Her Own Best Enemy (The Remnants, Book 1) (31 page)

No, don’t ask him. Tell him
. Tell him.

She took a shuddering breath. “Don’t...go.”

He pulled back and touched her chin, urging her to look him in the eye. “You know what you’re asking?”

“Yes.”

He tugged her hands away from his neck and kissed both palms. “You don’t look too sure.”

“I’m sure.” She reached for Keith and trailed a hand up his chest.

He captured her lips for another hot and demanding kiss. She sank her fingers in his short hair and opened her mouth wider, allowing him to explore her with his tongue in a way that stirred her blood and pooled desire low in her womb.

His hands framed her face, he nipped at her bottom lip, sucked it between his teeth. She arched into him, bringing her breasts in contact with his hard chest.

Keith’s mouth slid to the hollow of her throat and a moan escaped past her lips. Grace clutched his shirt, afraid that if she weren’t careful he’d inadvertently slip away from her too.

She melted into him as he nipped his way to her ear. One of his hands edged beneath her t-shirt and danced up her spine, the other wrestled with the latch on the door.

They stumbled into the hotel room where Keith pressed her up along the nearest wall. She nearly cried out when he rocked his hard length against her. It felt so good. So heady. So right.

She yanked his shirt over his head. “Keith...”

Desperate to connect with him, she smoothed her hands across his bare chest and down the tight, flat planes of his abdomen. His breath went ragged in her ear, thrilling a shiver from her.

She wanted more. More closeness. More...Keith. His heart, his affection...his love. She jerked and her head struck the wall.

Oh, God, what was she doing?

Keith touched his tongue to the sensitive spot behind her ear as his hand found her breast and caressed her through the lace of her bra.

She sucked in a breath. “I...I...need a shower.”

He sent her a wicked grin. “Is that an invitation?”

The sheer beauty of one of his rare smiles did her in. Warmth buzzed through her and she tried to smile back at him, but a frown pushed at her brows instead.

He touched the furrowed patch of skin between her brows. “Hey, you okay?”

She swallowed and shook her head.

“Is it Ryker? Afraid he’ll wake up and think I’m giving CPR to his mom?”

She had to laugh at the boyish way one side of his mouth lifted with his words. “No, that’s not—”

His fingertips danced lightly over her cheekbone. “Then what?”

“I just—I need a minute.”

“Let me check on Ryker. Meet you in my room in ten.” He released her with a wink and disappeared into her room.

Grace sagged against the wall. Who could resist a man who actually volunteered to go check on her son?

Her heart squeezed. If she went through with this and made love to Keith she’d be a goner. A complete and total marshmallow-heart-goner over him. But if she didn’t...

If she didn’t...

The truth struck her in the chest.

It wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

The sound of running water halted Keith in his tracks. Desire slammed in his gut. He hadn’t really thought she’d...

He swallowed past the need that welled in his throat.

Gracie.

Steam wafted from the inch wide crack of the open bathroom door. He quieted the urge to barge in there and casually pushed at the wood instead, widening the opening.

Grace stood in front of the glass paneled steam shower, her back to him, t-shirt bundled in her hand and pressed against her naked breasts, jeans slung low on her hips. Her bare feet poked from beneath the hem.

The smooth skin of her nude back drew him forward while the running water masked his footsteps. He had to kiss her. Had to kiss her right there in the hollow of her spine.

He bent at the knees, wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his mouth to her warm skin.

She flinched and spun around, dropping the t-shirt in the process. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

His eyes strayed to her breasts. “I’m well trained,” he said biting off a grin as he desperately warred to keep his hands off her. He nodded to the shower. “Having second thoughts?”

“No.” The simple sweet word sent a sharp tightness to his heart, and to other parts of his anatomy as well.

“Good.” He reached for her then, he couldn’t put it off any longer. His fingers trailed down one breast, stopping to circle her nipple.

She gasped. “Just waiting for you.” Her head fell back, exposing the long column of her smooth neck.

He kissed her in the hollow of her throat. His tongue drank in the taste of her skin, a combination of salt and the sweet cinnamon vanilla scent he’d come to associate solely with Grace.

His palms skittered across her nipples as he moved to grip her shoulders. He took her mouth, his need for her making the kiss rough and demanding rather than gentle and sweet.

Grace’s fingers curled around the top of his pants and tugged, her fingertips dipped below the waistband. He sucked in a ragged breath.

“I want to see you,” he rasped against her mouth. “All of you.”

She unhooked his belt. “Only if I get to look at you.”

He dropped his hands to the snap on her jeans and undid it with a flick of his fingers. She fumbled with his until he brushed her hands aside and dropped his pants and boxers in one smooth motion.

She smiled, the affection behind it nearly his undoing. God, he wanted this woman. Wanted her smiles and her laughter. Wanted the feelings of contentment that buzzed inside him whenever she was near, drawing him home.

Home.

She
was home. This beautiful strong woman was everything he’d longed for and never thought to have.

“Keith...”

He blinked and realized that Grace had shed her own jeans and panties. Her huge sparkling emerald eyes studied his face uncertainly.

His gaze slid down her body, taking in her smooth stomach, the apex of her thighs, her long, silky legs...and he just about swallowed his tongue.

“God, Grace, you’re...beautiful.” He trailed a hand down her stomach touched the soft mound between her legs.

She shivered.

“Honey, you’re cold.”

“N—No—I—I’m not.”

He wrapped one arm around her waist, slid the glass back on the shower and stepped inside with her. Warm steam enveloped them immediately. He closed the shower, cocooning them in the almost tropical atmosphere of the rainfall showerhead and humid mist.

