He nipped at her lip, teasing, before trailing lower, tasting the curve of her jaw, the delicate point of her chin. His lips slid down, capturing the tendon in her neck between his teeth, sucking just hard enough to make her gasp.
She sighed as he dragged her body along his. His cock pressed hot and hard through the thin fabric of their sweatpants, every inch outlined and throbbing against her.
It was liquid fire, the sharp currents of electricity that sparked from her neck to her pussy, making her tilt her head back for more.
“Rush,” she whispered, threading her fingers through his hair, knocking his hat to the floor as she pulled him closer. Her breasts felt heavy, the ache between her legs deep and insistent, her nipples tight and pulsing with need. “More,” she breathed, grinding against him—faster and harder. More pressure. More friction. More of him.
He pulled back just enough to look at her, his eyes dark and burning. His mouth hovered over hers, teasing, before he crushed another hard kiss on her lips. He groaned, low and deep, thrusting his hips up against her once, hard. But his grip was firm when he threaded his fingers through her hair and eased her back, looking her square in the face.
“Stop,” he rasped. He pushed her back, shifting her away from where there had been nothing but heat and hunger. His breathing came in ragged pulls, his pupils blown as he took her in with a hot gaze.
Lily knew what he saw. She was flushed and panting; her lips felt kiss-swollen and tender. Her chest rose unevenly, the thin fabric of the flannel outlining her tautnipples straining toward him. Her thighs trembled around his body, betraying just how much need she had pent up.
“Why?” she whispered, terribly afraid that she knew what he would say.
“What’s this about, Lily?” Rush asked bluntly. His tone was a low command, and she didn’t think to shy away from the truth or couch her answer with coyness.
“I want you,” she said, wincing at the shakiness in her voice.
Rush leaned down and delicately grazed her collarbone with his teeth, the scrape of his cheek against her tender throat making her gasp.
Then he pulled back, his hand stilling her hips, and pinned her with a hard look.
“I want to fuck you, Lily.”
Her heart stuttered—yes! God, yes!—but before she could melt into the words, his next ones landed, sharp and measured.
“I know you can feel that,” he said roughly, thrusting up, making his arousal blatant against her. “But I need to hear you say it.”
Lily blinked. For her, for once, there was no confusion over what she wanted. There was only heat and need and a craving for the man whose lap she was spread out on. But as she looked at the hard set of his jaw and the heat in his eyes, she knew what he was asking, and she understood. Rush wasn’t the kind of man to take something she wasn’t sure about.
“I want you,” she whispered. “I want this.”
He grinned then, a slow, crooked tilt of his lips that made her insides do silly things. “Good, darlin’. That’s real good, ’cause I’m going to give it to you.”
She tilted her hips, grinding a slow, deliberate circle over his lap, her body answering for her.
A shudder rolled through her as she felt him, thick and unyielding beneath her, the friction igniting something deepand hot inside her. This. This was what had always eluded her. What she’d heard only in whispers from her sisters and friends, what she’d read about in books. Not just desire but ownership too. Of her body and her choices.
Rush wasn’t stopping her. He wasn’t telling her to slow down, to be careful, to think this through. He wasn’t deciding anything for her. He was just here—solid, steady, sexy as sin. For once, she didn’t have to think about making the right choice, weighing how her decisions would affect everyone else. She could just feel. She could want and be wanted.
Oh God, she wanted.
A wild, unashamed part of her, one she might have been ashamed of in the light of day, rose up, greedy and feral with need. She felt the shake in his big arms, the tension in his muscles, and something deep inside her reveled in the knowledge that she had done that to him. That she could unravel a man like Rush Callahan. That she, the girl who had spent her life not making waves, could make a man like him shake.
She had never been more certain of anything in her life.
She rolled her hips again for the sheer pleasure of it, chasing that delicious pressure, the exquisite press of him against her. She wasn’t waiting to be told what to do or how to be in this moment. In this moment, she was nothing but sensation and want, raw and uninhibited.
She sat back, balancing her hands on either side of his knees, and arched against him, thrusting her breasts up like an offering.
His eyes flickered for an instant while she held her breath, desperately hoping he trusted her enough to know what she wanted for herself.
His eyes flared hotter than ever. His big, rough hands slid up her thighs, curved around her waist, dragging her tighter andtighter against his cock. He paused then, leaning back, looking at her hotly. A low order rumbled from him. “Show me.”
With her fingers trembling, Lily unbuttoned the flannel shirt she wore, uncovering herself for him. The soft fabric slipped over her shoulders and pooled around her waist, leaving her full breasts naked in the glow of the fire. She leaned back, thrusting her chest forward proudly, watching lust spread over his face, dark and dangerous.
“Jesus,” he breathed, his voice raw with desire. He cupped her breast, plumping it, watching the soft swell of it spill over his hands almost obscenely. Rush sucked in a sharp breath, looking reverent. “Never cover these up again.”
