Every Glance (Every Life #3) (32 page)

She props herself up on her elbows, bringing her face only inches from mine. “Thirty minutes,” she bargains. “That’s all I need.”

“Okay, you have yourself a deal.” I reach down and tuck my hands around the back of her knees that are planted on either side of my hips, trying to restrain myself from exploring any further. “But I have a feeling it’s going to be the longest thirty minutes of my life,” I joke.

Devyn leans forward until her mouth is grazing the curves of my ear. “Don’t forget that all I’m wearing is this sweatshirt.”

I pull on her knees until they’re bent all the way, pushing my hips into the delicious heat radiating from between her legs. “Of that I’m fully aware. Are you testing my willpower or something?”

“No.” She pushes herself upright, and I’m beginning to think that I’ve offended her until she works the sweatshirt over her head and flings it across the room. All thoughts in my brain come to a halt as I watch her nipples react to the cool air from the ceiling fan.

Is this the same woman who was panicking about me seeing her naked in even the faintest candlelight? The sunlight flooding through the window next to my bed makes her skin glow with warm gold, allowing me to see everything clearly. She doesn’t even attempt to pull the sheet up that has puddled around her hips. She just looks down at me expectantly, waiting for me to make the next move.

“Devyn,” I growl, sliding my hands up her thighs. “I feel like you’re waging some internal war—one minute, you’re freaking the hell out and the next you have your hand down my pants. Until you know for sure what you’re ready for, we can take our time. Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”

Without saying a word, she flings the sheets back and crawls backward toward the foot of the bed, stopping to tug my waistband down my hips and slipping my pants down my legs until they’re free. It’s not until she’s back in bed, sitting beside me and pulling the sheet up over us, that she speaks.

“Dalton, I’ve never liked how corny these words sounded, but there’s no other way to say it. I want you to make love to me. I was scared because I had grown accustomed to being made to feel that I wasn’t good enough or pretty enough anymore. I really hate bringing Carter up right now, but I really felt like I was nothing more than a blow-up doll to him. But hell, you’ve more than proven to me that I’m worth more than sex to you. While we were in the shower, you made me feel no less than perfect. And while I fell asleep in your arms, every ounce of self-doubt was gone. I know I probably don’t deserve the way you make me feel after everything I’ve done to you, but I hope I have a lifetime to earn it.”

I shake my head and sit up, tilting her chin up to make her look at me. “You deserve a hell of a lot more than I could ever give you in a million lifetimes. Remember when I told you that you deserve anything you want, even it’s as unreachable as the stars. I’d die trying to find a way to get them for you, if you asked for them. Because it hasn’t taken me long to realize that you’re everything to me, and there’s nothing I won’t do to keep you and Simon in my life.”

A hint of a smile plays on her lips before she crushes her beautiful mouth to mine. I wrap my arms around her and fall onto my side, dragging her over to me until even a shadow doesn’t exist between us. She throws a leg over my hip, so I skim my fingertips all the way up her thigh and around her behind, grinding myself against her and causing her to moan in my mouth.

Kissing down her neck and around each breast, I explore her body, enjoying the taste of her skin and the way her body moves in reaction to my touch. When I finally graze my tongue across her hard nipple, I not at all surprised by the way she gasps and bucks and claws at my back. But, hell, it nearly does me in, especially with the bite of her fingernails dragging down one shoulder blade.

She really moves when I slide my hand all the way around her thigh and trace one finger around the slick flesh between her legs. “Dalton, please,” she pleads. “I can’t take you teasing me right now. We only have a few minutes, so make them count.”

Reaching over to the bedside table to get a condom from the drawer, I chuckle. “If it’s what you want, but I think we’re going to need to do this all over again later. By my definition, ‘making love’ can’t be done in five minutes. I’m going to need you to carve five
hours
out of your schedule to do it right.”

“You can have five
days
. Just hurry up and get over here.”

I laugh again, ripping open the foil package and sliding the latex over my rigid flesh. I roll over to face her, and even though her tone sounded so sure, her eyes are edged with fear. But I think it’s more fear of the unknown than anything.

