Cora ran through her memories. “I can’t say for certain, but I can say that there was nothing about the shorter man I saw with the dog that would make me think he wasn’t the sheriff who stood in your living room yesterday.”
“Our.”
“What?”
“Our living room, sweetheart.” He tossed the phone away and cupped her face in his hand. “I want you to think of this as your home, too.”
Oh, this man. “No one has ever made me feel as special as you do, Slider.”
He kissed her then, deep and sweet, but flirting with heat. “I’m going to make it my job to ensure you feel that way every day of your life.”
Butterflies stirred in her belly as she retrieved a condom from her nightstand and handed it to him. “Then make love to me,” she whispered.
They came together slowly, softly, taking their time to explore and linger. Slider’s weight pressed her into the mattress as he moved between her thighs, rolling those hips the way he did, filling her so full that all she could do was moan. He worshipped her breasts and she dug her fingers into his ass. They had no reason to rush and nothing to hide from, not anymore.
And that had Cora thinking . . . thinking about how she’d said the way to move on from the past was to make new memories to replace the old, good memories to replace the bad. Cora wanted to try following her own advice, because she didn’t want to be afraid of anything, and she refused to let the past have any hold over her. Not anymore.
She pushed at Slider’s chest. “I want you to take me . . .” The way he did. But the words got stuck in her throat as the adrenaline kicked up in her veins. “Flat on my stomach. You on top. All your weight on me.”
His eyes were a sudden pale storm. “Cora—”
“You won’t be hurting me. I know you won’t. But I need proof.”
“Proof of what, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice strained with emotion.
“Proof that he’s not still there.” The words made no sense, not really, but she couldn’t think of a better way to explain it. “Please?”
He eased off her, and she couldn’t help but notice how his body had filled out these past weeks. He was still muscular and lean, but the sharpest edges of him were softer now. And it made him appear bigger, broader, even sexier. But what she most noticed was the dark expression on his face.
Cora reached up and kissed him. “I’m sure about this, okay?”
“I’m not,” he said. “Fuck, I don’t want to hurt you or scare you or—”
“Don’t you see though? You never could. I need you, Slider. Make this new memory with me. Make it good.” She turned onto her stomach and lay flat.
He shifted above her, his thighs going to the outside of hers, and stroked his hand down her spine from neck to ass. “So fucking beautiful, Cora. Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
He guided himself between her thighs, and his cock found her center and sank deep. She moaned at the tightness and the goodness of the sensation, his slow thrusts dragging his head against that delicious place inside her.
But as good as it was, it wasn’t enough. “Please,” she said. “I need you.”
He came down on her then. Not all at once. His legs around her legs, his stomach against her lower back, his arms curled around hers. “It’s me, Cora. Loving you. So damn much,” he said, and then he lowered his chest against her shoulders, his whole weight pinning her down.
She couldn’t deny the jolt of adrenaline, the tendrils of fear, the fingers of the past reaching out for her. And he must’ve sensed it, because he guided her face to the side so that they were looking eye to eye.
And, Jesus, that look chased the past away, leaving only them—and the fact that Slider had used the word love.
“Say it again,” she said.
“It’s me.” His eyes flared with understanding. “It’s me, loving you. And, Jesus, Cora. I do. I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you, too,” she said, emotion knotting in her throat so tightly that it brought tears to her eyes. “I love you, Slider.”
Their fingers laced, their faces almost touching, Slider fucked her then. Soft and slow at first, harder and faster when neither of them could resist.
“I’m gonna come, Cora,” he rasped, his cock driving deep. “Fuck, I’m gonna come.”
“Yes, let yourself go,” she said, already flying from the triumph of being able to take him this way, of putting the memory of his love in the place of one of her pain. It was the greatest gift anyone had ever given her.
He shouted out his release, his hips plowing into hers on punctuated thrusts that forced her to brace her hands against the headboard. His cock kicked inside her again and again, and his body shuddered above her.