Page 35 of Blame It On Midnight
“Keep that up and we won’t get any sleep.” His voice was gruff. Whiskey tinged.
She licked her lips, craving the feel of his. “Maybe I don’t want to sleep after all.”
“I think sleep is exactly what you need.” His eyes were hypnotizing. His touch was a whisper. He led her to the bed and waited until she lay down. Then he slipped in behind her and pulled her into his arms.
“Relax,” he whispered in her ear. The man worked a ranch, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He was hard planes and muscles and heat. He was perfect and she fit against like she was meant to be there. With only scraps of material keeping things decent, her limbs began to loosen. It didn’t take long for legs and arms to become noodles.
His breathing eventually matched hers, and that band of tension inside Collins evaporated. An unfamiliar feeling crept across her as sleep slowly edged its way in. What was it, she thought. And just before Sandman claimed her, she realized that it was a sense of safety. Of belonging.
I love you. The words whispered in her head, and with her body wedged against Benton’s, she fell asleep.
Hours later, a noise woke her. Sleep fogged, it took a bit for her to open her eyes because it felt like they were pierced with toothpicks. It was early. There was barely light coming in from the window, and there was no warmth at her back.
Collins rolled over and spied Benton standing a few feet away. He’d pulled on his jeans but was shirtless.
“You’re leaving?” Her voice was full of rasp, and she cleared her throat a bit, then propped herself up on her elbows, shaking her head to get hair from her eyes.
Benton turned around, those dark, intense eyes as beautiful as anything she’d ever seen. That was saying something considering she lived and worked in a world where beauty was an everyday thing. All of the Bridgestone men could be models. They had the kind of masculinity that consumers ate up. But Benton was different. And it wasn’t just because he was more aloof. It was that fact that she saw his soul in his eyes. He didn’t make any effort to hide what he was feeling.
It was sexy and wonderful and kind of scary.
He walked to the bed, and she held her breath when he bent over and pressed his mouth against her forehead. It was the lightest of touches, but it sent liquid heat tumbling through her body.
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
She didn’t answer because she couldn’t. Would he reject her? Was this the end of whatever this was between them?
He studied her silently, and then a slow grin spread across his face. Like the sun breaking over the mountains, it was a sight to behold. And it took her breath away. Literally.
“I haven’t woken up beside a woman in a long time. I forgot how nice it feels.” He moved back a couple of inches, and she was finally able to loosen up her lungs.
“I don’t want you to leave yet.”
“I know. But while you were sleeping, I was thinking about things.”
Oh God. This was it. He was going to end things before he gave her a chance.
“We’ve already done the sex thing and we know it’s good.”
“Good?” She raised an eyebrow and nearly swooned when he chuckled.
“It was…” He held her gaze. “More than good.”
Her eyebrows rose higher.
“It was the best sex I ever had.”
God. Ditto.
“Like I said, last night was nice and I think that if we…”
She moved onto her knees and stared up at him. “If we?”
“If we are going to move forward and do something about all these feelings between us, I think we should do it right. We need to take the time to get to know each other.”
Seriously. This man could be the hero in any one of the romance novels she loved to read.
“But I feel you need some fair warning. You need to have all the facts, and if what I propose doesn’t work for you, then say so.”
