After that, we didn’t speak a word for a long, long time.
Bauer tugged me down so he could take kiss after searing kiss. His hands swept up my back, and my shirt disappeared. Mine did the same with his.
We managed gasping, broken sounds, as piece by piece, we were tangled against each other, completely bare.
He kept true to his word, using his hands and mouth quite creatively, but I was the one who pushed him over to his back, after he’d already pushed me past the brink once.
His cheekbones blazed red as he stared up at me, his hands gripping my hips so tightly that it hurt.
“Please,” he pleaded as I rolled my hips, close, closer. Fingers tightened on my skin, and through clenched teeth, he swore.
I dropped down, my hair falling around our faces like a curtain. “I’m on the pill, Bauer. I trust you,” I whispered.
Smoothly, he rolled us again until he was over top of me, covering me with so much strength and heat that I wanted to live there forever.
He whispered a curse, his expression intense and searching. He knew what I was asking of him. Knew what my trust meant.
“Claire,” he said brokenly.
“I trust you,” I repeated.
His hands gripped me tightly. “I’ve never not used one. There’s never been anyone …” His voice trailed off, and inside, I burned so bright with what I saw in his eyes.
“I know you’re here with me,” I told him, my hand landing on his heart. His wild, pounding, hammering heart.
Bauer didn’t rush, never, ever did anything except bring us both to the edge of our sanity, and the glass sharp edge of pleasure and pain, with how he made us wait.
With patience that I couldn’t fathom, and a tenderness that I hadn’t yet felt from him, Bauer made love to me. It was in every sweep of his hands over my body. Every roll of his hips, every second he held my gaze with his own and refused to look away.
The way he moved inside me was slow, slow, slow, and his control made the burst of pleasure that much better when it finally came. Movements became faster and harder after that, his control fraying as I clutched his sweat-damp back. It was my name he shouted when the dam broke for him. A second wave crested slowly for me when it did, and I gasped for breath when it warmed me head to toe.
I had to fight not to tell him I was falling in love with him, and when he slowly came down himself, he spoke something softly into the skin of my shoulder that I couldn’t hear.
It was easy to imagine that he was murmuring secrets into my skin that I was keeping tight inside me as well.
Maybe because we both knew what waited for us when we got back to reality, and that we were hardly at a place to make declarations of love after only a few days.
But for the rest of the night, I felt the truth of it in the way he touched me, like I was something he treasured, something he wanted, something he’d protect.
By the time we finally lapsed into sleep, me curled tightly in his arms, I knew I felt the same way about Bauer Davis. But it still didn’t mean I was ready for the sun to come up and reality to intrude because after that happened … I couldn’t bear to think about what might come next.
CLAIRE
We sat in the Jeep and stared at Scotty’s cabin. The snow had started melting, coming off the sharp edge of the A-line roof in a steady stream of water. There was no hiding anymore, no ignoring reality, no more excuses to stay.
Plus, we’d just about cleaned Scotty out of food. So, unless we wanted to start eating Agnes’s really expensive cat food, it was time to face the music anyway.
“Well,” he said quietly and glanced in my direction. “Shall we?”
The lump in my throat was about the size of Rhode Island when I tried to answer, so I just nodded instead.
He slid a hand across my thigh, fingers wrapping comfortably over the top of my leg so he could squeeze.
I’m right here.
It was so clear in my head that I could almost hear his voice.
“Why is it so hard to leave this place?” I said. I’d hardly even made the decision to speak the thought out loud, but there it was.
Bauer sighed, removed his hand, and put the Jeep in reverse, navigating through the plowed area that the truck had provided him to back up.
“Because it’s nice to hide away every once in a while.” He paused again before he pulled out of the driveway, and I caught the way his eyes lingered on the cabin in the rearview mirror. “Forget about all the other bullshit we have to deal with.”
For some reason, his answer saddened me even further. He’d woken me so sweetly with kisses all over my naked back and hands roaming until I’d been panting his name, begging him to take pity on me. He had, hands clutching mine, his body hot and hard behind me as I found release again, my sounds muffled into the mattress.
Breakfast and packing up our stuff had kept the same tone, slow and sweet, lingering kisses and caresses, until we couldn’t prolong the inevitable anymore.
It was time to go back.
My phone had been left unattended that entire last day, and when I plugged it in while packed, I had to close my eyes when the notifications started rolling in.
Between Paige and Lia and Logan, my phone was blowing up with texts about when I’d be home. But still, I turned it over so I didn’t have to see. Not until I buckled myself into the Jeep and one from Logan had me caving.
Logan: I SWEAR, CLAIRE, if you don’t answer one of us soon, I’m calling EVERY POLICE OFFICER I KNOW, and dispatching them.
Me: I’m FINE! Sorry. Sorry. Spotty service, haven’t been checking my phone.
Logan: Not amused, kid, not amused. Paige is ready to castrate this guy for kidnapping you.
Me: Bauer is hardly at fault for the snowstorm. I’m fine, and I’m on my way home, so calm down, please. Isabel knew I was fine. We texted the other night.
Logan: YEAH, and I’m still trying to permanently erase the image of what those texts contained when she wouldn’t tell me and Paige ripped the phone from her hands. My last attempt of pouring bleach in my eyes didn’t do it, so I refuse to talk about this anymore with you.
“Your family’s freaking, huh?” Bauer asked after he finally pulled the car onto the road.
My phone and all their belligerent texts were safely tucked into my backpack where he wouldn’t accidentally see them. The last thing Bauer needed was to know that Paige, Logan, and Lia were ready to sic federal agents on him.
“They’re … fine.” I tucked my leg up against my chest and stared happily at his profile. “But they’re on to you, bud. They know the roads were cleared yesterday.”
“On to me?” Bauer glanced at me. “Should I tell them who seduced who into staying for one more day? Because only one of us was topless and begging. With straddling involved, I might add.”
I held up my hand. “Okay, okay. I get it. No, they don’t need to know that.”
His grin was wicked and wonderful, and I wanted to eat him alive. Bauer Davis had turned me into a certifiable addict.
“But,” I said, “be prepared. If you thought Paige’s grilling was bad when you picked me up …” I whistled.
Bauer hooked a wrist over the steering wheel and draped his free hand over my thigh again. Immediately, I wove our fingers together. “They didn’t act like that with the other guys you’ve brought home?”
I laughed. “I haven’t brought anyone home. Not like … anyone serious.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I haven’t!”
He peered over the edge of his sunglasses. “I call bullshit.”
“Call whatever, it won’t make it less true.” I shrugged. “I went on a few dates in high school, so sure, they’ve met guys who picked me up, but they never turned into anything serious. And in college … I don’t know … my classes were always a higher priority than dating, so I never had anyone serious or even semi-casual who’d want to come home for family dinner.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.