Chapter 34

34

SUTTON

H awk dropped kisses along the length of my spine. The heat of his body radiated into mine where he leaned over me on the bed. My eyes were closed, but since I was on my stomach anyway, I wouldn’t have been able to see him and I was enjoying all the different sensations this brought with it.

My heart thudded in my chest and my skin buzzed with electricity as his hot mouth kept pressing against it. I moaned and hugged my pillow tighter. My brow furrowed as I rolled my hips against the mattress.

He let out a low, husky chuckle. “Uh uh. None of that. We’re being patient, remember?”

“I think I’ve run out of patience,” I mumbled. My muscles tensed as he dragged his fingertips lightly against the backs of my thighs. “Let’s make up for lost time instead.”

“We’ve been doing that,” he murmured, his lips moving against my ultra-sensitive skin. “We’re doing it now.”

He followed the words by running his fingers almost all the way up to the apex of my thighs before he withdrew again.

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Asshole.”

He laughed softly but didn’t relent, touching me with those soft brushes of his fingertips everywhere except where I wanted him to touch most. In the meantime, he kept torturing me, sometimes pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses to my spine and at other times keeping them at only a peck.

The sensations were exquisite but almost overwhelming. I opened my eyes and turned my head to glance at him over my shoulder. “You can’t tell me this isn’t driving you crazy.”

“No, I can’t,” he agreed, his voice rough and still husky, but he didn’t suddenly flip me over and take me. “It’ll be worth it, though. Just relax, Sutton. I promise you’re going to enjoy this.”

“I already am,” I murmured, focusing on the sensations he was eliciting from me. As his hands ran along the length of my back, so strong and sure, I let out a quiet moan. “Have I mentioned how much I love being with you like this?”

“You don’t like being around me normally?” he teased. “Gee, thanks.”

I laughed, reminded of how very easy it was to have fun while being intimate with him. Our friendship had provided such a solid foundation that even in moments that might otherwise have been too awkward or too heated, we managed to find a way to laugh together.

“Well, normally, you’re okay too. I just happen to like you better when you’re using your mouth for things other than talking.”

“Is that so?” he asked, humor wrapped around the lust in his voice. “What exactly would you like me to do with it, then?”

Heat splayed across my cheeks. “You’re not going to make me say it, are you?”

“Oh, I’m going to make you beg for it,” he promised right against my ear, his torso so close to my back as he leaned over me that I could feel the heat of him again.

My insides contracted around nothing and I shivered with need. “I bet I could find a way to let you know without saying the words.”

“Why would you even try? I happen to like the words.”

“Cunnilingus?” I said, laughing softly as I imagined the look on his face.

To my surprise, he finally indulged me by lowering his hips and bringing the tip of what felt like a raging erection to my entrance from behind. “I can think of sexier ways for you to say it, but that works.”

He pressed against me and I spread my legs wider in the hope that he would just sink into me, but naturally, that was when he withdrew. Lowering his mouth to my shoulders, he peppered me with kisses once more, nipping at my butt cheeks when he reached them and then settling with his shoulders between my legs.

Convinced that he was just teasing me again, I wasn’t prepared for it when he suddenly licked through me. His fingers wrapped around my thighs to hold me in place as he tucked into me like I was his favorite meal. My hips bucked and my arms tightened around the pillow I was holding. My breath left me in a rush.

As he kept going, working me into a frenzy, I turned my head into my pillow to muffle my moans and held on tight, so pleasantly surprised that he had actually given in until I remembered that I’d asked for this. I smiled when I realized that was what he’d wanted all along—for me to tell him what I wanted.

Deciding to see how much further I could take it, I flipped over before I reached the point of no return, wrapping my hands around his shoulders and pulling him up to me. He was breathing hard, his eyes as dark with lust as I was sure my own were.

As he looked into my eyes, he hooked an arm around my shoulders and made me sit up to kiss him. Then he went onto his knees and brought me with him. Our torsos fused together as need pulsed through me. I’d never felt like I was on fire with anyone else, but Hawk seemed to bring it out in me.

Turning my body into a puddle of molten need seemed to be a talent of his. I lifted myself up higher on my knees and scooted forward, lining him up with my core. Then I slowly lowered myself down when I felt him where I wanted him to be.

