I chuckled and rolled to the side so that she was trapped between me and the mattress. “They ride it out. That’s the only thing you can do when you’re caught in a downpour.”

Slowly, the sadness in her eyes started to break and a soft smile that was filled with all of that sweet she was so stingy with started to hover over her mouth and that was worth more than any single item I had fastidiously picked out for this loft.

She used her grip on my tie to pull me down into a kiss that was much softer and sweeter than the one up against the door. She also started pulling on the knot that stubbornly refused to loosen, now that it was wet. While she wrestled with the noose around my neck, I started pulling my clammy shirt off and went to work on devouring her mouth. I wanted to leave no part of her untouched or untasted. I wanted to take away the burn of the fire and loss and replace it with scorching passion and the blaze of desire. I wanted her to forget what she was mourning, for a little bit, so we could revel in what we had. Because whatever this thing was that we had when the two of us were together, it was something that absolutely deserved a fucking celebration.

When I had my shirt off and the stupid tie wrenched over my head since it wasn’t coming undone, I leaned over her with one hand braced over her head and used the other to cup one of her breasts. Her skin was warming back up and the delicate, pink tip wasted no time in stabbing into the center of my palm as I gently fondled her. I kissed her lips, the corner of each eye that was still red and a little puffy. I kissed her flushed cheeks and the tip of her wrinkled nose as she made a face at me. I kissed her below her ear and nuzzled her jawline as I moved my hand down her torso.

Goose bumps followed my fingertip as it traced over her ribs, down across her belly, and into the little indent of her belly button. Her legs shifted restlessly on either side of my hips and her hands slid over my heated flesh in a sweeping caress.

Her voice was breathless and a little stunned when she turned her head and muttered in my ear, “I can’t believe you have a big-ass tattoo like that.”

I was nipping at the pulse point on the side of her neck hard enough to leave a mark. That wasn’t my typical style in the bedroom. I liked things orderly and discrete. With her, though, I wanted to be remembered. I wanted her to look in the mirror and see what we had done. I wanted her to feel me when she moved, and I wanted her to remember what my voice in her ear sounded like as I made her come. I wanted her to be as consumed by this thing that raged between us, unchecked and untamed, as I was. So I sucked on the little bite I left and lifted my head as my wandering hand reached the apex of her thighs.

Her belly quivered when she realized where my touch was going but her swirling gaze was locked steadily on the giant image of the eagle I had tattooed across the entire center of my chest. In one talon, the massive bird of prey held a shotgun, in the other, the scales of justice. I’d gotten it on a whim as soon as I passed the bar. The thing took forever to complete since it was so big, and after every single session, Lottie had berated me for ruining my body forever. She hated it and had often asked me to leave my shirt on when we were in bed together.

From the look on Avett’s face, she anything but hated the bold artwork that decorated my body. She also didn’t hate it when I slid my fingers over her slick folds and found the warm and welcoming entrance to her body. Her hips canted up towards me and her hands fell to the tense muscles across my shoulders.

I kissed the crest of each breast and muttered against her soft skin, “I’m full of surprises.”

She laughed a little, but it turned into a quiet moan as I engulfed the tip of one of her breasts in the heat of my mouth. They were so firm and full. So proud and pretty, the way they sat up high on her chest. I wanted to drag my cock between them. I wanted her to let me glide between the soft valley they would create, while she opened her pouty mouth and sucked me off at the other end. I wanted to imprint myself and all the greedy and needy ways I wanted her on every single part of her body. I rolled the pert and pointed nipple around the tip of my tongue as my fingers plowed through her moisture and rubbed against her begging clit.

Her hands fell from my back and worked their way around to my front, where she started to claw at the clasp of my belt. She was panting hard and wiggling underneath me in a way that made my entire body tight. My dick was demanding to be let in on the action but this wasn’t about combusting. It was about a slow burn that would warm her up and stay with her.

I let go of the nipple I was torturing with a little pop and moved my mouth to her ear. I traced the delicate shell with the tip of my tongue and told her, “Hold off on that for a minute.”

Her legs tried to clamp down around my questing fingers as I used them to pump in and out of her grasping channel, but my hips were in the way. “I want to see what other surprises you have, Quaid.”

The little whine in her tone made me laugh. I’d had a lot of women anxious to get at the goods, but usually that was only because they thought the goods could get them something else. I couldn’t remember ever being in bed with a woman that pouted because I didn’t pull my dick out fast enough to satisfy her. I’d never been with anyone eager to simply be with me because I was me. She was as full of surprises as I was.

I licked across her collarbone, caught her little center of arousal between my fingers, and gave the nub a gentle squeeze before letting go of that secret and pulsing flesh. The motion had her jerking up on the bed, which worked as I stood up between her legs and looked down at her.

“What are you doing?” She seemed bewildered and I liked that, for once, I was the one causing confusion and chaos between the two of us.

I grinned at her and felt it widen as she sighed a little and put a hand to where I knew her heart was racing in her chest.

“Surprising you.”

She gasped my name in a shocked cry as I fell to my knees at the edge of the bed so that my face was directly in line with her core. She moved to close her legs but my shoulders were in the way, so she tried to scoot back on the bed but I was faster than she was, and grabbed hold of her hips so that I could pull her to my waiting mouth. I loved that when I put my hands and my mouth on her, there was something there to hold on to. Avett Walker might be as unpredictable and as untamable as the Colorado weather, but everything about her felt substantial and real in my hands.

I kissed the skin of her inner thigh and used my tongue to follow the curve of her leg where it dipped into her shiny and aroused center. I liked the pink on the top of her head an awful lot, but I had to say the luscious and welcoming pink that was begging to be licked and sucked between her legs was, hands down, my favorite and I told her so.