smiled, leaned down, gave her a kiss for just being her. “You can touch me, cupcake. Always.” I reached up, undid the latches with a single push of a button.
Her arms fell as if they weighed a million pounds. She rubbed at her shoulders. Tipping her head back, I saw her searching for the restraints. My smile was a little dark when she pouted up at me. “Where are they?”
“Somewhere only I know about.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to touch you now. All over.” She hovered her hands over my pecs.
I rolled to my back, lifted her to straddle my hips. “Touch away, cupcake.” I folded my hands under my head, watched her eyes light up with a joy I hadn’t seen before. Touching was almost sacred to her.
Which, when I thought about it, was understandable. I was just so fucking glad that I was the one she was touching. The one to share it with her.
Her fingers settled on my pecs, light as a feather. We were together like that for a long time as she became familiar with my body. Her brow furrowed as she ran her hands over the faded scars of my youth. Smoothed out when my nipples beaded up under her teasing strokes.
Her sexy quirk as she slid her fingertips over my abs and down to my hip bones had my dick giving a half-hearted attempt to meet her. She slid lower on my body, settled over my thighs. She gently picked up my sleeping cock in her hands. Rubbed her fingers all over it.
The expression on her face…I’d only seen it one other time. When I was watching her bake at her store. The look of pure enjoyment and dedication as she mixed the ingredients. Added the icing and layers to the massive book cake for the client she really liked.
Her touch was soothing, comforting. She was also hot as fuck and twice as spicy. My brain was ready to take her again. My body was more than happy with the current situation. Maybe I wasn’t quite so young anymore.
I snorted.
She looked up at me. “What are you thinking in there? Or did I disgust you?” She tipped her head to the side, not removing her hands.
I laughed. “Definitely not disgusting me, cupcake. Just thinking that as much as I want to make love to you again, I’m also perfectly happy just watching you touch me. It’s…” I searched for the right word. “…better than a daydream.”
Her smile was breathtaking. “That’s how I feel every time you touch me.” She opened her mouth to say more, but her stomach decided to make itself known. The loud grumble sounded almost painful in its intensity.
Her cheeks went rosy as she clutched at it. “Sorry.”
I sat up, wrapped her in my arms. “No worries. Let’s get some food, finish the mountain, and then watch a sappy movie so I can feel you up when I think you’re distracted.”
Her peel of laughter was a ray of sunshine in my dark life. “You’ve got yourself a deal, hero.”
Chapter 10 – Willow
We got cleaned up and dressed. Made our way back out to the clothes mountain. This time around, when I saw a duplicate, I just thanked it for helping me and tossed it in the DONATE pile. I wasn’t going to drag myself down for coping in whatever way that worked.
I was still standing wasn’t I? Still happier now than any time before in my life. Outside of a couple measly snafus, I thought my life was landing on the side of good more days than not.
I chuckled. Measly snafus. Kidnapping, torture, shot at, almost run off the road, attempted murder…easy peasy.
**
“I think I see the floor,” Ryker said a couple hours later.
I jerked my head around to look at his side of the room. “No way. This pile is never ending. I’m pretty sure it was breeding and copying itself while we had sexy times.”
He snorted. “Probably true. But look.” He stepped into a section of floor without any clothes on it. “Bare floor.” He did a little dance that looked like he was either shopping or spanking something. I wasn’t quite sure.
“Oh sweet goddess, thank you.” I tossed another pair of pants to the KEEP pile. I surveyed the remaining smaller stacks of clothes. “Can I make blanket decisions so we can be done?” I put my hands together like I was praying, lifted them to my chest. Gave Ryker my best puppy dog eyes.
He laughed.