still inside her panties, and the combined sight and feel of his fingers moving against her through the cotton drove Hannah’s urgency higher. She curled her fingers around his wrist, her breasts quivering as he worked her with unbearably exquisite ease.
“Evan, harder,” she gasped.
“Greedy.” He chuckled, his breath hot against her ear. “Your body wants it now, but you’re not getting it now. You’re getting it nice and slow and you’re going to work for it… ah, yeah, tighten your pussy around my finger… that’s it…”
He circled his thumb slowly around her clit. Heat washed over her. She tightened her grip on his shoulders. The pressure broke with a hard snap. Crying out, she bucked up against him as vibrations shuddered through her.
She fell back against the pillows with a gasp, hearing Evan’s low murmur as if it were coming from a far distance. His mouth covered hers again. His hand slid over her torso. He pinched one of her nipples between his fingers and kissed a path over her neck, across her breasts and belly.
Hannah lifted h
er head, her heart thumping. She did not often allow men to go down on her. It was too intimate, too exposing. She never intended to be with them more than a few weeks at most. She had to give up too much control to let them put their lips and tongue on her most secret places.
“Evan…”
“Relax.” He spread his hands over her breasts and moved his body between her thighs. “I want to taste you.”
She shivered, tightening her fists on the bedcovers. “I really don’t…”
He glanced up. His eyes burned with both lust and utter self-control. If she asked him not to do this, he wouldn’t. If she asked him to stop, he would. That knowledge rose in Hannah like the first star of night.
“Trust me,” he said.
She nodded.
He lowered his head, gently pushing her thighs apart with his hands. Her breath caught in her throat. She gripped the bedcovers harder.
“Lift your knees,” Evan said.
She did, trying to smother the feeling of intense vulnerability as he spread her sex open with his fingers. His breath was hot on her folds. A tremble rocketed through her.
“Ah, fuck, you’re so wet,” he whispered. “So pretty.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. He trailed his finger over her damp crevices, teasing the opening. She bit back a moan. Her body surged and ached for his penetration. Then he touched his tongue to her swollen clit, and a low moan broke from deep inside her.
“Evan… oh, God…”
“Sweeter than sugar,” he murmured, slipping his finger into her.
Hannah’s body clenched around him, her inner flesh squeezing his finger as if it were a substitute for his cock. Sweat dampened her forehead. She opened her eyes, her heart hammering at the sight of her naked body splayed out on the bed, her nipples sticking straight up from her breasts, and Evan’s dark head moving between her spread legs.
Christ, it was fucking sexy. She shifted, spreading her legs wider. He murmured a noise of approval. He stroked his tongue over her as if he were licking a succulent candy, and then he took her clit between his lips and sucked.
“Evan.” Hannah panted, her whole body quivering as her arousal intensified again.
“What do you want, sweet Hannah?”
A blush fired her from head to toe at the thought of voicing her desires. It was insane how he made her feel both shy and emboldened at the same time.
“I’m… I… oh…”
“Tell me,” he insisted, working his finger back and forth in her slick channel.
“I need you.” She undulated her hips toward his face in a movement edged with desperation. “I want your cock inside me. I need you to fill me, fuck me deep… oh, please… Evan, make me come…”
“That’s my girl.”
He rose and mounted her again, bracing his hands on the bed as his mouth descended on hers. The flavor of cherry mixed with the taste of her own body fired her arousal to burning. With a moan, she opened her mouth and wrapped her legs around his hips. The tip of his thick cock nudged at her thigh, leaving a trail of wetness.
Evan moved away from her only long enough to put on a condom and position himself at her opening. Fire burned in his eyes, and his jaw tightened with restraint as he slipped partway inside her. Hannah arched upward, her breath burning her chest.
“Do it,” she gasped. “Hard.”
He groaned, his chest muscles rippling. He surged inside her with one powerful thrust and stilled. His shaft pulsed against her inner walls, the heavy vibrations rippling through her blood. For a second, they stared at each other, the air between them crackling with blue sparks. With his hair falling over his sweaty forehead, his eyes blazing, his features rigid with lust and control, Evan was nothing short of stunningly, heartrendingly beautiful.
Hannah gripped his biceps, reaching up to nip at his lower lip. “Fuck me now.”
He pulled back, sliding out of her halfway before plunging back in. She loosened her legs from his waist and spread them wider, giving him unhindered access to every part of her.
He lowered his head, burying his face against her hot neck, grunting with each deep thrust. His voice vibrated inside her, heating her blood. Harder, faster, the tip of his cock hitting a secret spot deep inside that pushed her urgency higher. Her body jostled against the mattress. She cupped her quivering breasts, twisting her nipples. She was on fire inside and out, all thought subsumed beneath the intense pleasure of their union.
