Hidden Summit (Virgin River #17)(57)

He didn’t even hesitate. He shucked those jeans so fast, it was like sleight of hand. Then he started over, from her lips to her chin to her br**sts to her belly and then lower. They hadn’t been a couple long, but he knew what she liked, knew what her favorite adventures were, and one of them included his tongue teasing around the edge of her panties until he couldn’t stand it any longer and had to go in for the kill.

Tonight, he decided, he wasn’t taking the red lace off. He was going to move it around. Until Leslie, he’d had no idea how much he enjoyed a little lace that barely covered her. He gently spread her, licked her thighs, pulled the panties to the side and enjoyed the most private part of Leslie. Enjoyed her deeply. Wanted her wildly. And she made those beautiful sounds for him, lifted herself against his mouth, begging. When her moans came in breathless gasps, closer and harder, he pulled away from her and rose to her lips. “Not yet,” he said. “Not yet.”

“I think you have a mean streak,” she rasped out.

“You like this. This is your favorite. Deny it.”

“I can’t deny it.”

He kissed her in a way that said he owned her, and she wrapped herself around him, trying to hurry him, but he couldn’t be hurried. This was going to be like the first time. Then if he had the energy, he might take her through all the times....

He changed his mind and got rid of the red lace, leaving her beautifully bare.

“Please,” she whispered against his mouth.

“Not yet.” And then he entered her slowly, so slowly. He held very still because when he was inside her like this he wanted time to stop. This felt natural and right to him, to be cocooned with the one woman in his life he loved with all his heart and mind. Loved.

He dipped his head and gave her nipple a lick, then a tug. And he moved, very slowly and deeply. And she said exactly what he expected her to say. “More. Come on, harder.”

He chuckled. “Not yet. I want you to let it build. Slow and easy. Try to lie still and let me get you there, from the inside, let it build.”

And she groaned. She couldn’t do it. She tried moving her h*ps against him, but he wasn’t allowing it. He held her still and took his time, pumping, kissing, sucking.

It wasn’t long before she began to lose control and pant, squirm, dig her heels into the mattress and lift against him, slam against him.

“Okay, baby,” he said. “I guess it’s time....” He covered her mouth, accepted her tongue into his, grabbed her hips, fixed the friction just right and pounded into her, fast and rhythmic, hard and even, deep and perfect. And she rose, cried out against his mouth, wrapped her legs around him to hold him and erupted into a liquid heat that sent him out of his mind, clenching in the most delicious spasms. He tried to wait her out, let her finish before he gave it up, but he could only do so much, and he went off like a rocket, a beautiful rocket.

“God,” he said. “God. Les…”

She eventually collapsed beneath him, panting. He buried his face in her neck and tried to even his breathing, but it was as if he’d run a sprint.

She played with the hair at his temples while she floated back to earth; he liked that part. When he could finally lift his head, he looked into her hot, dark eyes and said, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

She smiled at him and said, “I think I do. About as much as I love you.”

He smoothed back her hair. “We’re going to be all right, Les. We’ll just get through the next few weeks and then we’ll get on with our lives. New lives for both of us.”

“Here?” she asked.

He gave a little shrug. “This is as good a place as any. And if the time comes, we can take care of your parents.” He grinned. “The fun couple.”

She was momentarily stunned into silence. “You’d do that for me?” she asked in a whisper.

“I’d do anything for you.”

Conner spent the weekend. He went back to his cabin for a change of clothes, but had all day Sunday with her. They went to a movie and brought home Thai food Sunday night, watched the sky turn lavender again and went to bed together. Early.

When Conner lay beside Leslie, he found it difficult to sleep. She felt so good against him, and he didn’t want to miss a second of it. Everything in his life had changed in the past couple of months. Everything he wanted for his life had changed.

Witnessing a brutal crime was a helluva way to have an epiphany, but that’s probably where the changes began. When it had first happened, his resentment for his circumstance had been so enormous it had almost been suffocating. When his store had burned down, when the threat had come, hatred had risen up in him, and he’d felt like killing someone himself. When the D.A. had decided the most reasonable and safe thing to do was separate him from his sister and nephews for at least a few months, it had felt like a small death.

Slowly his perspective began to change. It was so slight at first he’d barely noticed, and he certainly hadn’t understood what was happening to him. He understood now. He’d been a slave to his business; there hadn’t been room for much else. It hadn’t been unusual for him to put in sixteen-hour days. When he had spent time with Katie and the boys, he’d often done so during a work break. He’d leave work to go to their preschool program or T-ball game or birthday party and then go back to the store to clean up, to lock up. He would have dinner with them and then go back to the store. He had rarely taken days off; he’d even built the boys’ race car beds at the store in the stockroom and then delivered them in one of his trucks. It had been all about filling up the days and making things work.