Positioning myself over the top of her, I settle between her legs. Devyn takes a deep breath and releases it slowly, wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Don’t think. Just feel,” I breathe, leaning in to kiss her.

Every one of her taut muscles relax into me as the kiss deepens, and it only takes a few seconds before she’s pawing at my back and has one leg hooked over my thigh. I never break the kiss, even when I reach down to guide myself into her. Slowly, deeply, deliriously.

I bury myself in her as if I never plan on coming out again, groaning when my pelvis grinds into hers. Her soft whimpers are enough to make me want to drive myself into her over and over again to recreate that little moan. But I decide to keep it slow, so I circle my hips once before painstakingly pulling back, one centimeter at a time, until only the very tip is all that’s inside her.

Devyn’s hips buck and sway as she sucks on my tongue and pulls it deeper into her mouth. And I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make me imagine her doing other things. It’s that thought that is my undoing. I can’t toy with her anymore because
I’m
the one who can’t take it.

I ease myself back into her again, a little more quickly this time, and only pause for a moment before I pull out and thrust into her again. Maybe a little harder than I had originally intended, but I swear her fingernails just broke through my skin. She’s practically panting beneath me and beyond all thought or reason.

Unable to stop, I thrust in again and again, loving how tight and warm she is. Getting more turned on every time I feel her nails in my back. Matching every moan she makes in my mouth.

I can feel the moment her insides start to quiver, and she starts meeting my thrusts in search of more, in search of the oblivion that she knows is just around the horizon. Picking up my pace, I have to break the kiss just to breathe, and she doesn’t make me sorry for it. Her moaning only gets louder, and she begins murmuring unintelligibly.

She gasps once, twice, and her eyes fly open. “Dalton, I…oh…”

“Shhh, I know. Whenever you’re ready,” I whisper. Believe me, I know exactly what she’s trying to tell me because I can feel it. The little quiver is turning into rolling swells, and I can barely keep myself from tipping over the edge.

But the moment I feel those swells turn into crashing waves, I can’t contain it anymore. She gasps out my name and a guttural moan as I feel my own blinding release. Convulsions seize me, making me lose all control of my movements, until they finally ebb and leave me fighting for oxygen.

“I think you’re right,” Devyn pants. “Five hours of that would be great.”

“Five hours with…you might…kill me,” I gasp between breaths. “But that’d be one…hell of a way to die.”

I rest my head on her shoulder, lacking the strength the keep myself up anymore. “Am I hurting you?” I ask after kissing the hollow of skin at her collarbone.

“Uh-uh,” she mumbles. “My body is too much like gelatin to feel anything anyway.”

“Well, you better find your legs because we have to get up. There’s a lot to do in a short period of time.”

“At least we got the most important thing checked off the list,” she says. I can feel her abdomen vibrate with her laughter.

I nip my way down her neck and chest to swirl my tongue around the circle of dark pink flesh. “It’s not checked off yet. Not until you’ve given me five hours. But for right now…” I reach down to hold onto the condom while I slowly ease out of her. “…we have some shopping to do really quick before Simon gets home in…about an hour. I’m going to rinse off in the shower, and I’ll be ready in about five minutes.”

“Okay,” she pouts. “I wouldn’t mind cleaning myself up a little either. Mind if I hop in after you?”

“Like you even have to ask.” I roll off the bed, slip the condom off, and toss it in the trash before walking toward the bathroom. I pause and grin without even looking back. “You’re staring at my ass, aren’t you?”

“It’s only fair. You got a good look at mine earlier,” she says matter-of-factly without a trace of apology.

That woman. She’s going to keep me on my toes, for sure.

By the time I’m finished rinsing off, Devyn is slipping into the shower behind me with all of her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. But I’m guessing she doesn’t want me to stick around, judging by the way she practically shoves me out.

Probably for the best or we may never leave the house.

After throwing on some clothes, I pick Devyn’s jeans and panties up out of the floor and find the sweatshirt she had flung across the room, so I could lay it all out on the bed for her. I can’t remember the last time I had my cell phone, so I walk around the kitchen and living room before remembering I’d left it in the bathroom on the dock.

I hear the water shut off right as there’s a knock at the door, so I make my way to the front door, wondering if Sawyer came back by.

