His expression grew hard. “That’s because they’ve only been looking at you, Emery, instead of seeing you.”
My heart felt so full, I could barely stand it. I wrapped my arms around him, buried my face in his neck. “Don’t. You’re going to make me cry.”
His hands held my face, and he leaned back to look at me. His gaze was so intent, so full, it stole my breath and made my heart pound. Xander kissed me then, his lips moving gently over mine, his tongue touching mine softly. With his palm cupping my jaw, his thumb brushed over my lower lip before pressing down, opening my mouth more for him. Just that one movement—that one taking—made me dizzy with want and burned up my tears in heated need.
“And anyway,” he said, his voice gruff and thick. “We can do otherthings.”
I gasped as he gripped me under my thighs with both hands and got up from the chair, taking me with him. He carried me to his bed and laid me down, then covered my body with his. We kissed and touched, our hands roaming over our clothes until it wasn’t enough. Until we needed skin and heat and to be naked with each other.
I sat up and pulled my sweater over my head, taking my shirt with it and leaving me in my bra. Xander’s eyes swept over me, and everywhere they landed, I felt the tingling anticipation of his touch. We’d kept our clothes on before but today was different.
“More this time,” I whispered, moving so that we were both kneeling.
He nodded and pulled his shirt off, leaving him bare-chested. I’d felt the hard contours of him before, but now…
“Jesus, Xander.” I stared greedily, my fingertips tracing his collarbone, across the planes of his chest, then down to the ridges of his abs. “They need to make rowing a national requirement.”
He didn’t reply, uninterested in his own perfection, but reached for me. His hands slid into my hair as he kissed me—a hard, thrilling kiss—that was different from his usual. Xander’s kisses never failed to ignite every part of me from the inside out, but this time I felt his intentions shift. His need deepen.
He started to undo the clasp of my bra but then paused, checking with me first with a quick glimpse. I nodded and then felt it loosen. Slowly, he pulled it off my arms and tossed it aside, his gaze drinking me in.
“Emery,” he breathed. “You’re so goddamn beautiful, it hurts to look at you.”
His hands slipped down over my breasts, thumbs brushing my nipples in maddeningly soft little touches. I placed my hands on his and pressed them against me, letting him know to squeeze and knead and touch me without restraint. Being topless with him, with his hands on me like this, it felt like our first kiss. A reunion, this timewith our bodies, and I could only imagine what it was going to feel like when he was finally inside me.
Xander erased my thoughts with another biting kiss, then he tore away, his forehead bending to touch mine, his breathing coming harder now as he fought for control. I could feel the tension in him, the suppressed want for me that coiled in every taut muscle. His mouth took mine again before moving to my neck, my throat, then down to one nipple. I whimpered as the heated wetness of his tongue swirled over me, as his teeth bit lightly—teasing me—before clamping down and sucking.
I let out a cry, my hands in his hair, gripping the strands and holding him in place while little bolts of electricity radiated from everywhere he touched me, then skimmed down my back and between my legs until I was practically panting.
“Xander…I…”
He came back up for more kisses, his arms sliding around me and holding me close, chest to chest. So much bare skin touching…he was so warm, yet hard against my softness. His hands roamed, returning to my face, to hold me like I was precious and then kissing me like I was the air he needed to breathe. To feel both at once, desired and cherished…to feel how badly he wanted me while never losing himself in his own need, was a kind of consideration I’d never known before.
“Emery,” he breathed, his hands slipping down my back, then around the front of my jeans. “I want to touch you.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “God, yes. Me too.”
I tore at his buttons while he worked to undo mine. We came apart to slip off our jeans, then lay side by side in our underwear, his head beside mine on the pillow. We tangled like vines, arms and legs entwined, kissing hard enough that breathing came second to the deep sweeps of our tongues that needed to explore every corner. Below, our hips moved in desperate thrusts, his erection pressing against the center of me again and again.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take it another minute, his handslipped over my breast, my stomach, then lower, leaving little fires along every inch skin he touched. He went between my legs, cupped me over the silk of my underwear, and began rubbing gently. A moan fell out of my mouth at the sensation—a deep ache of pleasure that was begging for release.
I let my hand follow the same path down his magnificent body, honed by God-knew-how-many hours in the gym, trailing over the lean muscles of his torso that tensed under my touch. I slipped lower, under the waistband of his boxer briefs, to find the hard length of him—thick and perfect. I wrapped my fingers around him and stroked him once.
He released a hissing breath. “Fuck, Em…”
“Do you have lotion?”
He nodded at the nightstand behind me. There was a box of tissues there, while in the drawer I found a little bottle of lotion. The image of Xander lying on his back, taking himself in hand and working to make himself come, suddenly flashed across my mind, and the ache between my legs intensified.
I put a few tissues beside me and then a small amount of lotion in my palm before coming back to him. We tangled again immediately, as I slipped my hand inside his underwear to caress him again, this time with smooth frictionless motion, the lotion sliding easily over his erection.
“What do you think about when you do this to yourself?” I breathed against his lips, working him in long, slow strokes and squeezes.
“Can you guess?” he said gruffly. “I think about you.” He went between my legs again, to my damp underwear. “I think about being here. Being inside you. Making you come.”
Dear God…
A little cry erupted out of me as his fingers slipped beneath the hem of my underwear, to that sensitive little knot of flesh that was already throbbing.
