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She couldn’t believe this was really happening.
Marley wound her arms and legs around him and held on tight as he shoved the bedroom door open and kept going, her mouth busy on the side of his neck. She had thrown herself into the whirlwind, unable to hold back a moment longer. The fire between them, the constant longing, were too much, even for her.
Her feelings for Warwick hadn’t diminished one bit. They were stronger than ever, and being trapped in here alone with him had pushed her past her breaking point.
If this was all they could have together, then so be it. She needed to get him out of her system. Had to be able to move past him somehow and get on with her life once this was over.
In the meantime, she was going to enjoy the hell out of him while she could.
Her back hit the mattress as he lowered her onto the bed. He came down on top of her, pressing her down with that long, powerful body, his hips settling between her open thighs.
She moaned into his mouth at the feel of him. It had been so long. So damn long, and for months she’d been left wondering if she’d only imagined how good it had been between them.
She hadn’t. This was real. He was here in her arms, the hard ridge of his erection pressed against the throb between her legs, their tongues twining as she ran her hands down his naked back.
There were more scars here. Shrapnel and burns, from the feel of them. They made her ache with the thought of what he must have gone through during his recovery, alone. She wished again that she could have been there for him.
No. She wasn’t going to waste a moment more being caught in the past. Or thinking about the future. There was only the here and now, the two of them tangled in this bed while the rain drummed on the roof above them, and the painful level of arousal only he could satisfy.
“I missed you every day,” he rasped out, pushing up on his knees to grab the bottom of her sweater. “Every day, Mar. Dreamed of you. Of this. Us.”
His words set off a bittersweet pain in her heart. She’d grieved for him. Ached for him. Dreamed of him. “Me too.” She arched her back to help him peel it off, her hungry hands traveling over the powerful muscles on his scarred torso. The evidence of his strength and survival made him even more gorgeous to her.
Her bra came undone with a quick flick of his wrist. He swept it off her, tossed it aside and bent close, his mouth on the side of her neck while his big hands cupped the sensitive mounds of her breasts with firm pressure.
His dominant, possessive edge in bed turned her on as much as it turned her body liquid.
Yes, yes, yes...
She slid her hands into his thick, dark hair, let her eyes fall closed when his lips closed around one hard nipple. Instant pleasure punched through her, every flick of his tongue sending streamers of heat to the tight throb between her legs.
She’d never felt this way with anyone else. So damn hot for him that she couldn’t even think, could only feel, and she’d never thought she would experience this with him ever again.
His long fingers found the button on her jeans. He undid it, worked the denim over her hips and down her legs, his lips and tongue now teasing her other nipple. She was so wet. So hot and wet she felt like she was about to vaporize, her heart thundering out of control.
He released her nipple and slid lower. Nipped at her belly as he cupped her mound through the scrap of lace barring his way. She made a hungry sound, lifting into his touch. The pressure and heat of his palm only made the ache worse, made the emptiness inside her more acute.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, uncaring how desperate she sounded. She wanted to feel him everywhere at once.
He drew the lace down. Dipped his head as his big hands settled on the tops of her thighs and gripped tight. She felt the heat of his breath on her flushed, swollen folds. Gripped handfuls of his hair, just before...
“Oh, God, Warwick...” Liquid heat. The smooth stroke of his tongue right across her most sensitive flesh. She bucked her hips, squirmed, needing more.
His grip on her thighs tightened. “Nah, pet. Stay still,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve dreamt about this for too long.”
He flattened his tongue against her, unerringly found the exact spot on her swollen clit that made her see stars. His hands held her in place, refusing to allow her to move while he licked and caressed every sensitive millimeter until she was climbing toward the release she wanted more than she wanted air to breathe.
Still he refused to let her move. Refused to be rushed, ignoring her gasping moans, the way her hands clenched impatiently in his hair. She was so close already, every nerve ending sizzling under the steady, decadent stroke of his tongue.
The pleasure turned molten, spreading outward even as her muscles tightened. Her vision started to haze over. She squeezed her eyes shut, a soft cry of need coming from her.
His tongue lifted a second too soon, leaving her hanging. He nipped at her abdomen. She opened her eyes in time to see him rising to his knees and shoving his jeans down his thighs. Hungrily reached down to wrap her fingers around his cock.
He hissed in a breath at her touch. Growled and grasped both her wrists, raising them up high to pin them to the bed on either side of her head in an implacable grip that turned her on even more.
Warwick paused to stare down at her for several heartbeats, that powerful, scarred body kneeling between her open thighs. She clenched them around his hips, trying to pull him to her, his dark brown eyes blazing with desire...
And a naked possessiveness that sent a secret shiver through her.
Holding her down, he eased his hips forward slightly. She stared back at him, held captive by them as much as his dominant hold while the head of his cock slid along her slick folds. She made a soft sound of need, lifting into him. He stroked it along the edge of her clit, making her hiss in a breath and arch, needing more, then finally nudged inside her a fraction.
She held her breath at the feeling of pressure, the anticipation building. Because she knew what was coming. Remembered how his thick length had stretched and stretched her. Remembered how the slow penetration had stolen her breath, filling her to the limit.
The look on his face told her he remembered it too. Watching her with a hungry expression, he eased more of his weight down on her. Pushing the head of his cock into her with a slow surge of his hips.
A thousand tiny nerve endings flared suddenly and painfully to life. She tensed, bit her lip and squirmed, the pleasure already spreading outward. Oh God, he was so thick. And hard.
Sensation streaked up her spine. He was barely inside her and she needed more, this instant. Needed it so badly—
He pushed deeper.
Oh, Jesus...
She squeezed her eyes shut and cried out at the sudden increase in pressure, the shocking fullness while her body stretched and quivered around him, the sensation balanced right on the knife edge of pleasure and pain.
