Page 151 of Spicy Ever After
The restraint it takes to hold still is enough to drive me mad, so when I speak, it’s through a disbelieving laugh. “Hattie, honey, that’s how I feel about you.”
And then I don’t saunter. I don’t linger.
I pounce.
One second, I’m standing at her bedside, and the next, I am on her, giving her all my weight and kissing her like it’s my fucking divine right.
Hattie gasps. If I’ve surprised her, she’s quick to recover. Her hands race over my back, my shoulders, my ass. I swear, I can feel every cell because every cell hums under her touch.
“God, I love how you feel… So good… so amazing,” she swears between kisses. I move to her neck, moaning through my kisses.
Her hands on my body feel incredible. But I need to touch her too. I need her skin on mine. I fumble for the tie at her waist.
“M-May I?”
But when Hattie goes still beneath me, it’s like I’ve hit a kill switch. I lift my head from the slope of her neck and find wariness in her eyes.
“Too fast?” I ask, willing my breathing to ease, my heart rate to slow. I thought I was taking her cues, but maybe I was just losing my head.
“I-It’s not too fast… I just—” She glances at the lamp by the bedside. Then she draws in a long breath and heaves a sigh.
Why is my woman sighing? Like someone resigned to her fate?
I push up to my knees. “Hattie, honey, talk to me.”
She grasps my hands. “You don’t have to go so far away.” A new look of worry shapes her eyes. She tries to pull me back down, but I hold steady.
“Hang on.” I squeeze her hands before lacing my fingers through hers, a silent reminder that I am here with her. We are in this together. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Again she sighs.
“It’s… the naked thing.”
“The naked thing?”
She nods.
“You don’t want to be naked?”
She shrugs.
I frown. “Hattie, I’ve seen you?—”
“You’ve seen me topless. You haven’t exactly seen me bottomless.”
I shouldn’t grin, but I can’t help it. “Bottomless. I like the sound?—”
“Don’t tease,” she scolds. “You look like custom-made man hotness, and I’m more… custard-made woman.”
My eyes nearly bug out of my skull. “You can’t be serious.”
She arches a brow—as though I’m the one full of shit.
Just, no.
Hell, no.
These thoughts are not fit to reside in her head.
