He pulled back, eyes wild. “Aspen,” he croaked.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please, don’t take it back.” I didn’t think I could handle it if he stole this kiss from me.
“Never.” The single word was a guttural oath. His hands framed my face. “I’m not any good at this kind of thing. People. Emotions.”
I looked up into those blue depths. “Seems like you’re doing a pretty good job to me.”
I wanted him to laugh, forget he’d pulled away, and lose himself in me again. Instead, he searched. Those eyes of his probed and tested. “I don’t want to hurt you. I wouldn’t mean to, but I could.”
My hands fisted in his shirt. “Yes, you’ll hurt me. Just like I’ll hurt you. But if we care about each other, we’ll mend it. We’ll learn to do better the next time.”
A muscle in his cheek fluttered like crazy. As if a silent war raged within him that I would never get to see.
I pressed a hand against his chest, over his heart. “No one has ever made me feel as safe as you.”
Roan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. His hand trailed down, his thumb tracing the column of my neck. “Sometimes, I think you hypnotized me. Can’t stop thinking about you. Even when I should be thinking about anything else.”
Heat flared, hope rising along with it.
“I used to watch you.”
My brows pulled together at that.
Roan flicked his chin toward the mountainside covered in trees. “My cabin’s up that way. Looks out over this farm. Even before I met you, I’d sit on my balcony and watch the red-haired woman with her daughter. Always so happy. So patient. So full of life. I thought you couldn’t be real.”
His thumb trailed lower, then he pressed a hand over my heart. “But here you are, this living, breathing thing. A walking temptation.”
“Give in,” I whispered.
Roan’s eyes sparked. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Then show me.”
He moved so fast I didn’t see it coming. One second, I was on the porch swing. The next, I was in Roan’s arms. My legs went around his waist on instinct as he strode into the house.
The door slammed behind us, and Chauncey lifted his head from his dog bed in question.
“Lock,” I breathed.
Roan took one step backward, flipping the top deadbolt, and then he was moving again. His long strides ate up the space. He didn’t kiss me as he moved, but his gaze was like a physical caress, stroking and teasing.
He made it to my bedroom in a matter of seconds, shutting the door behind us. He lowered me to the floor so slowly it was almost painful. My core pressed against the long, thick ridge in his pants, and I almost whimpered.
“Need you to be sure.”
I looked up into his face, infusing every bit of certainty I could into my voice. “I’m sure.”
Roan stroked his thumb across my pulse point. “Need control.”
I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. “Okay.”
That thumb trailed over my chest and down my sternum. His fingers twisted in the hem of my sweatshirt. “Arms up.”
There was a grit to his voice, a need, and it had heat pooling between my thighs. I obeyed.
Roan slowly peeled my sweatshirt off and tossed it to the floor, leaving me in my sleep camisole. His eyes flared as he drank me in. “So pretty.”
I let my arms slowly fall, soaking in Roan’s stare.
His finger traced my nipple through the delicate fabric. It peaked and tightened. “Fuck. Look at that response. So beautiful. So perfect.”
My heart sped up as need pulsed low.
“Can I have this?” Roan asked, his fingers toying with the strap of the tank top.
I nodded.
“Words, Tender Heart. I need the words.”
“Yes,” I breathed.
The camisole was gone in a flash, joining my discarded sweatshirt on the floor.
Roan stepped back, towering over me and taking in every inch of my bare skin. He stilled in front of me, looking at the scar that ran along my collarbone and down my side. I fought the urge to turn and cover myself, but before I could, Roan bent.
His lips trailed across the raised flesh. “I’d do anything to take away this pain.”
“Roan.” His name was a hoarse whisper.
“Anything,” he echoed.
Tears stung my eyes as Roan’s fingers followed his lips. He wasn’t scared of my damage. It didn’t make him flinch. He took me exactly as I was.
He kept moving, circling me, stopping behind me, and tracing a finger down my spine. “Smoother than I ever could’ve dreamed.”