Page 36 of Resisting the Lumberjack

"Yeah."

"Take me home."

Not a question. Her voice has dropped an octave. Gone soft and serious and certain in a way I've never heard from her. Fingers curling around mine. Turned toward me in the passenger seat with eyes dark and decided.

My foot gets heavier on the gas.

Her cottage at the end of the gravel lane. Engine killed. Silence expanding between us like something with a pulse. Porch light on, everything else dark. Pines swaying overhead. My heart deep and steady. Not racing. Just ready. Like my whole body's been waiting for this moment and knows exactly what to do with it.

She looks at me across the cab. Porch light on her face. High cheekbones, dark eyes, that mouth that called me out over a turkey club and just took my breath by the bonfire.

"Haven't done this in a long time," she says quietly.

"How long?"

"Longer than I wanna admit."

Seatbelt off. My hand finds her jaw, tilts her face. "We got all night. Every minute of it."

We make it inside. Barely.

Door shuts behind us. My body pins hers against it, mouth on hers, kissing her like oxygen's overrated and always has been. Four weeks of sandwiches and restraint and her hands on my arm while every nerve caught fire. All of it burning away when she arches into me and sighs against my mouth.

"Jake." My name breathless. Needy. A sound that goes straight through me.

"Got you." Hands down her sides, thumbs tracing her waist, her hips. Pulling her flush against me so she can feel exactly what she does to me. Hard and aching and done waiting. "I got you, Selene."

She gasps when my cock presses against her stomach through our clothes. Her head falls back against the door. My mouth goes to her throat. Her jaw. The spot behind her ear that makes her whole body shudder and her fingers dig into my shoulders.

"Bedroom."

Pick her up. Legs wrapping my waist, arms around my neck, weight nothing against the adrenaline coursing through every muscle. Carrying her through the dark cottage with her tongue in my mouth and her fingers pulling my hair hard enough to sting in the best way. Bedroom. Small, moonlit, white sheets catching silver light from the window.

She goes down on the mattress. Take a second to look. Hair spread on the pillow. Chest heaving. Eyes on me, wanting and terrified and brave at once. Every layer of armor gone. The woman underneath. Real and raw and trusting me with something she hasn't trusted anyone with in years.

My flannel hits the floor. Her eyes travel down my chest, my stomach. Hungry. Unguarded. She sits up, reaching, palms flat on bare skin, sliding over muscle.

"God."

"Yours." Her hands pressed harder against me. "I'm yours, Selene. Every inch."

She pulls me down.

Clothes come off slow. I learn her with my hands first. The curve of her shoulder. The dip of her waist. The softness of her belly where her body tells the truth about living and aging and being real. Her bra unhooks and she's gorgeous. Full, warm, nipples hard and flushed dark. My thumbs roll over them and she moans, low and surprised, like she forgot she could make that sound.

Lower. Kissing down her stomach. Pulling her underwear down her legs, slow, watching her face the whole time. She's trembling. Not cold. Not afraid. Overwhelmed by how much she wants this.

"Let me take care of you."

My mouth on her pussy and she breaks open. Back arching off the bed, hand fisting in my hair. The sound she makes. Surprise turning to surrender, a woman remembering what it feels like to be wanted. To be tasted. To have someone between her thighs who isn't performing or rushing or waiting for his turn.

I take my time. Read her body the way I read timber. What makes her legs shake. What makes her hips roll up toward my mouth. Tongue flat against her clit, then circling slow, then sucking gently while two fingers slide inside her and curl forward. Finding the spot that makes her grip my hair so hard my eyes water.

"Jake. Oh fuck, Jake..."

Her thighs clamp around my head. Fingers pulling my curls hard enough to sting. My name pouring out of her mouth while she comes so hard her whole body locks up and her heels dig into my back and the headboard creaks from where she's gripping it.

I hold her through it. Steady. The way you hold something precious when the whole world shakes.