by Lori Foster
She tried to squeeze her thighs together, but Brian caught her knee.
“I need to see you, Eve.”
She looked up at him, her hair spread across the bed, her body bared to him, a picture of everything he wanted for the rest of his life. His heart shook.
“And—” he slid a hand up her thigh “—I need to taste you. I’ve always needed it.”
Her gaze softened and swept down his body. “Have you?”
“Yes.”
She bit her lip. Her thighs relaxed and moved the tiniest bit farther apart.
He tightened his grip on her leg, and slowly, slowly eased her open.
He’d thought he was hard already, but now his cock was straining. She was so gorgeous and wet and pink.
“Yes,” she finally whispered. “Do that.”
He did.
The taste of her arousal filled his mouth and made his cock throb. He teased her and licked her, sucked at her clit and tongued her pussy, figuring out exactly what she liked by the way her hips bucked against him and her cries filled his ears. She came with his fingers buried deep inside her. He wanted to insist on one more orgasm, wanted to do it all again, but he needed to be inside her. He needed it like he’d never needed anything.
When he slid his cock slowly into her wet heat, love got all mixed up with the tight pleasure and squeezed his heart until it hurt. His hands shook, and his heart beat so hard it scared him. By the time he came, muscles shaking and skin slick with sweat, he’d lost the will to hold back his words. “I love you,” he rasped into her skin. “I love you, Eve.” Her hand gripped his hair in a tight fist as he lost himself inside her.
He felt different afterward. When he lay down beside her, he felt dizzy and dazed and broken open. The sheets were cool on his back. Her limbs slippery and hot where they lay against his skin. Her body was deliciously heavy and languid against him, as though she’d melted into him. But Brian felt dangerously untethered, as if he’d drift away if she let go. As if he’d be nothing.
“You’ll hurt me again,” she said into the dim silence.
He took a breath so deep it stabbed through his chest. “I won’t,” he promised. “I—”
“Stop. You will.” Her fingers spread over the skin above his heart. “Loving someone...that means feeling things that will hurt sometimes, in small ways, at least. And in big ways when things go wrong.”
“Eve...” He shook his head.
“But I learned how to be strong when you left. Stronger than I thought I was. I got through it.” Her fingertips traced the hollow beneath his throat. He felt the faint pressure when he swallowed.
“You’re amazing. You always have been.”
“I don’t know. But now I know that even though it will hurt, I can get through it. Even if it ends. I don’t need to be so scared.”
Brian held his breath, waiting to see if his hope was justified.
“Yes,” she finally whispered, face hidden against his chest.
“What?” he rasped.
“You’re worth forgiving. You’re worth the risk. And more than that...I’m worth taking the chance. I love you, Brian.” The words broke, rough with tears. “Still. I never stopped. I tried, but I couldn’t make it stop. I didn’t know how.”
He wasn’t the kind of man who cried easily. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had. At his father’s funeral, probably, five years before. But now his eyes burned, and he had to squeeze them shut to stop the tears.
“I love you,” she said again, as if she were making herself face it.
“Thank God, Eve.” He pushed up to his elbow and tipped her chin up. “Thank God. I’ve missed you so much.” He leaned down and kissed her. He didn’t stop kissing her until he was filled with the taste of her. He didn’t realize how terrified he’d been until the relief washed over him and he felt whole and right.
“I can’t promise more than a chance,” she warned as she kissed his jaw. “I might be too mad. I might not be able to trust you.”
“You can be as mad as you want. We’ll get through it. I promise.”
“Brian...” Her hand tightened in his hair and she pulled his head up until their eyes met. “You can’t know that.”
“I can know it. I do,” he said, meeting her gaze without even a heartbeat of doubt. “You’re my best friend, Eve.”
She looked at him for a long moment. He let her see everything he felt for her. Finally, her mouth quirked up in a half smile, and he knew they’d be fine. It was the old Eve. “Best friends, huh?”
He smiled at the wry edge of her words, and her hand slipped down to rest on his jaw as he stole another kiss.
“Yes,” he answered honestly. “Not to mention that you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.”
“Oh, Jesus, Brian.” She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to lie to me just because we’re still naked.”
“That’s a good point. We are still naked. Thanks for reminding me.” He reached past her to switch on the bedside lamp, and Eve squeaked.
“Turn that off!”
“Are you kidding me? I have to make up for all these years of not seeing my best friend naked.”
She gave a huff of incredulous laughter and strained toward the light as her other hand tugged at the covers. “No way.”
“Come on.” He grabbed her wrist before she could reach the switch. “Give in gracefully. I want to see all of you. Over and over. Naked and turned-on and open to me.”
She groaned and dropped her head to the pillow. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back? I could have hired a personal trainer.”
“Eve—”
“Brian, this is embarrassing! You’ve spent your entire career looking at perfect women. I’m just...”
