Carter's eyes softened and a look of hurt crossed their blue depths.
"You were getting migraines?"
"Yes. I get them off an on, but they were getting pretty regular for a while." I gave him a small smile as I took the pills and chased them with the water.
"Have you had any lately?" he whispered.
"The last week? No. Not since Friday." My mind drifted back to the night he proposed at the foot of my bed. A sad look still hung on his face so I reached across the table to hold his hand.
"I’m fine, Carter, really. I am so much better than fine. I'm great. And we're great." I gave him a stern look in the hopes that he'd snap out of his mini-funk.
"I know, I just feel bad for everything we went through. Everything I put you through. I'm so sorry, Eva." He grabbed both of my hands in his own and looked at me sadly.
"We both did it Carter. My insecurities. Your past, it sort of combined together to make a perfect storm. But we're good now and I love you." I smiled at him.
"Yes, we are good." He dipped his head down, his long hair falling over his eyes, and pressed a kiss to the inside of each of my palms.
"Just promise me we'll always work through anything. You're worth it to me, Eva. I can be such an ass, but please give me a chance to work through it. Don't run," he whispered.
"I won't, Carter. I promise. No running." I brought one of his hands to my lips and placed a kiss on his knuckle. Just then a waitress brought our food and coffee. I dropped Carter's hands instantly and reached for my coffee, sipping the hot liquid and feeling the warmth heat through my body. I looked up at the mountains in the distance and smiled.
"Large soy vanilla latte?" he asked.
"Delicious." A wide smile spread across my face and I was so happy I felt tears prickle at the edge of my eyes.
"You're breathtaking when you smile." Carter's eyes danced with love. I averted my eyes, embarrassed when he said things like that. I grabbed half of a bagel and slathered cream cheese on it before taking a large bite. Apparently my stomach had calmed and I was now voraciously hungry. Carter grinned and then grabbed a muffin and unwrapped it, popping a bite into his mouth with a smile.
Chapter Nine
Carter and I spent the weekend holed up in his house drinking wine and watching movies while a snowstorm blew in off the mountains. The weather was finally acting a little more like the Rocky Mountains in late October, and less like the last vestiges of summer as it had been the past week. I was thankful for the warmer temperatures on the day we were married, but there was something that made my heart swell at being snowed-in in the mountains with Carter.
His house, while large, had the perfect Rocky Mountain getaway feel with river rock accented walls and fireplaces, exposed wooden beams, and wood floors covered in well-worn rugs. The furniture was sturdy and oversized; his entire house was in direct contrast to the modern style of the one on Beacon Street. I loved them both. There was something so clean and satisfying about the sharp lines of Carter's home in Boston, and something so warm and cozy about this one. When I asked him about it he said that his mom had happily designed the place from top to bottom, even adding a large window on a small wall that butted up into the mountain to showcase a trickle of spring water forever running off down the rocky ledge. It felt like the house was a living, breathing part of the landscape.
Sunday afternoon, one week after we'd been married, Carter was fielding some calls from Boston in his office and I wandered into the library on the opposite side of the family room. The room was small and intimate, with a few brown leather chairs situated around a heavy, round wooden table. It looked like a place where gentleman sat to play cards and smoke cigars.
The walls were floor to ceiling bookshelves and each shelf was packed with old books. I wandered and dragged a finger along the spines of the books. I found classics like Chaucer and Shakespeare, modern design books, histories of Colonial America, Colorado, and the American West.
I grabbed a book about the history of Aspen and curled up into one of the chairs and leafed through the pages. The book contained beautiful old pictures of the main street, and some of the buildings were surprisingly recognizable.
"Found the library." Carter traced a hand along my shoulders and touched his warm palm to the back of my neck beneath my hair. I smiled at his touch.
"It's beautiful in here." I twisted around and faced him as he plopped down in the chair next to me.
"My dad loves books. He's a collector."
"How long has your family been coming to Aspen?"