There was no escaping it. Or him. He was so big, so hard and thick inside her, every inch of him stroking swollen, sensitive tissue, and the way he held her down made it impossible for her to move. He was clearly determined to make her insane.
He withdrew. Ignored her whimper as he paused a moment, then surged forward halfway.
“Warwiiiick,” she cried, trembling all over. It had always been this way with him. So fucking intense.
“Shh, pet,” he rasped out, making her wait. He brushed his lips across her eyelids. Her cheeks. Soothing her even as the feel of him half-buried inside her made her want to writhe. “God, the way you feel clenchin’ around me. You were made to take me.” His voice was rough, his breathing unsteady.
More. More...
She must have said it aloud because he pushed deeper, his hold on her wrists demanding her surrender. She made a sound of distress, pinned there, open and helpless while the rising pleasure took her apart. Not enough and yet too much all at the same time.
“Please,” she managed to gasp out, half-delirious with pleasure as she tugged against his grip. She wanted to flip him over. Pin him down and ride him until release finally eased this unbearable, pleasurable ache inside her. “Please...”
The pressure around her wrists disappeared. He plunged one hand into her hair, the other sliding beneath her, pulling her lower body tight to his as he surged deep.
His low growl of pleasure was lost in the high-pitched wail that came from her throat. Her body clenched around him, inner muscles fluttering as the pleasure suddenly expanded.
She was lost. Helpless under him and reveling in it.
There was nothing but what he made her feel. The white-hot blaze of ecstasy as he began to fuck her with a firm, steady rhythm that slid his cock across the sweet spot inside her, his steely arm locked beneath her. Angling her hips so that each stroke of his cock rubbed her engorged clit against his pelvis.
Her hands flew to his back. She sank her fingers deep into the bunching muscles there while she squirmed beneath him, rubbing and grinding her way to the orgasm he was hurtling her toward.
She choked out his name as it hit. Unbearably sweet waves of ecstasy swept through her. Every thrust of his hips prolonged it, his heavy weight keeping her pinned to the bed. Anchored.
Safe. At least physically.
She barely had time to start coming back to her senses when he suddenly picked up his rhythm. Thrusting faster, faster, his expression as taut as his body. Seconds later he went rigid, burying his face in her neck as his deep, ragged cry of pleasure filled the room.
Marley lay sprawled out beneath him, gasping for breath. Their damp skin was glued together, her heart hammering in her ears. Her body turned boneless under the warm, heavy blanket he made, her muscles turning into melted wax.
He was like a dead weight atop her. Warm and solid and so damn perfect it made her throat close up.
I can’t lose you again. How am I supposed to let you go again?
She ruthlessly shut down the voice in her head and wrapped her arms around him. Shoved her face into the curve of his neck while they clung together, determined to stay in the moment.
It had been perfect.
But perfection was an illusion. And it never lasted.
She couldn’t get past the feeling that he was with her now only because of the circumstances and his need to protect her. But once the threat had passed, he would leave, whether because he thought it would protect her or for reasons only he knew.
Once he did, in her heart she knew she would never see him again after that.
Warwick groaned softly and stirred, his lips dragging lazy kisses along her shoulder and neck, along the underside of her jaw. “Mar,” he whispered, finding her mouth with his. All slow and tender and sensual now that the intense storm had passed, his long fingers sliding through her hair.
I love you.
Her chest hitched, the bittersweet pain piercing her heart as she choked the words back. Oh God, she couldn’t bear it.
But neither could she bear to end this, or let him go. Not yet. And never completely. He was part of her and always would be. No matter what happened going forward.
Holding on to the moment, she sank a hand into the back of his hair and returned the kiss. Pouring everything she felt for him into it even as the secret knowledge burned deep in her chest.
He lifted his head to look at her. Searched her eyes, his dark gaze intense. “Mar, I l—”
She put a hand over his mouth to stop him. Unable to bear hearing the words she saw mirrored in his eyes when she knew there was no chance of a future for them.
There would always be a reason for him to leave. Another unseen threat from his past hanging over him. She wasn’t getting crushed like that again. She’d had enough heartache in her life.
“Don’t,” she whispered back. “Not now. Not when you—”
A ringtone went off from beside the bed, saving her from finishing that painful sentence.
“No, what?” he insisted, blocking her when she tried to rise.
She shook her head, started to roll toward her phone. “Never mind.”
He pinned her flat on her back and trapped her beneath him again, his eyebrows drawn together in a frown that was equal parts confusion and annoyance. “Not when I what?”
“When we both know you’ll be leaving as soon as this is over,” she snapped, pushing his restraining hand off her and sitting up to grab her phone. It was her brother calling. And he couldn’t have picked a better time.
“Hey,” she answered, forcing a lightness she didn’t feel into her voice as she grabbed her sweater from the floor and tugged it on. She felt too vulnerable being naked in front of Warwick now.
The sweater covered her to just below her ass, and it was better than nothing under the circumstances. “How did the interview go?” she asked Decker as she left the bedroom and closed the door behind her, avoiding looking at Warwick. Her heart hurt too much.
“Pretty well. They’ve asked me to come back for a second one next week.”
“That’s great!” she said with far more enthusiasm than she actually felt, her whole chest hurting and her throat tight with the threat of tears. “I’m sure you’ll get the job. They’d be crazy not to hire you.”
“Well, we’ll see how it goes, but I’m just worried about you. Are you okay?”
“Me? I’m fine.” Bleeding inside, but whatever. That was her own doing. “It’ll be so great having you here in town.”
Crimson Point was her home now. She had a job here that she loved. A best friend she loved even more. People who cared about her. And hopefully her brother would be moving here soon too.
Because once this was over and Warwick left, she was going to need all the support she could get in order to pick up the pieces yet again.
