Page 83 of Defiant Hearts

“God, you’re beautiful,” he roughed out.

The words went straight to her heart. She’d spent too long feeling like damaged goods after what Lance put her through. Wyatt never looked at her that way. He looked at her like she was a miracle he’d stumbled into.

He bowed his head and kissed the hollow of her throat, right where the stethoscope rested. Then lower. He traced her collarbone with his lips, and she arched into him, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

As he swept kisses lower to her breast and gathered her hard nipple between his lips, she bit back a sharp cry. Need soaked her inner thighs, and her head fell back. Eyes pinched closed, she reveled in the hot feel of his mouth and the contrast of cold wood beneath her.

She threaded her fingers through his hair and held him to her breast. He teased it in slow circles around her nipple before moving to the other and giving it the same attention.

“Wyatt.” His name came out shaky. Needy.

“I’ve got you.”

He did. Every single time. On the mountain. On the ledge. After restless nights when nightmares came, he’d been there, steady as the stone he carried in his pocket.

He slid his hand up her thigh, slow as if savoring how her muscles quivered for him. He drew lazy circles over her skin with his callused thumb, inching higher until she was squirming.

“You’re teasing me.” She gasped again as he moved even higher and the heat of his thumb met her needy folds.

“I’m making sure you’re totally ready for me. Nurse’s orders.”

“That’s not how—oh!”

He skimmed his thumb over the drenched seam of her pussy and then kissed her as he thrust two fingers inside her. Her walls clamped around his long digits, and she began to rock into his hand.

Excitement ramped up inside her as he claimed her gasps under his mouth and drove her high, high, higher with every plunge of his fingers. The pressure in her core built until she was shaking with it.

When he strummed her clit with his thumb, she flooded his fingers and swallowed a low cry. “Wyatt!”

He circled her clit with his thumb and pressed it in a rhythm that sent her over the edge in a heartbeat. She came apart with his name on her lips, clutching him, her whole body trembling. He held her through it, bringing her down in slow increments while murmuring things she couldn’t quite hear over the pounding of her heart.

When she could breathe again, she reached for his belt.

Her hands were unsteady, and the buckle fought her. He covered her fingers with his and helped, his forehead resting against hers. Their eyes locked, and for a moment, neither of them moved.

“I love you,” he said quietly.

Tears pricked her eyes. “I love you too. So much it scares me sometimes.”

“Don’t be scared.” He brushed a thumb across her cheekbone. “I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”

She believed him. That was the miracle of it. After everything, she believed him all the way down to her bones.

She shoved his jeans down his hips, and he kicked them away. Then he lifted her off the dresser, her legs wrapping around his waist, and carried her the few steps to the bed. He laid her down like she was something precious and followed her onto the mattress, his weight settling over her, skin to skin at last.

She ran her hands down his back, feeling the play of muscle, pulling him closer.

In one slow, mind-spinning shove, he filled her to the hilt. They curled toward each other as sensation stole all ability to speak. They didn’t need words anyway, not when their bodies could do the talking.

With a slow rock of his hips, he withdrew his thickness through her pussy almost to the tip before gliding back in. The dark need she thought eased from her last orgasm was back, tripled.

She raked her fingers lightly down his back and gripped his ass, guiding him deeper. She gasped into his mouth, and he answered with a low growl that vibrated through her body, heart and soul.

He moved faster, and the world narrowed down to him. The rasp of his breath against her neck. The way he laced his fingers with hers and pinned their joined hands beside her head.

The rhythm built, the sensation heightened. The burn of need gathered until she felt pleas dropping from her lips.

“I need…I need…”