She had to swallow hard before her brain could even process the next detail. Her gaze dropped lower, and all the oxygen fled her lungs. He was hard already, from the looks of it, painfully so. His erection was jutting out from a nest of dark curls. He was thick and long, and she had no vocabulary left for this, only the pulse of heat that zinged through her body, the rush of want that was suddenly, viscerally, at the very edge of pain.
His gaze raked her from head to toe once again, leaving a trail of molten heat wherever it landed. For a blissful second, she felt completely, objectively like the most beautiful woman in the world. She straightened, letting her shoulders fall back and her chin tilt up. She met his eyes, and in that electric moment, something both scary and exhilarating happened, she wanted to be possessed, to be claimed, to be totally open for him.
“You are the most beautiful thing that exists,” his voice was low, raspy, and raw. It was a hyperbolic statement, but coming from AJ, it felt honest, pure, and real.
She couldn’t accept how it made her feel, not really, just that she was desperate and dizzy with desire. The ache inside her was almost unbearable. She wanted him so badly it felt like her bones might liquefy.
A whimper escaped from her mouth, and AJ’s lips curled in a knowing grin. With his eyes devouring her, he had to know what he was doing to her, but he didn’t move. It was a silent invitation for her to make the first move, a gift of control within his own command. That balance of dominance and respect was so hot she couldn’t even stand it.
She wasn’t sure how long he would have stayed in that game of seduction chicken if Poppy hadn’t remembered that they needed protection.
“Oh, wait, we need…” She went to grab condoms from her nightstand, and he followed behind her.
When she bent over to grab them, she heard a groan of male appreciation rumble in his chest. It gave her a surge of satisfaction to know that her body had caused a reaction out of him the same way his body did hers.
She turned and handed him the box, which he took from her and was about to toss onto the bed when he did a double take, paused, and stared down at it.
“What?” she asked.
“These are expired.”
She looked down, and sure enough, they were. She hadn’t been in a relationship since Ronnie, and that ended a year and a half ago.
“Do you have—” she asked.
“No,” he cut her off before she could finish asking.
Their eyes met, and disappointment swallowed her. Of course this was too good to be true.
“Well, I guess some things just are—” she began.
“I’m clean,” he interrupted her. “I had a full physical done before and after deployment, and I’ve never had unprotected sex.”
Whoa. She had not seen that coming. This man did not strike her as the ‘raw dog’ sort.
“So am I. I’ve actually had a lot of blood work done lately, and I’m all good. Also, I’ve never had unprotected sex either.” She glanced down, suddenly having feelings she didn’t want to name. “And as far as pregnancy, it’s—um—yeah, that’s not an issue.” She looked back up. “So if you wanted to?—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the box slipped from his hands, thudded to the carpet, and rolled away into the shadows under the bed. In the space of a breath, AJ’s hands closed around her hips, guiding her, not with brute force but with a senseof inevitability, like gravity, like the moon pulling the tides. The back of Poppy’s knees hit the edge of her mattress, and she folded backward onto it, arms falling to her sides to brace herself.
AJ, still standing, loomed above her, shirtless and intent, eyes so dark they looked like wells of ink, and for a split second she wondered what she must look like to him, staring up at him and trembling and utterly at his mercy.
He lowered himself, pressing her flat with a single palm on her shoulder. His body radiated heat, her skin lit up wherever it met his. He bent down and kissed her neck, the hollow at the base of her throat, her collarbone, and then the space between her breasts, with each kiss he moved her farther up on the bed until her head was near the headboard, then he sucked her right nipple into his mouth and nipped it with his teeth. The sensation was so sharp and focused that Poppy muffled a whimper. AJ paused and looked up at her, a crooked half-smile twitching at the edge of his mouth.
She thought he might just devour her, right there, but instead he moved off of her and returned with his tie from the evening. He held it up in one hand, silent, asking permission without words. Poppy nodded, her throat dry, and AJ’s stare grew darker, not predatory, but dominating. It caused her inner walls to clench.
He took her wrists and raised them above her head. Poppy’s pulse throbbed in her ears as he threaded the tie through the bars of her headboard, wrapping it twice, then knotting it with the calm competence of someone who was no novice, but a master. His experience only served to heighten her arousal.
She flexed against the tie, found it tight but not uncomfortable—just enough to remind her who was in control. A shot of adrenaline hit her bloodstream so hard it felt like a drug. Her toes curled. Her scalp tingled.
AJ returned his attention to her, trailing his fingers down her sides in a featherlight touch that left goosebumps in its wake. He eased her legs apart and settled between them, lowering his face until his breath warmed her inner thigh. He kissed his way upward, slower than seemed possible, as if every inch of her skin deserved its own ceremony. Poppy squirmed under his attention, whimpered, and tried to move her hips so her sex was closer to his mouth to encourage him to speed the process up, but AJ would not be rushed, his hands were braced against her knees, spreading her open.
He took his time, mapping her body with his tongue and lips, learning every fold, every tremor, every gasp. Once he got to her sex, he continued his sensual torture. He licked up and down her folds, then took his time tracing the seam of her opening with his tongue, teasing her by pressing just the tip inside, then moving it lower and flicking it against the taut base. He swirled it around her pleasure button, edging closer and closer, never quite arriving, looping a slow circuit around her clit with a precision that bordered on cruel. Poppy’s hips bucked, but AJ pinned her back down, murmuring ‘mmm’ into her skin, his voice vibrating through her into the springs of the mattress beneath.
The anticipation was sweet misery. Every second she didn’t get what she wanted made her want it more, and somehow AJ always seemed to know exactly how much more she could take. He alternated between soft, almost chaste kisses and sudden, shocking flicks of the tip of his tongue, to long, flattened licks, and each time she thought she would lose her mind if he didn’t let her come, he pulled back and gave her just enough time to beg for it.
He used one hand—just one, strong and unyielding—to pin her hip to the bed, holding her in place no matter how she writhed beneath him. With the other, he cupped her breast,thumb circling her nipple until it was so sensitive she swore she could feel the tickle of air in the room.
When he finally covered her clit with his mouth, it was with the kind of intensity that blew out the rest of her senses. He flicked his tongue in rapid, relentless strokes, faster and faster, and Poppy came apart, the orgasm crashing through her so hard she cried out. She bucked, her arms pulling against the tie, her hips bucking into AJ’s mouth. He held her down until the aftershocks faded and she melted into the mattress, boneless and replete.
