Page 136 of Unleashed
She nods. Tries to suck in a breath. She's so close. Teetering. I can feel it in the way her walls are fluttering around my fingers, the way her whole body is wound so tight she's about to snap.
I dip my head and press my lips to her neck. Softly this time. A kiss, not a bite. And that's what does it.
She soaks my hand. And I meansoaks.
A scream rips out of her that makes my ears ring. Echoes off the creek bed like a canyon. She doesn't fall apart. She shatters. Completely. Every muscle seizing, her whole body convulsing against me, her face buried in my neck, and her nails digging into my back through the rope.
And I put the pieces back together.
I slow my hand. Gentle. Drawing it out. Letting each wave roll through her at its own pace instead of driving them harder. My other arm is locked around her waist, holding all of her weight, because she can't hold it herself anymore.
I press my lips to hers. Softly. Again. And again. Small kisses. Quiet ones. The kind that don't ask for anything. The kind that just saysI'm here. I've got you. I ain't going anywhere.
She rides it out until she's completely spent. Every last tremor. Every last breath. And then she collapses into me, boneless, her forehead on my shoulder, her arms still looped around my neck.
I hold her. Just hold her. Let the desert go quiet around us. Let her heartbeat slow against my chest. Let her breathing even out until it matches mine.
"You good, baby?" I whisper, wiping the hair from her face.
"Never better," she croaks.
"Atta girl." I tap her ass, and she laughs. I reach up and work the knot on the rope. It comes free in seconds, and I unwind it from her wrists carefully, checking her skin. A little red. Nothing that'll bruise. I lift each wrist to my mouth and press a kiss to the inside. Right over the pulse point. Right where I can feel her heart still hammering.
She watches me do it with glassy eyes and a look on her face that almost undoes me worse than anything that just happened.
"Arms hurt?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "Just tingly."
I rub them. Slow circles from her wrists to her elbows to get the blood moving. She closes her eyes and leans into me, and the sound she makes is so soft and so trusting that my chest aches.
I set her down carefully. Her legs buckle immediately, and I catch her before she hits the sand. She laughs again.
"Easy. I got you."
"My legs don't work, Ace." She says with a pout.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Take it however you want. I physically cannot walk."
I grin. Grab her shorts, shake the sand out of them, and help her step into them, pulling them up over her hips. Her flannel is a lost cause. Buttons somewhere in the Arizona desert, never to be seen again. So I pull off my own shirt and put it on her. She's swimming in it. Looks better on her than it ever did on me.
I button it up. Three buttons. Enough to keep her decent for the walk back. She watches my hands with this expression. Soft. Quiet. Like me, dressing her is doing something to her heart that all the other stuff couldn't reach.
I find her boots. Knock the sand out of them, kneel down, and slide them onto her feet one at a time. She puts her hand on my shoulder to balance, and her thumb brushes the back of my neck.
I know she’s watching every move I make. I just want to show her what it’s like to be mine again.
"You don't have to do all this," she says quietly.
I look up at her from the ground. "Yeah, I do."
"Why?"
"Because the way I love you doesn't end when the fun part's over, Harper. It's this part too. It's every part. The putting back together is just as important as the taking apart."
Her eyes fill. She blinks it back. Nods once.
