Rising up onto her knees, she looped her arms around my neck and pulled me down with her until we were both flat and my head rested against her shoulder.
Her breath ruffled my hair. “Are you comfy?”
Trying to calm myself, I inhaled deeply, breathing every molecule of her scent I could. “I am, but I still don’t think—”
“Don’t think at all. Just rest.” She ran her fingers through my hair from the crown of my head to the nape of my neck. “It’ll all feel better once you’ve gotten some solid sleep.”
She stared into my eyes. Her expression was filled with concern and resolve.
I licked my dry lips. “You don’t have to do this.” This was a weakness I hadn’t wanted to share with her. I’d hoped I could handle it all on my own.
Her face softened. “I want to. Let me be here for you. If you start to have another nightmare, I’ll wake you up.”
A ghost of a laugh escaped my lips. “How are you going to do that if you’re asleep too?”
She brushed my hair back from my forehead. “I already got enough sleep. Just close your eyes and we can talk about it all in the morning.”
My heart hammered so hard it felt like it was rocking my whole body. Slipping my arms around her, I tightened them around her waist. A war was raging inside of me. I was Hunter fucking Saxton. I didn’t need anything from anyone. I was the guy who made things happen for other people. I was the one everyone turned to.
Showing this side of me was like sawing open my chest and giving her a look at the ugly insides. But the comfort in her arms and hearing the steady drum of her heart helped calm me.
She was too close, but trying to step away would be like hacking off a limb. She was who I’d been fighting this whole time, because I’d known how easy this would be. How easy it would be to fall for her completely and never stop falling.
I sighed and relaxed my muscles one by one. “Thank you, Sabrina.”
All rigidness in her body was wiped away with those three words. I didn’t want to be alone anymore. My resistance had fallen. The wall I’d erected between us, already slowly crumbling, disappeared.
“Don’t mention it.” She brushed her fingers through my hair.
I closed my eyes and let the sleep that had been stolen from me for the past four months drag me under, only I wasn’t scared of what lurked beneath the surface for the first time, because she was here with me. The drumbeat of her heart would help me find my way back.
I woke, not in a puddle of my own sweat or feeling like my heart was punching like a speed bag against my ribs, but to the gentle rhythm of snores that didn’t belong to me.
Sitting beside her was my copy of The Order of the Phoenix. My throat tightened, and I leaned over her and picked up the book, running my fingers over the front cover.
Her eyes shot open, and she sucked in a sharp breath before her gaze focused on me. Relaxing back against the pillows, she stretched. “Sorry, I fell asleep.”
I pushed myself up farther in the bed. “So did I.”
“Yeah, but you were supposed to sleep.” Her muscles stiffened. “How was it?” Concern rippled through her words.
Taking her hand in mine, I lifted it to my lips and pressed them against the smooth skin, while tickling her palm with my fingers. “It was perfect. The best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time.”
Her smile was megawatt wide. “That’s great.”
I looked down at our intertwined hands and ran my fingers from the inside of her elbow down to her wrist. “You know what this means, right?” I glanced over at her.
“What? You think now I’m going to sleep in your bed every night?” She smiled and picked up a pillow with her free hand and whacked me with it. “That I’ll just sprawl under the sheets with you night after night?”
I was torn between that fantasy of spending every night with her and the hint of sadness behind her smile that I knew I’d put there. I blocked her second hit. “I know after what—”
She stopped me with a kiss. Her hands were on the sides of my face and she interlaced her fingers around the back of my neck and pulled me down on top of her. Her lips were magic, like a balm and an accelerant all at once. The fire was stoked with each brush and nibble of her lips, with every flick of her tongue.
I don’t know how I’d gone days without kissing these lips. I thought I’d blown my shot or was too broken to feel their salvation again, but she was liquid desire being poured straight down my throat.
Breaking the connection, she stared into my eyes, her own wide and wanting. “I could be persuaded.”
Grinning, I brushed her hair out of her face, trailing my fingers from her cheek over the shell of her ear and down the side of her neck. “How exactly might I be able to persuade you?”
She shuddered and her lips quirked up. “You’re Hunter Saxton, the man who can get anyone anything. I think you can figure it out.”
Bracing myself on my arms above her, I settled my hips between her parted legs. The fabric of both our bottoms got in the way. I’d never hated sweats more than I did at this moment. “You tell me when I’ve figured it out well enough.” Slipping below the blankets, I tugged her sweats down. My knuckles brushed against the soft plushness of her thighs. It made my mouth water.
Skimming my fingers along the insides of her thighs, I ripped my sweats off and threw them across the room.
She shoved back the blankets.
Cool air washed over me.
The air in the room crackled with a covetous craving. Mine for her and, from the way her lips parted and her nostrils flared, hers for me.
Parting her folds, I delved into my afternoon delight, not wanting to stop until she’d screamed my name more than once.
Her fingers threaded through my hair, gripping it tight right along with her thighs against my ears.
Lapping at her, I basked in the taste, smell, and feel of her. Her moans, gasps, and cries guided me. My dick throbbed, pressed hard against the bed, my hips jerking with each call of my name. Using my thumb, I began in large circles around her clit before concentrating more on the swollen bundle of nerves.
“Hunter!” Her back bowed off the bed, and her thighs provided close-to-crushing ear protection. Every muscle locked up, and I kept going, urging her higher.
Her heels dug into my back before she pressed on my forehead and scooted up the bed panting, “That was…” She swallowed. “Quite a way to wake up.”
I crawled up the bed and kissed her. Pride radiated in my chest at the flushed, flustered, and stunning vision beneath me. “Are you ready for more?”
Her legs latched around my hips. My cock brushed against the curls at the top of her sex, and I shuddered, trying to rein myself in. I didn’t want this to end before I even got inside her.
“Whatever you’re dishing out, I can handle.” The combative playfulness was back, and it revved me into overdrive.
I snagged a condom out of my nightstand and raised up, poised at her entrance, trying to figure out how I’d leave this bed without losing my heart to her and trying to decide if I wanted to keep it at all.
Sinking into her, I kept my eyes from rolling back in my head, not wanting to miss a thing. She was hot and wet, gripping my cock so tightly I gritted my teeth as the pleasure demanded release, to sprint for the finish line.