She stepped forward, smile tremulous. “Good.”
His arms came around her hard. She held on tightly, too.
“Will you go up to my bedroom?” he asked, voice rough. “Let me do a last check down here.”
“Okay.” She let go, feeling his equal reluctance as he released her. “Hurry.”
Robin dashed upstairs, pausing only to release the spring-loaded gate at the top and reattach it when she was on the other side. Along with corralling Jacob, it would slow down an intruder.
She rushed to the bathroom to brush her teeth before tiptoeing into her bedroom to check on Jacob. Sometimes he curled into a tight ball to sleep; other times, like now, he sprawled in a careless way that made it easy to picture the future when her little boy would be taller than her, with a deep voice and whiskers.
She cocked her head. Had she heard a bell tinkling? That was strange. Robin tugged Jacob’s covers higher and then stepped out of the bedroom to find Seth coming down the hall toward her, his eyes locked in on hers.
Her mouth dried. Just like that, she was a woman, not a mother. His purposeful stride was pure male, predatory in a good way.
He glanced past her into the guest room. “Asleep?” he murmured.
She nodded. “I heard something.”
He nudged her a few steps down the hall and into his bedroom, dominated by a king-size bed. “I tied bells to doorknobs downstairs and to both child gates.”
“You set up the one at the bottom, too?”
“I did.” His voice was as intense as his eyes. “I want you to feel safe.”
“To be able to think about nothing but you.”
“Yes.”
“I can do that,” she whispered, and he kissed her, possessive, greedy...and tender.
Chapter Thirteen
Seth steered her to his bed, where he turned on a lamp. Robin was briefly jarred from the mood when he reached behind his back and produced a handgun that he set on the bedside stand.
Then, instead of kissing her, he began slowly undressing her. After pulling her shirt off over her head, he unhooked her bra. Robin wriggled her shoulders so the straps slid off and the bra dropped to her feet. He stopped for a long moment, his eyes heated as he looked. Matching desire lit coals low in her belly.
She wanted to see him, too. He stood still while she unbuttoned his shirt, but took over to shrug out of it and toss it away. He was beautiful with those wide shoulders and powerful chest, defined muscles that tightened and jerked when she splayed her hands on him and explored. Finding the circle of puckered skin on his side below his ribs, she paused for a brief moment of combined fear and thankfulness that he’d survived. He lasted a whole minute or two, then said, “I want you naked.”
They stripped in record time, her able to kick off her slip-ons, Seth having to kneel to untie his boots. She heard a thud when one hit a wall. While he was unbuttoning his trousers, Robin pulled back the covers and crawled onto the bed.
In seconds, he was with her, over her. Kissing her with such tenderness, her bones seemed to dissolve. At last he kissed his way down her throat, rubbed a scratchy cheek on her chest and then reared up to take her nipple into his mouth. She cried out, whimpering when she felt the rhythmic pull all the way to her toes. She kneaded what she could reach of his back. Weight on his elbow, he switched to the other breast.
By the time he returned to her mouth, Robin was desperate. Her fingers dug into those strong muscles as she tried to pull him closer. She wanted him inside her with unfamiliar urgency, but if anything he slowed down, stroking her body and finding every sensitive spot, until finally his fingers slid between her legs.
Her back spasmed into an arch as she felt herself tightening, tightening. “Please,” she heard herself say. “Now.”
He was there, pressing against her, when suddenly he lurched away.
She heard a ripping sound and within seconds, he was back, seating himself deep with a long thrust. And then he did it again, and again, and her body instinctively matched his pace.
This felt glorious, and yet she was frantic, too. She didn’t have to chase an orgasm; it slammed into her. Even as she spasmed, he made a guttural sound and went rigid.
When he sagged down on her, he rolled, taking her with him. Robin ended up with her head on his shoulder, where she could both feel and hear his racing heartbeat. She laid her hand right atop his heart, where it seemed to belong.