Now and Then by Mira Lyn Kelly

in the car had been, she was already desperate for more.
    “Yeah, but only three,” he said, looking sincerely sorry. “I’ll bring more next time, I promise.”
    Nodding too fast, Brynn jammed the key in the lock and dragged him inside.

Chapter 10
    Within the apartment a single low light in the kitchen filtered out into the hall, casting the space around them in soft shadows. Brynn swung the door closed behind them and turned to throw the deadbolt and chain. Three condoms’ worth of fun ahead or not, she’d been living on her own too long to let security slide. Sure, Ford was big and strong, but the guy had better things to do with his night than fight off some jacked-up meth head.
    Like burn through three condoms.
    That’s what she’d been thinking as she fumbled the security chain once, twice, before getting lucky on the third try. And only then because Ford pressed up against her, his body hot and hard, and taking her hand in his, guided the knob into place.
    “Nervous?” he asked against her ear, running his hands over her in a slow caress.
    “Yes.” It had been so long and while she imagined the whole sexy good-times business was a lot like riding a bike, she hadn’t had that much practice to begin with. Ford had been her first and they’d done it a sum total of five times before she’d left. There had been others…but to say they were few and far between would be a gross understatement. Ten years later she wouldn’t have the excuse of being a virgin to justify her lack of sexual savvy, and Ford—God, he was so confident and assured. And the way he looked. The way he walked and talked and thought and laughed. The way the women looked at him.
    Ford was not hurting for experience. Of this, she was certain.
    “Tell me what you’re thinking,” he asked.
    That she wouldn’t measure up? That he’d be disappointed? That she was scared of a dozen different things that may or may not happen to diminish something she desperately wanted to be good?
    No way.
    “That I don’t want to think at all.” Glancing over her shoulder, she asked, “Can you do that? Can you make it so, for now, tonight, all I do is feel?”
    There would be plenty of time to think tomorrow and the day after that.
    Ford leaned closer, his big body caging her against the door, his mouth meeting that dangerous spot at the base of her neck and brushing slowly, lightly, back and forth.
    “Do you
feel
this?” he asked, continuing to tease the sensitive skin there.
    “Yes.” It was crazy how good it felt, how that barest contact caused sensation, warm and thick, to spill through the deepest part of her. How when he opened his mouth, adding the slightest suction, she felt the pull of it at her breasts and between her legs.
    “Can you
feel
how bad I want you, Brynn?”
    A nod. Because yes, she could feel him pressed hard against her. But even if the steely evidence hadn’t been hot against the small of her back, she would have been able to feel it in the tightening of his arm around her and the possessive flex of his fingers at her hip. Hear it in the deepening of his voice. Sense it from the way every breath seemed to bring them impossibly closer.
    “Tell me,” he urged at her ear, sending a thrill through her at the thought her words would mean something to him. “Say it.”
    “I can feel you wanting me,” she whispered on a ragged breath.
    “Yeah, but can you feel
how much
?” The hand at her hip began a slow roam, circling out from that initial point, fisting and flexing, roving over her ribs, across her belly, and down to her thigh—like he wanted to touch every part of her at once.
    Like no single spot would be enough.
    Or maybe that was just how she felt. Like she could have all of this man and it still wouldn’t be enough for how badly she wanted him.
    Not in one night.
    His hands were at either side of her now, running up and down the cut of her waist, flexing against her ass, and then riding up to take the weight of