His other hand moved up to cup her face as he slowly moved his face toward hers, giving her a chance to run away. To take them back to their usual frenetic pace instead of this slow, dreamy firelight seduction.

And even though every instinct was yelling mistake, Brynn wanted to know him like this. Just once, she wanted to know this part of Will Thatcher before they were gone from each other’s lives.

They kissed each other slow and sweet, as their lips teased and explored, tongues barely touching as they breathed in each other’s scent, listened to what made the other person’s breath catch. He continued to hold her face in the most gentle of caresses and Brynn felt the inexplicable urge to cry.

When he finally lowered her to the blanket, she waited for him to speed it up, to take them somewhere fast and safe, but he refused to be hurried as he ran a hand lovingly along her side, his palm just barely brushing the places that she wanted him to touch.

“Brynn,” he said quietly. “Brynn, I…”

She grabbed his hair, pulling his mouth down to hers before he could say something that would destroy her. Destroy them both.

A hot hand slid up under the back of her sweater, his palm pressing into the damp hollow at the base of her spine, tilting her up to him, even as he kept the kisses slow and drugging.

“Let me make love to you,” he whispered against her lips.

Brynn nodded, helpless to do anything else but accept whatever he was offering.

She lifted her hands over her head as he slowly pulled the sweater up and off, before pulling back slightly and looking down at her.

“You’re beautiful,” he said quietly, moving a hand beneath her breast and lifting her slightly. “Perfect.”

“I’m small,” she said nervously.

He showed her what he thought of that by lowering his head slowly and swiping the flat of his tongue against her nipple, making her gasp.

“Perfect,” he said again, before giving the other breast the same treatment. Back and forth he went, licking and nibbling until she was making small keening noises she didn’t even recognize. He glanced up at her then, waited until she met his eyes and then closed his lips around her nipple and sucked hard, her hips bucking up against his as she said his name.

“Again,” he said, raking his teeth over her nipple. “Say my name again.”

“Will,” she said, her voice breaking slightly.

He slowly moved down her body, kissing every one of her ribs before slowly sliding her pants off. He smiled in gratification when he saw she was completely naked.

“No underwear,” he said gruffly.

She licked her lips and looked down at where his face hovered above her hips. “Seems someone forgot to pack them.”

Will slowly pushed her legs apart, sliding his hands beneath her butt and meeting her eyes once more. “It was so I could do this.”

And then his mouth was on her, loving her in a way that she’d always thought was depraved, but felt so damn right.

Brynn had always been too distracted by the intimacy of the act to lose herself in it before, but Will wasn’t accepting anything but complete capitulation as he sucked and stroked and licked in exactly the right way.

Brynn felt his hand shift, his thumb slipping inside of her before he pushed the flat of his tongue against the sensitive nub of nerve endings, licking her in small, tight circles until she was helpless to do anything but rotate against him.

Together they found the perfect rhythm until Brynn broke into a million pieces, grasping at the blanket beneath her as her hips arched up against his wet mouth.

As the fireworks turned into tiny aftershocks, Will planted tiny kisses along her inner thighs before moving back up her body and finding her mouth was his.

“So that’s how Will Thatcher makes love,” she said dreamily between kisses.

He moved his mouth to her closed eyelids, kissing them each in turn before planting a lingering kiss on her forehead.

“No. This is.”

Her legs fell open against the gentle pressure of his hands, and she felt the tip of him against her sensitive opening before he pressed all the way in. Her eyes squeezed shut at the perfection of the moment, and her mind had the fleeting, alarming thought that this is where she belonged. Always. He stayed still, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she did, Will gave the tiniest of nods as though confirming her traitorous thoughts. As though confirming that she was his. But then he started moving, and her thoughts were pushed aside by pure sexual pleasure.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, giving herself over to him, but instead of taking her harder, he kept the pace steady and slow until she thought she’d die from anticipation.

Wanting to send him over the edge like he had her, Brynn moved quickly, catching him off guard enough to give her the chance to roll him onto his back.

His eyes widened slightly as she raked nails over his chest before she took him inside her with deliberate precision, watching his face tense as she took him inch by inch.

“Brynn,” he said hoarsely.

She allowed herself a small smile, even though she could barely think. “I like when you say my name too.”

His hands found her hips, and Brynn began to ride him, refusing to let herself worry about all her sharp angles, or how small her breasts must look.

She only cared about making Will feel.

Only cared about Will.

He tried to maintain the tantalizing slowness of before, but she wouldn’t let him, moving faster and faster, milking him for everything he had. Only when his eyes squeezed shut in that way that told her he was close did she slide a hand down her belly to touch herself, moving her hand and hips in rhythm until Will let out a hoarse guttural cry, his body arching toward hers just as Brynn exploded for the second time.

Brynn tried to ease herself down gently, but her muscles didn’t seem to work, and instead she collapsed awkwardly on his chest.

Will didn’t seem to mind, instead wrapping shaking arms around her narrow back, and holding her pressed against his furry chest.

They were both damp and sweaty and panting, and it should have been gross, but instead it was unexpectedly perfect.

Eventually he rolled her off him so she was lying on her side. He pulled the blanket up over her shoulder as he pushed her hair back from her face.

“You hungry?” he asked. “I got some of that stinky bleu cheese you like. And the weird rice crackers that taste like air, except without as much flavor.”

She smiled and wiggled closer. “Later. Can we…can we sleep like this? Together?”

His eyes went soft as he eased back down beside her. “Of course we can.”

Brynn smiled into his crinkly chest hair and let her eyes close as the aftermath of two fantastic orgasms settled her.

But the subconscious was a wily little happiness-wrecker, and before she drifted off to sleep, she kept picturing Will’s face as it had looked when he’d first laid her on the blanket.

Brynn, I…

What had he been about to say?

And why had she been so desperate to make sure he didn’t?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

There’s no shame in being in love with your career.

—Brynn Dalton’s Rules for an

Exemplary Life, #6

Hey.”

Brynn’s head shot up from her locker at the unfamiliar male voice.

She nearly dropped her geometry book.

It was him.

She’d seen him several times since that day on the football field. Had felt his eyes on her across the cafeteria, across the courtyard.

It should have been creepy, but it was oddly exhilarating. And not just because he was a junior and one of the most popular guys in school.

It was like he saw her. Knew her.

“Hey,” she said back, keeping her voice as level as possible even though she kind of wanted to puke. She’d never been good at talking to guys. Mostly because they’d never wanted to talk except to ask if she was related to Mr. Ed. Or to tell her there was a wait list on the swings.

She’d like to think that most of them had grown out of their meanness by now, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Much better to keep her distance.

Her heart still pounding, she closed her locker and began walking in the direction of class. She realized too late that she was walking in the opposite direction as her geometry classroom, but she couldn’t very well turn around now. Not when he was already following her.