"A long time. We took ski trips out here when I was kid, since Derek and Emma were a few years old. We always rented a place, but when I started making money, one of the first things I did was buy a house out here, sort of a thank you to them for everything they've done for me. I gave Mom full control of design; she loves interior decorating, and the only thing Dad wanted was a library, and he insisted on a round table for poker playing." He ran his hand along the beveled edge. "I’ve played a lot of poker here, and you know..." His eyes glinted at me mischievously. "I’ve always thought it was the perfect height…" His voice trailed off as he stood and lifted me out of the chair, placing me on my bottom on the edge of the table. I quirked an eyebrow up at him and laughed.
"I've wanted to fuck on this table since I got it." He ran his hands up my bare legs and fingered the fabric of my shorts teasingly. "You're so hot when you run around the house in these little shorts. Every time you walk away from me it drives me wild." He ran his palms further up my thighs under the cotton.
"You've got a great ass, Evangeline." He rocked his hips into my center. "Lift up your bottom," he whispered into my ear as he scraped his teeth along the sensitive flesh. My heart thudded erratically in my chest and I placed my palms flat on the table and lifted my bottom. Carter took the moment to rip the fabric down my legs roughly and flung them on the floor next to his feet.
"Told you I wanted you naked as much as possible when we were here," he growled into my ear. I slid my bottom closer to the edge of the table, my core seeking out some relief from the building pressure. He jerked his hips into me so I could feel his arousal under the denim of his jeans. My breathing hitched as the raw fabric dragged along my slick core.
"Put your feet up on the table and spread your knees, Evangeline." He backed away and his eyes held mine with a dark and lusty look. My breathing sped up as my gaze locked with his. Those steely blue eyes penetrated me with emotion and passion, setting my body on fire.
I did as I was told, lifting my feet to the edge of the table, leaving me exposed and vulnerable for him. He grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head, sucking in a sharp breath when he realized that I wasn't wearing a bra.
"You do this to tease me." He bit his bottom lip.
He reached his palms up to my knees and ran his hands down my calves gently. His eyes flicked from my eyes, to my bare neck, my aroused nipples, down my stomach and then landed at my very center. I squirmed a bit under his gaze. His tongue darted out and wet his bottom lip and then his gaze darted back to mine with hooded intensity.
"Hold your ankles and don't move."
There was the controlling sex god that my body craved. Locking my hands to my ankles, I felt slightly contorted, my ass nearly hanging off the table and my heels firmly planted on it. Carter flipped the button on his jeans and unzipped his pants quickly, never breaking eye contact with me. The intensity reflected back at me had hot passion pooling between my legs and I inadvertently squirmed again, gasping for breath.
Carter leaned over me and ran a hand through my hair, pushed it back off my shoulders, and exposed my neck.
"Do you want me to fuck you on the table, Evangeline?" he growled softly.
I nodded. I was so aroused my brain was unable to form words.
He held my neck with one palm as his other held my hip tightly, keeping me firm on the edge of the table. He teased the head of his length in and out of my folds, running it up and down gently,
gathering my arousal and causing him to slip around my entrance, never entering me, just teasing, gently playing, driving me insane. I bucked my hips into him with a moan.
"I said don't move, Eva." He continued to tease my folds, running his length up and down giving me just enough friction without causing me to fall over completely.
"I want to feel you," I whispered softly.
"I know you do." He continued to tease. "I love how you feel wrapped around me." He pressed a little harder as he ran his length up and down my cleft. My breathing ratcheted up another notch. "I love being inside you, Eva," he whispered as he tickled around my ear with his tongue. My body was sitting on the cliff, unable to get enough friction to fall over, but so close, so nearly there.
"Do you want to come, Eva?" he breathed in my ear.
"Yes."
His fingertips ghosted up my rib cage and palmed the flesh of my breast roughly. He teased around the nipple and just when they became achingly hard, he would pinch roughly, almost too much, and an exquisite sense of pain and pleasure ran through my body and hit straight to my core. I moaned in both pleasure and frustration.
