Virtuous(59)

“What do you think about when I kiss you?”

Smiling, he shakes his head. “Can’t tell you. If I do, you’ll find the emergency parachute and jump right out of this plane.”

I know I’m playing with fire, dangling red in front of a bull, but I can’t resist the need to know more. “Tell me anyway. I promise, no parachutes.”

“You’re not ready to hear those thoughts.”

“Can you give me a hint? A little sneak peek?”

Groaning, he buries his face in my hair, and his lips find my neck. “I think about what it would be like to be completely naked with you, to have your long smooth legs wrapped around me and your gorgeous breasts pressed tight against my chest while I make love to you. I think about what it would be like to be inside you, so deep there’s no way to tell where I leave off and you begin. I think about what it would be like to be able to do that every day and every night, to know you’re mine and I’m yours and there’ll never be anyone else for either of us.”

For a moment, I’m too stunned by the raw desire in his voice to formulate a reply. But then I realize he’s waiting for me to say something. “All that from a kiss?”

Nodding, he touches his lips to mine in a tentative caress. “And that’s just the sneak peek. There’s so much more where that came from.”

“I want that. I want all of it. I want to be the woman you described. I want to be her with you.”

“You can have anything you want from me. Anything at all. You only have to ask.”

“That’s the hard part for me.”

“Tell me what you want, sweetheart. Tell me so I can give it to you.”

“What we did the other night…”

He cups my breast and runs his thumb back and forth over the nipple. “This?”

I nod because he’s stolen my words with the subtle gesture that sets off a firestorm inside my body.

“You liked that?”

“Yes,” I say, covering his hand with my own when the sensations become too intense. After a deep breath, I remove my hand, hoping he’ll continue.

“More?”

“Yes.” I’m finding I don’t possess more than that one word to tell him what I want. I’ve never had to say the words before.

Flynn runs his finger along the top slopes of my breasts. “Bra on or off?”

I look up to find him watching me in that intense way that has all my walls crumbling down around me. “Off.”

He reaches behind me to release the hooks, and my breasts spill free of the tight confines of the cups. Leaving a trail of goose bumps in his path, Flynn pushes the strap down my arm.

My only goal is to get through this without having another meltdown. I want to be like any other woman being touched by a man she’s come to care about. I don’t want to be a victim. Not anymore. But then he cups my breast, dragging his thumb back and forth over the sensitive tip, and my mind is wiped clean of every thought that doesn’t involve the sublime sensations that spiral through me. I arch into him, wanting to be closer.

His lips close over my nipple, drawing it into the heat of his mouth as his tongue swirls around it. The sensory overload is intense, but I stay focused on the present rather than spiraling into the past the way I did the last time we got this far. I want more. I want everything, but I’m so afraid I won’t be able to follow through when the moment is upon us.

“Why did you just get all tense?” he asks.

“I… I don’t want it to happen again.”

“Do you feel like it’s going to?”

I draw in a sharp deep breath. “No, but I’m still afraid.”

“If it happens a hundred times, we’ll keep trying until it doesn’t.”

Here, in my arms, looking at me with affection and tenderness and desire, is the man I never expected to find. He’s patient and kind and understanding. Despite my intense desire to get through this without them, my eyes fill with tears anyway.

“Hey! What’s this? What happened?”

“It’s… It’s you. What you said. It was perfect.”

“So these are good tears?”

“The best kind.” I close my eyes, keeping them tightly shut until the tears are contained. And then I open them to find him watching over me. “Could we…”

“What, sweetheart? Just say it.”