But he wasn’t passive—not Jesse. He reached up, took her breasts in his hands, and had his way with them, his fingers teasing and torturing her nipples, his touch making them pucker and sending frissons of pleasure straight to her belly.
“You … feel …so… fucking … good.” Needing release, she reached down to stroke her clit.
He moaned. “Mmm, yes, honey, make yourself come.”
He was thrusting now, beyond the point of holding still, his cock driving into her, carrying her toward that bright edge.
“Jesse!” Climax washed through her in a surge of bliss, his thrusts drawing out her pleasure until she lay weak and panting against his chest.
He kissed her hair, his fingers stroking her spine, his cock still inside her—and still rock hard.
Without warning, he moved out from beneath her and pinned her on her belly, his thighs straddling her hips, his cock penetrating her from behind. He supported his weight with one arm, reaching around her with the other to cradle her throat in one big hand. He forced her head back, compelling her to arch her back until she was supporting herself on her elbows, her hips still flat on the bed. It was a position of strength, of complete dominance—and it made her horny all over again.
He kissed her cheek, her temple, nibbled her ear. “I didn’t start this, honey, but I’m sure as hell going to finish it.”
He moved in and out of her with slow, smooth strokes, the angle of penetration making his cock glide over that sensitive spot inside her.
She closed her eyes, savored every deep thrust, arousal building in her again until she was moaning every time he drove into her. “Fuck me, Jesse. Fuck me!”
She came with a cry, the sweet shock of it singing through her, his body trembling as he claimed his own climax inside her.
* * *
Jesse heldEllie in his arms, her head resting against his chest. She was as limp as a rag doll, her breathing deep and even. He’d never been in a sexual relationship that had lasted this long, and what amazed him about it—what blew his mind—was that the sex kept getting better. As impossible as it seemed, it was true.
Maybe that’s because the sex had stopped being about fucking. It was about her, how he felt about her. It was about showing her he loved her.
Because you sure aren’t good at telling her with words.
He wasn’t. He didn’t know how to say what he needed to say. He’d never been in love before. He’d never opened himself like that before to anyone. Hell, he was less afraid of running through enfilading AK fire than throwing his heart on the ground at someone’s feet. But Ellie wasn’t just someone.
Her fingers toyed with his chest hair. “Please stay with me tonight.”
“If that’s what you want.”
She propped herself up on an elbow. “What doyouwant?”
It’s now or never, buddy.
“I saw you with the twins the day I came to view the cabin. You were out back on a blanket. The kids were tiny then—they couldn’t even sit up. My realtor told me you were a Gold Star wife, that your husband had died in Iraq. It wasn’t a coincidence that we didn’t meet until that night at Food Mart. I avoided you. I didn’t want to hear what had happened to your husband. I didn’t want to witness your grief. I had my own emotional shit to deal with. I kept my distance.”
Was that really what you wanted to tell her, man?
Rather than the look of disgust Jesse had expected, she smiled. “You might have closed yourself off to knowing me personally, but you were still a good neighbor. You shoveled my walk. You put my trash on the curb when I forgot. You even mowed my lawn on weekends when I was at work.”
He stared at her. “You knew I was the one?”
She shook her head. “I had no idea—until I saw you shoveling my walk the night Daniel and I were sick. It didn’t take long for me to put the pieces together.”
He reached up, tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “The point I’m trying to make is that I could have reached out, but I didn’t.”
“That was self-preservation. You’d come to Colorado to get the war out of your head. Why would you want to connect with a woman whose husband had been killed in that same war?”
Jesse sat up, cupped her face in his hand, steeled himself. “I love you, Ellie.”
There. He’d done it. He’d said it. The world hadn’t imploded, but now he lay, naked and shivering, at her feet.
“What?” She stared at him through startled green eyes. “You ... you love me?”