"Carter, please."
He ran his length up and down my center slower and harder, providing just slightly more friction at the hypersensitive nerves at the top. I moaned and threw my head back, my hair falling behind me and brushing along my bare back, just another delicious sensation on my oversensitive flesh.
Carter held one hand firmly at the base of my back holding me in place as he moved harder up and down my cleft as I bucked my hips into him. My body was so aroused my brain was losing conscious thought.
"Are you going to come, Eva?"
"Yes," I choked out. He moved quicker and harder and the sensation caused my toes to curl.
"Come, Eva. Come for me," he said the words and he stroked quicker when I exploded from the combined sensations of his stimulating arousal, his hands massaging my back, my hair sweeping back on the table, and his words pounding in my brain. The fireworks burst behind my eyelids and I cried out in pleasure.
"Carter, oh God," I groaned, my chest heaving.
"You are so beautiful when you come." His thumb continued to dance around my nipple, prolonging the sensation of my climax. He continued to keep me on the edge of arousal, not letting me come back down, as he slowly slid into me. I closed my eyes and groaned. He ran his large palm up my leg and grabbed my hip and held tightly, pounding into me fiercely.
"You feel so fucking good, Eva."
"Yes," I moaned, "You feel perfect." I panted as he continued to thrust, holding me firmly in place on the edge of the table.
The feeling of him fully inside me, buried so deep because of my position on the table, my legs spread wide and my feet planted on the edge, was almost too much to bear. He pulled completely out of me and I whimpered at the loss, and then he slammed back into me quickly, not willing to be without my body for long.
"You're so perfect, Evangeline. So fucking perfect. This…" he slammed harder, "is so fucking perfect for me." His hair fell over his forehead and I wanted so badly to reach a hand up and touch it; remove it from his face, but if I let go of either one of my legs it would interrupt our perfect cadence.
He continued to pound into me relentlessly, sometimes pulling out fully, and then slamming back in.
"I’m going to come, Eva. Are you ready? Come with me," he groaned, his eyes shut tightly.
"Yes," I panted and nodded frantically. He thrust his thumb onto my hypersensitive bud and I was lost to the pleasure. I assumed Carter had reached his own climax because I heard him groan and pant my name repeatedly, but my brain was lost into a whole other stratosphere. The sensations from edge of the table sex, the way he'd pounded into me so deeply, my brain wasn't able to form thoughts. I was awash with pleasure, sensation, and heat. My limbs felt like liquid, my core trembled, my toes curled with heat, my brain buzzed with the aftershocks of pleasure.
I felt Carter lean forward, his head resting on my shoulder to catch his breath. I felt him twitch inside me as the last bits of his orgasm continued to pulse through him, emptying into me. His hair brushed across my oversensitive skin and I sucked in a quick breath at the added sensation.
I let go of my ankles and dropped my feet to hang over the table. Curling my fingers in his damp locks I leaned back flat on the table and sucked in deep breaths of fresh air, trying to catch my breath. Carter's body heaved on top of mine. We were still connected at the center and the mental image of what we must look like lying there caused my heart to thump a few beats. Such an erotic image—another mental-picture memory to lock away in my heart forever.
I twisted my fingers in his hair and rubbed my other palm up and down his velvety, sweat-slicked skin. I had the urge to taste him, so I darted my tongue out and licked along the skin of his neck beneath his ear. He tasted salty and sensual and masculine.
Carter must have been still lost in pleasure because he didn't acknowledge my sensual lick in a normally sensitive spot for him. I took a deep breath and inhaled his delicious freshwater scent that drove me wild. Another memory to lock away forever.
"You are amazing," he whispered when his breathing had slowed enough to talk.
"So are you," I whispered softly as I continued to rub up and down his back with my hand. I ran a finger down the center of his spine, feeling each ridge as I went down, then felt the dip of his lower back, and then as it flared out again to the cheeks of his sexy, toned bottom. I gave him a quick squeeze on one cheek, making sure to dig my nails in with a giggle, and he pulled his head back to look me in the eye.
