It didn’t listen.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” He leaned down and smoothed a lock of hair back from her cheek, but his hand stayed and he caressed the curve with his thumb.
The gesture was so gentle and sweet—so opposite everything she thought of him—her already caught heart tightened a little more.
Don’t flip. Please don’t flip.
Too late.
She didn’t want him to hurt her, either. But she wanted him on the floor even less. No tenderness, she reminded herself.Physical. Make it physical.
“You won’t.” She pulled him down on top of her. “But I want you to make me very, very sore.”
He muffled a curse and groan as his mouth covered hers, his good-guy efforts finally giving way. All the hesitation was gone as he came down hard on top of her.
The weight of all those muscles should be crushing, but it wasn’t. It just turned her on even more. She loved the solid feel of him. The hardness of his body on top of hers. It made her feel vulnerable and small, but protected at the same time.
She was a strong woman. Confident. Independent. Capable and happy to take care of herself. She’d told herself she’d never need a man to protect her. But there was some tiny primitive instinct buried deep inside her that responded to his strength. To his sheer physicality and blatant masculinity. And it was weeping with pleasure right now.
She would have muffled a protest when he rolled slightly off her, but her mouth was too busy sliding against his tongue—she would never taste cinnamon again without thinking of him, thanks to that toothpaste—and then she realized he’d only done it so that his hand could have free roam over her body.
No protest necessary. His touch set her aflame. She was on fire. Hotter for him than she’d ever been in her life.
She didn’t understand this kind of attraction. How her body seemed to shoot from zero to light speed in an instant. How her skin felt hot and too tight. How her nerve endings were tingling and on edge. How every inch, every muscle, every fiber of her body was tuned to him. She just went with it. Let the fierceness of the attraction take over.
And God, was it fierce!
She arched in his hand when he covered her breast. Wrapped her leg around him to hold him tighter when he notched himself between her legs.
Her entire body went liquid.
She responded to his kiss as she’d never responded to another man. Savoring every stroke of his tongue. The roughness of his just-shaved jaw on hers. The feel of those big callused hands claiming her body. Her hands on his body.
She wanted everything he had to give... and more.
Physical, she reminded herself.Keep it casual. But there was nothing casual about this. It was fierce. Intense. Powerful. Overwhelming.
It was need at its most primitive. It was two people who wanted each other with every fiber of their being. Two people who couldn’t wait to have sex again because they knew how good it had been the first time. It was pleasure and sensation at its most erotic.
He pulled back long enough to remove her nightshirt. He stared at her breasts for so long her cheeks warmed and her nipples tightened. She started to lift the sheet that he’d tossed off her back up, but he stopped her.
“Don’t. God, do you know how badly I wanted to strip that damned bathing suit top off you today?”
He rubbed the back of his finger over one nipple, and she sucked in her breath. It wasn’t just from the touch, but from the heat in his eyes when he looked at her.
“I wished you were in a burka with the way those assholes were looking at you, but I was imagining you naked. I could see the pebble of your nipple, but I didn’t know they’d be this pink.” His accent got deeper when he was turned on, and it was heavier than she’d ever heard it. He lowered his face to her breasts. “Yes, definitely my new favorite color.” He licked one, circling his tongue around the taut tip in a delicious swirl of heat.
She moaned as her body melted. Dampness and heat spread between her legs. The throb of need intensified.
“I’m going to suck you now, sweetheart.” His breath blew over the damp and throbbing skin. “Do you want me to do that?”
“Yes,” she breathed—gasped. “Oh God, please yes.”
He covered her with his lips, sucking her into his mouth. A tight vacuum that pulled the pleasure from deep inside her in a sharp needle of sensation. His tongue swirled the tip,making it tighten some more. She arched into his mouth as the pleasure wound tighter and tighter into a spiral of need.
“Do you like that, Annie?” he whispered. “Will you come if I touch you?”
She whimpered at how good that sounded. She wanted him to touch her. Her body was primed for it. She wanted to come.
