Anvil novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Stay

I shut my bedroom door behind us and turned the lock.

Tucker stood in the middle of the room with his arm in its sling and looked at me.

"Your answer," he said.

"I said I'd give it upstairs."

"You're upstairs."

"Sit on the bed."

He did.

He looked up at me with those gray eyes, and the muscle in his jaw jumped.

I took the sling off over his head, gently, and laid it on the pillow.

I unbuttoned his shirt, one button at a time, and eased it down off his bandaged shoulder.

The gauze was white and tight against his skin.

I touched the edge of it with my fingertips, and he went very still.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not right now."

"Good."

I pushed him back on the quilt with one hand flat on his chest.

I climbed over him and sat across his lap, in my dress, with my knees on either side of his hips.

His good hand came up and gripped my thigh, hard.

"Lizzie."

"Don't move that arm."

"Then you'd better be quick."

"I'm not going to be quick."

His hand tightened.

I felt him through his jeans, thick and hard under me, and I rolled my hips once, slowly.

He swore.

"Nothing between us," I said, against his mouth. "That was the rule."

"I remember the rule."

"I lied."

"I know you did."

He kissed me then, his hand tangled in my hair.

It was deep and slow and hungry, and I felt it down to my knees.

I pulled my dress up over my head and dropped it on the floor.

He looked at me in the lamp, at the plain cotton bra and the stretch marks I had stopped hiding years ago.

"Look at you," he said roughly. "Christ, Lizzie."

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