But the sympathetic smiles of Stan and Ella greet me before I can get the door all the way open.

“I tried to call, but you didn’t answer,” Ella says, pushing through the door with an arm load of groceries. Stan follows behind her with another bag. “We picked up a few things for you on the way over, in case you don’t have time to get to the store in all the madness over the next few days. Do you have music playing?”

Apparently, I do. I can hear the bluesy ripples of John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” echoing from my bathroom, so I guess Devyn decided to turn it on.

“Yeah, I—”

“I thought you were going to keep her here, so I we could meet her,” Ella interrupts, shoving a gallon of milk into my fridge. “I was a little disappointed to only see your car here.”

Ella starts to face me, but she does a double-take when her gaze travels past my laundry room.

Stan turns to see what she’s looking at and he grins, slapping me on the back and leaning over to whisper to me. “Typically a tie hanging from the front door works better.”

Before Ella can come up with some good quip about the bra drying on the doorknob—seemed like a good idea at the time—Devyn appears in my bedroom door…in only a towel.

“Hey, do you have any…ahh!” She squeals and darts back into my room, slamming the door closed.

“Aww, Dalton, she’s adorable!” Ella gushes but then lowers her voice. “I didn’t know you two were
that
close, though. Good for you.”

I roll my eyes and turn to Stan. “Please control your wife while I go peel Devyn from the ceiling.”

“Yeah, well, good luck to the both of us,” Stan jokes as I retreat to my room.

But I can’t enter…because she locked it.

“Dev…” I knock softly. “Open up.”

The knob rattles and the door cracks open, so I slip inside to find her just on the other side. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get the chance to warn you.”

Her cheeks are ten different shades of red. “Please just tell me my ass wasn’t showing. These towels aren’t really that big.”

“I promise it wasn’t, but don’t freak out. It’s just Ella and Stan from the clinic. I swear to you that there’s nothing they haven’t seen before. They’re like parents to me, and Ella is absolutely dying to meet you.” I reach out to brush a strand of hair off her forehead.

Devyn smacks a hand over her eyes. “Oh, God. They’re going to know that we’ve been…intimate.”

I laugh and pull her hand down, jerking her over to me. “They know
everything
about me, so they won’t think anything of it, I swear it. If I walked out there and told Ella about this afternoon, she’d probably get her pompoms out and cheer for us. Come on, it’s not like you’re sixteen.”

“Well,
my
parents would
not
be cool about it. At all. Regardless of my age. So let’s keep it quiet with them, okay?”

I plant a swift, chaste kiss on her forehead. “You have nothing to worry about there. Now get some clothes on and get your sweet ass out there before Ella storms the room and introduces herself.”

Devyn pokes her tongue out at me, but she can’t contain the emerging smile. “Fine. But we’ll have to leave before too much longer to get Simon.”

“Don’t worry,” I say, opening the door. “We’ll get there in time, and we’ll just take him with us shopping.”

“M’kay.” She walks back toward the bathroom but drops the towel halfway and peeks over her shoulder at me with the most devious of grins.

“
Now
your ass is showing, and I’m not complaining.”

Once she disappears around into the other room, I shake my head and head back into the kitchen, where Stan and Ella are still putting groceries away.

“I thought you bought a
few
things. Not enough for two weeks.” I reach into a grocery bag and pull out a container of deep indigo blueberries, and instead of putting them away, I pop a handful into my mouth.

“Oh hush, you’ll be glad we did, especially now that you have another person around the house to feed. No,
two
more people. How long has it been since you’ve even graced the doors of a supermarket? I haven’t seen cabinets this bare since the first time I went to Stan’s college apartment.”

I shrug. “I don’t keep much around because I’m not here much. Of that you should be well aware.”

“Lay off the kid, El. I’ve never known him to go hungry, so he’s doin’ fine.” Stan squeezes her shoulders and turns to me. “So how’s Sawyer holding up?”

“Like shit. But he’s okay. He came by a little while ago to let me know that the wedding is still on, so Devyn and I have to get out and pick Simon up by four, go shopping to find her a dress to wear, and be at rehearsal at six.”