CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bash’s house was on the same property as Anderson’s Apiary. He’d built the business small to begin, and grew it into what it was now, never dreaming it would have come this far. He was on the edge of town, off the beaten path a little, and his home was even further tucked back. There was no traffic through here, so my headlights coming down his graveled street was a dead giveaway.
He was standing in his doorway in sweatpants and a T-shirt when I got out, and by the time I stood in front of him, even my insides were shaking.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Angel?”
I shook my head. “She’s at a sleepover.”
I had no plan. No speech. No thoughts to lead with. No anything.
All I had was myself and my heart that was currently knocking around inside me like a rogue pinball on crack.
“I lied, today,” I said, the last word coming out silently. “When I said I was okay. That things were okay.” I took a deep, trembling breath and let it out slowly. “Nothing is okay without you, Bash. I miss you.”
The last three words were barely spoken before he crossed the few feet between us and lifted my mouth to his.
All my worries, my stresses, my fears dissolved in a puddle at my feet as he kissed me. Soft and tender. Harder. Softer again. And again. And again.
I melted against him right there on his front porch, languishing in the feel of his body as my hands ran up his back and his tucked me tightly against him. One came up to my face and went into my hair, angling my head so that he could kiss me deeper, longer, more thoroughly. More lovingly. I never wanted to stop. Not this moment, this night, this man. Ever. That thought rocked me and I took a deep breath.
“Bash,” I breathed.
“Sshhh,” he said against my lips. “No words.”
“But—”
“No arguing,” he said, kissing my top lip. “No endless reasons not to do this,” he said, running his tongue over my bottom lip. “I don’t care.” He kissed me softly. “Just shut up, because God, I need you.”
He gave me a slow, deep, wet kiss that curled my toes and made me sigh with more wanting than I’d ever felt in my life. No one had ever kissed me like that. Unhurried, yet so full of desire it made my head swim.
Bash lifted me off my feet as we came up for air, carrying me inside and kicking the door closed, his mouth never leaving mine. He didn’t set me down until we were in his bedroom, and by then I had his shirt off and he had my bra unhooked. It all came over my head in a lump, and he turned me around, palming my breasts as he wrapped his arms around me and dragged his mouth slowly down the side of my neck. Oh God, it was magic, his hands on my body, the addictive smell of him filling my senses. I stretched like a cat, arching my back, settling my ass against him while I reached up behind me to fill my fingers with his hair.
He made a seductive growling noise, his hands leaving my breasts to slide down my belly, pressing me back harder, teasing me with sliding below my jeans for just a moment then back out to unzip me and slide them over my hips. His hands followed them, as his mouth trailed kisses down my spine.
It was erotic and primal, concentrating on sensations without words. I turned and stepped out of my jeans, and let him kiss his way back up, unable to hold back the gasp as he ran his hands up my thighs and pressed a kiss to the tiny piece of fabric covering me.
I had barely recovered from that when I found myself lifted into his arms and placed in his bed. I opened my mouth to tell him there were things I wanted to do to him first, but he covered it with a finger, running it along my lips and looking at me with so much—oh my God, the words were bursting inside of me with that look. And my world changed.
Right then. Right there.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes as I pulled him to me and held his face in my hands as I kissed him with my unspoken words. As I tried to put every thought, every emotion, every feeling I had for him into my touch, my kiss. It physically hurt my chest as I looked into his eyes and knew. This was what it was like. The real thing. Our bodies tangled as we dove into one another, taking our time but yet needing, kissing like there was no tomorrow, caressing, touching, licking; bringing moans but no words. His pants were history as I made love to him with my mouth. My panties were tossed across the room somewhere as he tasted and sucked me to almost incoherency.
I was to the point of begging him to bury himself inside me when he did just that, groaning as he pushed deeper into me, and the feel of him stretching me to squeeze around him as he lifted my legs over his shoulders and pumped into me, harder and harder, sent me tumbling over the edge.
My whole body arched under him as the waves rocked me, and I cried his name out in ecstasy in my first broken rule of the night. He was right there with me, his fingers digging into my thighs, his eyes closed as the thunder rolled through him.
We collapsed together in a tangle of limbs and sheets, spent and so satisfied, the only thought coursing through my mind being please keep up the silence. Words ruined this the last time. I didn’t want anything to ruin the amazing, over-the-top, beautiful thing we’d just experienced.
It was as if he heard me. He lifted his head and moved a wild lock hair from my eyes; that look burning through me. We stayed like that for several long moments, both of us realizing that may be the only way to do this.
Then he ran his thumb along my cheek.
“Stay,” he said. “Stay the night.”
The impact of those simple words—from this man—it brought tears to my eyes and they blinked free, tracking back into my hair.
“Okay.”
* * *
Waking up sore and creaky, but with warm man solid against my back, his arms around me and one breast in his hand—it was something out of my fantasies.
It was real. It had happened. Bash Anderson, the perpetual bachelor who never let anyone sleep over, had asked me to stay. To make love all night, in every possible position, until we had nothing left, and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
We didn’t do the whole night in silence, obviously, but we kept it to sex and laughing banter. Only our eyes said other things, and that’s when we’d go quiet.
I tried to disentangle myself without waking him, but he stirred when I nearly fell out of the bed and had to grab the nightstand.
“You okay?” he asked sleepily, rubbing at his eyes.
“Just a little rigor mortis,” I said, wincing as I stretched. “I think you might have broken me.”
Bash chuckled. “What a way to die.” He balled up a pillow under his head and gazed at me. “What a sight to wake up to. Why are we awake, though?”
“I’m awake because I have to pee,” I said. “And it’s daylight, and non-vampires tend to move around at that time.”
“That’s assuming said non-vampires actually slept during the moonlight hours,” he said.
“And I do have to be at the diner in a couple of hours,” I said. “Nick can open, but I need to show up.”
“You need a day off,” he said.
“I’m—looking into plans for that,” I said. “Right now, I just want to enjoy having my office back to myself again.”
Bash got up and brushed his teeth, and I did the only thing I could do, which was to pop a piece of gum in my mouth so I didn’t blow fire. I found all my clothes and put them back on, waiting for the dread to hit me. Waiting for that thing that was going to kill the wonderful.
When he padded back in, barefoot, wearing the sweatpants and a fresh T-shirt, I sighed.
“What?” he said.
“You can look that hot getting out of bed,” I said. “It’s not fair.”
“You should be on my side,” he said, pulling me into his arms playfully. “You have no idea how hot you are to wake up to. And how much I want to put you back in that bed right now.” He took my hand and settled it against his rock hard dick. “Yeah,” he said. “That much.”
My thoughts went a little fuzzy as I moved my fingers along him.
“Hmmm.”
“Keep that up, and there will be no work today,” he said, his hand sliding down to my ass.
“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head free of naughty thoughts and letting go of him amongst groans of protest. “I have to go be a grown-up now. Quit teasing me.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
He kissed me before I shut my door, and I was just marveling at how well we’d managed the night and the morning without drama, without saying the things that were screaming to be said. Especially last night. Then he tapped on my window again as I went to back out.
I rolled the window down.
“You rang?”
He leaned in to drop another soft kiss on my lips, and then backed out slowly, locking eyes with me in that—
“I love you,” he said.
He touched my cheek and backed up, a small smile pulling at his lips before he turned and walked back into the house, and shut the door.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.