She smiled softly then, but the warmth never reached her eyes. “If only everyone saw what you see.”
He didn’t have words for her, no matter how bad he wanted them. Some people were assholes. Her parents fell into that category, so did his father, a man he hadn’t seen since he’d walked out on them. If Darryl knew anything, he knew he hated that selfish pricks made this woman feel anything but loved. Desperately wanting to fill that void, he leaned in and waited for her lips to part in invitation before he sealed his mouth against hers. She moaned, moving closer, her arms wrapping around his neck. He gathered her then and laid her out on the rug in front of the crackling fire. “Do you know what I do know about you?”
“What’s that?” she asked, her soft eyes on his. Eyes that if he looked deep enough had changed from the time he’d known her as a teenager. But eyes that still spoke to him like they had all those years ago. He liked the soul in them. Christ, that soul was so damn bright, she shined. He sealed his mouth across hers to prove a point, kissing her, hard and demanding, unable to stop the way his body yearned to be near hers. When he leaned away, he stated, “I know how when I kiss you like this, your cheeks get pink and your eyes appear to turn darker.” He dropped his mouth to her neck and slid his tongue up its length, and she wiggled under him causing him to smile. “And I know how much you like that spot right there.”
“Darryl.” She gasped, reaching for his shirt. He helped her remove it over his head, then he kissed her neck again, inhaling the sugary aroma that drove him to near madness. Overwhelmed by the need to make her feel something good, he pushed up her shirt, placing butterfly kisses along her sides and her stomach until he pulled her shirt off then quickly unhooked her bra, freeing her completely. He paid attention to her cues, loving how she arched her back every time he sucked on a nipple, urged on by the soft moans she gave. He continued to kiss his way down her body until he flicked open her jeans. She lifted her hips as he pulled them and her panties down over her legs until he had her bared, completely for him. He slid his hand up her thigh as he opened the button of his jeans, then he paused only momentarily while he shed the rest of his clothing, exposing his hard cock.
He stroked himself, feeling the urgency running through him. “And I know what you want most of all right now, don’t I?”
“You,” she rasped, her hair a beautiful blanket beneath her head.
The flames flickered golden light across her taut nipples and round breasts. He stroked his hand across her nipple then squeezed her breast before running his hand down the center of her chest.
“Yeah, and goddamn it, Penelope, do I want you too.” He kissed her, hard, demanding, asking for so much because he knew she’d give it to him. His fingers glided across the warmth of her thigh to her buttock where he squeezed her cheek, grinding his hard length against her sex.
But tonight, he wanted all of her. For himself. To feel her. To taste her. He wanted to memorize every inch of her, so he didn’t forget her when she was gone. He wanted to give her something that apparently no one had given her in the last ten years. Attention. He wanted to make her the center of his world.
Overwhelmed by her, he began kissing her neck, loving how she squirmed with every touch. He kissed down her stomach, slowly looking up at her, finding her chest rising and falling with her quick breaths, her chin pointed up to the ceiling. When he settled between her thighs, he lifted her legs onto his shoulders. He drew in her musky scent before he slid the flat of his tongue across the smooth wet flesh. “I won’t forget the way you taste,” he told her, watching her as she arched her back.
He played right there, with gentle strokes, and sometimes firmer touches, learning her likes and dislikes. Until he had every part of her read, then he sucked on her clit and she lifted her hips in invitation. He slid a finger inside her and then another, and then in rhythm with his tongue, he worked her pleasure, reading every move, following the flow of her body, until she showed him how to get her there.
And damn did he get her there.
She came against his mouth with a beautiful shudder and a perfect moan.
While she lay there, a boneless, sexy woman, he sheathed himself with a condom from his wallet. As she began to open her eyes, he moved his body atop hers, poised at her entrance. He kissed her, bringing heat back into her lithe body. The addictive heat he’d discovered between them, a heat he’
d unknowingly been chasing since the night his lips met hers. She wiggled, bringing him deeper inside her, and his mouth froze on hers. He lifted himself up on his forearms, staring into the depths of her eyes.
That’s where he wanted to look. Right there. In the eyes of the woman, who as a girl made herself unforgettable. And made him act different than he’d acted before. The woman who had him thinking about her for years after she’d left.
He thrust hard to claim her. Her hands came to his flexed biceps. Her moans drifting around him, her pretty face, her mouth forming a perfect O, her widening eyes, it all brought him more pleasure than he thought he could endure.
Every minute seemed hotter. Every thrust harder. Faster.
Soon the intensity became too much. He strained to hold onto his control with each hard, fast thrust, getting them both there, but when her climax hit, her inner walls strangling his shaft, her loud screams filling his ears, his pleasure hit with no warning. He thrust again, emptying himself with a low groan that left him dropping his weight onto her.
When he finally had the strength to move off her, he withdrew his softening cock, rolling onto his back, and tucked her against his chest. The crackling fire and his own racing heart were all he heard when she finally wiggled against him, getting closer and more comfortable.
His mind slowly cleared, and with it came a thought he hadn’t really remembered until right now. “I wished for you to come back, you know.”
She lifted her head, her hair unruly, her lips puffy. “You did?”
He nodded, fixing her hair with a soft laugh. “After you left, we went to this wishing well with the camp. I tossed a penny in, and you were what I wished for.” He paused, knowing he was throwing a lot out there with this statement. “And you came back.”
“Ten years later,” she said, placing her head back onto his shoulder.
He slid his hand down her side, resting his touch on the warmth of her hip. “Ten years later is better than never.”
A long pause followed, a heavy kind of silence between them. Until Penelope broke it. “If we’re admitting truths here, after my parents told me they were getting divorced, when things were bad, like, really, really bad, I wrote a letter to you.”
He tucked a finger under her chin, lifting her gaze to his, needing to see her eyes. “You did?”
“I know, totally lame,” she said with a laugh. “But I was still seventeen years old, and we did stuff like that.”
Now this interested him. “What did the letter say?”
“Just that I wanted you to come and get me and bring me back to River Rock.” She gave him a cute smile. “Silly, right?”