Secrets to Hide 3: Just a Little More by Ella Sheridan

cup her cheek. He tilted her chin until their noses slid against each other, until his warm breath ghosted over her chilled lips and her eyes had no choice but to meet his. What she saw there woke her body up in ways that had nothing to do with warmth.
    “That”—his lips went tight—“ man stole enough from us,” Brad said, the fierce rasp of the words cutting through the quiet. “Don’t let him steal anything more.”
    She was stuck back on his first sentence. “Us?”
    “Us.” His gaze dropped to her mouth, and he smoothed his thumb across her bottom lip, tracing the chapped, ragged edges. His tongue followed, flicking against the skin, warming and moistening. Angel gasped at the sensation, her breath locking in her lungs as she waited for more. So, so gently he brought his lips to hers. It wasn’t the first time she’d felt his kiss, but it felt like it, like this man’s touch was both brand-new and as old as time. The rake of his mouth over hers brought tears to her eyes. She held herself in absolute stillness, afraid the least little movement would wake her from this dream moment. Since the first day she’d met him, she’d dreamed of Brad’s kiss. In the past few weeks she’d worried that she would never feel it again, yet here it was—and it was good. Pleasure shafted through her shivering, aching body as his lips melded to hers, and when his tongue entered her, she opened, eager and afraid. Brad took advantage, delving deep into her mouth.
    His hands held her still as he angled his head, his movements going from soft to fierce in an instant. All the emptiness that had consumed her was suddenly filled. She groaned her pleasure around his thrusting tongue, pain forgotten in the fierceness of her hunger for him. Her wildest dreams were coming true, and for a moment she wondered if she really had gone to sleep on that desolate stoop, only to wake up in heaven. But no, this was real—Brad’s heat seared her, his taste consumed her, and the scent of his body heat and musky cologne and the faint edge of beer from the bar wrapped her in a blanket tighter than the one he’d brought to keep her warm. This wasn’t a dream; it was reality. The man she loved made love to her mouth with all the ferocity of desperate need.
    Brad eased back, his invasion shifting to licking and nipping and teasing her mouth. With a final bite to her chin, he leaned his forehead against hers once more. Angel opened eyes she hadn’t realized she’d closed and stared up into the depths of Brad’s dark gray gaze. The determination she saw there sent a shiver through her.
    “I love you, Angel.”
    Oh God. The first time she’d heard those words from his lips. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed them, needed to hear that he loved her , screwed-up, messed-up Angel. “Brad—”
    “Hush!”
    Angel shut her mouth with a hard clack of her teeth, her eyes going wide. Brad had never spoken to her like that, but his harsh tone was cut by the hungry desperation shining in his expression. He dropped his hands to her shoulders, gripping tightly, but the shake he gave her was gentle. “You listen to me, Angel. I love you. I have for a long, long time, but—” He waved away whatever that thought was. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, I love you. I want you—not just for my best friend, but for my lover, my wife. Don’t you ever put that in jeopardy again, do you understand me?”
    She watched him closely, searching his eyes for the truth, a truth she didn’t dare believe. “No, you’re just saying that because you—because of what happened, because you’re afraid I might—”
    “You’re darn right I’m afraid, beautiful. And this”—he grasped the hand still lying outside her blanket and brought it to his thigh, laying her chilled fingers right next to a more than obvious erection—“what you do to me with just a kiss? It can’t be faked.” He lifted her hand to his thudding heart. “And neither can this.