Read Online Slim To None (Cedar Tree #1) by Freya Barker - Free Book Online Page A

already did the hardest part, which was packing up all I had and moving here to live a dream just for me. For once, I did something without any thought for anyone else. It still feels self-indulgent and unfamiliar, but it feels good, as well. I guess I figured, why not? I was on a roll when we had our little telephone thing, whatever that was. I had been doing so much “living in the moment” in the past few months and feeling so good about it, that I didn't think, I just jumped"
    "And what is wrong with that?"
    "Nothing, I guess, except it was surreal and I was outside of myself, feeling wanted for the first time in a fucking long time." The expletive made Gus chuckle.
    "Don't laugh, I'm serious!" She glared at him. "For too many years now, I've been naked and poked and prodded more than I care to remember, but nothing about that was sexual. All it made me feel was like a specimen in a petri-dish. Ten years I've been a mother, a friend, and most of all, a patient. Not once - not once has anyone made me feel like a woman until I answered that call, and I just went with it because it was an amazing feeling. I was greedy and wanted that for myself. I never thought that there was going to be a moment where the “woman” who had that amazingly unexpected experience on the phone would have to be matched up with the person who detached from her body so long ago. That person doesn't really care anymore."
    She could feel hot tears trickling down her face, and bending her head, she tried to find a way to undo the past twenty-four odd hours, where she was happily baking pies and had a nice memory to dream of, but then she found herself being lifted on to Gus's lap. His big hand tangled in her curls, pressing her head against his chest as he leaned them back against the couch.
    "All I see when I look at you is a woman." His voice rumbles comfortably beneath her; his heartbeat steady and strong in her ear. "Strong, capable, and so damn positive it radiates from your pores. I told you before, I had no idea what you looked like, and you had an effect on me, and then I met you. I didn't know who you were, and you affected me. I come to find the two are the same and I'm blown out of the water." Pushing her back slightly, he looked in her eyes, as if he was trying to find every answer in their depths. "I haven't asked about your condition, not because I'm not interested or I don't want to know, because I do. I’m just more interested in getting to know the woman first. That okay with you?"
    Lifting her hand to Gus's face, Emma traced the laugh lines beside his mouth with her fingers, before leaning in and softly kissing his lips.
    "I'll take that as a yes." Gus mumbled before taking her mouth in a hungry kiss that sucked every coherent thought from her mind until only sensation remained.
    "God, woman, what you do to me..."
    Adjusting her carefully on his lap so she could straddle him, she could feel his hard length between her legs.
    "Is this position okay for you? You'll have to tell me if something is painful." Gus said before renewing his attack on her mouth. With one hand tangled in her curls, almost to the point of pain to position her head for a better angle, the other hand had a firm clasp on her ample ass. She couldn’t tell if she was coming or going anymore. The taste of him, beer, and something inherently male were intoxicating. The feel of his stubble over her skin, rubbing through the wetness his soft lips left behind was sexy as hell to her. He placed open-mouthed kisses all along her jaw to her neck. Every part of her body was coming alive as he was awakening all of her nerve endings. Stretching her head back to try and give him maximum access, she groaned at the wet slide of his tongue along her neck as he alternated with nips, and then sharp bites on her skin. She was losing herself in the contrast of sensations he was evoking, and all the while, she was pushing herself on his hard cock, grinding her core on him in a