Page 21 of Canvas of Lies (Spruce Hill #3)

“Oh,” she breathed. “Well. Thank you?”

“I think this floor would be a little rough on your knees, though.”

Understanding swept over her features, darkening the blue of her eyes as her pupils went wide. She let her gaze travel over me across the room. It lingered where I’d unfastened the top two buttons of my shirt, trailing heat over my skin .

“Fortunately, I have this nice big bed here at our disposal,” she replied.

As I approached, she sat back on her heels and I held out a hand to help her up. As soon as she was on her feet, I kissed her, glorying in the way she welcomed me, opened for me, the way she clung to me like I was an anchor in the storm raging around and between us.

With one hand tunneled through her hair, I let the other slip under her skirt, skating over her hip to cup her ass, kneading lightly as I pressed her against my body. Her hands were busy unbuttoning my shirt, then sliding across my chest as she shoved the sides apart.

Kat had just managed to unbuckle my belt before she twirled and presented me with the zipper of her dress. Slowly, so slowly that she wriggled impatiently against my fingers, I drew it down, caressing each revealed inch of skin with my lips. Each shiver sparked a path along my own as well.

I pushed the straps over her shoulders, realizing she wasn’t wearing a bra. As I watched the dress pool at her feet, I couldn’t hold back a groan.

“I want you,” I whispered. “From behind, just like this. What do you say?”

Kat nodded, dropping her head back against my chest when my hands slid around to cup her breasts.

Over those few days at the cabin, I’d learned just how much pressure made her gasp, how much made her moan, and I used that knowledge until she writhed against me, her satin-clad backside shifting restlessly back and forth against my jeans.

Hooking my thumbs into those sinful panties, I slipped them down over her hips, then guided her forward until she knelt at the edge of the bed.

I grabbed a condom from my pocket before dispensing with my clothes, then trailed my lips from one softly rounded shoulder to the other while my palms coasted up the backs of her thighs, smoothing over the soft curve of her ass.

When she dropped forward onto her hands, I made a hoarse sound of appreciation.

“So lovely,” I murmured. “So fucking perfect.”

With one hand, I stroked my fingers between her legs, finding her more than ready for me, impossibly hot and slick.

After a few teasing brushes of my fingertips, I sank two fingers into that welcoming heat, curling them against her inner walls until she moaned.

I let my other hand roam up the long muscles of her back before returning to her ass, squeezing gently while I continued to thrust slowly with my other hand.

“I’ve never seen anything quite so erotic,” I told her. My voice came out in a low rumble that sent a visible shiver through her.

“Jesus, Nico. Enough talk,” she gasped, wiggling as though to prod me into action.

It worked. I withdrew my fingers and immediately plunged deep, holding her steady, her ass flush against my hips. A guttural cry was my reward, but she tried to shift, to encourage me to thrust again, and I clucked my tongue .

“Oh no, I want you to keep perfectly still,” I instructed, tightening the fingers of one hand around her hip as the other glided across her skin.

With a breathless laugh, she shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”

I grinned, though she couldn’t see it, and ran my free hand up her spine. “Lean down for me.”

Once she’d done as I asked, folding her forearms under her cheek and resting her chest against the mattress, I drew back and returned with a hard thrust that made her moan.

Using both hands, I stroked over her heated skin, tracing lazy shapes across her back and bottom before returning to her hips, then I drove home once more.

The sequence repeated again and again, until Kat was trembling and breathless before me. After another deep, hard stroke, she gasped, “Not. Enough. It’s not enough. Please.”

Though I stayed buried within her, I slid my hands up her sides, lifting her torso until her back was pressed against my chest. I let my thumbs sweep across her nipples, then locked one arm low across her hips and reached down to stroke idly through the damp curls between her legs.

“Is that better?”

My voice was hoarse, tickling her ear as I teased her sensitive flesh. When her pelvis rocked against my hand, my restraining arm tightened. She growled in annoyance and I bit back a laugh .

“Oh no, stay right here with me. I want to feel you around me, every ripple. You’re going to come for me, Kitten, just like this.”

My hand moved away, drawing a frustrated whimper from her, but I hooked it around her knee and positioned her to my satisfaction, with one foot on the bed and her thighs spread wide.

Despite her clear disapproval of the interruption, the new position gave me greater access when I started stroking again, circling her clit with my fingertips.

Kat groaned, arching back against my chest, though her hips remained locked against mine.

When my teeth grazed her shoulder, she came apart under my fingers. A sharp cry burst from her lips, the sound echoing in my blood. I eased her back down to the bed, my touch soothing now, caressing the muscles that still quaked with her release.

The next few thrusts were lazy, languid, as I gauged her recovery. Eventually, I felt her shift to brace herself against the mattress, pressing her hips backward. She made a sound somewhere between a purr and a moan, and my lips tipped upward.

Lightly, as though it wasn’t killing me to maintain my last shred of control, I said, “How do you want this? Say the words, and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Kat bit her lip and rocked back against me. “Harder!”

Thank fuck.

Hearing her say it was almost as erotic as the sight of her flushed skin shivering in the throes of passion.

My hands locked on her hips and I took her, hard and fast, just as she’d requested.

Every gasping breath, every muffled groan drove me closer to the brink.

She met me thrust for thrust, and when I knew I couldn’t hold out much longer, I took advantage of the leg I’d shifted to reach around and tease her again, to drive her toward another peak.

It took barely more than a press of my finger for her to convulse around me, her muscles squeezing so tight it triggered my own orgasm.

My shuddering groan layered over her hoarse cry.

Kat managed to keep her arms braced underneath her only until the pulsing within her faded, then she collapsed forward onto the bed.

“I’m never moving again,” she mumbled, her voice muffled by the bedding.

I laughed softly as I crawled into the bed alongside her, then I gathered her boneless limbs against me, tucking her head under my chin and smoothing damp tendrils of hair back from her face.

“I think I can get on board with that,” I replied.

“That was . . . hot. Incredibly hot. Don’t you dare think it means you can boss me around outside of the bedroom, but holy shit. In bed, I think I love it.”

My low hum of agreement reverberated under her ear, so she snuggled in closer and didn’t bother trying to keep her eyes open as I stroked her hair. Every inch of my body relaxed against her loose frame, floating on complete and utter satisfaction.

“It’s different with you,” she said drowsily .

My fingers paused for only a heartbeat before continuing the soothing path along her wild tumble of curls. “What is?”

“Everything,” she mumbled, exhaling a long, exhausted sigh. “Everything is different.”

My arms tightened around her as she drifted into sleep, but those words echoed in my mind for a long time while I lay there in the dark.

They were terrifying, exhilarating—and almost certainly true.