If We Dare - J.H. Croix Page 0,36

he whispered. “Come for me.”

As if I’d do anything but that. I couldn’t have denied him if I wanted to. Caught in his sensual gaze with every stroke of his fingers inside of me, his thumb teased over my clit. Pleasure scattered through me as everything tightened in my core. My eyes finally fell closed and pleasure burst like fireworks inside.

I distantly heard him saying, “That’s it, sugar.”

I shuddered so hard from the aftershocks of pleasure that I collapsed against him. He held me close. I tucked my head into his neck as I tried to catch my breath.

When I lifted my head and found his silver-smoke gaze waiting, my heart split wide-open. It wasn’t just tiny pry bars to the walls around my heart anymore. With his touch, with his eyes, with who he was, Walker demolished them.

Chapter Sixteen

Walker

“How the hell are you feeling?” I asked.

Dave sounded a little tired, but otherwise okay, when he laughed. The sound carried through the phone line with a hitch of static in the middle. “I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse.”

Emotion tightened in my throat. I didn’t like contemplating the reality that Dave could have easily died that night. It had been a full two weeks since the wedding, and I’d yet to shake the unsettled feeling his heart attack had left behind for me.

“You have certainly been worse, and I’m so damn glad you survived. Seriously, though, you doing okay?” I pressed.

“Oh yeah. I really am. Don’t get me wrong, that scared the shit out of me. I sure as hell never expected to have a heart attack on my wedding night, and that’s not even considering that I’m only thirty-three years old.”

I took a breath, letting it out slowly as I leaned against the wall in a half finished cabin where I was helping Wade, Jackson, and Lucas with construction for the lodge. Dave’s call had come through right before I started to walk out with the guys to grab an early dinner in the staff kitchen. I’d waved them on, wanting a few minutes of privacy to talk with Dave.

“I’m just glad you’re alive, which sounds morbid, but I mean it. How’s Jenny taking everything?”

Although I couldn’t see him, I could practically feel Dave’s gaze sober through the phone line. “She’s fine. I mean, she was pretty shaken up, along with, I guess, everybody. Instead of our honeymoon, she’s been fussing over me at home. She’s also thrilled to have a reason to force me to eat healthy,” he said, finishing with a small laugh.

“Oh, I’ll just bet. Although, you were never good about eating healthy. I get to say it now because you just had a freaking heart attack.”

“I know. That’s what I keep telling her. The doctor made it crystal clear that at my age, it’s clear I had a predisposition for heart disease. Eating healthy will help me keep it under control, but it’s something I’m gonna have to manage no matter what for the rest of my life,” he explained with a sigh.

Rolling on my shoulder, I glanced out the framed window space that didn’t yet have an actual glass window installed. This row of new cabins offered a spectacular view of Stolen Hearts Valley. With it being late spring, wildflowers were in bloom in the field just in front the lodge with the green of the trees expanding beyond that. The setting sun glinted off a lake over to the side and left a watercolor of pinks and purples above the mountain ridge on the opposite side of the valley.

“How’s Jade?” Dave asked, deftly shifting the conversation.

“As far as I know, she’s fine. I haven’t seen her since the wedding. You know she was just there as a favor for me.”

I could hear the sarcasm in Dave’s laugh. “Right. You keep telling yourself that. I saw the way you looked at her. And Jenny saw the way she looked at you. Jenny also told me that Jade stayed with you in the waiting area for hours at the hospital.”

Dave couldn’t see me, but I rolled my eyes, hard enough to express my point even if it was only to myself. “Whatever, man.”

Denial was a handy coping skill, and it was working for me.

“Well, when you do see her, give her my regards.” I heard him shift the phone away and say something to someone in the background. His voice returned. “Jenny says hello. I gotta go. We’re having dinner with her parents.”

“Got it.