She wrapped her legs around him, kissing him deep, nipping his bottom lip, giving him permission to go harder, to thrust into her until he came, too, with a fierce curse, his body trembling with the force of it.
He pressed his forehead to hers when it was over, her legs dropping to the bed.
‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked.
Kira shook her head, amazed that the first words out of his mouth were concern for her, but of course, they were. ‘No, I always cry during sex,’ she said, afraid of the emotions sweeping through her. Teasing was safer.
His low chuckle ghosted across her cheeks. ‘Okay.’ He dropped another kiss to her nose.
‘But that was better than sex with an asshole, I’ll give you that.’
He let that slow grin cross his face, and it was even sexier now that she knew it was warranted. ‘Glad to hear it, Peaches.’
‘We have not agreed on that nickname.’
‘Oh, right. I forgot’ One more kiss and he got up, braving the cold to deal with the condom. He came back cursing. ‘Goddamn, Kira. You need to raise the prices of those trees. You need that boiler now.’
She laughed, standing up to wrap a blanket around him. ‘Come on, let’s go take a nice, hot shower. The storm isn’t over yet.’
She threw a flirty wink over her shoulder on her way out of the living room, hoping she was covering the panic currently flooding her veins at the thought of all this ending as soon as the snow plows came rolling through.
She should have known this was another one of her bad ideas. Another example of her taking what she wanted and giving no thought to the consequences.
But at least this time, she’d be the only one to get hurt.
Chapter Nineteen
‘So how long do you think the storm will last?’ Kira asked as she studied her letter tiles. They had found an ancient Scrabble board in the back of the closet Kira had been using for her towels and it was now laid out between them on the mattress.
After their shower, he’d built the fire back up and it crackled and popped, filling the room with warmth and calm. They’d just finished what Kira called a snowstorm-empty-the-refrigerator-charcuterie-board for their dinner. It consisted of cheese and crackers, several types of pickles, leftover rotisserie chicken from the little grocery store in town, grapes, and chocolate-covered almonds that Kira bought in bulk. It was delicious.
‘Seems like it’s already winding down.’ He’d been avoiding looking out the window for a while now, not wanting to confirm that the snow had significantly slowed down, although the wind continued to rattle Kira’s old windows.
Kira looked up at him, a trace of worry between her brows. ‘Roads are probably still bad though,’ she said.
Bennett bit down on his smile. She didn’t want him to go. Which was good since he was in no hurry to leave, either. A fact he was trying very hard to ignore.
‘Probably. I doubt they’ll get the roads cleared until morning.’
Kira blew out a little sigh and arranged her letters on the board. ‘Touch. Double word score.’
‘Nice one,’ he said, smirking at the board. Kira had already played, lick, taste, nibble, clench, and hard. She was winning. In more ways than one. He was half hard again thinking about how and where he wanted to lick, taste, and touch her.
She grinned at him in that wide-open way that he’d just discovered about her. It was unexpected. She was unexpected. This whole day had gone so differently than he’d planned this morning when he left the house. It felt like a lifetime ago that he decided staying away from Kira was the best course of action.
He didn’t know who that Bennett was anymore. The one who’d never seen this goofy Kira grin. The one who’d never seen her naked, kissed her skin, felt her come. He didn’t envy that guy. That guy was severely missing out.
The fact that he would be that guy again soon, the guy without Kira in his life, weighed heavy in his gut.
‘How do you think the dogs are doing?’ she asked, distracting him from his thoughts.
‘Probably being spoiled by my sister,’ he said. He grabbed his phone to check for messages from Jeanie. Nicole’s name flashed on the screen as soon as he turned it back on, but he swiped away her texts without reading them. He was finally ready to put his toxic relationship with her behind him.
‘Jeanie sent pics,’ he said, holding up his phone for Kira to see. The dogs were snuggled in front of Logan’s fireplace sound asleep.
Kira giggled. ‘I guess they’re settled in.’
‘They don’t even miss me.’
She was studying him as he put the phone down.
‘What?’
She gave a little shrug. ‘Between the condoms in your wallet and sending the dogs off to a babysitter … seems like you planned this whole thing.’
He huffed a self-deprecating laugh. ‘And I thought I was swearing you off for good.’
She smirked. ‘Guess it didn’t work.’
‘Guess not. My subconscious knew what I was up to.’
Kira fidgeted with her letter tiles, rearranging them on her rack. She blew out a little sigh before she spoke. ‘I’m not like her.’
His eyebrows rose in surprise.
‘I mean, I just want you to know, I’m not trying to like, use you and leave you … but that’s kinda the situation we’re in … and I don’t want you to … I don’t know … hate me?’
‘I won’t hate you. We both know what this is. It’s entirely different than me uprooting my life for Nicole. This is just two people who mutually agreed to have a fun snow day.’
