Merc groaned and dropped his forehead to hers. “I don't deserve someone like you.”
He had no idea how much like her he was.
Dangerous thoughts whispered across her mind:You're not Nightshade. You’re Caroline Cotter, a United States Senator’s daughter.Merc had no idea who she really was. Her heart clenched. Could she be with him like this, give him herself knowing he thought she was someone else?
He placed a kiss on her lips, tender and gentle, trailing down her neck to nibble at her collar bone leaving hot goose bumps in his wake.
Nightshade tossed her reservations to the back of her mind. Pretending to be her sister wasn’t hurting anyone right now.
“Yes, you do. We deserve this.” Although she knew she might regret it tomorrow, she wanted Merc to be the one to take her virginity. She wanted to remember this moment forever. She wanted him.
Merc trembledon top of Caroline, her intense and honest response robbing him of logic. He didn't know what it was about her, but he knew she belonged to him and him alone. That yawning emptiness he felt since he'd woken scared and alone on that sterile gurney, his memory gone, disappeared when he was close to her. It was like she was the puzzle piece he’d been missing his whole life.
Before Caroline, Merc had been seeking to fill the void with vengeance and death. But this tiny slip of a woman flooded that void with her simple touch.
“Are you sure about this?” He'd never been an honorable man. Honor didn't exactly coexist in his line of work, but she made him want to be better. And even if he had to slice off his own damn dick to keep himself under control around her, if she told him no, he would.
“I'm sure,” Caroline whispered and then licked her lips, drawing him instantly to that lush soft pink mouth. As if tugged by a magnet, he lowered his head to hers, claiming her with a gentle kiss.
“I want to see all of you.” Merc pushed back onto his knees, reaching for the large black button trousers. She helped him tug the material down her hips. He tossed them to the floor right along with her shirt and bra. Underneath was a delightful surprise. No flimsy thong, but boy shorts that did nothing but emphasize the swelling curve of her hips. His eyes immediately went to an old scar puckered along her inner thigh. “What's this?”
She dragged his hand away and placed it on her breast. “Car accident. Long time ago. Don't want to talk about scars.”
She didn't have to say another word. His mind was already focused on the soft flesh giving beneath his palm as he lifted and tested the weight. Even though her frame was small, her breast fit his palm perfectly. Her already tight nipple beaded even harder under his caress.
He lowered his head to her body, reverently savoring the way her skin stretched across her sternum as he slowly trailed butterfly kisses down to her navel. He circled the hollow with his tongue and continued southward.
Since their kiss last night, he’d had brief flashes of a memory of him taking a dark-haired girl against the wall in an alley, harsh and unemotional, both of them satisfying a basic need. He recognized the girl in his dreams but couldn't put a name to her face. All he knew was he wasn’t a virgin. And although he detested the memory, he was glad to know he had some idea of what to do with Caroline.
She lifted her right leg first and then her left as he pulled her boy shorts free, tossing them to the floor. He sat back on his heels, staring in awe at her slender, toned legs, the slight swell of her muscular abdomen, and the way her blond hair fanned out on the mattress. He knew he'd never seen anyone so beautiful and never would again.
Intending to savor every single inch of her body, he started at her feet, his hands enveloping them as he lifted her right leg and kissed the arch of her foot, reveling in her gasp and giggle. “Ticklish, are you?”
“Horribly,” she answered.
He tucked that memory away, intending to tease and torture her later when they had more time to savor each other. Right now he had another goal in mind, this one not involving tickling or feet.
Merc stood, pushing his pants off his hips and toeing them from his body. He took the moment to fully appreciate Caroline laid out like a Greek goddess on the bed, waiting on him to devour her. His chest tightened and he slowly rubbed his fist over his sternum, unfamiliar with the deep ache and unsure of what it meant, only knowing Caroline was the one who had put it there.
“You're beautiful. So incredibly beautiful.” Merc dropped to his knees between her spread legs, running his hands up and down her thighs, the friction of her satiny skin against his rough callused palms building a fire inside him.
He focused on the beautiful sensitive spot framed at the juncture of her thighs. She was bare and glistening wet. His mouth watered and he went to his chest, slowly sliding his hands underneath her and cupping her ass to lift her before him as a feast.
He heard her breath hitch and then her hands tangled in his hair. “Wha – what are you doing?”
“Tasting you.” He could see the uncertainty in her gaze. She seemed to waver between afraid and curious, and he saw the moment curiosity won out.
He slowly dipped his head to her and placed a gentle kiss right at her core, inhaling her perfect musky scent. His senses, already heightened and attuned to her every move, went into overdrive. It was as if this was the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life.
With reverence, he licked her slit, the bottom all the way to the top, his already hard cock going granite as she squealed. He used his thumbs to part her and licked again, this time scraping his teeth over her clit.
Caroline arched in his hands. “Merc!”
“Do you like it?”
Her fingers tugged at his hair, yanking him to her. “Do that again.”
His woman was demanding and he fucking loved it.
