Page 21 of Ice Around the Edges

He looked startled, and I laughed at him.

“Oh shit, I did.” His eyes were huge. “I never even thought of it that way.”

“Because it’s a fucked-up way to look at it.” I chuckled.

He moved quickly, rising to his knees, straddling my hips at the same time he arched over me, hands on my face. “Baby, please, please just gimme another chance. Come for Christmas, come look at my life and see if you like it. You can help me be a better man and still save the fuckin’ world.”

“You wanna take me home like a stray dog for Christmas?”

“You’re not a stray dog. You’re the love of my life, you fuckin’ idiot.”

He said the sweetest things.

“Dixon.” I breathed his name at the same time I reached out and put a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him down to me.

“What?” he asked, just the corner of his mouth curling.

I trembled hard.

“Tell me what you want.”

I felt the tears slip from under my eyelids because the feelings were suddenly overwhelming. I had never needed him so badly. “Please.”

The second his lips touched mine, I parted them for him. I heard the noise in the back of his throat as he tilted my head back, his tongue tasting me, his mouth hungry and rough, the kiss deep and wet. I arched up into him as his hands slid under me, over my ass. I grabbed him, arms around his neck, tight and clinging, holding him there, making sure he couldn’t get away. He yanked me to the edge of the bed and unbuckled my belt. He checked my face, and when I smiled, giving the okay, he went to work on my jeans. He peeled them and then the briefs underneath off my legs.

“If I forgot to tell you yesterday, Ev, you’re still fuckin’ beautiful.”

I trembled as his hot gaze raked over me. He opened my legs and wrapped them around his narrow hips. I felt his hands on the inside of my thighs. Chills of pleasure rolled through me, and I broke the kiss because I couldn’t breathe.

“Look at you needing me.”

There was no question.

“Is the stuff in the nightstand?”

I nodded.

He shifted over, one hand on my hip, the other rustling through the contents of the small drawer. I smiled when I felt him cup my ass.

“What?”

“You never could keep your hands off my ass.”

“Because it’s round and firm and perfect,” he assured me. “The first time I ever saw you walk into the locker room in your jeans, I was in love.”

And I was going to banter with him, tease him, but he chose that moment to wrap his fingers around my needy cock. “Dix.”

“You’re crazy about me,” he said as his lips opened on my collarbone and his fingers tightened, stroking, tugging gently. The shudder tore through me, the hoarse moan uncontained.

“Dixon,” I called his name, hands in his hair, on his neck, down his back, clutching him to me.

“Tell me.”

“I need you.”

His lubed fingers slid inside me, and I rocked up into him, vaguely aware of the jingling of his belt buckle, the crinkling of foil. He was ready to sheath himself inside of a condom.

“Wait… you don’t––you gave me that stupid piece of paper this morning, and there’s only ever been you without,” I panted, my breath shuddering.