Leave Me Breathless by Jodi Ellen Malpas

Author:Jodi Ellen Malpas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2019-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

RYAN

Raspberries.

It’s new on my list of favorite smells. The woods, the water, the fresh air. And now raspberries, too. She smells so good. Feels so good. I’m sure she looks good, too, but I’ll be damned if I can raise my depleted body to look at her. So I concentrate on feeling and smelling, my skin on her skin, breathing her into me like she’s life.

Her presence has woken something in me that I never knew was sleeping. It’s something exhilarating yet fear provoking. Because despite seeing the merciless wildness in her eyes, I can now see something else, too.

A lingering emptiness she’s trying to mask.

She’s hiding something from me. Keeping me close but distant. But will I push Hannah away if I demand answers? Can I risk that? This exquisite, sweet woman in my arms, no matter how peaceful she is in this moment, is carrying too much pain. I hope she finds it in herself to share her secrets with me. And I hope she lets me ease that pain. Maybe I already am.

I feel Hannah move beneath me, and I shift to give her space, grudgingly giving up my place in her neck to peek down at her. The moment our skin separates, I feel the cold.

“We should get back to the cabin.” I want her in my bed and cuddled into my side. I want her warm and safe.

“Are you going to throw me out in the morning?” she asks as I help her up, her face a picture of innocence.

“Depends if you hog the entire bed again,” I reply, my gaze dragging down her naked front. I smile at her hard nipples, and she tuts, taking her palms to cover them. What’s she doing? I smack down her hands and turn her away from me, reaching under her armpits and cupping her boobs. “Walk,” I say into her shoulder, nudging her onward.

“My dress.”

“We don’t need your dress.” We only need skin.

Hannah’s arms reach back and hold my waist as we make our way through the overgrowth back to the cabin. It’s pitch black now, but the lack of light doesn’t hamper me. I know these woods too well.

I only release Hannah once we’re inside. I throw a few logs into the fireplace, light them, and pull a blanket off the couch. “Cozy enough?” I ask when I’ve finished wrapping her up in it.

With a demure smile, she opens the blanket and steps into me, wrapping me up with her. “Yes.” Her cheek hits my chest and she sighs.

“So we’re just going to stand here all night?”

She nods, and I laugh, detaching her arms from around my back. “Go sit by the fire and warm up.” I turn her by her shoulders and send her on her way, and she traipses to the fire and lowers to the rug before it.

I head across to the kitchen and pull the fridge open, grabbing two beers and cracking the caps off, swigging mine as I head back to Hannah.

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