Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(39)

Isaac ladled out his masterpieces in the two lovely platters she’d liberated from the Ocotillos dishwasher earlier in the night. “Why don’t we just shift our breakfast over there? I’m sure we can find some doctor-approved things for us to bring over. Has to beat two weeks straight of hospital food.”

The man was just too sweet. “You sure? It’s a long way to go for breakfast. And you barely met Darcy last week.”

“True, but Darcy and I clicked right off the bat. She’s a cool lady. A lot like you, in fact.” He dropped a kiss on her cheek. “But I don’t want to barge in or anything though.”

“No, she liked you, too. Thought you were handsome and charming, to be exact.”

“I could tell from our brief meeting that she was a woman with exceptional taste.” He lifted his water glass to clink against hers.

Xoey smiled and marveled at how easily their relationship had transitioned over the past few weeks. Sure, they had a year of training as friends but it seemed ridiculously easy.

Almost too easy.

Suddenly, she felt her chair tip back and she yelped, scrambling to stop the descent to a scrambled noggin.

But the fall never came.

Instead, she was left suspended midair as Isaac’s mouth swooped down to cover hers in a kiss of the plundering and ravaging variety as he kept her chair tilted back on its hind legs.

A too-quick minute later, he was tilting her back upright gently until all four legs touched back down to the tiled floor.

He shrugged and gave her an unapologetic grin when she proceeded to blink her lust-glazed eyes at him afterward. “Quickest way to stop you from thinking so much.”

She eyed first the scrumptious looking meal, and then the equally scrumptious chef watching her with hot eyes that held what she could only interpret as a big, silent dare.

The oxygen in her lungs grew thick. And when her next deep breath pulled her t-shirt taut against her chest, he growled his appreciation.

His eyes narrowed on her hardened nipples as he murmured in a rough whisper, “I still remember the night you came with nothing but my tongue on your nipples, and my fingers barely touching the edge of your panties.”

Heat flooded her veins, dampening her in a dizzying rush of excitement.

“And your teeth,” she managed to whisper back as she stood, edging closer to him to drag her own teeth against the muscular cords of his neck.

Her lips skated up to his ear to confess, “I came because I’d been imagining your tongue and teeth where your fingers had been.”

He yanked her body flush against him, tipping her chin up to take her lips under his.

Hot, dominant, and possessive, his lips covered hers again with a completeness that left her fighting for breath, for sanity as he claimed every last cell in her body as his to command, to control. To keep.

Holy hell.

His kisses had always been intoxicating, but tonight, they all-consuming.

With every passing second, he was leaving searing reminders of him on her lips, branding himself in her memories.

As if she needed any more.

He was already a permanent fixture in her fantasies, her dreams.

Her reality.

The latter, lately, feeling the most special connection of them all.

His muscles hardened under her hands as he transformed the kiss into a full-blown assault, ravishing her mouth while his fingers smoothed over her inner thigh and slipped under the fabric of the loose boxer shorts she always wore to bed.

Fingers her body fervently welcomed, slid through her wet folds, teasing her with such tenderness that the contrast against his rough kiss was almost too much.

It had never been this good with them, with anyone.

Removing each piece of clothing she wore slowly, deliberately, he kissed his way down her body like a voyager laying claim to every part of her.

She arched against him when his tongue stroked against her slick center, long and slow. Instantly, she began drowning under waves of pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known.

His teeth nibbled, scored her skin as he sought, demanded more.

One of her legs found its way over his shoulder just before his mouth closed tight over her sensitive flesh. Flashing lights and whirls of carnival sounds began echoing in her mind as his thick fingers slid into her, teasing her in tandem with his tongue and the words he was whispering against her skin—words so heartfelt, she felt herself quickly unraveling at the seams.

She’d never recover.

That was the only thought in her mind as she began spiraling through a tornado of bliss that ravaged every last one of her defenses.

Blinded by ecstasy, rendered immobile by words of love and possession, her thoughts splintered into oblivion as a thousand erotic fireworks detonated at once, exploding in her brain in a spectacular light show that sent her hurtling to an explosive grand finale.

The reheated stir-fry and fried rice an hour later was even better than she’d expected.



*



XOEY GROANED as she tried to shoo the thin rays of sunlight streaming in through her bedroom windows, which were successfully pulling her out of what felt like only ten minutes of sleep since her head had hit the pillow after yesterday’s rough night at the brewpub.

Rolling over and burying her head under the blanket didn’t work either, because suddenly, sunlight exploded around the room.

“Isaac!” she growled. “Leave my blackout curtains alone.”