Worth the Wait (McKinney_Walker #1)(14)

Abruptly, he let her go, grabbed her hand, and pulled her deeper into the woods. They had two hours. He didn’t want to waste them. “I know another spot. It’s better.”

She laughed as he tugged her up the slight incline. “Slow down, nature boy.”

When he thought they were far enough away from spying eyes, he stopped just as abruptly as he’d started. With his fingers splayed wide across her narrow back, he brought her up hard against him and took her mouth in a long, deep kiss. He sank into the feel and the taste of her. Their tongues circled, drawing a tightness from his toes to his balls.

His hands moved past her hips to cup her bottom, and she arched into him, as she always did, like she couldn’t get enough.

Her fingers flexed against his chest, fisting in his shirt, then wound around his neck. They were both panting when they pulled back for a breath. “I’ve never felt like this,” she whispered.

He lifted his head, fell into her fathomless eyes, and knew it was true. Knew he felt the same. Mia’s mixture of confidence and innocence was just one more thing that drew him in. “I’m glad.”

“It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?” She smiled up at him, her dark brown eyes a little dreamy. “Making the girls’ hearts race?”

He skated his palms up her sides, just grazing the underside of her breasts before sliding down to mold over the curves of her waist, her hips. He kissed along her neck, behind her ear. “Yours is the only heart I’m interested in at the moment.”

“At the moment?”

Lifting his head, he studied her. It wasn’t like Mia to be unsure of herself. She had that take-it-or-leave-it attitude, another thing he loved about her. “Yes. This moment.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Every moment.”

She stared up at him thoughtfully. His Mia was always thinking. “What?”

“It’s dumb.”

“You’re the smartest person I know. Say it anyway.”

She pressed her lips together.

“Mia.”

“Okay. Do you think we’d have gotten together if things had been different?”

“Different how?”

“You know. If you’d been going to parties, doing your thing.”

“Hmm. Maybe you’re not that smart.” He grinned and tightened his arms around her. “Maybe you would have reformed me. Or maybe I would have corrupted you,” he added, giving her bottom a squeeze.

She wasn’t laughing.

“Mia.” He smoothed his hands up her back. “I know for a fact I would’ve gone after you no matter what. One look in your brown eyes, and you had me. Though I doubt I would’ve gotten very far.”

“Why do you say that?”

“My moves might have made you run in the other direction. It’s like Hannah was there to save me from myself.”

She laughed softly now, but he grew serious and tightened his grip. “One thing I know for a fact: I would have suffered from my own stupidity. Because if I wasn’t with you, Hannah or no Hannah, parents alive or parents dead, I would suffer.”

She didn’t say anything, didn’t need to. He saw it all in her eyes. Wrapped up in her arms, he sank into the sweet heat of her mouth. He pressed a kiss to her throat, skimmed his lips along the skin there. She always smelled so sweet, tasted sweeter. Sweet and innocent, barely eighteen years old, away from home for the first time, Mia was his. So completely his.

He walked them back to a level spot and pulled her down to sit beside him. His lips found hers again. On and on, hot kisses, sweet touches, until she was on her back with him angled over her.

Beams of sunlight danced softly over her as they found their way between the gently swaying trees. And with the pleasure of deep, hungry kisses, his hands slipped under her top to find bare skin. Mia was shy, but when she kissed him, their combined heat and need burst into fire in seconds. He didn’t know how he’d survived this long without passing second base, didn’t know how much longer he could stand to wait.

Mia sighed into his mouth, stealing his very breath, and he knew exactly how long he could wait—as long as she wanted, as long as she needed. Even if it killed him.

His fingers brushed over the smooth flesh of her stomach. She trembled when he ventured higher. They’d gone this far before, once, and he’d dreamed of it every night since. He cupped her through her bra, dying to feel her bare breast in his palm again. Her kiss grew hotter, more insistent. She tugged at his shirt until he peeled it off and dropped it on the ground beside them.

“You’re so beautiful.” He kissed across the smooth, pale skin of her chest. He watched and felt his hands skim over her, his complexion dark against her creamy silk. With his hands nearly shaking, he put everything he had that was soft, gentle, and loving into his touch. With nervous fingers, he slid the straps down her shoulders, peeled the cotton from her breast. He cupped her, felt her heart beat hard and fast. She was everything. When he drew the peak into his mouth, she moaned, grabbed his head, urging him to take more.