“Evan…”
“Again,” he commanded, lifting his head to kiss her. “I want to feel your pussy clenching around my cock when you come.”
She would never survive this. The pleasure would consume her. She slid her hand between their damp bodies to find her aching clit.
Evan clamped his hand around her wrist, pinning it to the bed. “No. You’re going to come from my cock.”
She shifted, emitting a soft groan as his shaft sank into her again. “I don’t think I can…”
“Yeah, you can.” His voice was low and gritty. “You will.”
Hannah bit her lip, sudden uncertainty snaking through her. She flexed her hand in his grip. He seized her other hand, effectively immobilizing her as he continued fucking her. Her nerves sizzled. She was letting him do things she’d never allowed another man to do.
She stared at him through dazed eyes. Sweat trickled down her forehead. His eyes had darkened to navy, the color of the sky before a storm, the last hour of night.
“Come on, baby,” he whispered, stroking his tongue over the arch of her collarbone. “Let me feel it.”
Yes. The tension tightened, coiling around her with delicious pressure. Her hands curled into fists. His cock moved in and out of her, slick and easy, only the slap of his heavy sac preventing deeper entry. Then she convulsed, her pussy clamping around his thick, veined shaft as an orgasm tore through her.
She shrieked, bucking her hips up against him. The sensations swelled and crashed. Evan’s muscles went rigid, his hands moving to spread her sweaty thighs wider as he increased his pace.
“I won’t last,” he grated through clenched teeth.
“I don’t want you to.” Panting, Hannah raked her hand down his chest. “Come inside me.”
He surged once, twice, and then gave a rough shout. His body arched. His muscles flexed beneath his taut skin. Hannah quivered anew, her pleasure spiking with the evidence of his release.
Evan collapsed on top of her, his breath harsh against her ear as they struggled to catch their breath.
“Christ in heaven, you’re incredible,” he muttered, rolling over and tugging her against his side. “I want to fuck you in every way imaginable. And in ways that haven’t been invented yet.”
Hannah chuckled. “If they haven’t been invented, I’m sure you’ll invent them.”
“Mmm.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “Next time you’re getting on your hands and knees. I want to see your pretty ass bouncing against me while I fuck you.”
Hannah shivered, astonished as a new wave of arousal rolled through her. She ran her hand over Evan’s chest, letting her fingers linger on his scar.
“Clearly your heart hasn’t affected your… ah, physicality,” she said.
He didn’t respond. Hannah waited a minute before she lifted herself on her elbow to look at him. His eyes were closed, his chest still rising and falling with his breath.
“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
He shook his head, not opening his eyes. “When I was a kid, I tried not to let my heart affect what I could do physically. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I failed.”
She stroked his scar again. “How?”
“I grew up with five strong, athletic brothers,” he said. “I had to keep up with them, or at least I tried. I couldn’t beat them in team sports… not unless they let me win, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I had a better shot with individual sports, so I did karate, track and field, strength training.”
Hannah traced his pectoral muscle wi
th her finger. “That explains why you’re so well-built, but it doesn’t necessarily explain your sexual prowess.”
He choked out a laugh. “Is that what I have? Prowess?”
“In truckloads.” Hannah stretched out beside him again, resting her head on his shoulder. “Surely you know that. Isn’t that why the girls started calling you Heartbreaker?”
“I guess. I figured out pretty early that girls liked me, though at first I thought it was because they felt sorry for me. I learned differently in high school. Some people with CHD have issues with sex, but my experience was the opposite. Sex was the one area where I was in control. When I fucked, neither the girl nor I was thinking about my heart defect. That was all the more reason I wanted to do it.”
“It was an escape,” Hannah said. No one understood the need for escape better than she did.
Evan opened his eyes. Something indefinable flickered across his face.
“Is that what we are?” he asked. “An escape?”
“I don’t know exactly what we are.” Hannah ran her hand over his chest. “It doesn’t feel like an escape, though. It feels like a return.”
Chapter
TWENTY
Evan rubbed his chest, his gaze on the road in front of them. The late-afternoon sun shone in the pale, hazy sky, and a thin ribbon of clouds spread across the horizon. Desert towns stretched out on either side of the interstate, the faint smell of soil and vegetation drifting into the van. Cars and eighteen-wheelers rumbled along the road like a modern-day caravan.
“Your biggest pet peeve?” Hannah asked.
“Tardiness.”
She slanted him a glance. “Really?”
“Yeah. If people say they’re going to be somewhere at a certain time or do something by a specific deadline, they should be there and do it. Extenuating circumstances excepted, of course. What about you?”
“People who talk on their cell phones loudly in public. No one wants to hear their conversation. Your turn.”
“If you were sent to live on a space station for three months and only allowed to bring three personal items with you, what would they be?”
