Reading Online Novel

After the Ashes(39)



He took one of the pistols out of the holster before he arranged the belt at the head of the bedroll. The single gun he laid on the center edge of the red and green checked blanket, clearly within his reach. He wasn’t taking any chances.

“Come here.” He guided her to her knees beside him.

She responded to his gentle persuasion, not completely happy with his explanation of the guns. He shrugged out of his shirt. Before she could settle on the soft flannel, he gripped the hem of her chemise and pulled it over her head.

“God, you’re beautiful.”

His reverence went a long way toward helping her forget her doubts. She hadn’t forgotten what it had felt like to be held at gunpoint by Langston, and if his precaution would prevent that, so much the better. He wouldn’t think of hurting her brother while making love to her. He wasn’t that callous.

By the time he yanked off his boots and shucked his pants, he was fiercely aroused.

She placed her hands flat on his chest, wanting to feel his strong pulse against her palms. Soon she’d be unable to think at all. The total absorption of joining their bodies, being consumed by him, was the only thing that let her truly escape the grief that had been her companion for so long she could hardly remember what if felt like not to carry its weight.

Her hands drifted down his rib cage. He stopped her before she went any lower.

“Lie on your back.”

She complied immediately, ready as he was for their joining. Even the hard ground was a heady caress against her tingling body.

He moved over her, supporting his weight on his hands and knees. She spread her legs and arched up, unaware of how wanton, how eager that instinctual act was until he jerked his hips back, pulling away from her.

“Not yet, sweetheart. Though you tempt my resolve.”

“Resolve for what?” She gripped his hips and tried to guide him between her spread legs.

“To make you come.”

At first the word shocked her. She’d heard her brothers use it when they thought she wasn’t within earshot. She hadn’t thought a woman could do that, but the idea excited her just the same.

“Is that possible?”

With his weight lowered to his elbows, he dipped his head to cover her mouth. The wicked slide of his tongue against hers convinced her anything was possible.

“It’s different from a man, but it’s definitely possible,” he said between open-mouthed kisses that drifted across her collarbone. “But you’re going to have to help me. Tell me what you like.”

Her body arched everywhere he kissed, seeking more. When he swirled his tongue in a hollow at the base of her neck, her insides coiled with pleasure. Her desire for him seared straight to her sex, making her pulse with need. The sensation raged with an intensity that left her mindless with wanting. She couldn’t help but rotate her hips, her whole body vibrating to urges that demanded a response.

He moved his attention to her breast, and when he sucked her nipple she cried out. He lifted his head briefly and laid his finger over his lips, reminding her of their need to be quiet. She nodded, then pressed her hand against the back of his neck to encourage him to continue.

She forced her eyes to remain open, to focus on the sea of blazing stars. She couldn’t lose herself so completely that she was howling like a banshee. Corey slept just beyond the rocks. She couldn’t let him find them like this. There was the loaded pistol beside her head.

She pushed thoughts of Corey away before they overrode the pleasure in her body. As Christopher’s kisses trailed across her stomach, her hands drifted to her breasts, squeezing them, relieving the ache at his departure.

“Show me how to touch you like you like to touch yourself.”

Her eyes opened, and when she realized what she was doing, she immediately stopped, embarrassed by her neediness, her total lack of control.

She also became aware of how close his face was to her spread legs. She tensed, but his body blocked her from closing her knees. He guided her hands back to her breasts.

“I like to see you do that. It makes me crazy.”

The huskiness in his voice encouraged her. Her fingers brushed over her straining nipples, and she felt a jolt all the way to her sex. She pinched the overly sensitized tips and had to swallow a moan.

“That’s it. Keep doing that.” He wedged his shoulders under her knees and opened her fully to his gaze. With his fingers, he spread her inner folds. She jerked at the intimate contact.

“Relax, sweetheart. I want to taste you.”

She lay back, reeling with the idea. Surely she’d be going straight to hell afterward, but she wanted the same thing.

When his tongue tentatively touched her, something in the pit of her stomach clenched into a fist. But one soft graze across her hungry flesh eased the shock, turning his caress into liquid pleasure that flowed across her skin like warm rain. She writhed under his insanely gentle assault. Christopher’s soft kisses were almost torment.