Hawk moaned when my slick heat enveloped him, but then he suddenly stopped kissing me, his voice ragged. “We need a condom.”

Quickly releasing me, he rolled over and nearly fell off the bed in his haste. He came back with a foil package he was already biting open. I watched as he climbed back onto the mattress, rolling the latex over his length, but not before I’d seen how wet he was.

Partially from me, I was sure, but a lot of it was just him. I knew that got to him too!

My heartbeat thrummed with excitement and exhilaration that I affected him this way. I pulled him back into my arms when he was ready and fed him into me slowly, my eyes on his until he started thrusting inside me and I couldn’t keep them open anymore.

His mouth was on my throat. My body fused against his and moved with him as if we’d become part of the same whole. I gave myself over completely, even reaching my peak at the same time he did, and I fell asleep with him almost directly after.

I woke up in Hawk’s arms, warm and feeling so cherished and loved that I kept my eyes closed for a few moments, just breathing in the musky, masculine scent of him. With his heart beating evenly against my ear, I held him tight but didn’t give in to the urge to drag my fingertips across his skin.

I didn’t want to wake him. I just wanted to be right here.

Forever—if possible.

When I remembered that it wasn’t going to be forever, a soft sigh escaped and I finally opened my eyes, but the first thing I saw made me smile again.

It was finally snowing outside. A thick blanket of white turned the town in a winter wonderland for Thanksgiving. As if he’d heard the excited tenor of my thoughts, Hawk’s eyes blinked open and he smiled too.

“Look at that,” he murmured huskily, his voice still thick with sleep. “Your dad is going to be happy. He predicted snow instead of rain today.”

I held him tighter, finally flicked my gaze up to his face, and took in the strong profile of it from this angle. It hurt like hell to know he might be leaving soon, especially since we hadn’t talked about what happened next.

In the quiet of the early morning and with the snow coming down outside, I realized that as much as I wanted to hang onto the peace of this moment, I needed to know what was going on.

Before I could ask, however, Winnie’s voice filtered into my bedroom.

“Mommy, it’s snowing! Come see, it’s snowing,” she called. “Grammy made pancakes. She said you have to come now and that she expects Hawk to come too, but come see the snow first.”

I groaned, lifted myself up on my elbow, and quickly twisted to make sure my bedroom door was closed. When I saw that it was and that Hawk had even thrown the lock, relief washed over me.

“We’ll be right there, honey,” I replied. “Just give me a minute and go tell Grammy I’m on my way, alright?”

“Okay,” she yelled, and I heard her footsteps thundering against the floor as she raced back to my parents’ house.

Hawk collapsed back on the bed, laughing before he groaned. “God, we can’t catch a break, huh?”

“Well, we could’ve talked last night.”

His eyes were filled with desire and amusement as he shook his head at me. “Nah. I liked how we spent our time. I’ll see you later?”

I frowned. “What do you mean? You’re not coming to breakfast?”

He chuckled. “I can’t lounge around on Thanksgiving in the same clothes I wore to the play. I’m just going to go clean up and then I’ll be back. Promise.”

Lifting himself up, he brushed a kiss to my cheek. I leaned into his touch. “I’ll miss you.”

“Same, but I really won’t be long,” he promised, his voice all low and sexy again. “Just because they all know I slept here last night doesn’t mean I want to be rubbing it in their faces all day. I just need to grab a shower and some clean clothes, and then I’ll be right back.”

“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, recognizing the logic in his argument even if I didn’t want to.

Before he rolled out of bed, he wound his fingers into my hair once more and gave me a hot, hard kiss that left me wanting more before we parted ways, but even as I watched him go, there was none of that usual what-if worrying that I’d felt before.

I knew he would keep his promise and be back with his family in just a little while, and I grinned as I sank back down on the mattress, hopeful excitement blooming like a rose in my chest. Hawk and I had faced so many challenges together and I knew we had more to face yet, but I also couldn’t help feeling like we’d gotten so far and been through so much that nothing could stop us now.

Nothing except for a possible impending, lengthy separation, my ex still being in town, getting Winnie’s approval for our romantic relationship.

I sighed, but the hope was still there.

It felt like our bond was stronger now than it’d ever been before. If we could just get out of our own way and stick together, we could make it. We could finally get the happily ever after I’d been imagining with him since I was sixteen years old—and Winnie would finally get her happily ever after too.