Those long lashes fluttered. Her lips pressed together but he couldn’t tell if she was trying to suppress a smile or keeping something from him. He needed to know where he stood with her and if what he’d done this night had pushed her further from him.
“I need an answer, babe.”
“I like my name over your heart, not on your ass.”
That told him nothing but the fact that she had a sense of humor. He felt like he was chasing an elusive shadow. He wanted to cage her in. Glue her to him.
“I didn’t like that you weren’t safe tonight.”
She pushed up, so he could see the soft weight of her left breast. Then she turned and sat up in the middle of the bed, facing him. “I was safe. Lana handled it so fast, you wouldn’t believe it. There was nothing to worry about.”
He couldn’t help himself. He stroked her breasts, his hands feeling the soft cream that was her skin. So beautiful. A shiver went through her. She was that responsive. His thumbs and fingers strummed her nipples and the soft curves, indulging himself because he could.
“She said you helped.”
“She had it under control.”
“Said you threw Zane’s favorite blanket over his head. I think we’ll frame that blanket and put it up on the wall under glass once our boy is finished with it.”
She smiled at him, and his heart stuttered like it did sometimes when her face lit up. Lana had told him that she had bought that blanket new with money she’d earned, and it meant something to her. He wanted to make sure she knew he valued it as much as she did. Her smile was worth anything, certainly framing a blanket and putting it on the wall.
“That might be a little silly, Steele, but I like the idea.”
He leaned in to her and licked her right nipple. Her arms immediately cradled his head to her. The moment she did, he drew her breast into the heat of his mouth. Her fingers tunneled into his hair. The way she massaged slowly, rhythmically, made his entire body relax. His arms slipped around her waist and he drew her deeper, working her nipple with his tongue and teeth. When he finally lifted his head after worshiping her body for some time, her eyes held that dark green that nearly glowed at him. Her breath came in the ragged little pants he loved.
He traced the marks on her generous breasts gently with the pads of his fingers. “I love how this looks on your skin.” He stretched his legs out, his back to the headboard. “Put your mouth on me, Bree. I can’t think once your lips are wrapped around me, and I don’t want to think right now.” He couldn’t think about his child in danger, not for one more minute. She had to take that away, the way she took away his personal demons.
Breezy didn’t hesitate. She rolled over, kissed her way down his chest straight to his groin. His cock jerked in anticipation and he closed his eyes and buried his fingers in her thick mass of hair. She had a way of giving him comfort when nothing else could. The wailing of the dead. The accusations of their eyes because he couldn’t save them. She drove those dead children away from him and brought him peace.
She did it in so many different ways. She used her body. Her laughter. Her kindness. He felt her caring in her touch, every stroke of her tongue, the way she focused on his cock and gave him pleasure without asking for anything back.
He gathered her braid in his fist and pulled her head back, her mouth off of him. Her gaze jumped to his. “Come up here, baby. I need to ask you something.”
“I’m a little busy.”
She had an adorable pout. He pulled her hair gently but persistently. “I’m the one sacrificing. I need you up here.”
Her hand went to her head to ease the ache, but he didn’t relent, and she moved, crawling up his body, sexier than hell, her eyes on his, breasts swaying, body sensual as she crept over him.
“I think I’m the one sacrificing. I was enjoying myself. I find your cock a treat I look forward to.” She used her snippiest voice.
He believed her. He had often woken to her lips around his cock in that year he’d had her. It was a fucking great way to wake up. He reached out and tugged on one leg until she straddled him. He pushed two fingers into her. She was slick and hot, ready for him, proving she was telling the truth—she did enjoy sucking his cock.
He fisted his heavy erection and caught her hip with one hand. “Lower yourself on me.”
Both of her hands went to his shoulders to steady herself and then her body was swallowing his and he wanted to shout out his pleasure. She could consume him so easily, take his brain right out of the game. She was so tight he had to clench his teeth. Her muscles didn’t want to give way and they gripped and dragged at him, surrounding his cock with a fiery silken fist. Air rushed from his lungs.
She faced him, and he refused to allow her to look away from him, holding her gaze captive. It was the most sensual thing ever to stare into her eyes and see the way the green darkened with lust. Most of all, he wanted to see the love in her eyes. She hadn’t told him she loved him, not since that idiotic moment when he’d panicked and shut her down three years earlier.
He didn’t know the first thing about love or a relationship. All he knew was the moment she’d told him, his heart had felt as if a giant fist had squeezed it, overwhelming emotions choking him. He’d been terrified because he’d lost so many others that he loved, and none of those had been Breezy.
It was difficult to believe she could love him. How was that even possible? He had to stare at those photographs for hours. Looking at her face. Analyzing every frame, every nuance. It was the only way he could believe that she really was capable of loving a man as fucked up as he was.
He waited until she was fully seated on him, until he was so deep inside her, he felt they were one, sharing skin. Sharing bodies. He couldn’t resist the temptation of her breasts, full, round and soft, jutting toward him. Very gently, he cupped her right breast in his palm and once again began stroking with his fingers.
“Baby, look at me and keep l
ooking.” He waited for her to obey him. Breezy’s gaze had been moving over him, down to where they were joined and now back up to his eyes. “Do you love me?” He didn’t beat around the bush. “You once told me you loved me, and I panicked because I didn’t think it was possible.”
She deserved the truth. He was only giving her part of the truth. He wrestled with that. With his need to be wholly honest with her. He’d lost her once through his own stupidity and he wasn’t going to do it again. Instantly she frowned at him, and his cock swelled just a little because he loved that little frown.
“Why wouldn’t you think it was possible?”
She squirmed, trying to move, and his hand at her hip blocked her. She stopped instantly at his silent command.
“I’m pretty fucked up, baby. I can get crazy when I don’t know where you are. You know that. You’ve seen me.”
A little shiver went through her body. “If I thought you were trying to control me, it would be an issue, but you just want to know I’m safe.”
“It’s controlling, don’t kid yourself. I have to know you’re safe or I lose my mind. So, yeah, I want to be in control and tell you to check in when you’re going somewhere.”
She arched her back, thrusting her breasts out, trying not to move her hips but clearly needing to. “You’re torturing me.” Those tight muscles squeezed down hard on him.
His fingers tugged at her nipple and then slid down her belly to where their bodies joined. He found her clit and began working it slowly. Small circles. A flick. More circles. All the while he kept his gaze on hers.
“Do you love me?”
She opened her mouth, hesitated and looked at him warily, sensing a trap. “It’s been three years, Steele.”
“Three years you never let another man near you, Bree.” He kept working her clit, holding her in place while his cock jerked and swelled, pressing tight against her sensitive tissue.
“I’m different. You’re different. We need time to get to know each other.”