Water dripped in his eyes and he swiped it aside to watch Grace tip her face to the spray. Eyes closed, features rapt with pleasure she let the moisture roll across her face.

Keith’s arousal strained painfully. He knelt and licked water off her breasts, tasting her, suckling her. Her eyes popped open with a gasp. She smiled and sighed, her eyes drifted closed once more as she melted into him.

He kissed his way to her stomach. His tongue touched a light silvery thread beneath her belly button.

“Stretch mark.” Embarrassment clouded her voice.

He shrugged and touched his tongue to the same spot once more. “I like it.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“I do.” He reached around her and cupped her bottom, drawing her even closer. “I think it’s sexy.” He punctuated the statement with a kiss between her thighs. “I think everything about you is sexy.”

“Keith.” His name came off her lips in a moan loaded with desire. She tugged on his hair. “I can’t...I want you...up here.”

“Hot damn.” He grinned and shot to his feet. “I’m all yours.”

She reached for him. Pain and pleasure shot through his groin.

Water cascaded over the both of them as he kissed her. His tongue mated with hers in a hot, wet kiss. Her hips strained toward him. He answered her silent plea with a brush of his fingers. She was ready for him. Ready for his touch.

He slid a finger inside her and watched her expression turn intense as she rode against him. Her palms rubbed his chest, his nipples and then dipped lower.

“You’re killing me.” He drew in a garbled breath.

“Then stop torturing us.”

He smiled and set her against the glass wall.

With a nudge of his knee, he parted her thighs wider. She shifted her hips to accommodate him. He bit the inside of his cheek, cupped her butt and drew her forward, entering her with one slow thrust.

“Grace. You feel so good. So damn good.”

She cried out. “Oh...God...Keith...”

Her nails dug into his shoulders as he moved inside her.

“Gracie.” He slid his hands up her body to her face where he smoothed several wet strands of hair out of her eyes.

Grace moaned, tossed her head to the side and lifted one of her legs higher, locking it around him.

His control slipped. He had to slow down. Had to make this last. But he hadn’t had nearly enough of her. Wouldn’t ever have enough of her.

She was air, and sunlight. His entire ration of MRE’s or the God sent helo rescue when all was lost.

She was everything.

He choked on the words as they threatened to find a voice. To ensure they’d stay buried he grasped Grace’s chin and covered his mouth with hers, thrusting his tongue into her mouth with all the frustration and longing that speared his traitorous heart.

He could never tell her. Never. She wanted to move on. Hell, he wanted to move on. What good would it do to watch her throw the words back in his face?

Her body quaked with the onset of her orgasm, her fingers raked down his back. He lifted his mouth and watched her as he thrust into her, making her tremble harder, faster.

God, she was beautiful.

Her gorgeous eyes fixed him with an intense stare that revealed so much. Too damn much.

He clenched his jaw to school his features into a mild expression. Fought the emotions that pulled him under like a drowning man.

Grace’s mouth turned down at the corners. “You okay?”

An unfamiliar sting nailed him in the eyes and he squeezed them shut. He swallowed. “Yeah.” The word passed his lips in little more than a hoarse whisper.

She leaned forward and pressed the sweetest kiss in the hollow of his throat, her warm, wet tongue, tasting his skin.

His own climax ripped through him. His teeth hurt from the force he exerted to keep from voicing the truth.

He loved Grace.

Keith touched a strand of Grace’s silky hair. Sunlight filtered through the window of the hotel room, giving Grace’s body an ethereal gray quality that made her seem like a mirage. He ran a finger down her cheek, just to make sure she was real. Her cheekbone was delectably soft under his rough skin.

“Mmm...” Grace moaned and snuggled closer.

He smiled. The woman made love the way she did everything else, with fire and determination. No holds barred.

Except when it came to forgiving him. Then the walls came up and she refused to budge. What would she say if he told her? Just flat out looked her in the eye.

I love you, Grace.

He’d never said those words to another soul. Not even to his mother for fear she’d spit on them.

“Hi.” Grace’s sleep-roughened voice planted a fist deep in his heart.

“Hey.” He shifted to draw her closer but she bolted upright out of his grasp.

“Oh, my God. Ryker.”

He ran his hand down her arm. “He’s fine. Out like a light. It’s early yet.”

She shook her head. “I should check on him.”

He leaned in and kissed her bare shoulder. “I already did. He’s okay.”

She dropped her arm, effectively removing it from his reach. “I know, but...it’s just...he needs me.”

Cold shoulder time.

His heart dropped into his gut but he pressed the issue with a kiss to her ear. “I need you.”

Again, she dodged his kiss. “It’s not the same thing.”

A hot ball of tight ash lodged in his chest. “Grace, look at me.”

She kept her focus on the window for far longer than necessary. Her stricken eyes clashed with his then skittered back to the window.

Her reluctance to look him in the eye spoke louder than any words.

He pounded a fist on the bed. “We are not doing this shit.”

“What?” Her mouth gaped open, eyes wide.

“This...oh, no what have we done crap. Don’t ask me to regret making love to you, Grace. I can’t. I won’t.” He jabbed a finger in her direction. “It was your call. I was prepared to walk away.”

She shot to her feet, trapping the sheet around her body. And still he could see every sexy little curve he’d kissed and adored last night. Arousal stirred, which only made him all the more angry. He hopped off the bed and advanced on her.

“You’re—right.” She shuffled backward. “But, I have Ryker to think of.”