Under the Magnolia (12 page)

She turned her face into his hand to
kiss his palm. "I would kill for a hot shower right now."

Wes gave her a soft smile. "No
need to kill anyone. Come on."

He rose with her in his arms and
made his way into the bathroom. He didn't put her down until he'd
turned on the shower, and steam billowed out of the tile stall as he
started to undress her. "Can you make it by yourself, or do you
need some help?"

Addie seemed more bemused than
anything else by his careful attention. She waited until he'd coaxed
her shirt over her head then smiled up at him. "I
could
make it by myself...." Her hands fell to his shirt, and she
started to unbutton it. "I don't really want to, though."

Her smile made his chest feel tight
even as he returned it. "You've got a dirty mind, Addie Jo."

"Mmm. You like it." Her
fingers were gentle as she freed the last button on his shirt and
pushed it open. He knew how bruised he was likely to be, but Addie
sucked in a breath as her hands hovered over his chest. "Oh God,
Wes…"

He looked down at the three ugly
bruises that bloomed on his chest, her fingers skating over them, and
he covered her hands with his. "It's okay. They don't even
hurt."

The look she gave him was
disbelieving. "You got
shot
,
you absolute idiot. If you ever get shot again, I will…"
She didn't finish, choosing instead to curl her fingers around his
shoulders and drag his mouth to hers for a desperate kiss.

His heart stuttered and raced as he
slanted his mouth over hers. It wasn't gentle or easy, and he opened
her mouth with one hand on her jaw, then drove his tongue past her
lips. He needed to touch and explore, to learn all of the tastes of
textures of her, the things he'd barely begun to know.

He lifted her against his body with
one strong arm around her waist, his other hand loosening her hair.
It had dried into a heavy mess of tangles that fell around both of
them. The scent was one he'd always associated with Addie—the
earth and rain, the smell of the outdoors. She was wild and
untamable, but he didn't
need
to tame her. She'd chosen him.

Addie's hands slid to his back, her
fingers stroking his skin with a gentle patience that was
contradicted by the frantic noise she made when his tongue found hers
again. He felt the prick of her fingernails against his lower back as
his mouth muffled her low moan.

He broke the kiss as he reached for
her pants. "Shower?"

She was breathing heavily, her eyes
a little glazed as she nodded. "Shower. I want to be clean this
time before I have dirty, naughty sex with you."

His hands flew as he divested her of
her clothing, lingering only over the bruises and scrapes she,
herself, bore. "I'm not the only one who got a little banged
up," he reminded her sadly. "I'm sorry, Addie."

"Don't you dare." She
caught his face between his hands, staring up at him firmly. "Rule
number one, Wesley Lee Saxon. I am
not
going to be your damsel in distress. I got myself into trouble, and
you got me out, and I'm really damn glad you did. But you've got
nothing
to be sorry for."

It took him a moment to answer. "I'm
supposed to take care of you."

"No." Addie's fingers
tugged at the button on his pants, pulling them open before grasping
the zipper and dragging it down. "We're supposed to take care of
each other. And from the looks of us, we
both
need it."

There was no arguing with that, even
if he wanted to. Instead, he dropped a kiss to the top of her head
then shed the rest of his clothes and tugged at her hand until she
followed him into the shower.

Wes backed her slowly under the
spray, working hot water through her hair. Then he gave her a wicked
grin and lowered his mouth to her throat, following rivulets of water
as they sluiced down over her shoulder and onto her chest. A low
sound escaped her as one hand came up, her fingers gripping the back
of his head.

She wasn't content to let him do all
the touching, though. While one hand curled in his hair, the other
slid around his waist and down, her strong fingers digging into his
hip. She moaned his name as she dragged him closer, trapping his hard
cock between their bodies. "Why in hell did we wait this long to
get naked?"

He smiled against her neck then
nipped at her chin. "Because you never gave me a second look
before last night, baby."

Addie tilted her head back to give
him better access to her neck, but a moment later she was sputtering
as her face dropped directly under the spray of water. Drops of water
flew everywhere as she jerked her head up and let out a choked laugh.
"Oh, Jesus. That wasn't very sexy."

"Wrong." His laughter
joined hers as he turned them both around, pressing her against the
tile and shielding her from the spray with his own body. "You
are the sexiest damn thing I've seen in forever, Addie Jo. And, as
soon as you're done with your shower, I'm going to take you back to
my bed and show you."

One of her legs slid around his, her
foot teasing at the back of his calf as she gazed up at him. "So
give me the shampoo already so we can get this shower moving."

He choked back a laugh and shoved
the small green bottle into her hand with an apologetic look. "You
might smell a little bit like a pine tree." He didn't wait for
her response, just bent and closed his mouth around her nipple.

The shampoo bottle slipped from her
fingers and hit the floor of the shower with a hollow thud as Addie
moaned her approval. "That—" Her voice broke as he
swirled his tongue teasingly around the tight bud, and when she spoke
again it was in a hoarse whisper. "Wesley, I want you. I
need
you."

With the way she whispered his name,
hard and fast against the tile was starting to sound good. His cock
throbbed, but he shook his head and scraped his teeth gently against
her nipple. "Shower first then sex." He lowered himself to
his knees and handed her the shampoo again. "I think you dropped
this."

Her eyes watched him with barely
restrained heat as she popped the shampoo bottle open and squeezed
some into one hand. "If you think you're less distracting down
there, you're wrong."

He dipped his tongue into her navel.
"I wasn't aiming for less distracting. And why should I? You
distract me all the time." He urged her legs apart just the
slightest bit and slid his fingers between them. "I'm trying to
get you to hurry up."

