She reached for the buttons of his shirt, then found another layer underneath—and another. “Not so convenient.”
He helped her unbutton the shirts and shrugged out of them.
She ran her hand across his broad chest, winnowing her fingers through the crinkly hair she found there.
He sighed and pulled her close, swaying her breasts against his chest, wringing a glad cry from her.
His mouth came back to her, his tongue playing with the seam of her lips. She opened for him, closing her eyes as he deepened the kiss while he cupped her breasts in his hands and slid his thumbs over the taut peaks.
Joy surged through Stephanie. She was free to be with the man she loved now, and that thought sent hot, needy sensations curling through her body.
He unbuttoned her shorts and lowered the zipper, pushing the garment down her legs, along with her panties, so he could touch her intimately, sending heat pounding through her.
He had brought her to climax the night before. Now she needed more. And she needed to return the pleasure he had given her.
She pulled back the covers, bringing him down to the surface of the bed with her, clasping him to her before rising up and trailing kisses along his body, moving ever downward, knowing he was tensing with anticipation. And when she found his erection with her mouth and closed around him, she felt his pleasure zinging through her.
He didn’t have to tell her when to stop. She knew. And she knew when to straddle his body and bring him inside her.
She was dizzy with desire. And she knew he was too.
She had kept things slow. Now an explosion of need had her moving in a frantic rhythm that sent them both flying off into space.
When she came down to earth, he was there to catch her.
Emotions flooded through her as they looked at each other.
“The bad parts are behind us,” he whispered. “This is the first day of the rest of our lives.”
“And it’s so much more than I ever expected. Oh, Craig, I love you so much.”
He dragged in a breath and let it out. “I came to New Orleans to punish my brother’s killer, because I thought that satisfaction was all I could expect. Then I met you, and I knew that there was so much more.”
“Never alone again,” she whispered as she snuggled against him, marveling at what she had found with this man. Now and for the rest of her life.
