Crushing on Love (The Bradens of Peaceful Harbor, Book Four) (23 page)

He set the bottle beside the bed. “Open your eyes, beautiful girl.” When she did, he stroked his hard length.

Her eyes widened, then narrowed.

“You like that,” he said, gliding his hands up her thighs.

“No,” she whispered huskily, and his hands stilled. “I love it.”

“Then it’s official,” he said. “You’ve been put on this earth to torture me.”

She laughed softly, and in that moment he fell even harder for her. Just when he thought he loved her as much as he could, she found a way to sneak deeper into his heart.

He massaged her legs from just above her knee to the tops of her thighs, stroking, massaging, squeezing.

“Mm.” Her eyes fluttered closed.

“Open, baby,” he reminded her, and she looked up at him through heavy lids.

He squeezed harder as he reached the very edge of her thigh, where it met the skin beside her sex, and used his thumbs to slick oil along that sensitive skin, slow and deliberate. She made a sexy little mewing sound, rocking her hips toward his hands. He worked his way up her body, his hands gliding over the curves of her belly, along the swell of her hips, the dip of her waist. The oil warmed with his touch, and she arched toward his hands, making sweet, sexy sounds as his hands glided up her sides.

“This seems unfair,” she said through heavy breaths.

He caressed her breasts, sliding over her nipples, slowing to tease and gently pinch. She bowed off the bed, and he slid slick hands up the underside of her arms and laced his fingers with hers, trapping her hands above her head. He moved his arousal over her slick belly, aching to be inside her.

“What’s unfair?” He kissed her neck as she struggled for words. Her eyelids fluttered and her breathing quickened. He kissed her softly, languid and loving. Her hips rose off the mattress, rubbing eagerly against his arousal.

“This. You make me feel so good, and I’m not giving you anything back,” she finally said.

“You are, baby. I take pleasure in seeing you lose yourself in me, just as I lose myself in you.” He kissed her again, releasing her hands.

“Then don’t stop,” she urged.

He gently rolled her onto her stomach and gathered her hair over one shoulder, revealing her gorgeous, sleek back. He drizzled oil down her spine, to the crevice at the top of her ass. She ground her hips into the bed, and he dripped more oil over the curve of her cheeks to her thighs.

“Feel good, baby?”

“Yes,” she whispered, fisting her hands in the sheets beside her head.

He worked his way up her spine, marveling in her beauty, her sense of adventure. He loved that she was so sexually confident, so willing to trust him. His hands glided over her shoulders, kneading her soft skin as she melted beneath him. Then he kissed her beside her ear.

“Still with me?” he whispered.

“Always,” she said. As he lowered his body to hers, nestling his hard length against her ass, she said, “Yes,” in one long breath.

He kissed her cheek, sliding his cock along the crease. His hands slid up her arms, and he laced his fingers with hers. Her back was slick and warm against his chest. She ground her ass into his shaft, working him in a fast, heady pace. He ground his teeth together, buried his face in the crook of her neck, trying to hold himself together. When she dug her fingernails into his hands, he nearly lost it.

With a groan, he moved down her body, massaging her sweet, perfect ass, kissing each round cheek. His hands glided fast and firm on her thighs. He spread her legs, massaging the crease beside her sex, and when she lifted her hips off the bed, he couldn’t hold back from taking what he wanted. He pushed his fingers deep inside her wet center, and she cried out.

He stilled, shaking with desire. “Too hard?”

“No. Good.
More
.”

She raised her ass higher, and he slid his other hand between her cheeks, testing the waters.

“Yes,” she pleaded.

Holy mother of God, he was going to come unraveled. His fingers were slick with oil and slid right in. One. Two.

“More,” she begged.

Three.

He was on the verge of losing it from the eroticism of what they were doing, but even with her squirming and moaning with pleasure as his fingers invaded all of her, he still needed
more
. He withdrew his fingers slowly, closing his eyes against her whimpers.

“Grizz, please,” she begged.

He came down over her back, kissed her again beside her ear, telling himself to hold back, but he was no match for the mad love tearing through him.

“Shannon, I have to have all of you.”
I love you too hard. It’s too much
.

