And he did. With excruciating patience, he worshipped her body, driving her up with his hands and his tongue until she screamed—twice. Only then, when she lay boneless from pleasure and the afternoon shadows had grown long, did he strip out of his own clothes and reach for a condom to sheath himself. As he crawled onto the bed, stretching out above her, Tess found the energy to lift her arms and reach for him. He settled into the cradle of her hips, finally, finally notching his erection into her drenched and swollen folds.
“Please,” she whispered, brushing a kiss over his jaw. “Please, I need you.”
Gaze fixed firmly on hers, Mitch slowly slid inside her. Waves of pleasure threatened to drag her under, and Tess had to fight to keep her eyes open. But she wanted to see him, wanted that connection as he filled her. Over the past weeks, she’d tried to tell herself she’d romanticized what she’d experienced with him. She’d tried to convince herself that she’d attributed more to it than had really been there. But as he began to move, a torturous, delicious rhythm she hoped he could keep up until the end of time, Tess knew she’d been wrong. Because this was better than she remembered. This was more. This was home.
I love you.
The words clogged in her throat, held back only by a vague sense of panic. It was too much, too soon. She couldn’t say it. Not here in his bed as he made the sweetest love to her. So she said his name instead, letting everything she felt spill out in her tone, in the touch of her hands and the rise and fall of her body as it met his. And when he lost that exquisite patience at last, when his hips began to piston faster, harder, deeper, she gloried in every stroke, clinging to him as her only anchor in the storm that washed them both away and praying that, in the end, they wound up in the same place.
Chapter 6
Mitch was going to go mad if he couldn’t touch Tess. That silky fall of hair shone like mink in the morning light, and his fingers itched to stroke through it. He knew perfectly well he couldn’t lay a hand on her at all here. He had to police every gesture, every expression to avoid the gossip. Dinner Belles was packed full of the morning rush crowd—downtown business owners, parents who’d opted for a cup of coffee after the school drop-off, and the senior contingent who liked to meet for breakfast and linger for hours.
Tess had walked across the green from The Babylon to meet him for the tour they hadn’t gotten around to for the past couple of days. They’d been far too busy having that sexy tour of his house between all the work putting together the proposal for her father. For all he’d never brought a woman there before, he would never look at any room in it ever again without imagining her naked. And he wasn’t entirely sure he’d ever be able to work at that drafting table again without getting hard. The only thing that would have made it better was being able to keep her in his bed at night instead of delivering her back to the hotel after what felt like stolen hours. But they were being very conscious of appearances. So
, despite the threat to his sanity, Mitch kept his hands to himself.
“What sounds good?”
She looked up from the menu and shot him an easy smile that had him wanting to loose a mile-wide grin in return. “I have no idea. It all looks amazing. What’s your favorite?”
“Biscuits and gravy.”
“What’s that like?”
Mitch stared at her. “You’ve never had biscuits and gravy? Woman, what kind of sad, sheltered life have you led?”
“One outside the South.”
“Your daddy’s from Memphis!”
“He’s been gone from Memphis a long time, and my Grandmother Peyton is not the type to indulge in home cooking.”
“That’s just tragic.”
His horror just seemed to amuse her.
“What’s got your boxers in a knot this morning?” Mama Pearl automatically refilled his coffee cup without looking.
“This poor girl has never had biscuits and gravy.”
“That right?” She turned to study Tess with those unfathomable black eyes, so Mitch took it upon himself to make introductions.
“Tess, I’d like you to meet the love of my life, Mama Pearl Buckley. She makes the best pie in a three hundred mile radius. Mama Pearl, this is Tess Peyton, Trey’s daughter.”
“Is it now?” Mama Pearl’s interest sharpened. She cut a glance back at Mitch that had him wanting to shrink down in the booth. Surely she hadn’t figured out that Tess was The One.
Her hmph seemed to indicate otherwise as she shifted her attention to Tess. “Well now, it’s nice to finally meet you. Your daddy talks about you all the time.”
“Nice to meet you. Mitch informs me I have led a sad and sheltered existence and I must have a proper Southern breakfast. What do you recommend?”
Mama Pearl narrowed her eyes in speculation. “For you? Sausage biscuits and grits. You want any eggs with that?”
“Just one. Scrambled.” Tess tucked the menu back between the napkin dispenser and condiment rack.
“Comin’ right up.”
As Mama Pearl ambled away, Tess frowned. “Isn’t she going to take your order?”