“I do.” Her words were barely more than a breath.
Mitch backed her up until her knees hit the bed and then pulled her pants and panties down as she lay back on it. In seconds, he discarded the rest of his clothes, too, and Paige’s mouth went suddenly dry. She did not have a gadget that would substitute for this.
She thought, when she heard the crinkle of a condom packet near the pillow, that Mitch was ready, but he wasn’t done touching her yet. He teased her mercilessly, his mouth alternating between her lips and her breasts while his hand moved between her legs.
Paige’s fingers dug into the muscles of his back and then she reached between them and took him in hand. When he sucked in a harsh breath, she smiled and whispered, “I think you like that.”
“I know I like that.”
It wasn’t until after he made her come with his hand and his mouth that she heard the crinkle of foil again. Breathless and with her heart still hammering in her chest, she waited for him to move between her legs.
Mitch paused for a few seconds, his blue eyes crinkling a little as he smiled. “You are so beautiful.”
“You make me feel beautiful.”
“I’m glad. Now let’s see what else I can make you feel.”
It was delicious, the slow way he slid into her. She lifted her hips as he moved in an easy rhythm, urging him deeper. Coherent words would have escaped her even if she’d wanted to speak as she focused on the sensation of being filled, the friction, the way the muscles of Mitch’s back rippled under her hands.
His pace quickened and he hooked his hands under her knees. Each stroke came faster and went deeper and she arched her back as the orgasm shook her. She heard him groan, felt him pulsing inside her, and then he dropped her knees and grabbed her shoulders, pushing deep as the last tremors shook them both.
When he laid his head on her chest, his ragged breath blowing hot across her breast, she ran her fingers through his hair, stroking him. After a while their breathing slowed back to normal, as did her pulse.
Mitch rolled off her, swore and lunged back across her. “Almost fell off the bed.”
He tried again, rolling more slowly as she moved over against the wall. Foil crinkled again for a second, and then he lay back down, pulling her close.
“You’re glowing,” he murmured against her neck.
“And basking. Definitely basking.”
“My feet are hanging off the end of the bed.”
She laughed and opened her eyes. “Move up so your head’s almost against the headboard.”
“I’m afraid to move. I might fall on the floor.”
He hadn’t been afraid to move a few minutes ago. “You’ve had sex in cars and on couches and in a canoe, but you can’t handle a twin bed?”
“I did not have sex in a canoe.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
He snorted. “I know what you heard. I’ve heard it, too, but there was no sex. There was making out, but that’s it.”
She wondered how many of the other stories about him were embellished or even outright lies, but she was too warm and fuzzy from the basking to open that conversation.
For now she was content to lay her head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.
*
It wasn’t even nine-thirty and Mitch was already sliding out of a woman’s bed. That was a new one for him, but he knew Paige got up before the crack of dawn, was on her feet most of the day and needed the sleep. Unfortunately, the bed was at most half the size he was used to and it moved more than he anticipated.
Paige opened her eyes and gave him a sleepy smile that made him want to crawl back in beside her. Big mistake, he told himself. Over the years he’d learned that a woman’s spending the whole night and waking up beside him changed her outlook from harmless fun to I could get used to this. “Are you leaving?”
“If I leave now, the argument can still be made I was helping you with the sink and dinner ran late. If the bike’s still here in the morning, all bets are off.”
“Do you really think we’ll keep this a secret?”
She’d been in Whitford long enough to know it was already not a secret and hadn’t been since he’d parked his bike in the diner lot without going into the diner. “Probably not, but at least you’ll still have deniability if you want it.”
“Will you be in for breakfast?”
Even though he knew Paige didn’t want a relationship any more than he did, the question still triggered his never commit rule. “Not sure. Depends on what’s going on at the lodge.”