With extreme self-control, he covered her hand with his and somehow managed to get them both inside before it wandered any lower. Before the door clicked shut, his mouth was on hers. Before he’d flipped the dead bolt, his tongue swept inside and he tasted her, feasted on her.
“I missed you. This.” He tangled his fingers in her hair like an anchor.
She whimpered, trembling in his arms, her fingers digging into the back of his neck. With his mouth at her throat, he slipped a hand under her shirt. “I need you.”
He got rid of the shirt, then the bra, and went back to her mouth. Need and urgency mixed with desire and this new feeling that he needed her to belong to him, that maybe she already did.
They barely made it into the bedroom before her panties hit the floor. He laid her on the bed, shed his own clothes, then took a second. Completely naked, her chest rising and falling with every breath. “God. Look at you. You make me crazy.”
“In a good way?” she asked, a smile pulling at her perfect lips.
He levered himself over her, dipped his lips to just a breath from hers. “Yes. In a very good way.” The best. Then he proceeded to show her, starting at the top of her head and working his way down. He skipped her mouth so he wouldn’t lose himself in her kiss. And he would if he started there. He could spend hours with that mouth and never get enough. He sated himself with her breasts first, laving one nipple, then the other.
She moaned and moaned again, and her low sound of arousal drove him higher. And even though he wanted to be inside her with a desperation he’d never known, he went slowly, bringing her to the edge again and again. He wanted to give her so much pleasure that she’d know she belonged to him, that her body and heart would know only his. He grazed his teeth down her abdomen and lower, breathing in her scent. With his hands on her thighs, he held her open to him and in one long stroke of his tongue had her crying out his name.
By the time he pushed inside, they were both on fire, both damp with sweat.
And with every thrust into her sweet body, three words pulsed in his mind like the blood pounding through his heart.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Chapter 24
Hours later, JT slipped out of bed. He should be exhausted and he was, but he couldn’t sleep. He walked through the cabin until he stood on the porch looking out at the dark. It must be nearing morning because the moon that had been so bright before was gone. He could barely make out the woods he knew began several yards from the cabin.
He wondered how Casey was, hoped she was sleeping soundly. He had a sudden urge to call his brother to make sure she was okay, but that would be crazy. If she wasn’t, Stephen would call him. Besides, that was something a parent would do and he wasn’t. He wasn’t her father. So why did he feel so strongly that he should be?
How could it ever be right for him to have it now when he hadn’t wanted it then? How could he want a child, this child, so badly when he hadn’t wanted his own?
What kind of person doesn’t want their own child?
He didn’t know. Or maybe he was afraid he did.
“Hey.”
He turned at the sound of Paige’s voice. Wearing his T-shirt that hung to mid-thigh, she crossed the short distance and slipped her arms around him.
“Hey.” He kissed her upturned face, feeling immediately lighter.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“I thought I heard my phone, thought it might be Stephen.”
“Was it?”
“No.” Wondering if there was anything on under the shirt, he slipped his hands under the soft cotton.
Paige smiled. “What are you looking for?”
“Mmm. I don’t know, but I found something.” He traced his fingers around the edges of her panties.
“Maybe you can lose them later.” He kissed her again deeply and when the kiss ended, he led her over to the porch swing and pulled her into his lap.
She settled against his chest and he rocked them gently with his foot. They stayed that way awhile, just sitting and rocking. He soaked in the feeling of holding her while her short nails stroked over the arm he had wrapped around her waist.
“Did your parents really forget a kid at the skating rink?”
“That’s the story.”
“I really like them. Your dad especially.”
He made a low sound of agreement and kept rocking. What kind of dad would he be? He’d like to be as great as his own. He’d like to be that man for Casey. Because he loved her and because she deserved it.
The wind made a soft whooshing sound through the tops of the highest pines, and though he hated it, he had to ask. “Do you think Casey’s father will ever try to see her?”