Bring Me Home for Christmas (Virgin River #16)(42)

Her hands ran over his chest. “See?” she said softly. “You’re warmer already…”

He pulled back the bedcovers and knelt between her legs. His hands were hot now, hot on her br**sts, covering them and pressing them together. He kissed his way down her neck, across her collarbone and onto her chest, finally pulling a nipple into his mouth. The sensation caused her to arch against him, and while he suckled, he pressed himself against her. Her hand slipping around to the front beneath his sweats, she reached for him, grabbing that most proud member in her hand. He shuddered. “God,” he said. “Oh, man… Baby, I’m going to make you feel so good.”

Her moan was music to his ears. She pressed her pelvis against him, hungry. Eager. He sucked harder. His fingers slipped under the waistband of her pj bottoms and he began to slide them down. “You have to help me with this, baby. We have to be careful of your ankle….”

“Nice and slow, Denny. We don’t want to have to explain anything embarrassing to the doctor.”

He chuckled wickedly, happily, slowly pulling down the pajamas. “You embarrassed, honey?”

“Not at all,” she said, lifting her butt and letting them slide. She kicked the good leg out and waited patiently while he pulled the other over her splint.

“Yeah, we can do this.” Then he stopped and concentrated on her face. “You sure, Becca?”

She smiled and nodded. “Are you kidding? Of course I’m sure. You?”

He didn’t answer, he just fell into her kiss again, covering her open mouth with his, pulling her tongue into his mouth and tasting her. His fingers moved lower to tease her, to test her, to see if she was getting ready for him. She was going to drown him; he almost lost it right there. His groan was so deep and low, he felt it rumble through him.

“Becca, baby, I don’t think I can wait for you.”

She tugged his sweats down to his thighs, then urged him toward her.

She was panting, arching, lifting against him. The size of him thrilled her. Then she moved his hand so that he was stroking her in the right place, getting her hotter. Closer. It was all a part of their sexual memory, the things they had learned about each other, not forgotten even after years of separation. And her moan turned into a whimper as she led him to her.

He pressed himself gently against her, just barely entering a little bit, then stopped and looked deeply into her eyes before pushing on. “I still love you, baby. I never stopped loving you….”

“Oh, Denny, I missed you so much….”

A small smile found his lips right before he drove it home. Ah, he’d been here before! His world went into a spin. Everything he was feeling, he knew he would feel with her. He watched her face. She bit her lower lip, moaned softly. Her hands found the hard muscles of his butt and pulled him more deeply into her. Then she lifted against him, held him tight inside her and everything clenched until her toes curled. “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God….” she cried.

“That’s my girl,” he said. And that was all the endearment he could muster before he rode her hard, throbbing with his own pleasure. He didn’t think it would ever end, and by the time the cl**ax ebbed, he was weak. Breathing hard, he rested his face against her neck, giving her soft kisses while he held her, feeling her lips against his cheek.

“See?” she whispered. “You’re not cold anymore.”

He chuckled. He felt a little trickle against his face and when he pulled back to look at her, he found tears wetting her cheeks. He wiped them away with his fingers. “Honey, you’re crying. I went crazy… Did I hurt you? Baby, I’m so sorry!”

She sniffed back the emotion and blinked her eyes closed, giving her head a little shake.

“Becca? Regrets?”

“No, that’s not it. I was afraid I’d never feel that with you again.”

“Aw, baby… I’m sorry for all my screwups.”

“Me, too. But this time we have to talk about it, Denny. All of it.”

He gave her a light kiss, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull out of her. “We’ll talk about everything, honey. I promise.”

They vowed to talk about everything, but not right away. They held each other close, skin to skin, occasionally stroking and kissing, coming down to earth. And it was while they shared this intimate closeness that it struck Becca with utter clarity that before they fell apart three years ago, Denny had been more than a lover, he had been her best friend. Even though she was at USC and he was in San Diego, he was her ballast, her rudder. It grieved her that she obviously hadn’t been that for him when he needed it, because she relied on him completely. She talked to him everyday; she told him everything, rarely making a decision without having a conversation with him first. Even those decisions that had little to do with him, like what subject to choose for a paper she was writing.

Then his mother became ill and he began to recede from her life until suddenly he was gone.

Now she wondered, had she been doing all the talking and too little listening?

“I can’t believe you thought I had a girlfriend,” Denny said. He was still in that perfect place inside her, though in his current condition he wasn’t going to achieve much beyond the comfort of closeness.

“I can’t believe you don’t have one,” she said. “In three years?”