“Someone’s getting bossy,” he told her as she climbed down the ladder. “Sounds like she needs a spanking.”
As soon as she got within his reach, Grant slapped her ass. Hard.
Faith gasped. “Ow.” She half laughed the complaint and shot a scowl over her shoulder. “You little—”
Another crack stung her cheek. Her sex clenched and flooded with heat, shocking her.
“No name-calling,” he told her.
Faith gritted her teeth against the flare of desire. This had been happening all day—these sudden, intense bursts of lust, erupting out of nowhere like the strike of a match. She’d chalked it up to residual hunger from their wicked night, a desire awoken from hibernation and greedy for fuel. And after a day of close proximity and teasing, she was seriously ready to do something reckless for a fix.
She continued down the ladder, stopping a couple of rungs from the bottom to turn to face him, eye to eye. He circled her in his arms and stepped close until their jacket-clad bodies pressed.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and stroked her hand across his rough cheek. “I may be laying down a few of my own rules tonight, Saber. So don’t get too comfortable with all this control.”
“Mmm.” He set the camera on a higher rung and squeezed her butt, pulling her closer. “I like the sound of that.”
And he kissed her.
The move had become familiar over the course of the day. He’d hatched this filming plan the night before during lulls in their sexual activity. And later today, after the store had closed and he finished with the high school hockey practice, he’d promised to show her how to take the video from camera to YouTube.
Before Faith had even stirred from their nonstop night of bliss, Grant had repaired the broken pipe in her basement, then driven into Ashville, the next largest city, to buy a video camera and video editing software. And he’d followed her with that damn camera all afternoon, recording nonstop.
He’d also been touching her nonstop, kissing her nonstop, and smiling nonstop. Her passion had built and built, filling her with an ache she wanted him to ease. And the way he was adding to that fire with his teasing, talented tongue wasn’t helping her ignore her desire.
Faith slowly, reluctantly pulled from the kiss and stroked his jaw, running her thumb over his bottom lip. “Have I mentioned you’re the best kisser in the entire universe?”
Grinning, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Maybe, but I doubt anyone could hear that enough.”
His lips trailed over her cheek and down her neck. Faith hummed in pleasure. “Have I mentioned last night was the best night of my life, and that I can’t wait to get you naked again?”
“Maybe,” he murmured against her throat, gripping her ass with both hands and pulling her hips against his, making her groan. “But tell me again.” He lifted his head, brushed her hair off her forehead, and cradled her jaw. “Tell me in a way you haven’t told me before.”
She sighed. Her gut ached. Her body yearned. Faith met his eyes. “Last night…opened a new chapter in my life. You make me feel…strong and treasured and beautiful in a way I’ve never felt before. You make me realize there’s more to life than Holly and St. Nicholas Hardware. I was starting to believe I wasn’t capable of handling things on my own. You changed that.”
His devilish smile had softened into a look of surprise. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just searched her eyes. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I…don’t know what to say. No one’s ever…”
She shook her head and kissed him lightly. “Don’t say anything. You asked, I answered. Now let me go so I can move the ladder. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can get you back to bed. And I’m dying to get you back to bed.”
She stepped to the ground and turned toward the ladder. Gripping the sides, she pulled it carefully away from the house.
Grant’s hands covered hers and pushed the ladder back against the house with a clatter.
“Grant…” she said, annoyed.
She cut a look over her shoulder just as one of his arms circled her waist and hauled her up against him, forcing all the air from her lungs. But there was no mistaking the erection pressed against the curve of her ass. Or the rasp of desire in his voice when he put his lips to her temple and said, “Why wait?”
Faith fought to pull her gray matter back together. “Why wait for what?”
“To take the edge off that need.”
She groaned and rubbed against him. “Because you have practice in half an hour, I have to close the store, and there are lights hanging off Dwayne’s roof. If you’d stop distracting me, I’d get it done.”
“If you let me do it, it would get done faster.”