I Still Do by Christie Ridgway Page A

away. I want you to be right here in this moment, right now, with me.”
    Her body swayed toward him, then she rocked back on her heels. “But…but…”
    â€œBut what?” He drew her forward and slid his hand around her bare back so that his palm was between her shoulder blades and her nipples just a shirt away from his naked chest. “We’re too young?” he asked, his voice lowered. “Someone might catch us? We don’t want each other?”
    She licked her bottom lip, the puffy one that made him crazy just looking at it.
    â€œEmily, you know none of those objections are true. Not anymore for the first two. Never for the third. We’re all grown up now. We can touch each other, skin-to-skin, all the good parts for the taking, without worrying about anything.”
    The face she made was somewhere between a pout, a frown and a smile. “Your arts of persuasion have certainly been honed over the years, Will.”
    He grinned, rubbing his palm in soothing circles over her spine. “Raising five kids will do that for a guy.”
    That sent her gaze darting over his shoulder and into the bedroom. “Don’t worry, Emily,” he assured her. “We’re alone. We’re going to stay alone. I locked the front door on my way in. It’s just you and me and that bed that’s never had another woman in it…until you.”
    Her gaze narrowed. “No. Really?”
    With his free hand he rubbed at the little line developing between her brows. “Really.” His lips touched hers, soft there too, but he lingered to let their warm breath mingle. “Just another first you’ll be for me, sweetheart.”
    Her heart was racing, he could feel it against his hand and against his chest. It made him want to grab, insist, possess, but instead he stroked his fingers down the speed bumps of her spine, and they reminded him to take it slow. She shivered against him, and he kissed each corner of her lips and then her nose. “Emily, I’ve wanted to make love to you since before I understood exactly what that meant. You want me too, I know that.”
    She laid her cheek against his shoulder, snuggling up against him like he was something familiar and comfortable instead of a hard, horny male holding on to his control by a thread. So he held on to it tighter, and held back from grinding against her, from showing how hot he was really running, because this was Emily and he used to spend hours content with merely sifting his fingers through her long, silky hair.
    â€œI’m overthinking this, aren’t I, Will?”
    â€œI always said the Honor Roll would get you into trouble, baby.”
    She laughed. “Believe me. It didn’t get me into any kind of trouble at all.”
    Was that regret he heard in her voice? God, he could empathize. He’d had to go from Wild Will to Responsible Will when he was eighteen years old, and he’d missed being able to indulge in his old rowdy ways. He caught her chin in his hand and lifted it so their eyes met. “Then for once let me be the danger you missed out on, baby. I’ll keep you safe.”
    Her mouth curved. “My danger and my safety—both at once?”
    Hell, yeah, he’d be her sinner and her saint, if it would keep that smile on her face and that promise of surrender in her eyes. “Whatever you need, Em.”
    â€œWell, then.” She took a deep breath in, then let it out.
    A decision had been made, he could tell.
    â€œWell, then,” she said again, as her hands slid to his chest and found the buttons of his shirt. “What I need, at the moment, is you.”
    For a woman who used her brain a lot, her fingers were plenty nimble as well. All that page turning, or maybe it was the computer work? Will pondered those for a second or two, just until she was sliding the cotton off his shoulders and bringing her bare skin against his.
    He groaned at the