"That's kind of hot." He grinned at me. I rolled my eyes at him. "Not ready for round two yet?" He smiled.
"You've just fucked me into next week on a poker table, Carter. I think I’m going to need at least a few hours to recover."
He laughed and pulled me up off the table with him. "Come on, let's hit the hot tub. Might help relieve some of those aching muscles." He smiled. I bit my lip and followed him upstairs to the master bedroom then out into the cool mountain air where we slipped into the hot tub and enjoyed the swirling hot water caressing our bodies.
Chapter Ten
The following week I went back to work, albeit from a living room in the Rocky Mountains. Carter worked out of his office, but left the door open, so we were always in each other’s sight. Sometimes I curled up in the oversized leather chair in his office with my laptop and we worked together. It was perfect and peaceful and sweet. A sense of serenity had come over our relationship. We hadn't yet talked about when we would go home, and a part of me was dreading it. This is as peaceful as Carter and I had ever been, it was like the sweet mountain air filled our hearts with love and respect and contentedness. I had an irrational fear that going back to Boston would cause the bubble to burst.
We woke up the following Saturday morning with plans to go to a wine festival. It featured local wineries only—Carter loved to discover and support local businesses. Since we both enjoyed wine, it was the perfect way to spend the late fall day.
We held hands as we walked through a park, set up with a dozen or so local wine tents. Each tent had displays with a brief history, beautiful pictures of their estates, and a selection of their best wine. I was wrapped in a chunky, colorblock, cable sweater and leggings and Carter's hand was entwined with mine. He wore a pair of sexy faded blue jeans that fit his bottom so perfectly it was like they were custom fit to his body, which on second thought, perhaps they were. He wore a dark gray V-neck shirt with a sexy leather jacket over it. That coupled with his ever-constant bed-head hair, left my body in a state of semi-arousal.
We walked hand in hand and tasted the wine offerings from each vendor. Carter chatted with the owners and was knowledgeable about wine and grape growing. Was there anything this man didn't know? Carter took a few cards from his favorites saying he would order some when we got home. When he said that word it made my stomach clench.
Carter must have noticed my sil
ence in response because he squeezed my hand as we sat down on a bench overlooking a fountain.
"Everything okay?" He tipped my head up to look in his eyes.
"When are we going back?"
"Home?" he shrugged. "This week. I have a meeting Thursday that I can't miss, I’d like to get home a few days before that to get organized. We've been gone nearly two weeks, Eva." He watched me thoughtfully.
"I know."
"You aren't ready to go?"
"Not really. I love it here." I fiddled with the oversized ring on my finger. The light caught the stones and fractured in a million different directions. It represented my thoughts in that moment. I felt like my heart and my head were being pulled in different directions. My heart would follow Carter anywhere, but my head held so many fears about our future.
"I do too. Especially all of the memories we've made." A small grin cracked his face. "But I have to get back. We can come back soon. We can come for Christmas, unless you want to go to your parents…" he trailed off in question. I shook my head quietly.
"Do you not want to go back to Boston at all?" He narrowed his eyes in confusion.
I sighed deeply, contemplating what to say. "I just love it here… I love us here. It's been perfect…" I trailed off.
"And… you're afraid that back in Boston it won't be perfect?"
I didn't answer as I twisted the ring nervously around my finger.
"Hey, what we've found here, it's not going to leave us. This is you and me. It has nothing to do with Aspen. It's us. I promise." He gave me an encouraging smile.
"But, you have so much history back there. I hate running into it at every turn," I mumbled.
"Back to this, then?" He removed his hand from my thigh and my whole body instantly felt the loss. My heart sped up because this felt like a break. His small movement away from me in exasperation felt like a signal of our future, that at any sign of trouble, he would throw up his walls again.
Rapture and Lace (Lace #3) (Lace Series) Page 7
