“You’d have figured it out, with or without me.” Warm gray eyes rose from her body to her face. “But know this, Joey: you’re perfect.”
Far from it, but he looked like he believed it. Joey stepped closer, drawn by his warmth, his delicious scent. Stretching along the front of him, she put her hands around his neck. “I’ve wanted you for so long.” She’d let insecurities and uncertainty hold her back. No more.
Cupping the back of her head to keep her with him, he kissed her again, his mouth open, hot and damp, hungry and insistent. Consuming her.
Unwilling to waste a single second, Joey slid her hands under the hem of his shirt to stroke the firm flesh heated by his body. She’d been dreaming of this, of him, and now he was finally hers.
Freeing his mouth, Hendrix put his forehead to hers and labored for breath.
Yes, she liked that reaction. Her palms moved up his flat stomach to muscle-covered ribs, then up and over his hair-dusted chest. She rubbed her nose to his neck and said, “I love the feel of you.”
In an instant, he whipped off his shirt, and seconds later, she felt her bra loosen. Looking up at him, she said, “Tricky.”
“One of my major accomplishments from high school. Like riding a bike, you never forget.”
He’d said she was brave, and she wanted to live up to his expectations, so she shrugged her shoulders and the bra straps slid down her arms. She dropped it onto her shirt.
His scrutiny was so intense, she practically squirmed. She couldfeelthat hot gaze touching on her and it deepened her breathing. If he noticed or cared about the few faint stretchmarks visible from how her breasts had grown during her pregnancy, he didn’t show it.
All she saw was his admiration, his lust. When he touched her left breast, one fingertip circling her nipple, she thought she would melt.
Color slashed his high cheekbones and restraint firmed his jaw. His nostrils flared with a deep breath and his eyes were positively incendiary. “You’re so fucking sexy.”
Oh, now he did it. “Hendrix,” she whispered, her body already on fire.
His gaze bored into hers. “I need you, Joey.”
Relief and desire put a catch in her voice. “I need you, too.”
Scooping her up, he started down the hall in long strides. He went into his bedroom, then took her down to the mattress. She naturally parted her thighs so he could fit between them.
Even as they shifted and settled, he kept his mouth on hers, their tongues dueling, breaths mixing. When he moved to her throat, his teeth teasing, inciting, she arched into him.
She loved his carefully-balanced weight on her, how his scent cocooned her, his hands caressing her breasts, and his thumbs stroking her nipples until she felt so sensitive she could barely take it. Never had it been this intense for her, but then, never had Ted spent so much time on her. He’d been quick to get naked, get between her legs, and – no. She didn’t want to think about him, not now, not ever again. Definitely not when she was with this amazing man.
“Hendrix,” she moaned, loving his name. Lovinghim.
He took one nipple into his mouth, softly sucking – then not so softly, and Joey couldn’t stop herself from grinding up against him.
“Jeans,” she complained.
“Soon.” He shifted to the other nipple, drawing her in, while he plied the damp nipple he’d just abandoned with his thumb, circling, inciting, driving her mad with need.
Did he not understand that this precious time was limited? In direct contrast with her thoughts, she tunneled her fingers into his hair, gripping his head so he couldn’t leave her.
With her neck arched and her lungs laboring, she was a little lost when he suddenly stood and stripped her shoes off her feet, then her socks.
Usually, they took their shoes off at the door, but neither of them had even thought about it.
Next he opened the snap on her jeans, then dragged down the zipper.
After three gasping breaths, she demanded, “If my jeans come off, so do yours.”
“No problem,” he said in a voice like pure gravel. He stripped them, along with her panties, over her hips and blindly flung them away. After several beats of time, he stepped closer, a hand on each thigh. “God, you’re beautiful.”
She knew she wasn’t, but she was so far gone, well past modesty, that she appreciated the compliment anyway.
“Your jeans, Hendrix,” she softly reminded him.
