Riveted
Page 51

 Jay Crownover

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Church
I couldn’t remember a night that I slept throughout without waking up. My body was trained to doze lightly and to wake when even the slightest thing seemed off. I never rested easy when I was in a new place and I very rarely managed to out-sleep the sun going up even after working the extreme bar hours I’d been keeping as of late. It was an instinct honed over years of catnapping under a sky set on fire by missiles and gunfire. It was a reaction that had saved my ass more than once.
My childhood home wasn’t exactly hostile territory and bedding down with Dixie sprawled heavy limbed and orgasm drunk all over the top of me definitely wasn’t sleeping with the enemy, but there were enough differences in my usual routine that it should have been a restless night without much shut-eye. The opposite was true. I slept better than I had in ten years. I wrapped my arms around the warm, pliant woman that had blown my mind … and other parts of me … closed my eyes, and drifted off like I didn’t have the kind of history behind me that usually led to nightmares instead of sweet dreams. Granted I was more than worn-out. The reunion with my family, getting an earful from Elma, the puzzle of who was trying to make this trip home more difficult than it already was, all of that weighed heavily on my mind, and then Dixie had her way with the rest of me and every muscle I had, every tendon and bone felt like it had turned to mush. I’d never considered myself a man that had the ability to go soft for a woman, but dammit all if she didn’t make me malleable and pliable with nothing more than her sexy moans and wicked demands whispered in my ear. I told her I would give her the best of what I had. I didn’t anticipate the need, the overwhelming desire to give her better than my best because that’s what she gave me.
I woke up when Jules and Dalen were rambling around the house getting ready for work and school respectively. I heard them down the hallway in the kitchen and contemplated getting up and bringing breakfast back for the woman who was still breathing slowly and evenly into the center of my chest. Her uncontrollable tangle of hair was brushing my chin and sticking to the scruff that I had yet to find the time to shave off. One of her hands was folded under her cheek, lying across my heart, and that little traitor leaped at the knowledge that if I dared to let her hold it there was no way she would handle it with anything but gentle care and delicate reverence. Her other arm was tucked along my side where my arm was curved across the sexy dip of her hip. I had no idea when my palm took up residence on the luscious swell of her ass but I wasn’t going to complain about it and I was in no rush to move it.
I liked her goofy T-shirts with their silly sayings that she seemed to prefer sleeping in, but if I had a say she wouldn’t be in this bed with me with anything covering her up for the rest of our time together. I was still finding cute little freckles that I hadn’t yet put my tongue on and there was no way I would be able to find them all if she was keeping those lush curves of hers hidden.
She had one of her legs cocked at an angle between mine and while my morning erection was always alert and ready to go before I was, this morning it was particularly insistent that I get my shit together and take advantage of the fact that what felt like an endless amount of silken smooth female flesh was pressed against it, warm with sleep and soft from lingering satisfaction. She felt good draped across me. She felt like she belonged there.
My fingers stroked across the supple skin like they had a mind of their own. Dixie mumbled something drowsily and rubbed her nose on the hard line that divided my pecs. The heavy muscle flexed involuntarily, and I sucked in a careful breath as her knee grazed the very sensitive part of my anatomy it was resting against. My dick twitched and lifted, pressing pointedly into her thigh. I couldn’t tell if she was on board with this particular wake-up call but the hand along my side moved so that it was resting under my ribs and her freckled cheek brushed against my chest like a kitten searching for affection. I took the hand that was resting behind my head and tunneled my fingers into her fiery mane of hair. I loved the way it coiled and snaked around my fingers. It was the only trap I would walk willingly into time and time again.
“You awake?” My voice was raspier than normal and I could hear the throb of desperation in it. I really, really wanted her to be awake or I wanted to wake her up in a way she wasn’t going to be able to forget anytime soon. We’d gone at each other hard last night, several times over. I could feel it in my thighs and in my back, so I had no doubt she was probably sore and tender in all the places I wanted to leave even more marks and memories on. “I know it’s before noon, but if you rise and shine I can guarantee you won’t regret it.” It wasn’t lost on me that my asking her to let me in had more than one meaning. I wanted inside all the sweetness that would go wet and ready for me in an instant, but I was also starting to feel like I needed inside, past all the warmth and kindness she had for everyone, to the real heart of her.
The tip of her nose rubbed back and forth over my collarbone as she shook her head and mumbled something else I couldn’t make out but her leg shifted between mine again, this time more deliberately. This time it was a caress. This time it was her leg sliding along the underside of my very erect cock, rubbing it up and down, causing it to pulse against her and making me shift my hips under her so I could chase the sensation. She made me desperate and entranced me with very little effort. I’d wanted to take her to bed from the minute I saw her, but now that I had her there it felt so much more significant than getting off and getting a piece of her. It felt like something I had been fighting for, something I had been working towards without even knowing I was taking those steps.