Man's Best Friend (The Dogmothers #5) - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,3
slid her hand around his neck, easing his mouth to hers for their first real kiss.
They’d kissed before. At an eighth-grade graduation party during a game of spin the bottle. At the post-prom party during a big group date and after a few drinks, but they’d just laughed about it the next day. And when she’d gotten her college acceptance, but that was an accident when their lips brushed.
But they’d never kissed like this. Long. Sweet. Intentional.
He scooted closer without breaking contact. His soft lips tasted hot and peppery, like the stolen whiskey.
With a moan that came from deep in his chest, he angled his head and added pressure, making her dig her fingers into his shoulders. He rolled her onto her back, and with each breath, they got closer, more intimate, and she could feel every firefighter-toned muscle, and one very impressive bulge she’d never felt before, pressing right where she wanted it.
This was Declan. This was insane. This was perfect.
He drew back for one second, his eyes closed, his lips parted. With another moan of pleasure, the next kiss grew more explosive when their tongues touched and they both seemed to want more. She bowed her back and spread her legs around his hips and forgot everything in the world but the new and thrilling sensations knotting her up.
“Evie,” he murmured, splaying his hands over her ribs, his grip tight, like he was forcing himself not to touch her everywhere. “You feel so good.”
“You have no idea how good I feel.” She rocked against him, nearly crying out from the shock of raw pleasure.
“You’re sure?” His fingers worked their way down to her T-shirt hem, inching it higher.
She eased him back enough so she could study his expression. “It’s going to change us, Dec.” It wasn’t a question.
“About damn time, if you ask me.”
Instead of answering, she looked into eyes she knew as well as her own. She knew every gold fleck and long dark lash. She knew how to read the expression in those eyes. She’d seen them red from smoke when he got off a terrible shift, and she’d seen them sleepy in an eight a.m. algebra class. And lately, she’d noticed his eyes were constantly on her. And not always on her face.
Just the thought of how his heated gaze had coasted over her body when she walked to his truck tonight made her ache.
Silently, she sat up and pulled the T-shirt over her head.
“Oh.” His gaze dropped down to her lacy black bra. “Pretty fancy for camping.”
“I had a feeling…”
“You did?” He pressed his hand to her breastbone, his palm grazing the lace. “Probably the same feeling I had when I packed some, uh, extra gear.”
He’d brought a condom.
Biting her lip, she looked up at him. “I’ve always hoped it would be you.”
His whole body went still, eyes widening. “This is your first time?”
“Don’t you think I’d have told you if I’d slept with someone?”
“Um…I didn’t tell you.”
She started to respond, then closed her mouth. She couldn’t be surprised at that. Declan was twenty-one, super cute, and a Mahoney, for God’s sake. Girls were always floating around him and his younger brother Connor. Plus, she’d spent most of the past three years at NC State, three hours away. Up until tonight, they’d simply been the best of friends and she’d had no claims on his body. Yet.
“Well, I haven’t,” she admitted. “Does that make a difference?”
He considered that, silent as he so often was when his wheels were turning and he wanted to make the right decision.
“Like you said, everything is going to change. But you being a virgin?” He took a shaky breath. “I’m not sure—”
“Declan.” She fisted his T-shirt. “I waited for something. Someone. You.”
“I’m not sure anything has ever made me happier,” he finished, putting a hand on her cheek. “I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, his breath already tight. “We’ll take it slow and easy and—”
She pulled him down for a blistering kiss on the mouth.
“And like that.” He chuckled into the kiss, sliding his hand around to unclip her bra. “Happy birthday to us, E.”
“Happy birthday to us, Dec.”
Chapter Two
When the sun came up and bathed the world in a soft golden glow, Declan awoke deep in the sleeping bag they’d hardly needed for the oppressive summer night, his arms painfully empty, his whole body on fire with an unfamiliar sensation. What was that ache, other than what he woke up with every morning?