“Better than fine.” She gave an exaggerated purr.
“That sound alone makes me want to lose the threads.” He withdrew from her, levered himself up, then left the bed and began pulling off his boots.
Kerra stacked her hands beneath her head and watched as he undressed, admiring each part of him as it was revealed. The yummy trail that she had admired from the towel up thickened and flared around his sex, of which he could be justifiably proud. She reached out and brushed her fingers across him. The hair and flesh were wet. She gave him a meaningful look.
“About that…” He exhaled through his lips. “It was safe sex. I swear. Just unprotected.”
As she lay back, she trailed her fingertip along his hard thigh from crotch to knee. “I knew what I was doing.”
They looked deeply into each other’s eyes. Seconds ticked past. It was an ideal time to acknowledge that something important had happened.
His voice low, Trapper said, “It felt good, Kerra.”
“It did,” she whispered back.
It was simple, but, in its way, profound. He wasn’t one to make romantic declarations, and if she said anything now, it would be more than he would want to hear.
She was perilously close to letting this evolve into something that would leave her heartbroken. She was perilously close to becoming like Marianne. But she wouldn’t take back having made love to him. Not for the world.
They continued to hold each other’s gaze for a few
moments longer, then Trapper changed the mood by crawling back onto the bed and leering at the provocative display of her bared breasts. “I don’t know whether to strip you or not. I kinda like you the way you are.”
“I look shameless and slutty.”
“That’s what I meant.”
“I know,” she said, laughing. “But it’s a little uncomfortable.”
“Then I’ll strip you.” He pulled her top over her head and reached behind her to unhook her bra. When he came away with it, he held it up against the lamplight and looked through the sheer fabric. “Why bother? This thing is useless.”
“Not my choice. Carson picked it.”
He looked at her, then at the bra, then back at her. “Carson picked it?”
“When he did that shopping for us.”
“That settles it. I’m gonna kill him. Fucking pervert.” He flung the bra away, then leaned over her, wrapped his hand around her breast with the finesse of a caveman, and fastened his mouth to her nipple.
Her laughter ended on a sigh when the lashing of his tongue turned lazy. “You love this?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you love? Specifically.”
“Hmm?”
“Trapper?” She pulled his head up by his hair. “Are you listening?”
“No.”
He raised up and kissed her thoroughly but without the fervency of before. This was a tender and leisurely after-sex kiss. But it stirred her no less. And him. In the midst of it, he took her hand and moved it down, pressing her palm over his penis and rubbing the back of it until she took up the massage. She felt the heat spread through him, signifying a reawakening of the passion that had consumed them only minutes ago.
“Yes, I was listening,” he said when he ended the kiss but continued whisking his lips across hers. “Specifically, I love that your nipples stay hard.”
“They do not!”
“Most of the time.”