Chapter Eight
When he’d left the house, Blake had burned for Amanda. He’d wanted to sink inside her more than he wanted his next breath. The same could be said for him a few hours later, but the want had gotten deeper, more potent. Upon getting to know Amanda a bit better, he wanted to make her smile, to make her laugh. And to make her scream his name while she came for him—that hadn’t changed—but he couldn’t lie to himself and say that he was only here to get his rocks off. Not now. This had become something more.
It couldn’t last, and he knew that. That wasn’t going to stop him from enjoying each and every moment he had with her. He’d originally offered to get to know Amanda with only her comfort in mind. He’d thought that the waiting would kill him. As it turned out, though…he wanted the wait. He wanted to just enjoy being with Amanda for a while before he made love to her and then had to let her go.
“What are you thinking, Blake?” He’d climbed into the truck after helping Amanda into the cab, but now he sat with the keys in his hands, making no attempt start the engine as he stared at the fragile beauty beside him.
“You’re beautiful. You know that, right?”
A sweet, tempting smile flitted across her lips. “Thank you.”
“I think I’d like to kiss you now. Is that okay?”
Amanda blushed, but her eyes dropped to Blake’s lips, making him think that she wanted the kiss as much as he did, before she nodded.
Kissing Amanda was heaven. Her lips were soft and full. The way she moved them beneath his told him that she didn’t have a lot of experience with men at all. The lack of experience only made the kiss sweeter. This side of her, for now at least, was his and his alone. He groaned at the thought and gently probed with his tongue, seeking entrance to her mouth.
When she shuddered and opened for him, he thought he might lose his mind. She pressed a hand tentatively to his chest, like she wanted to touch him, to deepen the embrace, but didn’t have the experience to know how to proceed. He threaded his hands gently through her hair. It was as silky as he’d imagined it would be.
Eventually, Amanda pulled back and drew in a shaky breath. “That was…wow.”
Blake couldn’t agree more, but he didn’t say so. It was, he was fairly sure, her first real kiss. So why was he the one who felt like something life altering had just taken place?
“Let’s get you home, Amanda.”
******
If Blake had realized who was standing in the driveway, he never would have pulled into it. He was fairly sure that he was about to give in to the urge to punch a man of god right in his righteous nose.
“Get away from her, you devil bastard!”
Amanda cracked her window and said in a voice that was shaking with anger, “Daddy, please…”
“Shut up. Don’t even speak to me until you’re done acting like a whore.”
Blake saw red. “I’m going to have to leave, Amanda. If we leave this truck, I’m not sure—”
A rock bounced off the hood of his truck, followed by a brick that had lined the flower bed.
“Get away from her, you filthy sinner. Give me back my daughter so that I can purge the demons from her immortal soul!”
“My god, he’s lost it…”
Blake had been trying to let Amanda make a decision so that she could feel like she had some control over the situation, but he had to put the truck in reverse and get out of this driveway before he put it in drive and ran over an asshole minister instead.
Amanda’s phone rang, and she listened for a second before thanking someone shakily and hanging up. He pulled out of her drive and started toward the main road through town with no specific destination in mind.
“Aimee called the police, but she said she’s going to give him a warning, a chance to calm down and leave before they show up. I’m so sorry Blake. I honestly didn’t think he cared enough to react this way.”
Blake couldn’t believe she was apologizing for that bastard’s actions. With a father like that it was no wonder she’d gone to such lengths to hurt him, or that she had self-esteem so low that she’d decided it was perfectly okay to sell herself to the highest bidder. He quit the train of thought before he decided to go back and run her father over after all.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for, sweetheart. I can understand that he’s upset given what he probably thinks happened tonight, but he had no right to act that way towards you. None at all.”
“I don’t know…what I did really humiliated him.”
“That shouldn’t be the most important thing on his mind in this scenario. You should be…never mind. Just tell me what I can do to make the rest of this day easier for you. You have to be exhausted.”
He took her hand, hoping to comfort her with the simple touch.
“Well, I can’t go home, and I really can’t afford a hotel…not until I cash your check anyway. Would you mind too terribly if we went back to your place? If you don’t want me in the house, I could sleep in the barn or something.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort, Amanda. You’re welcome in the house. And I don’t want you to feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to tonight. I have plenty of spare bedrooms, and you can have your pick of them.”
“Thank you, Blake. I appreciate this, so much.”
******
He’d barely closed and locked the front door behind them when Amanda launched herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to his as their lips met. All the passion he’d restrained earlier came rushing back to him. They were in his house, alone. Lust and possessive affection crowded all logic from his mind.
He growled low in his throat and deepened the kiss before sweeping Amanda off her feet to carry her to the couch. She immediately straddled him once they were seated, and he could feel the heat of her core against him. It nearly drove him mad with wanting.
He kissed her again, deep and slow, a kiss of complete possession, before he trailed his lips to Amanda’s neck. She shuddered in reaction to his touch. He smiled. She was so damn responsive. He reached to cup her breast through the material of her shirt. Her nipple was hardened with lust and she started instinctively moving her hips, searching for the fulfillment her body craved. It was almost enough to make him cum on the spot.
He wanted her, more than he’d wanted anyone ever before. Some remnant of sense reminded him that this was her first time, and he was about to take her on his couch like some randy teenager only minutes after her father had berated her. He slowed the kisses, but Amanda would have none of it. Finally, he had to ease her off him and stand, though pushing her away was going against his every instinct.
She looked up at him, her lips swollen from his kisses and her eyes heavy with lust, and he said words that he was pretty sure he would regret when he went to bed horny and alone later. Hell, he was cursing himself for fifteen kinds of fool and the words hadn’t even left his mouth yet.
“I want you, Amanda, but not like this.” Yep. He felt just as much like an idiot as he’d thought he would. More even. She just looked at him, her expression confused and slightly hurt.
“I want your first time to be perfect, special. I don’t want it to be after a crappy, stressful day. We have plenty of time. Let’s just take it slow, take a little more time to get to know each other.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay, Blake.”
She started to fall apart then. Not an explosive meltdown, but silent tears that made him feel like he’d move mountains to keep them from falling down her face. He knew then that he’d made the right decision in taking things slow. She’d been using what was between them to distract herself from pain, not to savor and enjoy her first time with a man.
He silently held his arms out and she came to him. Nothing had ever felt so right as holding her while she cried. He was in trouble, in deep. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to care enough to fight it.