My teeth snapped shut and I met his gaze. My heart was going wild, and I hadn’t even realized how much my hands had started shaking. Had my voice been shaking too? Fuck, it had been.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t be. Just…” His eyes flicked down.
I blinked.
Arching his eyebrow, he nodded downward.
My mind had been whirring so fast, it took a second to catch up and realize what he wanted. When I did, my knees almost dropped out from under me, and I knelt at Will’s feet on the hard kitchen floor.
He stroked my hair, and I closed my eyes as a sense of calm settled over me like a heavy blanket.
“Just breathe.” He’d shifted to a low, soothing voice. “You’ve got a lot on your mind and a lot on your plate, and a lot of things to sort out in your head and in your house, but you don’t have to have a solution to all of it right this second.” He trailed his fingers through my hair. “Just give yourself a minute to breathe.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled. There was never anything more liberating than a Dom putting me on my knees and giving me permission to let go, and holy fuck, I hadn’t realized until this exact moment how badly I’d been needing that release. Nothing would be magically fixed, and it would all still be there when I got up, but for a minute or two, I could sit here on my knees and do exactly what he said: just breathe.
And I’ll be damned if it didn’t help. For the last few months, there’d been a part of me that was always cranked up to a twelve while I stressed over the house, the grief, and the future without my dad. Right now, at Will’s feet, I had permission to dial that back to a five. Just bring it down a little and catch my breath. It was kind of like coming down to the kitchen for a glass of water in between working on the attic. Everything would still be there when I trudged back upstairs, but I’d be in a better frame of mind to deal with it.
Will crouched in front of me and tilted my chin up so we were looking at each other. “Do you want to keep working on the house, talk about everything that’s bothering you, or do you want me to distract you for a little while?”
I gulped. I didn’t even have to ask what he meant by a distraction, and just the thought of it made my pulse race. I wanted to reach out and grab on to that distraction as if it were a tangible thing. A life preserver. Something to keep my head above surface until the fatigue had passed and I could tread water again.
“I, um…” I licked my lips. “A distraction. Please.”
“Okay.” A wicked grin curved up the corners of his mouth, and thank God I was on my knees or I’d have dropped right then and there.
Will rose, his knee popping as he did, and he offered his hand. We clasped our hands around each other’s forearms, and he helped me to my feet. When I was upright, Will took off his glasses and put them aside, the motion slow and relaxed as if to make sure I knew he was completely in control.
Our eyes met again, and dear God, his were so gorgeous and intense. The color—hazel-leaning toward green—was mesmerizing.
He curved both hands around my neck and pinned me to the counter with his hips, and his kiss pulled a whimper of pleasure right out of me. His kiss liquefied me. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I sighed as my whole body melted against his. Wasn’t I worked up over something? Tense about… Worried about…something?
Whatever. Will’s mouth pulled too much of my focus—I couldn’t think about anything else—and I surrendered to it.
After a long moment, after he’d made my knees shake and my pulse soar, he met my gaze. “Let’s take a break.” He ran the tip of his tongue along the inside of his slightly swollen lip. “Go think about something else for a while.”
I’d forgotten how to speak, so I just nodded.
“Come on.” He took my hand. “First, we’ll wash off all this dust and sweat, and then I’ll make you forget about everything but me.”