Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) (18 page)

He held back his smirk. “But are you sure?”

She shrieked and dove in to bite his neck and his earlobe. In a second she was on top of him, straddling his hips. She pulled off her open shirt and reached behind her to unhook her bra. That followed her shirt to the floor, and with a smoldering glance that had him ready to drool, she guided his hands to her breasts.

“Do you need me to tell you what to do next, or are you going to get on with this promise to strip me down and touch me all over?”

“I…ah…I think I can handle it from here.” He knew exactly what to do, and from here on in it would be nothing but green lights.

* * * *

Bailey’s mind blanked the moment Matt flipped her onto her back. She’d pushed all her worries to a far corner of her brain and decided to let her body call the shots tonight. Not a single coherent word left her lips for the next half hour. All she did was sigh when Matt pulled her shoes off and slid her jeans down her legs. She moaned when he explored beneath her sexy pink panties and arched her back to lift her hips off the bed so he could take those off too.

She bit her lip when she sloughed off his jeans and T-shirt and freed his erection, and she licked her lips while he put on a condom and settled his perfectly toned body over hers.

“Oh, Matt…oh, God…” She gasped when he thrust inside her for the first time. Taking his length sent a shock wave through her too-long-unused body. God, how she’d missed this—not just sex but intimacy. Lying in bed, connected to someone, feeling another heartbeat beneath her fingers, hearing someone else’s breath in her ears…the sensations overwhelmed her to the point that she could barely breathe.

“Are you all right?” he whispered, his voice coarse with emotion as he held himself still. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, no…oh…” She dug her nails into his back and wrapped her legs around him. “I don’t ever want to let go. You feel so good…”

He made a sound that told her she did too. And when he began to move, her world tilted. She hadn’t even imagined this kind of pleasure in over a year.
God, it’s been so long! Do I even remember how to do this?

“I’m a little rusty…” she said, avoiding his gaze for a second. “I may not be…oh…”

“No rust there,” he said with his lips against her throat. He kissed and nipped and rocked them together in a rhythm that had her panting his name. “You know what to do…you know how to move. Bailey, you’re perfect.”

She clutched at him, senseless with need. Every muscle in her body tightened, winding up higher and higher as her orgasm built. “Matt…Matt…please…”

“Please what? You don’t want me to finish too soon, do you?” He wrapped his arms around her, and together they rolled until she was on top. The new angle created a different sensation, filling her until she thought she’d burst. “Move your hips…” He guided her, slowly at first, then increasing speed until she couldn’t think, could barely see.

Beneath her, he let out a sharp yell, and his muscles went hard as rock. She fell across his chest, lost in her own climax and completely sated. Together they lay panting for so long, she had to wonder if time had stopped.

“If that’s you rusty, I don’t think I could survive you after you got back on your game,” he said finally.

“No worries. I died and went to heaven. I’m done.” She sighed and slithered off of him to lie beside him.

He looked worried. “You mean just once, and that’s it?”

She nodded, trying to maintain a serious face. “Let’s face it, there’s no way we can top that. Why even try?”

“Oh…baby, I can top that. You wait and see.”

And he did.

“You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Matt said before running his lips down the side of Bailey’s throat. She stood at his kitchen counter, piling cold cuts onto a sandwich roll. She wore nothing but his white button-down shirt, which just about covered her perfect ass. The shirt was hers now. He’d decided she would have to wear it every time she came to his apartment, assuming he ever let her leave.

She topped the sandwich and leaned back in his embrace, wrapping her arms around his where they circled her waist. “You’re talking to the sandwich, aren’t you?”

Chuckling, he reached around her for the food. “Uh-huh… Come here, gorgeous…I’m going to bite you so hard…”

She smacked his hand. “This sexy sandwich is mine. Get your own.”

“Fine. I’ll have you, then.”

She screamed when he bit her shoulder, and struggled seductively while he pulled the shirt aside to take a bigger bite. “Ow…all right. If you’re ravenous, have the sandwich.”

“Too late. You taste better.” He spun her around, pushed her against the kitchen counter, and kissed her breathless. If he never ate again, that would be fine, as long as he had her to nibble on.

“If we’re going to do again what we did before, we need nourishment.” She maneuvered around in the small space he allotted her and sliced the sandwich in two with a kitchen knife. “Half and half for now. Later we should go get some protein shakes, vitamins, maybe B12 shots.”

He helped himself to half the sandwich. “Are you trying to tell me I wore you out?”

“I told you, it’s been a while for me. That kind of sustained aerobic activity takes a lot out of a girl.”

They stood facing each other, nibbling their half sandwiches, her in his shirt, him in his jeans and nothing else. Nothing had ever felt more natural and perfect to him. This was how he wanted every night to be. “I was taking it easy in there…you’re going to have to build up some resistance so you can keep up.”

She feigned a long-suffering sigh. “You mean like working out?”

“I’m afraid so. Push-ups…squats…free weights.”

“All that before sex?”

“No. During.” He smacked her sweet butt. “Endurance, sweetheart, that’s the name of the game around here.”

She rolled her eyes. “Good Lord. Can’t I just lie there and let you do whatever you want to me?”

His body responded to that suggestion, and he let out a low groan. “That works for me. Let’s start now.” He took her sandwich from her and set it on the counter.

She grabbed it back. “After dinner. I’m still starving.”

“Women. Give them a sandwich and that’s all they want.” He wrapped his arms around her again and nuzzled her neck. “All kidding aside, my sumptuous little strumpet…are you good with all of this? We moved pretty fast tonight.”