He smiled at her. Then grinned down at her until she finally let go of the blanket to shove at his shoulder. “What?” she demanded, trying to hold back her own smile with a disgruntled pout.
“Perfect?”
“Yeah, right.”
He laced his fingers into hers and kissed her thumb. “Eve, you’re perfect. This is perfect. You’re here and so naked under me. Nothing could be better. See?” He pressed his hips to hers and showed her he was already hardening for her again.
The smile that bloomed over her face filled him with a shock of joy. Was there anything better than a beautiful woman being happy about his cock? “That’s perfection, huh?”
“Well,” he murmured as he bent to taste her mouth, “if you say so.”
Her laughter trembled through him, making his heart shake, but her quiet words set it right again. “I love you, Brian,” she whispered against his mouth. And that was everything he needed.
CHAPTER SIX
“HOLD STILL!” EVE ordered, lining him up in her sights again. She watched his shoulders rise and fall on an impatient sigh as she snapped away.
“Come on, Eve.”
“Just a few pictures.”
She angled the camera so that he was at the corner of the frame, but still in focus, his own camera raised to his eye and trained on the herd of deer in a faraway field. Even as she clicked, she knew one of these photos would be her new favorite. Brian, and the mountains beyond him, and the first buds of bright green aspen leaves just braving the spring on the tree to his left.
“Okay,” she said, but when he turned toward her, she snapped one last picture.
“Hey!”
She snorted with laughter at the outrage that creased his forehead. She didn’t know even one photographer who liked being in front of the lens.
“Okay, we’re done,” he groused, dropping his camera to glare at her.
“Be nice, or I’ll make you strip down and pose for me the way I really want you to.”
“You wish.” She saw the
way pink crept over his cheekbones, and suddenly all she wanted was to be in bed with him, naked and sweaty and tangled in his limbs. She couldn’t believe the way he turned her on with the barest of glances. As painful as that had been two years ago, now it was a wonder.
“You’re so sexy,” she murmured as she moved close to his body.
“I’m beginning to think the beauty of your favorite male model has damaged your corneas. You’re half-blind.”
“No.” His arms snuck around her and she looked up at him, brushing her thumb over the line of his jaw. “You’re gorgeous.”
“Eve...”
She leaned up to taste the spot she’d just touched. “I want you all the time,” she whispered. “It’s embarrassing.”
“It’s a miracle,” he responded.
He was right. It was a miracle. Not just the way their bodies fit together, but the way the loose edges of their lives had stitched together perfectly. He was managing the gallery now, and she’d expanded her studio space into a back room she’d been using for storage. She’d never been good at spotting new potential and bringing in outside work. Brian, on the other hand, had a passion for that. He sold her photography better than she could, and now the walls were filled with gorgeous work by local artists. Sales were already up, and the busy season hadn’t even started yet.
But none of that mattered as much as the way he looked at her when she touched him. As if she were the miracle. God, he was ridiculous. And so wonderful it hurt.
She kissed him one last time. “Do you want to move in with me?” she asked.
Brian pulled his head back as his eyebrows rose. “Really?”
“Yes.”
He smiled. “God, Eve. This is all moving a little fast.”
She shoved him hard enough that he had to take two steps backward. “You’ve asked me three times already!” she complained. “Always after you’ve made me come, I notice.”
“I know when you’re at your weakest,” he drawled. He reached for her and tugged her close again. “Yes, I want to move in with you. Now. Today. This minute.”
“This minute?” she repeated, sliding her hands behind his neck and into his hair to tug him down for a kiss. She moaned as his tongue slid against hers.
“Well...” he murmured, breaking the kiss to taste her neck. “In thirty minutes, maybe.” He backed her toward his truck, then growled when she dropped to her knees beside it. “Or ten. Ten minutes.”
“I think you’re overestimating your stamina, big guy.”
“I think...you’re right.”
Five minutes later, they were speeding back toward town, windows open to the cold and her laughter chasing away on the breeze. But Brian was still complaining.
“Because,” she answered his latest plea, “I’m pickier than you, and I’d rather come in a cozy bed than in a cold truck.”
“I said I’d turn the heater on.”
“I want to stretch out. I want you to kiss me. Everywhere. For an hour or so.”
He shot her a scorching look. The truck surged forward as he pressed the pedal harder. “All right. Deal. I guess I’ll just have to make it worth the wait.”
She drew his hand up to her mouth and kissed his knuckles. “You always do,” she whispered.
“What?” he asked over the wind.
But she just shook her head and turned to watch the trees slide by. The wind whipped her silly tears away. And Eve smiled.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460323779
TURN UP THE HEAT
Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders
of the individual works as follows:
LOVE WON’T WAIT
Copyright © 2014 by Lori Foster
BEACH HOUSE BEGINNINGS
Copyright © 2013 by Christie Ridgway
STRONG ENOUGH TO LOVE
Copyright © 2013 by Victoria Dahl
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