His hand slipped beneath her and he cupped her pussy before rubbing at her clit. In a voice that was suddenly strangled with need, Gideon said, “You need to come for me, Princess. I can’t last any longer.”
He rubbed hard at her clit and with a hoarse scream, the pleasure crested and burst inside her. His hands gripped her hips, holding her upright as she quivered and moaned, and her pussy squeezed him rhythmically.
He fucked her hard, the gentleness in him completely gone as he strained for his own release. She barely heard his own hoarse shout over the pounding of the blood in her ears. But she felt the way he surged inside of her, felt how hard and deep he went as his hands squeezed her sore ass.
She fell onto the bed, her trembling legs no longer able to hold her up. He collapsed on top of her, driving the air out of her lungs, and immediately rolled off of her with a soft groan.
She kept her face buried in the bed, sucking in air in huge gasps as her body continued to shake. Gideon slid off the bed and she heard the master bathroom door open. Only a few seconds later, he was back, lying beside her and rubbing her lower back and upper thighs.
He touched her ass and she muttered a curse before pushing weakly at his hands. “Hurts.”
“I know,” he said. “This will be a little cold.”
She shrieked when the liquid spilled across her ass, but Gideon pushed her hands away and gently massaged the liquid into her sore ass cheeks. “It will help, baby.”
She stopped fighting him and laid quietly, letting him rub more liquid onto her ass. He was right, it did help, and after a few minutes she lifted her head and stared at him.
He kissed her nose and switched to rubbing her lower back. “You okay?”
“My ass hurts,” she said. “That was not a sexy spanking.”
He laughed. “I told you it wouldn’t be.”
She turned carefully on her side, happy when Gideon set the bottle on the nightstand, then pulled the covers over them both before pressing the length of his lean body against hers and putting his arm around her waist.
“I liked it,” she said.
“I know.”
She glared at him and he shrugged, giving her that careless smile she loved. “It makes me very happy that you like it, Gracie.”
“Why?” she said. “If this is it for us, does it matter that I like being spanked? That I actually like the loss of control in the bedroom? This is it for us, right? Hell, I don’t even know why you fucked me tonight.”
Gracie, shut up!
She really should. Talking about this would only remind him that they couldn’t be together, and he’d send her back to her own room where she’d lie awake until the morning.
But she needed to know. She would be leaving tomorrow, heading to Addie’s place until she figured out what the fuck she was going to do for a permanent place to live, so what did it matter if she pissed him off?
If you shut the hell up, you could at least get a decent night’s sleep before you leave.
Her inner voice was grouchy. Now that her body was sated with the orgasm, her brain wanted sleep. Needed sleep.
“Why didn’t you go to Addie’s today?” he said.
“I… well because… look, I can go, okay? I’m sorry that -”
“I’m not asking you to leave,” he said impatiently. “I’m asking you to tell me why you didn’t go to Addie’s. You knew there would be tension between us tonight, but you stayed. Why? Tell me the truth.”
“Because I hoped you would fuck me again, okay?” She tried to hold in her temper, but it was a losing battle. “There, does that make you happy? I stayed because I hoped that maybe you wouldn’t be able to resist me, and we’d have sex again. And yeah, I know how pathetic that makes me sound, Gideon.”
“It doesn’t,” he said. “And it worked – we had sex again tonight.”
“Well, congratulations to me,” she said.
He kissed her forehead. “Listen to me, Grace. I fully expected that you would be at Addison’s when I got home from work. And do you know what my plan was?”
She stared up at him, suddenly fascinated by the way his eyes had darkened. “What was your plan?”
“I was going to go over to Addie’s place. I was going to make up some bullshit excuse and go to Addie’s place where I would make up another bullshit excuse about you breaking a rule so that I could spank and fuck you.”
She swallowed hard. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” he said. “Luckily for me, you were still here, and you actually broke a rule.”
She blushed, and he grinned down at her before kissing her forehead again. “I got hard the fucking second I heard the shower turn on, Princess. I knew exactly what you were doing in there, and it took everything in me not to join you in the shower and fuck you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she said. “What difference does it make? You got what you wanted most – you spanked me. So, now it ends between us.”
“It’s not out of my system yet,” he said. “Is it out of yours?”
“No,” she said.
“Then maybe we shouldn’t end it. We’re both adults, we both know this can’t be anything other than us…” he cleared his throat, “relieving the tension between us. Why not spend a few more nights together? No one needs to know. And once we’ve…”
“Fucked the tension away?” Gracie said.
“Yes,” he said. “Once we’ve done that, we can go back to being friends.”
“Is that really what you want?” she said.
“Yes.”
He was lying. Maybe he didn’t shift his gaze away and maybe he didn’t display any of the other tells of people who were lying, but he was lying. He wanted more, just like she did. He just couldn’t admit it yet.
Hope flared in her chest. It was a small flickering flame, but it refused to be extinguished. She didn’t want to extinguish it. She wanted to nurture and protect it.
“What do you say, Grace?” Gideon was tense against her.
“Yes,” she said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
He studied her carefully and she smiled at him before pressing a kiss against his mouth. “I mean it, Gideon. Let’s get this out of our system. I miss the way we used to be.”
“I wish I could give you more,” he said. “I know how this offer makes me look and sound, but I…”
“Stop.” She pressed her fingers against his lips. “It’s fine, Gideon. I’m a big girl and I know what you’re offering. I could say no if I wanted to.”
“Are you sure?” he said.
“Oh my God, yes.” She allowed impatience to creep into her voice. It would work well to disguise her true feelings. “Are you trying to pussy out on me already, Walker?”
“Nope.” He glanced at the alarm clock on his nightstand. “It’s still early. Does my girl want another orgasm before we go to sleep?”
She traced her hand across the rose tattoo on his shoulder and smiled saucily at him. “Your girl absolutely wants another orgasm, Sheriff Walker.”
Chapter Nineteen