A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(118)

“Oh, God.” Her tongue swirled around each digit. He ground hard into the bed, desperate for release.

Kat pulled his fingers from her mouth with a loud popping sound, and moved to kiss him, gripping his face in her small hands. He could taste her on her tongue.

“What the hell are you doing to me?” Carter growled.

She pulled her mouth away and began kissing his face. “I want to make you feel good,” she whispered. “I’ve wanted you for so long, Carter.”

He held her close as her touches and kisses started changing from soft and wanting to desperate and frenzied, and her small whimpers slowly morphed into louder sobs.

“It was you,” she muttered into his shoulder in between licks and bites. “Oh God, Carter, it was you.”

“Shhh,” he soothed. “Kat, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“You saved me.” She wept into his skin. “I knew you were real. I knew. Everyone said I’d imagined it, that you weren’t real.” She trailed her pointer finger across his bottom lip. “But you are.”

Carter’s bones dissolved at her words. She understood. Wherever she’d been tonight, whatever she’d done after she’d run from him, she’d realized what he’d said was true. He had saved her.

Her legs wrapped around him, pinning him to her while she cried into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry I hit you.” She smothered his cheek with kisses. “Forgive me, please?”

She continued to touch him while her words of thanks and realization tumbled from her mouth. Carter didn’t stop her. He needed to hear her say all she had to. He needed to have this moment with her. She pushed his shoulders and rolled them both over, sitting astride his waist. Carter kept his eyes closed, with his hands on her ample hips, and let his other senses take over, focusing on every other part of her: the warmth from between her legs, the sound of her breathing, the power in her touch, and the smell of her perfume.

“You held me.” Her palms explored his stomach. “I remember the way you smelled.” She pushed her nose into the crook of his neck and took a huge breath. “It was you. You whispered in my ear, telling me I was safe. I know now. I know why your voice makes me feel so protected.” She dropped her forehead to his and let her lips whisper across his mouth.

He had spoken to her—into her hair—until his voice gave out and the sirens came near. His eyes began to sting under his lids. He clenched them tight. Her hands swept over his skin, up his sides to his neck, and down again, memorizing him.

“Kat,” Carter breathed, unraveling under every movement. “Keep touching me. Touch me everywhere.” His hands gripped her sides and caressed the skin up to her ribs. “God, don’t stop.”

She shook her head, her hair falling all around him. “Never.”

[page]Their lips met again, softly, but with a passion that wrecked him.

“Your arms,” she muttered against his neck. Her hands slid along his biceps. “I feel like I know them so well.” He could feel her nails leaving imprints in his skin when she pulled them down to his forearms, and then to his hands, where she entwined their fingers together. “Strong and protective.” She kissed the crook of each of his elbows. “I was meant to be in your arms, Carter,” she said, the ardor back in her voice. “I missed them. I missed you.” She whispered by his ear. “I’ve missed you my whole life.”

Carter nuzzled her neck, licking the delicate column up to her jaw. “I missed you, too. My Peaches.”

She smiled against his cheek. “Always.”