Hold Me Close - Talia Hibbert Page 0,72

out laughing. “I really never know what you’re going to say next.”

She grinned. “Does that mean no?”

“I need to shower. And I said I’d fix your bed. I got the wood.” He yanked up the handbrake and nodded towards the beam laying across the back seat.

But she saw the way his hand tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles whitening. And she saw the way his eyes darkened from summer sky to tempestuous ocean.

So she said again, “Does that mean no?”

He stared at her for a moment. Then he slid a hand behind her neck, pulled her to him and growled, “Nope.”

31

They didn’t have sex in Evan’s car, because a charge of public indecency wouldn’t do anyone any good. But as they entered the building and climbed the stairs, Evan couldn’t keep his hands off Ruth. She half-ran to stay ahead of him, pushing him away with a laugh every time he reached for her.

When they got to his door, she slid off her shoe and produced the key he’d given her. Evan arched a brow. “Seriously?”

“This is where I keep keys,” she said primly. “When I don’t have pockets, I mean.”

“Of course it is.” He’d already found her phone shoved down her waistband, before she pushed his hands away. Evan shook his head, laughter light in his chest even as lust tightened his core and hardened his cock.

Feelings weren’t as straight forward and binary as he’d once assumed; around Ruth, he could feel fifty things at once.

She dragged him into his own flat and slammed the door behind them. Then she pushed him up against it, and he had the most delicious sense of déjà vu.

Ruth grabbed his face, her fingers tight around his jaw. “Come here,” she ordered. Her eyes seemed darker than usual, pupils blown into each deep brown iris.

He bent down, just enough to bring his mouth within reach of hers. She rose up, too, and then her lips were slanting over his, soft as the tulip clutched between his fingers.

She caught his lower lip between her teeth and bit gently, and Evan found himself moaning against her mouth. Ruth dragged more noise out of him than anyone he’d ever been with. He didn’t mind at all.

With a grunt, Evan picked her up. She released his lip and gave a soft, little laugh. “You can’t just pick me up whenever you feel like it.”

“Why the hell not?” He carried her through the house, pausing to put his flower on a side table. “Isn’t that the point of you being so little?”

“You keep saying that,” Ruth muttered, “but I’m exactly average height.”

Evan paused, actually surprised. “Are you?”

“I’m 5 foot 3,” she sniffed.

“Are you?” He considered that for a moment. “You seem smaller.”

“You are incredibly ill-mannered.”

“That’s hilarious, coming from you.” He winked. “And, however tall you are, I like carrying you.”

“You don’t think I’m heavy?”

He felt his lips tip up at the suspicion in her voice. “Evidently not.”

“Right. And why are we in the bathroom?”

“Because we’re taking a shower.” He put her down gently, and then he slid his hands beneath the hem of her T-shirt. “Take this off.”

She licked her lips, her eyes trailing over his body. “Yes, Sir.”

They undressed each other, in the end, her hands dragging at his clothes with an eagerness he’d longed for. All he’d ever wanted was for her to say yes. And when she tugged his T-shirt over his head with a laugh, when she squeezed his erection through his jeans before unzipping them, that was all he heard. Over and over again, with every hurried touch. Yes.

They stepped under the shower’s hot spray in a tangle of bodies, Ruth’s legs wrapped around his waist, her hands gripping his shoulders like a lifeline. He shoved her against the tiles and she moaned, grabbing his hair and hauling him closer. Kissing him. Giving him everything. Yes.

He palmed her breast and she moaned into his mouth. He pinched the nipple and she bit at his lip. He could feel the slick heat of her pussy against his shaft, and he had to remind himself that he couldn’t just sink into her. No condom.

Then she reached between their bodies and grasped his cock, wet skin against wet skin, and the burning desire for pressure receded because she, this, whatever she chose to give him, would always be exactly what he needed.

Ruth pulled her lips from his and tipped her head back, water streaming over her face. She looked like a goddess. She felt like a