The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,47
her ear. “Call ‘im Tiny. Seems to like it.”
She smiled. “It fits him.”
He sat on the edge of the couch. “So?”
“I’m sorry.” Second time in less than five minutes. Why didn’t she just apologize her way into tomorrow? But there didn’t seem to be any other words to fit the enormity of what she needed to say.
“Sit.” Eddie cocked his head at her. “Stop being so goddamned nervous and tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s complicated.” She worked her way toward him.
“So start with something small.” He leaned back as she edged onto the couch. “Start with—I don’t know. Why you decided to leave Boston.”
Ash laughed. “I wouldn’t call that something small.” That was the biggest part of what she need to say. And the hardest.
He didn’t say anything, didn’t press, didn’t keep questioning. He just studied her with his intent gaze, until she felt sure he’d stripped off every last stitch of clothing she wore and saw through to the heart that beat erratically under her skin.
One hand worked its way across the cushion until it rested on his bare leg. “What happened the other night…” she began.
“Was nice. Was good. Should happen a lot more.”
She let out a long breath. “Yeah.”
Eddie’s hand reached for hers. Ash let her gaze move across his chest, over the pale fuzz that spread there. Up to the tattoo on his triceps. Over to his square chin, that bobbed when he spoke too fast or got too excited. Down, just for an instant, to the waistband of the cut-offs that dipped below his navel. Then up, where blue eyes met hers and a mouth looked as though it waited for her to make up her mind.
“There’s so much I need to tell you.”
“Can it wait?” Eddie pulled her toward him, working his hand from hers. He slipped his arm around her waist and drew her across the cushions, so that her curves melted into his. "Because I am so damn crazy about you that all I want to do is this." He caught her mouth with his, tongue opening her lips and seeking, teasing, making her ache. "And this." His hand moved inside her shirt, burning her skin everywhere he touched it.
“Eddie…” But there was nothing she wanted to say. Nothing she wanted to explain. All that could wait. A dizzying rush of desire came over her, so strong and so sudden that she felt as though all the air had been sucked out of the room.
His mouth moved to her neck. Her earlobe. Then down. Inch by inch he tasted her, achingly slow, taking his time. One hand moved to the small of her back. She heard a quick breath, a gasp of pleasure, and realized seconds later that she’d made the sounds.
In agonizing layers Eddie peeled it all away: her T-shirt, her bra, her shorts, the lacy pink panties she’d chosen carefully that morning, hoping and not hoping that this moment might unfold. Then he moved over her, and she reached for him, easing down the cut-off sweats that remained between them until there was nothing at all but skin upon skin and desire filling the room from ceiling to floor.
* * *
It was nothing like being with Colin. It wasn’t like anything Ash had experienced with anyone, ever before, this movement that carried her far from the house on Lycian Street, out over the treetops and to some distant island where all she could feel were the waves beneath her and the amazing sun above her.
Behind her eyelids fifty different colors blended together, sparklers of light that took her breath away. Eddie settled her on the couch, and she was glad they didn't move to the bedroom. She wouldn't have made it that far. She wanted him now, needed his hands and mouth on her now, bringing her to the edge until she whimpered with pleasure. She dug her fingers into his arms as he moved above her, felt the skin of his back, tasted the salt of his neck, etched the burn of his beard into her memory.
He murmured into her temple and stroked the edge of her collarbone. And when she pulled back to look at him, she saw such tenderness in his gaze that she thought she might weep. Her mouth fell onto his shoulder, teeth burying themselves in the soft skin there because it was all she could do to keep from crying out.
"God, I want you, Ash. So much."
She closed her eyes as he rose toward