Page 96 of Sweet Madness
I offer her a half-smile. “What have I told you about thanking me for stuff you don’t need to thank me for?”
“And I thought I told you that I will always express my gratitude when you do something nice and make me smile.” She rolls her eyes playfully.
Silence falls between us and the only sound is that of the rain drumming on the stable roof. The sound of the rain falling hard matched the beating of our hearts.
Without a word, I step closer, irresistibly drawn to her. At the same time, Ella’s delicate hand reaches out, fingers brushing against my bearded cheek. I close my eyes briefly, savoring her warm and gentle touch, the pull between us sparking like lightning in the sky.
At this moment, as we face each other while a storm rages outside, a longing I’d never felt before burns brightly in my gaze, mirrors in the way she’s looking at me, as if she needed me to breathe. I knew the feeling because I experienced it whenever her eyes were on me. And when she wasn’t near, I couldn’t breathe either. There is an emptiness that momentarily cripples me, leaving me desperate to seek her out just to fill my lungs with her beautiful presence.
“Hey, Shaw,” Ella whispers.
“Yes?”
“What made you happy today?” Her question stops me in my tracks. I stand in silence, contemplating an answer.
What made me happy today? If she had asked me that a month ago, I would’ve told her absolutely nothing. Nothing ever made me happy.
Now, things have changed.
She made me happy. Every day, all day.
I get lost in my thoughts, my gaze fixed on her. Water droplets cling to her eyelashes and damp her plump lips. Her cheeks glisten with rain, and her soaked crop top clings to her tight nipples. My skin heats and all my blood travels to my cock making it hard as fuck. This woman was a craving I’d never experienced before.
“You.” I press my lips together as my eyes travel from her black curls to her cowboy boots. “You made me happy, Ella. You always fucking do.” That last part came out harsher than I intended.
“Shaw…” My answer surprises her; her eyes widen, and her cheeks flush a deeper shade of pink.
As I look at her, breath catching in my chest, I begin to understand what this feeling is. It has been with me since the very first moment she smiled at me when Shaw dropped her off and had grown stronger every day since. I knew its name, but it still felt like not enough.
I realize I have deep feelings for her—feelings that went beyond lust. I don’t just want to protect her and make her smile. I want her to look at me like I hung every star and moon in her sky. I want to be the one she runs to whenever she needs to hide from the world. I want to be her home. Yes, this feeling in my chest has a name—a name that used to be a bad fucking word once. A dirty one.
That word was love.
I loved her.
I’d had a feeling over the weeks she has been under my protection that she could be something important to me. I’d done my best to stay away from her to keep those feelings from taking root and blooming. But then I let her into my life, and she infiltrated every aspect of it. She became the object of all my desires and all made my dreams come true. I was blind to it until now. She’d crash-landed right in the middle of my life, and every attempt I made to prevent it had failed.
Watching her now, laughing and looking up at me with love shining in her eyes, I knew this was going to hurt if she ever decided to leave—or if I decided to fuck things up.
“You’re my color pink, Ellaiza Kenton.” I move closer and brush the backs of my fingers along her jawline, noticing the way her breath hitches at my touch. “Shaw,” she whispers, looking up at me from beneath her lashes. “You are to me what that hideous color is to you. Fucking bliss.” She gasps, leaning into me, her tits press against my chest. “And I’m so fucked by you, princess. I don’t see anything else but pink, but you.” I wrap my hand around the back of her head. Her full lips part on a sigh as my other hand slides down her side and settles on her hip.
Her blue eyes are half-mast, and she exhales a shuddering breath. “Kiss me.”
“You want my lips, baby?” I ask, my thumb brushing the soft skin just above the waistband of her jeans.
“I want all of you, Shaw. Every part.” She tips her face up to mine. She was so fucking beautiful, and I felt that same way I did the night Ben dropped her in my town—like she was what had been missing from my life, and I hadn’t even known it. “Yeah? You want my cock too?” My hands go to the waistband of my pants as I unbutton them.
“I really do.” My eyes lower to her full, pillow-soft lips. She tugs her bottom lip between her straight white teeth, making my dick get harder. “Now give me what I want.” She breathes out, her arms circling my neck, her fingers tugging on the ends of my hair.
Fuck, so hot.
I breathe in her cherry scent—sweet, enchanting, intoxicating. Just like her.
Needing more of her, I cup her beautiful face in my hands and tilt it up to mine. “I’m too fucking horny to give you soft, princess.”
“I don’t want it soft, cowboy.” She grins wickedly.
I groan before my mouth crashes down on her. Ella sucks on my tongue, eliciting a growl from me as my hands roam over her body, exploring her dips and curves and her firm, round ass. She kisses me back just as desperately as if she wanted to swallow me whole. I pull back to catch my breath and pull her hair gently. “Fuck, baby. You make my cock so fucking hard.”