His father wouldn’t hear of it. No son of mine is going to skate by on his good looks.
Now, he was not only warm, but he was wrapped tight by a woman blasting enough heat to power the lake house’s generator. Sometime during the night, Pepper had curled her body around his and he’d shifted so his uninjured arm had her in its embrace. One of her legs was locked in between his, her thigh in a sensual nudge against his morning wood. She’d buried her face in the crook of his neck so his nostrils were being tickled by her hair.
God, she smelled good.
Which only made him harder.
Last night was the hottest night of his life, and he hadn’t even gone all the way with this woman. But as sweet as that was, he had to say this wake-up moment might be close to it. Pepper in his arms, her body seeking him out for comfort in the night.
She lifted her head, one mad curl over her eye. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he murmured back.
She blushed and moved back, but he held on.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Enjoying the first morning in a while where I don’t feel like the world is ending.”
Her lips parted, closed again. She returned her head to that warm spot where it had been resting.
“You can say something, y’know,” he murmured against her hair.
“I don’t want to ruin your day when it’s been going so well.”
He chuckled. “Speaking would ruin it? Nah. Unless you say something silly about bad luck or how sorry you are.”
She raised her head again. “Don’t athletes have special morning routines that crave silence?”
“Not me. I’m kind of chatty.”
“I noticed.” She squealed because he’d lightly pinched her butt. “Hey!”
“That’s for your cheek. Literally.” He kissed her forehead. “And if you’re referring to the fact I like my sex communication on the dirty side, I didn’t hear you complaining. In fact, you seemed to be getting into the spirit of things there once I warmed you up.”
“Well, dirty talk is not really my forte.”
Someone had made her feel foolish about it. He took an educated guess. “You and Gallagher didn’t talk dirty to each other?”
“Oh, I tried, but he laughed at my efforts.”
“What a jerk.” The more he heard about this guy, the more he reckoned Pepper was done wrong.
Her laugh was nervy. “Let’s not talk about that. I’d much rather live in the present for a while.”
He understood that. But he had a feeling Pepper’s past, especially with Gallagher, had her all up in her head. Also the immediate past—Bast’s and Pepper’s—was hard for her to just blindly forget.
This was a woman who was stuck.
He was getting to a better place, though. It wasn’t in him to hold a grudge or dwell on the painful, at least not where Pepper was concerned.
Which was a strange thing to settle on.
“Guess it’s hard for a preschool teacher to think like that.”
She gaped. “Now wait a second. Do you think preschool teachers don’t have dirty thoughts? Or can’t do spicy talk? I did my best!”
“I know you did,” he soothed with fake condescension.
She must have realized that he was yanking her chain because she exploded. “Ha, ha, hilarious. So maybe I’m not the most sophisticated when it comes to sex communication”—she finger quoted that last bit—“but I’ve never not tried. It’s not my fault I haven’t had a whole lot of practice.”
“Why, just the one careful owner, was it?”
“Not even.”
Not even? What did that mean? Blinking, she seemed to realize that she’d given herself away.
While he parsed her words, she pushed back, using him for leverage, and tried to escape the bed. But he already had the warm cocoon going, and no way was he letting her bring cold air into this heated bubble of perfection. He circled her waist and gently pulled her back while the import of that exchange washed over him.
One careful owner … not even.
“Hey, I want out of here.”
“No, you don’t.” He rolled over her gently, pinning her down. She struggled, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in it. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
She growled, and it was so damn cute, but not enough to redirect this conversation to anything other than what he’d heard.
“Pepper, was Gallagher your first?” He was still hung up on the meaning of “not even.”
She turned her head away from him. “Sort of?” At his confused expression, she added, “It means we never—look, I can’t talk about this, about Kent, without violating his privacy.”
“Okay, but you can tell me about you, right? Were you a virgin before you met Gallagher?”
She nodded.
“And after?”
Another nod.
Fuuuck. “And now?” But he already knew the answer before she moved her chin, ever so slightly.
“You guys were engaged, but you didn’t have sex?”
“Like I said, I can’t go into it. Just know that I’m not expecting anything here. You’re off the hook.”
He’d practically forced himself on her, and she was a … virgin?
He rolled away and off her.
She was looking at him carefully, probably thinking what an asshole he was for practically goading her into hand jobs and touching her so intimately.
“I had no idea,” he said. “All that stuff yesterday and this morning—I went too far.”
She shook her head. “Do not for one second take away my agency here, Bast Durand! I knew exactly what I was doing. Exactly what I wanted to do. I begged you with my body to touch me and taste me and …” She swallowed and restarted. “I’ve never wanted to touch someone so much. To give them all the pleasure that’s in my gift to give. I know I came off as inexperienced, and that’s because I am—in actual terms. But I’ve done things. Watched porn. Admittedly not as filthy as some of the things we did, but …”
She placed a hand on his chest. “I loved every second. Please don’t think you pressured me into it. I’ve never felt that good before, and it confirmed for me that maybe I’m not as bad at this as I thought.”
Protectiveness reared inside him, that rampant need to slay everyone who’d told this woman she wasn’t good enough.
“And you think you’re bad at dirty talk? You just knocked it out of the park this second with the recap of our lusty history.”
Another blush that was so adorable. “You have low standards.”
“Nope. Is that what happened with Gallagher? He said you were bad at it? So bad you never even got to the finish line?” He was so confused.
“Like I said, Kent’s off the table as a discussion. But I do want to thank you for making me feel sexy and wanted.” She gave him a soft kiss. “For everything.”
And then she slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom, leaving a cold influx of air.
At least three feet of snow were banked against the large picture window in the living room. Pepper’s weather app said the area had been blessed with fourteen inches; the wind must have blown it into a frigid wall against the glass.