Once her trembling had stopped, he lifted his head and moved his hand between her thighs. He grunted in male appreciation when he felt just how soaked she was. He wetted his finger in her creamy lubricant by lightly stimulating the opening of her slit. A postorgasmic shiver coursed through her at his intimate touch.
He withdrew his hand and glanced up to meet her gaze. Her eyelids were half-closed. She looked sex-drugged, dazed . . . indescribably beautiful.
He pushed back one of her bottom cheeks and pressed his lubricated fingertip to her rectum. Her body, which had previously grown warm and supple from orgasm, tautened.
He didn’t know why he did it. Or maybe he did. All control had been lost to him. He’d gone feral. He wanted Katie to know it. His nostrils flared as he watched her while he pushed his finger in her ass. She was tight and smooth and so hot he gritted his teeth. He saw a trace of puzzlement shadow her features. Her cheeks flushed pinker.
“Don’t look surprised,” he whispered. “There’s no going back. I’ll have all of you, Katie. Eventually.”
Her lower lip fell open. A chilly breeze whisked past them and rustled the trees. Katie shivered like the leaves. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her fragrant mound. She didn’t speak, and neither did he, when he withdrew his finger, stood and helped her to pull up her jeans, covering her from the bite of the wind. After he’d straightened his own clothing, he grabbed Katie’s hand and made to start back down the hill.
“Rill? You’ll talk to Everett, won’t you? About what’s bothering you?”
He paused and briefly closed his eyes at the mention of Everett’s name.
“Rill? What is it?” Katie asked, clearly mystified and concerned.
“It’s okay,” he lied. “I’ll talk to him when we get down to the house. Just do me a favor, okay?”
“What?” Katie whispered.
“Don’t you talk to him, at least for a little bit. If he hears the state of your voice, he’ll probably skin me alive. And I can’t say I’d blame him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She gave a hoarse laugh. “I’m a thirty-year-old woman.”
“And you’re Everett’s little sister,” Rill countered matter-of-factly. He kissed her knuckle, silencing the protest on her tongue. Still holding her hand, he led her down the hill.
Seventeen
Rill stood in the kitchen, listening to the televised football game in the living room and the sound of Katie’s feet on the stairs. He’d make it up to her later for his selfishness up there in the woods. For a few seconds, he wished he could join her right that second in the dormer bed.
He didn’t really want to talk to Everett.
He wanted to beat his face in.
Rill sighed heavily, banking his temper. In truth, he was nowhere near as furious with Everett as he had been last winter when he’d visited. It’d been nothing short of a miracle that he’d managed not to pulverize Everett at some point in his three-day stay in the house.
It was time to lance this wound, once and for all. The fact that it didn’t fester anywhere near as much as it had a year and a half ago somehow didn’t reassure Rill that much.
What if talking to Everett made everything a hundred times worse? There was always that chance, which was exactly why Rill had chosen a year ago to simmer in a pot of suspicion, confusion and anger versus confront Everett.
Uncertainty had its merits.
Once he knew the truth, it couldn’t be taken back. For the first time, though, Rill thought he could handle it. The truth didn’t have the potential to scald his consciousness as much as it had in the past.
“Hey,” Everett called out when he walked into the dim living room. “We’re down by seven points.”
“Great,” Rill murmured distractedly. “Do you think I could talk to you?”
“Sure,” Everett said, looking surprised and a little wary. He wondered if Everett was recalling Rill tackling him in the yard, but he didn’t apologize. Everett hit the remote control and the beer commercial winked off.
“Not in here. Can we go out on the porch?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Everett strode ahead of him. “What’s up?” he asked Rill once they’d both sat down on the wrought-iron chairs.
Rill opened his mouth to start, but couldn’t get the words out. He stared out at the golden fall day moodily.