The buildup to her pleasure was swift, pounding, a cascade that swept her into a series of short gasps and wanton bucks of her hips.
The pleasure was overwhelming. Dizzying.
She was falling back.
But he was there to catch her as he stood, bringing her with him, and captured her mouth in a bruising kiss.
Bruising andclaiming.
Caution flicked through her mind, but pleasure had her in its grasp. With every soft caress, every possessive nip of his lips, the warning faded.
“I want to see you.” His whispered words against her lips was a dream, too far away to be real.
As was her leaning more fully into him until there was no space. Nothing but shared breaths and heady heat.
His clever fingers slid down the row of buttons at her back and plucked at the fastenings one by one.
A tug, and her dress loosened around her waist and fell down her shoulders. The aftereffects of her climax had left her bodytingling and short of breath, and when his warm hands touched the skin at her collarbone, she gasped for air.
“Anna.” He whispered her name before his lips replaced his fingers.
She clutched his shoulders as his teeth scraped lightly across her throat.
The feel—it was like a million fiery wings across her naked skin.
“Jackson.” The pressure was building again.
Too much more and she’d fall over the edge a second time.
“I’ve got you, Anna.” A promise. “You’re safe with me.”
His words urged her on, to fall with no hope of finding her footing again. To become who they’d once been to each other again:lost.
You will lose.
Anna ignored the inner voice. She focused on the trailed kisses he placed along the column of her throat, across her bare shoulder... How his hand had locked around her waist, as if to hold her still.
Claiming.
Possessive.
The haze in her mind slowly lifted. This time, she listened.
She wouldlose.
“Stop.”
Jackson froze, his words a rush of breath across her jaw as he said, “What is it?”
“Stop,” she repeated. Desire pulsed heavily through her breast. Her body was screaming:More. More. MORE.
She clapped her hands over her ears, anything to drown out the need, the want. Her mind was spinning, in opposition to her body’s cries. Space. Quiet. She had tothink.
“Anna?”
His questioning tone pulled her back to solid ground.
She stared at him, her vision blurred from the bite of her nails in her scalp.
