Not healed, but at least aware. The numbness was gone.
“You came all the way here for twenty-four hours?” Liberty’s bottom lip shook.
“Thank God there was a helicopter available, otherwise it would have been a hug and back on the boat.” My smile was slow but genuine.
She scoffed, then stilled. “Oh my God. You won’t make it back for practice tomorrow!”
“Nope. I’ll miss Thursday, too, and yesterday is obviously a wash.” Even though her tears had stopped, I still stroked my thumbs over her cheeks, unable to stop the simple caress.
“You’ll get fined!” she shrieked, pulling back and swatting my shoulder.
“Yeah, but Coach knows I’m on the fence about the contract they just offered. Seven years. I’m just not sure anymore.”
“They gave you seven years?” Her lips lifted, then dropped. “But the fines!”
“Coach estimated about forty grand, and I won’t start against Dallas on Sunday.” I shrugged. “But what’s the point of banking millions if you can’t drop everything to see your girls?”
Her jaw dropped. “Are. You. Kidding. Me? You’re letting Castle start? He’s the turnover king! The man can’t complete a pass to save his—”
I kissed her, stopping her steady flow of words. I kept it soft, light, nothing more than a brush of our lips, but it was enough to bring my banked desire roaring back to life. She was here, and I needed her. That’s all my body cared about.
But I hadn’t spent thirty-two hours traveling to get laid.
“Nixon,” she sighed, swaying toward me.
My chest tightened as awareness rose between us.
“Twenty-four hours, Lib. Why don’t you show me around?” I took in the colorful carpet beneath our feet and caught a peek of Liberty’s pack just beneath the bed closest to us. “I mean, you know, outside this tent.”
“I would love to.”
We spent the day touring the site. The chow tent was always busy and had a line out the door as they served people every hour of the day. The school tent was filled with smiling children, and the medical services tent was overwhelmed. There was so much need here.
“They pick up new clothing over there,” Liberty pointed to a long, slender tent, “and we teach skills in that tent. We’re hoping to set the women up with a way to make their own incomes.”
“Amazing.” It was. All of it.
“And this is where I work.” Liberty laced her fingers with mine and led me down the path to a separate tent. We pushed past the heavy mosquito netting, and the room opened up to include several private bays. Liberty excused herself for a second to check in with her supervisor, and I took in the details of the facility.
There was a line…and I had stolen one of their providers.
“Do you need to work?” I asked as she came back over, noting the people who filled the open area. “I can wait.”
“Not today.” She took my hand. “If I only get twenty-four hours with you, then I’m taking them. Besides, I can only see patients supervised, so I’m not really putting anyone out by taking the day off.”
She fed me lunch, and I made a mental note to donate money immediately.
By the time the afternoon came around, so did the clouds, so I checked in with my pilot, who gave me a heads-up that we might have to leave sooner than planned if the rest of the front moved in.
“Anything else you’d like to show me?” I asked Liberty as we strolled past the living quarters.
“Yes.” She grinned, then yanked me inside a tent I recognized because my pack was in the corner.
“I’ve already seen this one,” I smirked.
She pushed my chest, and I fell backward, landing on the incredibly hard surface of her cot.
“Holy shit, this must be like sleeping on stone,” I cursed.
“Shut up.” She slid over my lap, straddling me, and I forgot all about the cot, the tent, the whole damned world. None of it mattered when she was in my arms.
“We should talk.” My hands slid to her ass, and I groaned at the feel of the curves under her shorts.
“That didn’t go too well last time.” She gripped the back of my neck as her eyes dropped to my lips.
“Yeah, I know.” My chest lit off with an excruciating ache, just thinking about how we’d left things back in North Carolina. But I was here now, and even if it was just for the next few hours, we could push the hurt away. We could grab the moments where they counted. “But there are things we need to say.”
“Later,” she said against my lips. “I swear I’m going to die if you don’t kiss me right now, Nixon Noble.”
We needed to talk. I needed to tell her the decision I’d made regarding that contract. We needed to sort out what was going on between us.
She kissed the shit out of me, and I forgot all about using my mouth to talk. I cupped the back of her head and took her deep, sinking into her mouth with an urgency that roared through my blood.
Fuck, yes. There was no gentle ease about this. No romantic, lingering sigh. This was hunger, pure and simple. She tugged at my hair. I threaded my fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck, spearing into the little bun she’d woven it into. Then I pulled, breaking the kiss and exposing her neck.
I licked down the line of her throat, tasting salt and that sweet, heady taste that was Liberty.
“Nixon,” she groaned, rocking her hips against me, but not quite reaching my cock with her belly between us.
I grabbed a handful of her ass and sucked at the swell of her breast. “You are so fucking sexy,” I said against her damp skin.
She pivoted, swinging her leg over so she sat in my lap, then didn’t pause a heartbeat before reaching past my waistband and gripping my cock with her fingers.
“Fuck,” I moaned. She was going to have me mindless in the next thirty seconds if I wasn’t careful. I wanted her too badly, and she tasted too good.
I reached between her thighs, then dipped beneath her hemline—oh hell yes. She was dripping wet and so slippery that my fingers parted her folds and thrust inside her with one smooth motion.
“Nixon!” she cried out, then buried her face in my neck to muffle her next groan as I started to fuck her with sure, deep thrusts of my fingers. She shifted, and I had enough room to bring my thumb in on the action, strumming across her clit as I took her mercilessly. I didn’t draw it out, didn’t make her beg.
No, I brought her to orgasm hard and fast, then nearly lost it myself as her fist squeezed my cock. She tensed all around me, moaning into my neck as she came with near-violent rocks of her hips. I stroked her through those aftershocks, then when she was good and hazy-eyed, I kissed her deep, swirling my tongue around hers with decadent licks before pulling back.
If I waited one more second to speak, I was going to be inside her with way more than my fingers, and then there would be no words besides yes, more, and harder.
“So here’s the thing.” My voice dropped as I slipped my fingers from her core. “I can’t live without you. I tried. I can’t. It’s not possible. So, we’re going to need another tent, because I’m not into the mom-can-hear-us kink, and I guess I’m just going to have to get used to checking my shoes for spiders if this is going to be our home.” I grinned.