The shampoo bottle hit the floor of
the shower for the second time, narrowly missing his head on its way
down. Addie had managed to get the shampoo into her hair, but she
wasn't making a lot of progress otherwise.

Of course, she presented a damn fine
view with her hands tangled in her hair and her body arching into his
touch. He teased her, backing off when she stopped bathing and
resuming his stroking when she got back to business. Finally, when
she was mostly done, he pressed harder, slipping his fingers past her
clitoris and inside her.

"Wes—" One of her
hands fell to his shoulder, the other slapping against the tile of
the shower with a wet noise as she panted his name again. It fell
from her lips over and over, growing from a breathless whisper to a
tortured moan.

His own voice was breathless, as
well. "Ready to get out?"

"Ready to get
off
,"
she retorted, tightening her hand on his shoulder. "You're a
damn tease."

He rose, keeping his fingers in
place, the heel of his hand rocking against her as he leaned over
her, one hand braced on the tile beside her head. Blood pounded in
his ears, and he barely held on to his self-control as he bit her ear
then whispered, "Teases don't come through."

Addie turned her head to the side,
pressing her forehead against his arm as if she couldn't hold her
head up anymore. He could feel her body starting to shake, her
muscles squeezing around his fingers. When she whispered his name
this time, her voice was heavy with emotion, with need and
desperation.

Wes urged her onward, the need to
see and feel her come outweighing everything, including his own
almost painful desire. When she let go, he rested his forehead
against the wet tile next to her and murmured encouragement, enjoying
the feel of her body shuddering against his, tightening around his
fingers.

When the shaking subsided and her
hips stilled, he found her mouth with a gentle kiss. "Time for
bed, baby." He had it all planned out; he'd make love to her
over and over, until she was too tired to say no when he asked her to
marry him. Then he'd do it all again when she said yes.

Addie had never felt anything like
the languid pleasure that flooded her as she wrapped her arms and
legs around Wes’ body and let him carry her to the bedroom. He
was aroused as hell, if the hard length of his cock pressing against
her abdomen was any indication, but his lips found hers in a long,
languid kiss as he lowered her back against the tangle of quilts on
the bed.

She'd had good sex before. The sex
last night had been fucking unbelievable.

And it had been
nothing
compared to this.

As her back hit the bed, Wes shifted
over her, his lips tracing down her throat to her breasts. "Talk
to me, Addie."

"I don't—" She
hissed in a breath and threaded her fingers into his damp hair. "God,
I should have told you before. I should have told you that I wanted
you."

He licked her nipple and cupped her
other breast as he moved his mouth back to her jaw. "Any time.
Anything you wanted, I would have given you. I still will."

"You." She whispered the
words as she tightened her fingers and tugged his lips back to hers.
"I want you. Just you." Her body ached for him, ached for
the fulfillment of her vision, for the moment of emotional bliss that
would make the passion of the night before seem trivial.

His tongue dipped to the hollow of
her throat and rasped up the side of her neck as he nudged his hips
against hers, prodding her with his cock. His breath warmed her skin
as he spoke in a low whisper. Then he bit her ear again and pushed
inside her.

It was everything in the world that
she'd wanted, and it was better. Her body arched sharply, and she
brought her legs up, wrapping them around his waist. When he was all
the way inside her, she turned her head enough to find his ear. "This
is what I saw in my vision. You, whispering things I can't hear as
you make love to me."

Wes braced his elbows beside her
head on the pillow and caught her eyes as he pulled back and thrust
again, his gaze intense. "I said, 'I love you’.”

For one moment, Addie thought her
heart had stopped.

Even the pleasure of their bodies
paled in comparison to the warm, glorious satisfaction that welled up
inside her at three simple words she hadn't even known she wanted.
She shifted her hands to frame his face, rubbing her thumbs over his
cheeks. "Say it again."

The words were reflected in his eyes
as he whispered them again. "I love you, Addie Jo."

He loved her. It was a silly thing
to be shocked by when they'd been friends for almost twenty years.
Maybe not close friends, but always friendly. Always fond.

The way he was staring at her as his
body rocked into her was a far cry from fond. Love, passion, the need
to be with her, to be a part of her life.

Addie brushed her thumb over his
mouth as she tightened her legs around his hips, pulling him closer
with his next thrust. Pleasure raced through her, giving her voice a
desperate edge. "Marry me."

He made a sound that was half laugh,
half groan and kissed her again. Then he hooked one hand under her
knee and tugged her leg higher. "Under the magnolia out at the
Carter place."

Pleasure swelled as he pushed deeper
with his next thrust. Addie groaned and rocked her body up into his.
"It's…it's crazy." She gasped the words out between
panting moans. "We haven't…haven't even…had a
date…."

Wes tightened his fingers around her
leg, and the new angle rubbed the base of his cock against her
clitoris. Fire sparked through her body as she struggled to keep her
eyes fixed on his.

"Do we need to date?" he
asked on a groan, threading his hands into her hair and moving
faster. "We can have a long engagement."

She couldn't think, not with
pleasure shivering up her spine as she barreled toward orgasm. Her
body was alive, responding to his touch in ways it hadn't for other
men. She could pretend all she wanted that it was his technique, but
she knew the truth. No man had affected her like Wes because she'd
never loved a man before. Not the way she loved him.

"Wes--" The building
pressure inside her snapped, and she gasped the words as climax
roared through her. "I love you."

He dropped his face to her neck and
groaned again as his strong, steady rhythm broke. He drove into her,
every stroke taking her higher, until he closed his teeth on the
tender skin at the base of her shoulder.