Proposing to Preston (The Winslow Brothers, #2)(43)
“Less talking, more undressing,” she said, tilting her head back. “And more kissing.”
He kissed her again, his tongue gentler than it had been in the taxi or elevator. She slid her tongue against his, wanting urgency and heat more than tenderness. She popped open his pants’ button, unzipped his fly and tried to push his pants and underwear over his hips, but his boxers caught. Preston groaned softly as she tried to push them down again, and she broke off their kiss to look down.
Until now, she’d only touched his naked penis by tentatively slipping her hand into his underwear, but she’d never seen Preston completely naked. She leaned back and looked down at his tented boxers, slipping her thumbs into the waistband so she could pull them out and over his erection.
She heard a gasp—a short, ragged sounds pass from her own lips—as she stared at him with the tiniest bit of fear and reached out to grasp him with her hand. It was big. And thick. And it throbbed with his pulse—tiny, almost imperceptible, pumps of blood making it harder and wider as she held him. Drawing her bottom lip into her mouth, she glanced up at Preston for reassurance. And he was there for her, smiling with a mixture of love and amusement.
“I promise it’ll be okay,” he murmured. “But it’ll feel better if we slow down a little and you let me…”
“Let you…?” she asked, swallowing, the hot weight of him heavy against her palm.
He loosened her hand with a low groan, then pulled her off the bed to stand before him. Reaching for her panties, he slid them down her legs without dropping her eyes. “I’d rather show you.”
She nodded, knowing that she could trust him and wishing she felt as certain about their marriage as she felt about everything that was happening between them right now. It made her heart soften and surge to put her pleasure in his hands. Why couldn’t she do the same with the rest of her life?
His gaze slid down her naked body for the first time, and when she heard his panted sigh, her mind went blank of any other thoughts except what was happening between them right now.
“Lie down,” he said, his voice low and tight.
She sat down first, then lay back, leaving her bare feet on the floor, and Preston dropped to his knees, spreading her legs and leaning forward.
He flattened his hand over her curly mound, as he had dozens of times before, and Elise, primed for pleasure, took a jagged breath and closed her eyes as his finger slipped between her folds.
“My God,” he groaned, “you’re so wet, sweetheart.”
His fingers spread her lips and she felt the cool air of their bedroom on her sensitive skin, making it pucker and throb. Leaning his head forward, he flicked his tongue over her clit.
Elise whimpered, clutching the sheets in her fists and throwing her head back into the mattress. He licked her again, slower this time, and just as she started to understand what he was doing, she felt his finger enter her body and she practically bucked off the bed, straining up as his mouth latched back onto her tingling, aching flesh. Another finger joined the first, pressing against the wall of her sex as his mouth circled and lapped, sucked and licked.
A divine swirling started in her lower belly, rising higher and higher, until she could barely draw breath. Her muscles tensed until they trembled and shook, her fingers twisting into the sheets until she exploded into a million pieces, her body gyrating against his mouth and convulsing around his fingers. She heard herself scream his name, the sound echoing in her head like a prayer, and she crested, riding the wave of pleasure with her eyes clenched shut, barely aware of the world around her.
As she returned to earth, her body still jerked lightly as Preston crawled up the bed, pulled her up beside him and wrapped her in his arms.
And Elise promptly started crying.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she dropped her forehead to his chest, burrowing into the strong, solid warmth of he offered. She felt confused and overwhelmed, cherished and terribly in love, frightened for the future, but comforted by the kisses he pressed to her head, by his soft murmurs of love.
“Are you okay?” he asked, stroking her hair away from her forehead.
No, I’m not. I’m a mess. I love you so much, but I’m afraid we made a mistake today.
“Preston…everything happened so fast,” she blurted out.
His hand on her back paused. “What do you mean?”
I mean I should have stayed your girlfriend for a little longer. I’m not ready to be your wife. I got swept up in romance and fantasy, and now I’m scared that it all moved too fast.
But how could she say any of this to him? How could she make him understand her fears without pushing him away? She didn’t want to lose him, she just wished they could go back to yesterday. She took a ragged breath, closing her eyes against the maelstrom of her thoughts.
He pulled her tighter against him, stroking her back with long, soothing strokes and it gave her the courage to say, “It feels like we just met.”
“It feels like that to me sometimes too,” he said. “But we love each other. I can’t imagine my life without you, Elise.”
The truth? She couldn’t imagine her life without him either. But wanting him and making room for him were two different things, and one felt organic while the other felt frightening.
“I don’t know how to be a wife,” she said, her tears returning as her memories flashed to her mother doing the house chores as her father tended to the farm.