God help me. I wasn't cut out for this. Spencer was an experienced seducer, and I had all the feminine wiles of a lawn rake. It didn't take a genius to deduce that I was going to fall head over heels for his "charms" if he unleashed them on me. Despite that, I couldn't resist. "You can try."
I felt his slow smile. "I'll take that as permission, then." His knee rose higher, pressing between my legs and igniting a firestorm of sensitive nerves. I jumped, and he closed his mouth over my skin, sucking gently.
I let out a shaky breath, and tentatively, like I couldn't believe I was letting this happen again, I brought my hands up to his hard chest. As I flattened my palm against the smooth muscle, his heart beat hard and strong against it. "Oh my God," I gusted out.
He stopped sucking, licked the bruised flesh, and then kissed a tingling line back to my jaw. "I am obsessed with your skin." I barely managed an incoherent sound of acknowledgment, and then he lifted one hand to cup the back of my head, threading his fingers through my messy pink hair. His knee twitched, and it felt so good, I didn't care if he'd done it on purpose or not. His lips kissed my jaw and then the corner of my mouth, and then his breath fanned out across my mouth, warm and soothing. "Tell me to stop," he whispered.
I closed my eyes and arched my body into his, lost in my need for him. I hadn't realized how intensely I'd cravedpressureand touch until he was there, giving it to me. "No."
His lips pressed against mine, smooth as satin but firm like leather, and my head floated with intoxicated pleasure. I remembered this kiss. I'd dreamed of it. I remembered how commanding he was, guiding my mouth open and then delving deep inside like he was savoring every slide of our lips. My breathing grew unsteady, and I brought my hands up to his shoulders, gripping them hard like they might keep me from falling off the precipice and tumbling headlong into… something.
A dangerous something.
Spencer distracted me from a pang of dawning horror with a clever flick of his tongue, and I melted into bliss again. And then we were lost in each other, with only our shared breath and restrained moans filling the space between us. His knee shifted, pushing mine further apart, and for one wild moment, I considered ripping my clothing off and begging him to have me. To worship me the way he had in January. To make me feelalivefor once and reminded that living wasn't just shoving some meaning between harried work hours, but was, in fact,this.It was belonging and safety. It was the warm press of skin on skin and the safety of strong arms and careless kisses. It was teasing banter and crinkled eyes. And it wasn't until I had it, until he'd offered it, that I realized how desperately I wanted it.
A knock on the door startled me, and I pulled back, gasping. Spencer barely moved. Panting, his eyes dark and soft, he trailed a look of longing over my face, halting on my buzzing lips. But then his mouth set with a certain resignation, and he turned to look over his shoulder. The knock had come from the door, and as I peeked out from under Spencer's arm, I gasped again in horror.
Jay stood at the back entrance, his furious expression aimed at us through the glass window on the old door. He knocked again pointedly. With a growl, Spencer muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "dickwad," and then he was leveraging himself off of me. Unhurried, Spencer tucked a blanket around me and went to open the back door. He leaned against the jam. "Yes?"
"I wanted to make sure Bella was okay. Things seemed… weird. Back there.” His hand tapped against his thigh, echoing the uncertainty in his voice.
"Did they?" Spencer drawled. He had a dangerous note to his voice, and I wondered if he was having a second rare angry stint in one day. He leaned away from the door, gesturing to me. "I think she's okay."
"I am," I confirmed, my face branding iron hot.
Jay looked unconvinced, but he shuffled his hat on his head and looked down. "Alright. Just checking."
"Your altruism humbles me," Spencer responded acerbically.
Jay pretended he hadn't heard him and gave me a questioning peek under the brim of his baseball cap. "The water truck is on the way."
"I'll do it," Spencer practically snapped. He grabbed his coat from the hook near the door and shrugged it on. "Lead the way, cowboy."
Jay, again, gave me a disappointed glance like a kicked puppy, and then he stepped away from the door. "It's just this way."
Spencer paused on the threshold, his dark brown eyes softening with caramel warmth again for a second. "Put a pin in it, Bee. No flitting away."
A smile twitched on my lips because I knew exactly what he meant. "Pinned." To the wall. To his heart. To his hands. I was pinned and immobile by the realization that there was no way I could resist Theodore Spencer even if I wanted to. And as he nodded and turned to go, the anguish of that epiphany came in hot on the heels of desire. Because Spencer didn't want me to read into it. But he'd handed me the fucking book, dammit. And I was devouring every word.
Chapter twenty-two
Spencer
Frost:
Wait, where did Spencer go?
Wells:
Oh, HE can leave the chat?
Nash Wells has left the chat.
Nash Wells has been added to the chat.
Frost:
Not the chat. OREGON.