“Yes.” She sounded relieved, as if she was fighting the same internal battle.

“Baby.” He slid to the side so he could see her face, and the raw emotions he saw there slayed him. They were both shaking, and he’d never heard himself sound so dire as when he spoke. “I love you, Shannon. I love you so hard it hurts.”

She swallowed hard. “Me too, you. I’m more scared
not
to do this than to do this. I can’t go another day without being completely and totally yours.”

Their mouths crashed together in a hard, crazy kiss that was somehow also loving and sensual.

“I love you, baby. We can stop at any time.”

“No, we can’t,” she said. “This love is bigger than us. It’s unstoppable.”

Dangerous
. He closed his eyes against the word and kissed his way down her spine. She lifted her hips off the bed, angling her beautiful ass before him.

“So trusting, baby,” he said, tucking a pillow under her hips. He used his fingers again, kissing her back as he loved her until she was ready to receive him.

“Now, Grizz, please. I can’t take another second.”

He guided his slick shaft to her tightest entrance. Feeling her soft cheeks against him made him want to slam into her, but he kept control. He kissed her upper spine, and they both groaned as he breached the tight rim of muscles. Her ass squeezed around him, and it took all he had not to thrust. She gripped the sheets, her eyes closed tight.

“Okay, baby?”

“Yes.
More
.”

He took her slow and steady, until he was buried to the root, and then he came down over her back and laced his fingers with hers. She was so tight, they were both trembling, breathing hard and shallow at once.

“God,” she whispered. “You’re huge.”

After a beat of silence, they laughed, and that humor broke the thread of fear that had held him back.

“I love you, Butterfly. So much…”

He loved her gently, and when she asked for more, he loved her harder. He slid his hand beneath her and teased her over the edge. After they’d both lost themselves to their lovemaking, he carried her to the shower and they made love beneath the warm spray.

Back in his bed, on clean sheets, with Shannon lying safely in the confines of his arms, she asked him if he’d ever done that before.

“No, baby. You make me crave all of you. I’ve never wanted that before.”

“Oh,” she said softly.

Closing his eyes and saying a silent prayer that she’d have the same response, he said, “You?”

“You know how high schools have prom queens?”

“Yeah,” he said, confused.

“I was the anal queen.”

He closed his eyes, biting back the anguish knotting his gut.

She lifted a finger and pretended to
chalk one up
. “Gotcha!”

He hugged her tighter, losing himself all over again in her confidence and carefree giggles. When she turned in his arms and they gazed into each other’s eyes, he knew the truth before the words left her lips.

“Only you, Grizz. You own me.”

THE NEXT WEEK passed in a blur of campaign and rally coordination, and falling head over heels in love with the area, the people, and the man whom she couldn’t look at without wanting more of him. Shannon and Steve’s lives had melded together seamlessly. Steve had spur-of-the moment meetings with various associations throughout the week, and she was busy every second with research and the campaign. But they’d found time to slow down for each other, making love late at night and talking into the wee hours about
everything
—with the careful exception of the future, which they tiptoed around as if it were a land mine. Lately they’d been getting up early to watch the sunrise together from their back porch. They’d even found time to go out with friends. They’d had lunch with Mack and Will to discuss their hosting the rally, and she was pleased that there had been no weird feelings between any of them about breaking her date with Will to be with Steve. They’d also met Jade and Rex for dinner, and she’d even convinced Steve to go to a barbecue at the Bradens. They’d invited his parents as well, and it was like a coming-out party.

They’d become a real couple, and it felt wonderful. Shannon’s research was no longer a solo project, which made it even more enjoyable. After Steve took care of wildlife forestry concerns, he inevitably ended up where Shannon had set up for the day. He brought picnic lunches, and if they were both still on the mountain at the end of their workday, he sought her out to walk her back to the cabin. It was dating, mountain-man style, and as she was falling deeper in love, the ominous countdown to her departure loomed. They had a little more than two weeks before she had to return home, and every time she thought about it she nearly drowned in sadness.

