Every Sweet Regret (Orchid Valley 2)

He guides me onto the top step, and when he releases me and steps back, my body is too cold everywhere he’d been pressed before.

“Do you have a condom?” I whisper. I want him completely, and the building ache between my legs is making me impatient.

“I don’t need one,” he says. He skims one finger down between my breasts and over my stomach.

My back arches, and I’m not sure if I’m going to melt or combust or both, so I have to hold myself up, bracing my hands behind me. How can one simple touch make me feel so much? “You’re sure?”

He sinks to his knees a few steps down, smiling as he places both hands on my knees and spreads my thighs. “I have everything I need right in front of me,” he murmurs, sliding his hands up my inner thighs. Lowering his head, he kisses just below my navel, then lower, just above my aching and exposed sex. “Let me kiss you here?”

Melting. I’m definitely melting. “Yeah,” I manage, but it sounds like a desperate gasp.

It must be all the answer Kace needs, because he nudges my thighs wider and buries his face between them. He doesn’t even kiss at first. It’s more like a nuzzle—his lips barely brushing that sensitive bundle of nerves, his beard scraping my thighs.

He draws back just enough to look at me and whispers, “I thought of you like this that night. And I imagined what it’d be like to taste you here.” Then his mouth and tongue and lips are everywhere. Licking and sucking and stoking a fire I didn’t think could burn any hotter. He slides one hand up to palm my breast, and the other goes between my legs, one finger plunging inside me as he latches his lips around my clit.

I cry out, the sound echoing into the night, and he moves his finger inside me, in and out, before adding a second and—

I combust. My hips buck up and I’m undone, fucking his hand, writhing against his mouth, and his low grunt of approval is the final push over the edge.

He stays right where he is, coaxing every last wave of my orgasm over and through me until I’m wrung out. Only then does he crawl up my body, wrap his arms around my waist, and swing us both around so I’m sitting sideways in his lap. He’s hard, and it takes all my self-control not to straddle him and take him inside me.

He kisses me, and I taste myself on his lips, and when he pulls back there’s heat and something more in his eyes. “I’m so glad you came over,” he whispers, cupping my jaw.

“Me too.” And I am, but I’m also worried it was a mistake. How can I be so satisfied and happy yet discontent at the same time?

“I’ll go get you a towel.”

My eyes widen, and my lips part. “You’re ready for me to leave?” I try not to sound defensive, but the hurt comes out in the sharp edge to my voice.

“Hell no.” He pulls me tight against him, and his erection presses into my stomach. “I’m ready to take you to my bed.”Chapter SeventeenKaceI grab a couple of towels from my stash on the patio and wrap one around my waist before taking the other to Stella. Water rolls down her curves in rivulets as she steps from the pool.

Kace, meet your walking fantasy.

If she wasn’t shivering, I’d probably take a few minutes just to appreciate how fucking hot she is. Instead, I pretend I’m a gentleman and wrap the oversized pool towel around her shoulders.

“Thanks,” she whispers, clutching it closed and smiling.

I drop a kiss on her forehead. “Anytime.” Her lips tremble as she stares up at me, and I rub my hands over her towel-covered arms. “Are you okay? It’s not that cold, is it?”

“I’m nervous.” She laughs softly. “Go figure.”

Emotion swells in my chest, and I swallow hard. I’m nervous too. About what we’re about to do, about what happens after, about how I’m ever supposed to keep this casual when I can’t stop thinking about her. “We don’t have to do this if you’re not—”

She lifts onto her toes and presses her mouth to mine, cutting me off. “I want to,” she says against my lips. “I’m nervous because I want it so much.”

I nod and take one of her hands to lead her inside. I never intended to have Stella in my room while my daughter was upstairs, but I can’t wait until Wednesday, and Hope’s a good sleeper. She’ll never even know Stella was here. Even so, when we step into the bedroom, I shut the door behind us and lock it just in case. Then I pull Stella against me, her back to my front. She melts into me and releases her grip on the towel. I shift so it falls to the floor then slide my hands down her body, across her belly, and between her legs, where she’s still slick.