She met his gaze, eyes sparkling. “I’m actually shocked by how okay I am with all this. I was afraid I might regret it afterward.”

“Now you tell me?”

“But I don’t. Not for a second. I needed this. I’m done acting like what happened between me and Dan was my fault somehow and that I have to relearn how to live because of it. I want you, Matt. Whatever this is between us…I’m in. As long as we’re going to be honest with each other, one hundred percent, then I’m not afraid of anything.”

He kissed her. “You know you don’t have to worry about me lying or cheating on you. That’s not me. If we’re together,
we’re
together. No one else is in the middle of that.”

She reached up to run her thumb over his lower lip. “Then I’m definitely okay with all this.”

* * * *

Bailey wished she could have stayed with Matt all night, but she couldn’t leave Barkley alone until morning, so well after midnight she had Matt drive her home. Saying good-bye at her door was the hardest thing she’d done in a long time. She’d already gotten used to the feel of his arms around her, and she wasn’t sure how well she’d sleep without him next to her. She wanted to tell him that but decided it was too soon. Despite everything she’d confessed in his kitchen, there was still some lingering doubt that she was doing the right thing. She had to keep her wits about her and not lose herself in this shiny new love affair too quickly.

Once inside, she sat on the floor with Barkley, the dog’s huge head in her lap, and stroked his soft ears until he began to snore contentedly. All the while she thought of Matt and how she’d vowed to herself she would be more careful with her heart after Dan.

“You can’t fall in love with someone over a weekend,” she told the snoozing dog. Just because her heart raced every time she thought of him and just because the memories of his touch surrounded her, permeated every breath she took, didn’t mean she was in love with him. She was enamored of the idea of being in love again, of having someone.

She thought of his skillful hands on her body, and she moaned.

Barkley opened one big brown eye and lifted his head. His curious expression made her question her feelings even more. “You can’t fall in love that fast, Barks. I’m not in love…yet, but God, it would be so easy with him. I have to take it slow, at least in my head.” After parading around his apartment in nothing but his shirt, after throwing him on the bed and showing him just how much energy she still had left after their first
erotic romp, she certainly couldn’t fool herself into thinking she was taking it slow physically, but there was no reason why her head couldn’t be in one place and her body somewhere else… Well, that didn’t sound right, but the idea was clear. She would sleep with Matt…again and again and again. Hmmm. But she’d keep her brain in gear and accept the relationship for what it was. Fun for now and maybe something more in the future. No rush, no demands, no questions asked of herself or of him.

She kissed Barkley’s furry head and ruffled his fur before climbing to her feet and heading for the shower. “I’m back in the real world, Barks,” she told him as he walked in a tight circle looking for a comfortable position to go back to sleep. “No more fantasy romances for me. It’s all real from here on out.”

* * * *

“You look fantastic. Did you highlight your hair again?” Evie asked when she ran into Bailey outside the cafeteria at the newspaper Tuesday morning.

Bailey’s blush must have given her away because before she could respond, Evie grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearby ladies’ room.

“Oh, my God. Tell me everything.”

“What do you mean?” Bailey gave Evie her well-rehearsed, wide-eyed innocent stare.

Evie squinted at her. “Don’t even try that on me. You look like a woman who got herself some. I know what that look looks like, so spill. Every. Single. Sexy detail. Right now.”

Bailey broke into a schoolgirl giggle that would have mortified her if anyone but Evie had heard it, and if she hadn’t been so completely over the moon. “He took me to his place last night, and I basically told him he had no choice but to make love to me.”

Evie gasped. “You seduced him?”

Bailey smirked. “It wasn’t difficult. Don’t look so shocked.”

“Oh, I didn’t think you’d have a hard time getting a guy to have sex with you. I thought you’d have a hard time convincing
yourself
to get a guy to have sex with you. What happened to not letting things get too serious too fast?”

A twinge of guilt tickled the back of Bailey’s mind, but she ignored it and concentrated on fluffing her hair in the mirror. “Who said it’s serious?”

“So you’re not in love with him?”

Bailey braced her hands on the nearest sink and took a deep breath. “I never said that.”

“So you
are
in love with him?”

“Evie, give me a break here.
Once you see him, you’ll understand. It would be utterly impossible for me
not
to fall in love with him. He’s a freakin’ rock star, and in bed…Good Lord, I can’t even describe it. I literally had no idea what I’ve been missing all these years.”

Evie crossed her arms over her chest and met Bailey’s gaze in the mirror. “Seriously?”

Bailey put a hand over her heart. “No lie. Could this face lie? You said it yourself, you took one look at me and you knew. I’ve been well and truly taken care of in that department.”

“Well, good for you. It’s about time.”

“What do you mean? You were the one worried I’d go too fast.”

“I was worried you’d stop yourself from going anywhere because you were afraid of going too fast. You’re all grown-up. I’m not going to treat you like some teenager who doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into. You paid your dues with Dan, now it’s your turn to live a little. And you’re right. I can’t argue with the evidence.” Evie winked. “You look like a million bucks today.”

“He’s been texting me all morning. Every single time I see the message is from him I get this weird feeling in my stomach. I feel like I’m seventeen.”

“If I wasn’t completely in love with Tanner, I’d be jealous.”

“Do you want to meet him?”

“Oh, yes. I have to check this rock star out.”

“Why don’t you and Tanner come to Colette’s Saturday night? Taylor’s band is playing, and Matt wants me to hang out, but he doesn’t want to me sit alone all night if the place is really busy. You guys could keep me company until his shift is over.”

“Sounds like fun. I’ll text Tanner and let you know.”