I blew out a breath that moved her hair and had her shifting her weight more fully into me. Her legs twitched and rubbed against mine as her body slowly stiffened and tightened with wakefulness. Her ass moved against the front of me and my cock went even harder, which I couldn’t believe was possible. I untangled my hands from her wild hair and rolled onto my back with a groan that was torn from my soul. If it was possible to die of repressed want and desire, I was going to be a dead man by the time she found her way off my mountain. Need clawed hungrily and furiously at my insides, which meant I needed to get out of this bed and put some much-needed space between us before I reverted back to my old ways, which involved me taking advantage of both the girl and the situation we were in.
I threw myself out of the bed and took a minute to stretch my arms up over my head, spine cracking. Without a doubt my hair was sticking up all over my head from the product that I hadn’t bothered to wash out the night before, but that didn’t stop Echo’s ocean-blue eyes rolling over me with an intensity I could feel. I scratched my beard and ran a hand over my chest. Her eyes tracked the motion and her legs twitched under the covers. Her tongue darted out and slicked across the full curve of her lower lip, leaving a wet trail I wanted to taste more than I wanted my next breath.
“I’m gonna jump in the shower and then see if I can scare up something for breakfast even though it’s closer to lunchtime. I bet the doc makes his way up here sometime today or tomorrow to check you out and if you’re cleared to travel, he’ll probably take you with him down the mountain and into Surrender. I want to hike out to the accident site and see if I can find your stuff that was thrown out of the car when it flipped. You’ll need your ID to get on a plane home.”
Her chest shuddered with a sigh and her eyes widened a little when I mentioned the word “home.”
She forced her way into a sitting position, the big shirt that she was swimming in falling to cover all the parts of her that were the most distracting. I liked that she wasn’t shy or insecure about the way she looked. She didn’t need to be; she was beautiful and every kind of temptation I wasn’t used to denying myself.
She rolled her shoulders and winced when her bad one lifted, but other than her eyebrows pinching together, she didn’t seem to be in too much pain. “Before you tackle that mission, do you think you could help me clean up as well?” She lifted her good arm over her head and gave herself a sniff. I could have told her she smelled just fine, like pine and snow from when she was crawling around on the ground. There was still residual blood trapped at the roots of her hair near that wound that I was sure she was ready to wash away. “I think I can stand up without falling over today. My shoulder still feels like someone is jabbing a hot poker through it, but the pain doesn’t make me want to throw up anymore. That water bottle helped.”
The idea of her naked and wet with so little space between me and her lusciously curved body made my mouth water and my cock jerk. I growled without meaning to and shook my head to clear the very X-rated and illicit thoughts circling my brain. Without thinking about how she would react, I reached down and adjusted the situation brewing in my boxer briefs. Her eyes widened and she made an audible noise low in her throat. The tension between the two of us was palpable and it was risky.
She wasn’t supposed to be here and she wasn’t supposed to know who I was, the new me or the old me. I’d given her too much because I was selfish and tired of pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I’d put her in danger at the same time I’d done my best to stop her from doing something she would regret. I wasn’t about to add myself to the list of mistakes and rash decisions she was making in order to distract herself from her grief.
I dropped my arms to my sides and dipped my chin down in reluctant agreement. It was going to be torture, but I’d survived much worse. Plus, if I got fifteen minutes in the shower to work myself over and take the edge off, I wouldn’t feel so much like an animal ready to pounce and feed on its captured prey. “Yeah, I’ll hang around and make sure you don’t drown or fall over and hit your head. I’ll stoke the fire again and get more water boiling so you can put the heating pad back on while I clean up.”
She nodded and shifted her gaze away from the prominent bulge that was in desperate need of her attention. “That works.”
I took care of all the things I told her I was going to and made my way into the minuscule bathroom. I couldn’t strip fast enough and the trickle of warm water that came out of the showerhead was hardly enough to wash away the rampant longing that was crawling all over me. It also wasn’t enough to melt away the coiled tension that spread across the span of my shoulders and along the length of my spine.
The only thing that helped was the pressure of my fist wrapped around the steel rod that was pointing up directly at my stomach. I closed my eyes and pretended it was something else tight and slick that was wrapped around my cock…pretended it was someone else.
I could see the bright blue of her eyes blazing.
I could see the elegant curve of her hips and the enticing roundness of her breasts.
I could see the long sweep of her endless legs.
I could feel the satin texture of her skin and the silken tangle of her hair.
It was so vivid and real that it didn’t take long for pleasure to unfurl and shoot up my spine. My entire body vibrated with the release and my head fell forward as the sharp lines of tension finally loosened the hold they had on my neck. I gave a deep sigh of relief and dropped my forehead to the tiles in front of me so I could get my head under the water. Now that my lust was semi in check, I needed to get my mind out from between Echo’s legs and back on the task of making sure she was healthy and whole when Thomas MacKenzie showed up to check on her.
I stepped out of the basin and wrapped a threadbare towel around my waist. I only had a couple of them on hand and I wasn’t sure if any of them were exactly clean. Back in the day, I used to wine and dine women with gourmet meals and nights spent in luxury hotels. I finally met a woman I liked, one that could matter if the situation was different, and I couldn’t even offer her a clean towel.
Shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the situation, I sent water droplets flying everywhere. I was lifting a hand to wipe away the condensation on the mirror so I could run a comb through my hair when there was a tap on the door. Leaning over, I pushed it open and was met with a red-faced and anxiously waiting Echo.
She let out a strangled-sounding gasp when the door swung open and the hand she had used to knock went to her throat. Her long lashes swept down as her eyes dropped to my still wet chest. I could feel their impact like it was touching my skin. She watched water droplets roll across my abs until they disappeared underneath the towel at my waist without blinking.
“Uhh…well, the walls are thin.” She went scarlet and jerked her gaze up to mine. “I heard the water turn off…and umm…well, when you were finished.”