All she could do was grip his arms and moan as she looked into his face, his eyes and their powerful heat shining back at her. He held her bu**ocks as he moved harder, faster, longer with each stroke.
When he leaned in and kissed her, his mouth almost frantic, his body quaking, she released again, crying out as this second round of pleasure seemed almost to tear her in half with its intensity.
With his own cry, Bryson pulled out and she felt hot liquid spill out on her thighs, the sensation heating her all over again.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped.
“I’m not,” she said.
“No. I…I forgot to protect you. I’m sorry. I pulled out, though…I think in time,” he said, his face against her neck.
She wasn’t sure who was holding up whom.
“Oh” was her only reaction. That had been foolish, very foolish. It would be fine, though. He’d caught it, right?
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said. He moved away reluctantly, leaving her shivering on the counter and unable to move. She was too afraid her legs would fail her.
He quickly returned with a washcloth. Was this the end of their night? Would he now leave? The thought left her full of dread, but she’d done enough begging tonight.
If he wanted to go, she wouldn’t stop him.
Neither of them spoke.
Then, so gently that her eyes stung with tears, he slid his hands beneath her legs and back, cradled her close, and began carrying her through the house. When he reached her room, he laid her on the bed, reached into his back pocket and set something on the nightstand, and then removed his clothes. Sliding beneath the covers, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with aching sweetness.
“With the power out, it will take two of us to keep warm,” he said, though a heater was the last thing she needed. Her body was on fire.
“Great thinking.”
No more thoughts intervened, because he was kissing her again, taking his time now — they had all night, after all. He drew away her ragged shirt and kissed her stomach. He let his hands glide slowly up her bare back, and that’s when he felt the light ridges there.
He froze for a moment, and then, after turning her on her stomach, he kissed along her spine. The candlelight didn’t give him much of a view, but it cast enough of a glow to reveal scars from what looked like years of torture. He knew what she’d been through with Jesse — he just didn’t know what she’d been through before that man. Her body was trying to tell him the story.
His heart ached as he kissed each scar he felt.
“Bryson?” She murmured his name as she tried to turn from his scrutiny. “Don’t look at my back. It’s grotesque,” she said, her voice choked.
“It’s beautiful, just like the rest of you, Misty,” he replied, preventing her from twisting away as his fingers gently drifted across her skin. “You are so beautiful,” he repeated over and over again until she stopped struggling against him, his lips and fingers just a whisper against her delicate skin.
If he did nothing else this night, he needed to show her how incredible she was — that the scars didn’t detract from her exquisite beauty. Not one whit.
Seeing them made him only more protective of her, filled him with a greater need to make sure she was never hurt again.
Caressing her body — this time, he was unhurried — he got lost in her once again, for the rest of the stormy night.
Chapter Fifteen
“I should let you get some sleep.”
If humans could purr, that’s exactly what Misty would have been doing, purring as she rubbed her paws against his impressively solid chest. Though his heart was beating easily now, it had been pounding half an hour earlier.
“I’m exhausted, and my body couldn’t move if I wanted it to. But I can’t seem to sleep,” she murmured, fully relaxed, praying time would stop so she and Bryson could stay in this happy little bubble.
“Yeah, I know how you feel.” His arm tightened around her and he pulled her even closer as he continued long, lazy strokes down the curve of her back.
“Tell me about your childhood. Was it good? Did you like having a brother and sister?” She was trying to be coy, but Bryson wasn’t fooled. She was afraid to meet her brother. He was a complete stranger, though related to her by blood.
If Bryson could help ease her fears, he would.
“I love my family. Out where I’m from, it wasn’t so unusual to grow up in a large family where everyone actually loved each other, but I’ve been around the world enough now to really appreciate what I’ve always had.”
“I’m glad to hear that. It would break my heart if you didn’t appreciate them.”
Her words made him ache for her. He’d seen people in her situation many times over, but he’d never harbored such deep feelings for any of them. And that train of thought took any ideas of sleep away. Was he falling in love with this woman? He knew he was falling, but was it love?
He mulled that over in silence. Not only was he falling for her, and falling hard, but what really surprised him was that the realization aroused no fear. He’d heard people say that when a person found his or her other half, they just knew, and now he could understand what they were talking about.
Later. He would think more on this later. Right now, Misty was seeking reassurance, and she was looking for answers. He could do his best to give both to her.
“I was always close with my brother, who’s older, but our lives have drifted apart these days, since we rarely get to see each other. One thing we both have in common is our little sister. I told you she’s a dirt-bike racer. Well, it scares us both equally. Matter of fact, the last two times I’ve seen him is when we were at her races, making sure she was okay,” he said with a chuckle.
“What would you do, jump in and catch her?”
“I would trade places with her in a heartbeat if she were injured, and, yes, I would jump onto the course and catch her if I could. Luckily, she hasn’t had any terrible injuries. I know it sounds rotten, but I really hope she loses her passion for racing someday. I just…worry. I can’t have anything happen to her.”
“Does she get mad at you for interfering?”
“Yes and no. Only once did we have a big blowout fight about it. After that, I backed off…a little. And now she tolerates my nagging. She knows my concern is because I love her.”
“If I were her, and you were trying to get me to stop, I would think it was because you didn’t trust me,” Misty interjected.