With almost palpable reluctance he turned around and she looked up. His eyes were burning. He shook his head again. ‘Cassie…this…is not going to happen.’
She moved closer. ‘It already happened the other night, Ares.’
His jaw clenched. ‘My fault.’
‘I wanted it too. I kissed you.’
‘You didn’t know who I was.’
‘I don’t care who you are.’ She flushed. ‘I mean, I do, but it doesn’t matter. Here we’re just two people. Adults. Who want the same thing.’
‘It’s not that simple.’
She moved closer, close enough to touch. She put her hands on his chest, his soaked-through T-shirt. His skin was firm, warm. Pectorals bulging under her palms. ‘I think it’s the simplest thing in the world. I’m just a woman, Ares, and I’ve never wanted a man the way I want you.’
‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’ Ares brought his hands to her arms as if he was going to push her away. Cassie dug her heels in. She wasn’t going anywhere. The air crackled and pulsed between them. Between her legs. Her breasts felt heavy, nipples tight.
‘Don’t you want me, Ares?’ She knew he couldn’t deny it. It would be like denying there was a storm lashing the boat and sea outside.
His face was taut now, and his hands tightened on her arms. ‘I wanted you the moment I saw you that first night, that’s why I didn’t tell you who I was when I had a chance. I didn’t want you to turn away from me. I’ve never wanted anyone more.’
Relief flooded her. And sharp desire. ‘Take me, Ares, please.’ Cassie wasn’t above pleading. If she couldn’t have this experience with this man, she knew she’d regret it for the rest of her life.
‘Cass…’
‘Ares.’
Instead of pushing her away from him, he pulled her inexorably closer until their bodies were touching. He looked down at her, fierce. ‘Are you sure you want this?’
‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. Make love to me, Ares.’
‘It’s not love, Cass.’
Cassie loved the way he said that.Cass.She shook her head, body going up in flames, pulse tripping so fast she felt breathless. She lifted her arms and wound them around Ares’s neck. ‘I don’t care what we call it, I just want you, now.’
Ares would have to have been made of iron and stone to resist the woman twining herself around him, pressing those perfect breasts against his chest, rocking her pelvis against his raging hard-on.
Breasts that might as well have been naked the way the soaked material of her jumpsuit clung to them, outlining their high full curves and hard nipples.
She’s not just a woman, she’s a queen in waiting. She’s your friend’s little sister.These thoughts that were feverishly running through Ares’s head were also being fast drowned out by the clamour of his blood.
On a very deep level, his body was recognising this woman in a way he’d never felt before.He had tohave her. She was his.He knew if he pushed her away she was stubborn enough to wait out the storm and go straight back to that club. And he wasn’t having that. She was his. It beat through him, the most right thing he’d felt in ages.
He took his hands off her arms and settled them around her waist, almost able to span it. That evidence of her femininity made something very carnal move through him.
She lifted her mouth to his and the last of Ares’s control snapped. He lowered his head and met her, mouth to mouth, breath to breath and…devoured her like a starving man.
Cassie was clinging onto Ares, any sense of trying to pretend to be nonchalant or cool or confident obliterated. He was kissing her and she was fire and earth and water and air all at once. An amalgam of nerve-endings and atoms and cells all mixing to turn her into one big sensation, throbbing with need as he stoked the flames. Tongue to tongue. He tasted so good. And he felt even better, every rock-hard inch of him, and the part of him that she could feel jerk between them, against the denim of his jeans. Against her belly.
Between her legs felt embarrassingly hot and damp. Was it normal to be so…wet? Who cared? One hand was on her waist, gripping her, and the other was in her hair, tangling, tugging her head back so he could take the kiss even deeper.
Cassie wasn’t sure how she was standing. The earth was moving and vaguely she was aware of the storm outside.
When Ares pulled his head back, Cassie opened her eyes. Everything was blurry for a second and she was gasping for breath, heart hammering. Terrified Ares would let oxygen get to his brain and realise this was a bad idea, she said a little shakily, ‘Take your top off.’
He looked at her—eyes blurring, cheeks flushed. Hair drying and wild. He smiled and Cassie’s heart turned over because this man didn’t have a big repertoire of smiles, as she knew well, but she knew she hadn’t seen this one, even on that first night.
It was wicked and very sexy. It told her he was committed to this and something inside her eased and melted even more.
