The Cabin - Jasinda Wilder Page 0,101

table at our first and only date. Under it, light wash blue jeans, low-ankle black boots. She’s watching me, waiting for me again.

“Quid pro quo,” she whispers.

I curl my fingers in the hem of her sweater, and she lifts her arms. I peel it off her, and the cashmere is downy, impossibly soft. She’s wearing only a black bra underneath. She spills out over the top of the lacy cups. I swallow hard at the vision of her.

“You’re so beautiful, Nadia,” I murmur.

Her smile is giddy, pleased. Her hands roam my bare chest.

I lean down to kiss her, but she touches my lips with one finger, stopping me. “Not yet. I like this step of the process. If I kiss you, I’ll close my eyes, and I might miss something. I don’t want to miss anything.”

I sing a few bars of “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith, and she smiles, laughs. “I love how you always have a song for the moment.” She said it, and we both realize it. Her eyes are wide, searching. “I don’t take it back.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want you to.”

She bites her lower lip. “Nathan?”

“Yeah.”

“Kiss me after all?” she breathes. “I’m nervous to go any further, but I want to. Kissing you makes me feel bold.”

I put my hands on her lower back, warm flesh under my eager palms, and she makes a sound in her throat as my lips meet hers and my hands caress her lower back, over her bra strap and across her shoulders. Her breasts press soft against my chest, and I feel everything inside me rising, expanding, wanting, needing.

She feels it, the hardness of my need standing rigid between our bodies, and she murmurs again, pressing more closely to me. Hips to hips. Chest to chest.

I feather my hands in her hair and brush it back, and I kiss her more deeply, and I hold her back in my hands, and then I grip the straps of bra in my fingers, pause for her to stop me. She doesn’t; she kisses me harder and creates space between our bodies for her hands. I feel my heart crashing in my chest like I’ve sprinted a mile. I unhook the clasps, and she breaks the kiss, and I scrape the bra down her arms. She lets it fall to the floor between us.

Reaching for me, for my jeans, she’s got her eyes dropped, on me, but also out of nerves.

I catch her hand. “Nadia, wait.” I let her go. “I want to look at you.”

She stands up straight, but crosses her arms over her chest. “Nathan…”

I pull gently at her hands. “Don’t.” I give her my eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Nadia. Please, let me see you.”

She lowers her arms, and her eyes fix on mine, nerves and need singing contrasting songs in her gaze.

I devour her body with my eyes. Lush, firm, full breasts. Small areolae, plump nipples standing on end. She stands boldly, now, seeing the adoration and the desire in my eyes, and it strengthens her.

“So fucking beautiful,” I murmur.

I run my palm up her stomach, pause at her diaphragm—I can feel her heart slamming. I cup her breast, and her eyes slide closed soaking up the sensation of being touched. Of having her body enjoyed, treasured. I take my time, and she lets me. Cup and caress, pinch and rub. And then she gasps, once, sharply, as I roll her nipple in my fingers, and she dances backward. A smile grows on her face, a sharp, hungry smile, a needful, eager smile. She stands just out of reach, chin lifted, eyes on me, on the evidence of my desire for her bulging against my zipper. She unbuttons her jeans, lowers the zipper. Hesitates, and then inhales and holds her breath and locks her lower lip in her teeth, eyes wide and on mine, now. She lowers her jeans past her hips, but they catch at her thighs, and she does a little shimmy to loosen them past her thighs, and the shimmy sends her breasts shaking and swaying in a way that is nearly my undoing. I groan, and my hands ache to be filled with the softness of her curves.

Now she’s in a pair of underwear, black lace to match the bra. She swallows hard. I reach for her again, but she shakes her head. “Wait. Not yet.”

“Nadia…”

She hooks her thumbs in the waistband, swallows again and inhales shakily, and then does that same lush,