Page 94 of Icebound

“I’m so close,” she moans, legs clenching my face so my stubble leaves a red mark on her thighs. “I think I’m in love with your tongue.”

I love eating her out, but something about how she says the word love has me slowing my strokes. I groan, and her legs tighten around my head. Every sound that escapes her mouth makes me feel like a smug bastard. Curling my fingers inside her, I suck her clit harder.

Once. Twice. Three times.

She’s loud. Louder. Screaming my name.

Leaning back, I rub my thumb over her as she rides out the remnants of her orgasm. “That’s it. Be as loud as you want. I want this entire hotel to hear what I do to you.”

A thunderous split cracks through the room.

I snap my head up to see the headboard about to fall on top of Nina’s head. Shit. Adrenaline jolts through my body.

“Watch out!” I yell, pitching forward to catch the flimsy wood. I slam it back against the wall, panting over her body as I lift it to keep it from falling on her. This hotel really skimped on the headboards. What did they use? Plywood?

She blinks up at me, sated and dazed. “What just happened?”

A laugh falls out of my mouth, and I can’t help but kiss the tip of her nose. “I just made you come so hard that you ripped the headboard off the wall.”

“How the hell did I do that?”

“Looks like this hotel just glued a piece of cardboard to the wall.”

Realization dawns on her face, slowly, then all at once. She gasps, jerking her head up. “No, I didn’t. Wait, I did. I’m so sorry. You’re going to have to pay for that.”

Using my free hand, I grip her chin. “If you apologize for ripping off the headboard because you came so hard on my tongue, I’m spanking you again, and this time, I won’t be gentle about it.”

Her brow lifts in a challenge. “Is that a promise?”

I kiss the tip of her nose again, getting closer to her lips. “It’s more than a promise, it’s a vow.”

There’s a beat of silence, but then, she giggles. Her laugh makes me laugh, and the sound grows until we’re gasping for air. When we finally catch our breath, she wiggles her way out from under me. Damn, I was kind of hoping she’d let me spank her again.

“Okay, but I actually don’t feel like getting spanked tonight because I have to sit in a car for four hours tomorrow, so I should really go.”

I wince at the words because they’re exactly what I said to every woman in my twenties, and I don’t want to hear them coming out of Nina’s mouth, directed at me.

“Don’t,” I blurt without thinking, or maybe I’m finally thinking clearly. She drove all the way here, and I don’t want to wake up alone in an empty hotel bed like I’ve been doing for the past decade.

“What?” she says.

“Don’t go. Stay with me tonight.” I slide off the bed, and the flimsy headboard falls to the mattress. “We can move the mattress and pillows to the floor. Just don’t go yet. Please?”

“You want to make a pillow fort with me?”

“I’d build you a pillow castle.”

She rocks back on her heels, debating, but then she grabs the sheets. “Okay, you scoot the mattress off, and I’ll look for extra blankets and pillows. I bet they have some in the closet. Maybe we can steal some from Wyatt’s room too.”

“Doubt it. Patty needs at least ten pillows to sleep.”

We gather supplies, rearrange the furniture, and thirty minutes later, we’re spooning naked under a pillow fortress. I’m trying not to think about how good she feels in my arms and just enjoy how free I feel, for once.

There’s no lower back pain, no sponsorship meetings, no League breathing down my neck. It’s just me and her in our own little kingdom.

If only we could stay like this forever.

I kiss her temple. “Thank you for coming tonight. No one’s ever surprised me like this before, and it means a lot to me, especially since I know you don’t like being in new places.”