Shelter Mountain (Virgin River #2)(76)

As he held her against him, flesh on flesh, he asked her, “Will you tell me if it’s too much? If I’m too demanding?”

“Yes, John,” she said, breathless. “Will you tell me?” she asked.

He answered with a lusty laugh. “Yeah. Sure. But you’ll have to dig me up to ask me.”

“Then do that thing you do…Again,” she said.

“And again and again and again?” he asked, teasing her.

“Ooh, John…”

This business of the female orgasm Preacher found to be the best discovery of his lifetime. It had to be better than a man’s; better for a man than his own. The one thing he didn’t even know he was capable of, he’d quickly become an expert at. He was quite sure it wasn’t even as much fun for her as it was for him. He had a dozen methods, but one of his favorites was to torture her delightfully by kissing her whole body, from her eyelids to her toes, spending a little extra time right in the center of her body. He liked to start with soft kisses, end with a strong tongue, and when he sensed, knew that she was ready to explode yet again, he’d get right inside her so that he could enjoy it. There was nothing in this world like it—that hot, gripping spasm that sometimes caused her to cry out his name and grab hold of him as if she was afraid he might float away. When he rocked with her through that miraculous release, more than once he said, “I think I could do this forever. I could do this for a living….”

He liked to catch her as she fell back to earth, gasping, breathless, weak from an electrifying orgasm. It was so pleasurable for him that he’d hold himself back, delay his own release so that he could bring it to her again. He’d let her have a moment to recover and then begin on her once more, slowly at first, sweetly, gently. Her responses would let him know that it was time for him to be more aggressive, put a little more muscle into it. It was she who determined the pressure and pace—and it made him laugh to think he was so worried that he might break her. She was like finely tempered steel—and she surprised him with her strength. Her power.

It wasn’t unusual for her to wrap her legs around his waist and refuse to let him go, or push him onto his back and climb on him, treating him to a bit of his own medicine, taking the choice to wait any longer away from him. Giving back what she’d gotten.

He had no idea his life could be so satisfying. So utterly fulfilling. Nor had he ever considered that it could be so much fun. Their sex was hot, then afterward they could laugh, banter a little, bring the lightness to their life that balanced everything.

“How can I love you this much?” he asked her.

“Or this often?” she countered, laughing.

“Paige, I want you to know something. I know it’s too soon for you to think about a whole lifetime, but I’m not fooling around here. I don’t have any expectations, I swear. I just want you to know that. I’m in all the way. Committed. I don’t want you to ever worry that I’m just passing the time.”

She ran her fingertips through the short hair at his temple. “Aren’t you a little afraid you could get tired of me, John?”

He shook his head. “I’m not that kind of guy. I take it slow—too slow, sometimes. I give things a lot of time—being sure is a good thing. But I don’t change my mind. I know in some things that can be bad. I like things to stay the same.”

“I won’t hold you to anything,” she said. “I’m just so happy to be here, like this, right now….”

“There’s something else I want to say about that, about us. I’m not the kind of guy who doesn’t want you to talk back or have your opinions or expects you to never have a bad day when you’re all cranky and annoyed. I want all of that—I want you to speak up, make demands, insist on the most exceptional treatment and get pissed off if you don’t get it. I want you to feel safe to yell at me just because you’re in a mood. If I’m not what you want for the long haul, I can live with that. What I could never live with is you being afraid of how I’ll act when you’re just being yourself.”

It was impossible to keep tears from gathering in her eyes. “John…No one’s ever loved me like that….”

“Well, baby, I do. In fact, that’s the only way I love you. Every part of you—strong and bossy, scared and needy—it doesn’t matter. If I’m gonna have you, it has to be all of you, not some little part that feels safe.”

She kissed him, quick, on the lips. He brushed a tear off her cheek.

“I know that baby you lost wasn’t planned, and it still hurt you pretty bad that it didn’t make it. Maybe someday, when you’re ready, you’ll talk to me about adding to our family. Giving Chris a little brother or sister.”

“You’d like children?” she asked.

“I never thought I would. But with you, it comes to mind.” He laughed. “It comes to mind pretty hard. It’ll keep, Paige. It’s just an idea….”

She gently touched his face. “You do understand that if there’s a baby between us, you might have to cut back a little?”

“How much?” he asked, that frown that she had come to adore drawing his brows together. And she laughed at him.

“You’re teasing me,” he said. “Okay, you asked for it,” he said, starting on her eyelids.