Free Now and Then by Mira Lyn Kelly Page B

pushing back upright in his seat and wiping his thumb across her cheekbone. “You’re crying, Brynn. I thought—”
    “No,” she cut him off, shaking her head and wishing she could hide her face, but knowing he needed to see her. “It’s not what you think. That was amazing. It’s just that it’s been a while for me…and because this is you, I’m a little overwhelmed by my emotions right now.”
    “Overwhelmed good or overwhelmed bad?”
    She wanted to tell him “Good.” Just smile and kiss along his neck. Fake a normal response to the mind-blowing release she’d just experienced. But this was Ford and if anyone could understand what she was feeling, she thought it would be him.
    “Maybe a little of both,” she admitted after a shaky breath. “It felt so good, Ford. Not just the physical act—which really, really was top-notch, I promise—but the
giving in.
It’s been a really long time and—and so yeah, it was overwhelmingly good.”
    Catching the sides of her face in his palms, Ford brought her to him for a kiss. Soft and slow, and so completely different from the one that nearly set the limo on fire when they first got in.
    “Jesus, Brynn,” he growled against her lips. “You make my heart hurt, but I swear, it’s in the best fucking way.”
    The words were too much, signifying more than the
now
they’d just engaged in. But then he was kissing her again. Holding her so close she could feel his heart beating against hers, the need he hadn’t yet released. A knock sounded against the partition and she realized the car had stopped. Ford helped her back onto the seat as she righted her skirt before the glass lowered and he passed a few bills to the driver.
    They stepped out of the car and holding Ford’s hand, Brynn backed up the walk, pulling him as she went. Their eyes were locked, the anticipation of what would come next building with every step. Inside, Ford stopped to kiss her against the security door, his hands smoothing up her sides and over her breasts, the heels of his palms rubbing against her aching nipples through her dress and thin bra.
    She let out another moan as the contact triggered a domino effect of sensation deep within her, before Ford growled against her mouth and then pulled her toward the stairs.
    Twice they stopped, taking advantage of the empty stairwell, getting caught in each other’s arms, in the hot, wet kisses that they’d somehow kept banked until at last they reached her door.
    Three flights up, her key already in the lock—and that’s when she realized.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked, no doubt feeling her body tense as he was pressed against the back of it, his arm banded around her waist.
    She didn’t want to say it. Couldn’t believe she hadn’t considered it, and now they were here and—she was going to look like such a naïve fool. “Condoms,” she said hoarsely. “I—I—”
    Oh God, she didn’t want to have to admit it, but there was no way she could forget. “I’m so sorry, Ford. I don’t—um—ever—” She could hardly hear her own voice, but whether that was because of the way her blood was thundering past her ears or because she could barely find the breath to speak, she didn’t know. “Because I haven’t in—er—I—”
    Frustrated, she shook her head and met his eyes. “I don’t have any condoms. Because I don’t bring guys home with me. Like I said, it’s been a long time.”
    Ford let out a low, warm laugh. “I know I ought to be ashamed of myself, but the caveman in me is kind of beating his chest right now.”
    She thought she heard him mutter something about “Safety Sam to the rescue,” but it didn’t make any sense and then he was kissing her again. Kissing her until her shoulders were braced against the door and her leg was hooked around his thigh. Until finally she broke away long enough to ask, “So you have a condom?” Or he knew a store that delivered or something, because as incredible as her release