Now she and Steve sat in a café surrounded by their friends and family to finalize the plans for the rally, Steve’s hand spread possessively over her thigh. When they’d made the promise that they could handle moving on after she went back home, she hadn’t fully believed it. She knew for sure there was no way she could ever look at Steve and not be madly, deeply, passionately in love with him. But she had a full life to return to in Peaceful Harbor, a family she adored, friends she’d grown up with.

Her eyes danced around the table, taking in the smiling faces of family and friends who had gathered to help them without expecting anything in return. Max, Treat, Jade, and Rex were chatting happily across from her. At the end of the table, Jo had Cutter Long’s rapt attention. Cutter was Wes’s barn manager, and he had volunteered to help Wes with the cattle-roping event at the rally. Jo looked quite taken with the handsome, blue-eyed cowboy. Shannon had gone to see Jo earlier in the week, and they’d had a long conversation about the rally and about Steve. Shannon had been surprised to hear that they’d been intimate only once, especially since she and Steve couldn’t keep their hands off each other. And as far as she and Steve went, they hadn’t revisited the sensual depths they had the night with the oil, but that night had changed everything. It had brought them to a new level, strengthening their bond and solidifying their relationship. They’d built an even stronger foundation of trust and truth that left no room for worries.

She shifted her gaze to her right, where her cousins Ross and Wes were sitting with their fiancée and wife, Elisabeth and Callie. Wes’s hand rested on Callie’s burgeoning baby bump. On the other end of the table, Shannon’s cousin Luke and his wife, Daisy, were chatting with Cal and Rachel. Shannon had received a supportive call from her cousin Emily, who also lived in Trusty, and wished she could be there to help, but she and her fiancé, Dae, were in Italy preparing for their wedding.

Shannon wondered if it were possible for a person to have
two
full lives?

“What do you think, Butterfly?”

Steve’s rough, sexy voice sent shivers down her spine.
Uh-oh.
She’d missed whatever they’d said.

“I’m happy to do it.” Elisabeth’s blond hair framed her pretty face, and she smiled brightly. “Rossie’s assistant, Kelsey, said she’d help me with the booth. We’ll make mini pies, like I made for the fair, and give them away for a small donation. Every dollar counts, and the community loved the beer cakes I made.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.” Shannon’s heart swelled at the support she had here and ached at the idea of leaving it all behind. Steve was looking at her like she was the only one in the busy café. How could she leave him? How could she give him up? Could they manage a long-distance relationship? Would they want to?

She pondered that thought as Elisabeth described the pie she had in mind for the rally. “I’ll call it River Pie, and use creamy white chocolate and give it a greenish hue so it looks like water, with chunks of chocolate as rocks poking out through the water and whipped marshmallow cream to add a few whitecaps.”

“And I’ll be your taste tester,” Ross said, leaning in for a kiss.

“Back off, brother-in-law,” Callie said teasingly. “Pregos before significant others. I’ll be the chocolate pie taste tester, thank you very much.”

Ross scowled.

Wes gave him a dark look. “Don’t even think it, bro. My wife wants the pie, and I’ll take you down to make sure she gets it.”

Everyone laughed as Wes pulled Callie into a scorching-hot kiss. Shannon’s grown cousins were always wrestling like a pack of teenagers.

“Thanks for helping with this, you guys,” Shannon said. “As of this morning the campaign was up to one hundred and eighty-seven thousand. Only three hundred and thirteen thousand more to go.”

“I have to admit,” Treat said, “I was skeptical about crowdfunding, but you two are really pulling people together. It’s a different business model, but it could free up funds for renovations to the ranch and maybe even more land trust deals down the road.”

Shannon’s ears perked up.

“Thanks to my favorite girl,” Steve said with pride. “And we have a solid plan for the event now, thanks to each of you. Mack and Will are excited to host the rally, and I spoke to the Weston Times this morning. They’re going to publicize it.”

“If you and Steve decide to try to buy more properties through campaigns, or other creative means, and put them into trust, Treat,” Shannon said, “I’d love to help.”

“We’ll plan on it.” Treat slid a serious look to Steve, who gave one curt nod. “I think it’s the type of work you could do remotely.”

Her stomach knotted up at the reminder.