Untethered

8 | Wildfire

Had Emma thought she was drowning? Because, on second thought, she felt like she was about to spontaneously combust. Maybe a ship blazing in the middle of the ocean during a raging storm? She didn't care. It was like wildfire, and they were like kindling at the mercy of the living flames devouring them.

She rose, kneeling between his thighs on the step below him, and his hands clutched her roughly, drawing her even closer. He pulled at her with urgency until she was sprawled astride him, and there was barely a breath between their bodies.

His fingers left scorch marks wherever he touched her, and she was panting for air, little moans of want escaping her throat. He covered her mouth with his, his tongue stroking against hers sending waves of heat through her body. At the same time, his hands slid up from the curve of her backside and skimmed the bare skin of her low back, under the hem of her t-shirt. She gasped into his mouth at the contact with her naked flesh, and he nearly lost his last shred of self-control. Before he was utterly consumed, though, a completely unexpected emotion began to take root inside him.

The inferno that had been lit so suddenly between them cooled to a slow burn. His touch became gentler, caressing her body almost worshipfully. Still holding her securely, he slowly moved away from her mouth, his lips trailing across her jaw and down her neck. His breath on her body was like a breeze blowing on an ember, brightly igniting at his touch, then cooling, over and over again.

Gradually, his hands stilled their movement, though still grasping her tightly, as his lips came to rest on the swell of her breasts. He held her, breathing her scent in, and his body shuddered against hers with the effort of putting himself back in check.

"God, Em... I don't know what I was thinking..." he rasped out, his voice raw.

"Why the hell did you stop?" she choked out through ragged breaths, leaning her forehead against his shoulder.

"I didn't want to take advantage, and if we kept going... I don't think I could have stopped myself," he murmured into her neck.

"It isn't taking advantage if I want you to keep going," she stated matter-of-factly.

He met her hazel eyes smokey with lust, the gold flecks glowing brightly, reminding him of a distant forest fire. Desire was still flickering somewhere deep inside his dark green ones, and a pregnant pause stretched out between them.

"I think I want more than just this," he finally whispered hoarsely.

Emma sat up, then, still straddling his hips. Unable to match the intensity in his gaze, her eyes focused on a button on his shirt in the middle of his chest, and her teeth worried at her bottom lip so hard she nearly drew blood.

"What do you mean, more?"

"I mean... I mean that I want more than just a one-time thing. More than just a random fling that we both regret later." His hands found her shoulders and his fingertips brushed lightly up her neck to her face, sending tiny sparks dancing along her nerve endings like a dying ember under a fresh breath of air. "I mean... I want you, Em." Her eyes snapped up to his face.

"You want me." She repeated his words almost to herself, and slid from his grasp and onto the step below him like her bones had suddenly turned to goo. "Like a relationship?" She made it sound like a dirty word. "But, you hardly know me! How-"

"I've known you your whole life," he chuckled, then.

"Not like that." She glared at him when he laughed.

Doesn't the idiot know that this is no time for levity?

The passion she'd been feeling moments before had turned cold, like a huge rock that had sunk to the pit of her stomach and sat there feeling heavier and heavier.