Wordlessly, she reached for his hand and tugged him through the living room, down the hall and into her bedroom. With the door open, they could easily hear Hannah if she cried.
Once in the dimness of her bedroom, she turned to him. There were questions in his eyes, but he didn’t ask anything. Apparently he knew she needed more than conversation.
He put his hands on the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. She unfastened her bra. When she was naked to the waist, he bent down and drew her already tight nipple into his mouth. He used his hand to tease her other breast.
His mouth was warm. His tongue aroused her, flicking the tip over her nipple. With each deep tug, she felt herself swelling and readying. Only it wasn’t enough. She wanted more than this. She wanted all of him, on top of her, filling her, taking her. She needed him. She needed the connection.
Again, he read her mind. He reached for the button on her jeans. She undid it for him, then pushed down her clothes. Immediately he slipped his hand between her legs. She was already wet. With his thumb, he found her center. As he rubbed that sensitive knot of flesh, he pushed two fingers inside of her.
Sensations assaulted her. From his mouth at her br**sts to his hand stroking, massaging, pushing. He went in deeper, finding all the places that made her gasp. Even though she hung on to him, her legs began to tremble. She was having trouble staying upright. But she didn’t want him to stop. She didn’t want anything to distract him from the way he made her feel.
Tension filled her. Tension and pleasure and an unrelenting desire to be swept away into an ocean of satisfaction. She was getting closer and closer, so close that—
He stopped. She cried out her protest, not sure what was happening. Before she could say anything, he’d pushed her back onto the bed. She sat on the edge of the mattress, and then he was on his knees, parting her legs, replacing his thumb with his tongue. He kissed her intimately, even as he thrust his fingers back inside of her.
The feel of his tongue, his breath, the fullness was too much. She barely had time to register the pleasure when she was tumbling into her release. She cried out as her body shuddered.
The waves came again and again until she was limp. Then he was standing and fumbling with his clothes. As he sent his shirt, shoes, socks, jeans and boxers flying, she scrambled up a little higher on the bed. He joined her seconds later.
“Dakota,” he breathed, as he pushed into her.
She welcomed him, wrapping her legs around his hips and drawing him closer. Usually she closed her eyes, but this time she kept them open, watching him watch her. They were connected. She felt what he felt, knew his anticipation, experienced the tension. As he got closer, so did she. The need for more grew until there was nothing to do but come together.
She clung to him as he held on to her. The night closed around them until it seemed as if they had always been together and that they could never ever be apart.
I love you.
She thought the words but didn’t speak them. She knew once she said them, she would have to tell him the truth, and then those words would be a trap. A way to make him feel obligated.
If only.
The wish was like a prayer, sent out into the cosmos. Was having the one man she’d waited her whole life to find too much to ask?
Even as the question formed, she heard Hannah’s soft sigh and had her answer. She’d already been given so much. There was no way she could have it all.
She might not be able to keep Finn, but she would have his baby, and somehow, she would make that enough.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“YOU’RE KILLING ME,” Bill said, his voice surprisingly clear considering he was twelve hundred miles away. “We’re starting our busy season, Finn. You’ve got to get back here or you’ve got to cut me loose.”
“I know,” Finn said, clutching the cell phone. “Just give me another week.”
“To do what? You said the show was over. That your brothers were done with it. What more is there to do in that damn town?”
An excellent question, Finn thought. He should be jumping on the first plane back to Alaska. And he wasn’t. He kept having this feeling that there was more to do here.
“It’s that woman, isn’t it?”
“Dakota? Some of it is her.” He hadn’t meant to get involved. He didn’t want to get close to anyone. But there was something about her. Something that appealed to him. Walking away was going to be harder than he’d expected.
“Are you thinking about staying?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure of anything. Look, Bill, I know this is unfair. I know you’re working your ass off. Just give me a week. I’ll have an answer then.”
His friend sighed. “Fine. A week. But no longer. And you are going to seriously owe me.”
“I know. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”
Bill chuckled. “Like I believe that. Talk to you in a week. If you don’t call me, I’m selling your half of the business to the first person who offers me a nickel.”