comprehends. Standing up, he slaps my shoulder and drops a kiss on Mea’s cheek before he leaves the room.
I tug Mea onto my lap and she comes willingly, turning her body to the side so that her head finds a nesting spot on my chest. Moving my hand down her smooth skin until I’m holding her hand, I squeeze her delicate, slender fingers gently between mine. “What’s up, baby girl?”
She runs a dark-polished fingernail over my collarbone, blazing a trail on the soft cotton of my thermal. My gaze drops to follow her trajectory; she traces the place where my heart is now beating an erratic rock song in my chest. When I lift my eyes again, hers are melted liquid pools of chocolate.
Damn. She’s fucking gorgeous.
“Well…” Her lip is sucked into her mouth as she hesitates and I control myself, somehow refraining from taking the succulent flesh into my own mouth to suck.
“Well?” My voice has dropped low and rough. I can’t help it, she brings out the barest, basic natural instinct inside of me to take what’s mine and mark it. Procure, possess, protect.
Her head drops against me again as she guides her finger down lower. When it reaches my abdomen and she traces the lines of my muscles there, I clench my teeth hard. When she crosses the threshold between my shirt and my jeans, dipping her finger below the denim, I hiss out a whispered curse.
“Mea.” She’s exactly one breath away from unleashing the beast inside me. Does she know it? Is that what she wants?
I can’t get this wrong. I need her to tell me what she wants. What she needs.
“Earlier, on the ATV? You said ‘later.’ I was just wondering how much later you meant.”
Every muscle, every breath, every heartbeat I have goes still while I evaluate her words. I allow my brain a second to think it through, because I can’t just plunge in with Mea. She’s worth the time it takes to make sure we’re on the same level, that we understand each other completely before I make any rash decisions. But damn if I don’t want to rip every single item of clothing she’s wearing right now off of her and plunge into her sweet, dark heat right here at this table.
When she lifts her head to glance at me again, all that thought is lost. Her eyes are the softest velvet, the deepest secret, the sweetest story ever told. And they focus on me with the intensity of someone who needs her body pleasured in a way that only I can do.
I’m on my feet then, cradling her against my chest as I eat up the distance between the kitchen table and the back staircase. She’s weightless in my arms as I climb the steps, cross the hallway upstairs, and fling open the door to my temporary bedroom.
The afternoon sun is streaming in, and I say a silent prayer of thanks to whoever is listening. The first time with Mea again and I get to have her in the daylight? My cock twitches at the thought, ready to be freed from the cotton and denim separating him from the girl he seeks.
I cross the room, and place her down on my bed. She slides back a little bit, allowing her legs to hang over the side as she stares up at me. Kneeling, I pull off her boots and toss them behind me. Unbuttoning her jeans, I slide them down the lithe, shapely curves of her legs. Her skin is perfect, buttery and soft and fragrant. There’re no girly floral perfumes for Mea. She’s all woman and her scent reflects that. The inviting spice of amber and musk floods my nostrils, mixed with the heady, intoxicating aroma of her arousal wafting toward me from her panties. I want to bury my head between her legs, but first I want her naked.
“You’re sure? This is what you want? I’m what you want?” I throw the questions out there in hopes that she doesn’t back down. She’s a fighter, I can sense that in her and I’ve seen it firsthand. She’s been through more than enough shitstorms in her life to know when she’s making a mistake. I don’t want to be one of them. I want to be the opposite of a mistake for Mea.
Whatever that might be.
Her eyes, hooded with desire and locked in on my movements, lift to mine as she nods her head. “I want this. So much,