Harlot (Bartered Hearts 2)

“Of course it matters. He took something from me.”

The air left her lungs as if she’d been hit in the gut. The rush of it made her dizzy, like the bed was turning beneath her. “He took something from me,” she rasped.

“No. You sold it.”

Yes. That was the truth. The ugly, nasty truth. But it still made her furious. She shifted her shoulder until his hand slid away.

“Did he hurt you?” The words were so gruff she knew he hadn’t wanted to ask.

“It doesn’t matter.” Yes, he’d hurt her. But none of that

had hurt as much as hearing Caleb call her a whore and knowing he had the right to.

“It does matter,” he insisted. And just like that, her fury drained away. He hated her for being a whore, but he cared that she’d been hurt.

It was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him so many years before. He was big and gruff and serious, but he would still fold up leftovers in a napkin for the stray kittens that lived behind her house. He’d confessed once that he was terrible at breaking new horses because he felt sorry for them. They only wanted freedom.

He was practical and tough and stubborn, and he had a bigger heart than any fine gentleman her father had introduced her to. God, she loved him. Even after this.

“You can stay,” she whispered. “Until the storm passes.”

For a moment, she was afraid he’d laugh at her. Laugh at the idea of lying in bed with a whore. The moment stretched into awful silence. He didn’t answer. He didn’t move.

“If you want to,” she murmured, her mouth dry as sand, heart fluttering as she waited for him to reject her.

“Thank you,” he said, which wasn’t an answer, but then he lifted the covers. The bed shifted. He lay down behind her, and his body pressed into hers.

“Oh,” she sighed, shocked at the contact. She’d never felt that. Someone naked and hot against the whole of her back. His hand settled on her waist, the weight of it strange and comforting.

“I’ll leave as soon as it clears.” His breath warmed her neck.

“All right.”

Her muscles ached with tension as she tried to hold herself still against him. But she was so tired. She’d hardly slept at all the past two nights. She relaxed bit by bit, letting herself shape to him. She became aware of his body. His hard thighs behind hers. The feel of his body hair on her skin. The heat of his cock nestled against her bottom. Her heart began to calm.

In the silence, she had time to think, to wonder at what he’d made her feel earlier. He’d put his mouth on her. There. A place she tried not to touch now, because it was soiled. Ruined. But Caleb had touched it. He’d touched and kissed and licked, and the strangest feeling had filled her up and pushed at that part of her body.

She’d wanted it. More of it. She’d pressed higher and higher toward it, and finally something miraculous had happened. Something so sweet and bright and overwhelming that her cries of pleasure had turned into sobs. Just thinking about it began to melt her inside again.

Is that what men felt every time? Is that why they were so greedy and grasping, their faces turning from familiar and polite into an animal grimace of need? The sensation had made her groan and scream. Her throat was still hoarse with it.

Caleb sighed against her neck. His hand slipped along her hip, then back to her waist. “You’re still so beautiful, Jess.”

She might have wept at those words if she hadn’t been distracted by the slow drag of his hand as it shaped her hip. This time his hand slid all the way up her ribs to her breast.

“So perfect,” he whispered.

She felt his cock move against her, swelling as his thumb brushed her nipple. She was hardening again too, her nipple pressing into his fingers. His hand barely moved, and he held her as if she were a treasure.

Jessica decided to pretend.

She closed her eyes and let herself feel what she wanted.

“You’re so soft,” he breathed. “I can’t believe how soft you are.”

Yes. This was their bed, and she was his wife, and he still loved her. She wanted him to touch her everywhere, make her feel him everywhere. She wanted to give him everything over and over because they belonged together. Like this. Alone and naked with his cock growing hard against her.

He caught her nipple tight between his fingers, and she inhaled sharply.