in his arms she felt small. Delicate, fragile but sheltered.
She had been given shelter before. By a wonderful family who had taken her in and showed her how to change the shape of herself so that she could fit. But that wasn’t what Laz was doing. Not now. She was in a shelter made from his strength, and it fit around her. In a profound and deep way, and whether or not it was supposed to mean something like that. Whether or not she was supposed to feel it so deep... She did. He kissed her all the way down the hall, taking her into the bedroom she’d been sleeping in, and removing her clothes from her body. And she wasn’t nervous. She wasn’t self-conscious. It wasn’t time or inevitability that made her feel attractive, it was the way that he looked at her. Like she was the most precious thing he had ever seen.
“Now you,” she said.
He took his shirt off slowly, revealing acres of dark, smooth skin. Well muscled and strong.
She put her hand on his chest, thrilling at the feel of him. Because she had certainly never seen such a gloriously masculine man in the flesh before.
Not so close that she could touch.
And maybe it was a little bit petty and a little bit mean to compare pale, thin Dylan to Laz, but she did. In the moment, she did.
Maybe he’s fate, or maybe he’s just hotter, a voice whispered.
Maybe he’s both. Because she wasn’t going to enter into the business of doubting herself. Not now. Because it wasn’t just about him being hotter. It was about the way he’d been there for her. All this time.
Then his hands went to his belt buckle and her throat went tight. Her entire body seizing up in anticipation. He pushed his jeans and underwear slowly down his lean hips, and kicked his boots off along with them.
His thighs were muscular, sexy. Indicative of all the hard work that he did on his ranch.
That was what the man did. He worked. Whether it was at the bar or on his land, and he wore the evidence of that in every hard, chiseled line on his body. And then there was... Well, him. That most masculine part of him, thick and proud and so much more than she had ever dared imagine.
If she were going to engage in comparisons again—and she was—Laz came out ahead there too. By a lot.
She swallowed hard.
And then she decided there was no point being a coward. Not about anything. Because this was what she wanted. Plain and simple. And she was going to take it.
She reached her hand down, wrapped it around his hard length, soft and hot and hard all at once. She squeezed him, watched as his face went pained. A tortured look there.
She moved her hand up and down his length, until he caught at her wrist with his hand. “Careful,” he bit out.
“Why? I’m tired of being careful. I’m tired of being what I’m supposed to be. I’m tired of being whatever he thinks I should be. All I have done for all these years is tried to... Tried to stop myself from turning into a monster. I almost committed myself to a life that was going to make me nothing but miserable. Because I was such a coward. Because I wasn’t brave. So now I want to be brave. I want to be brave as I can be. I want to do whatever I want.”
“Well, I am here for being your playground, Jordan, but I don’t want this to end too quickly.”
And that was how she found herself being picked up off the floor and deposited on the bed.
Flat on her back on the soft mattress. And he lifted her thighs, draping them over his shoulders and lowered his head to the heart of her. That part that was slick and wet with desire for him. And she gasped.
She grabbed the back of his head as he tormented her. Pleasuring her with his tongue and his hands.
She writhed against him, arching up off the bed as she found her release, shuddering out his name.
“That’s right,” he said, moving up her body, gazing down into her eyes. “Don’t forget who’s with you.”
“No chance,” she said, her voice weak and shaky.
He took a condom from his nightstand, and sheathed himself quickly as he positioned himself at the entrance of her body.
“Laz,” she whispered, bracketing his face with her hands. And then he