“We have all night,” she reminded him.
“I know.” His hands flexed on her hips. “I’m trying to make this last.”
“Don’t.”
His gaze darkened. “Don’t?”
“Don’t hold back.” She pressed her hips down, watching his jaw clench. “I don’t want controlled. I don’t want careful. I want you.”
The predator won.
He flipped them again, pinning her beneath him, and this time there was nothing gentle about it. This was hunger and heat and too many days of denied wanting finally given permission to exist. Junie arched into him, meeting his intensity with her own, and when his mouth found the curve of her neck, she stopped thinking entirely.
“Junie.” Her name was a growl against her skin.
“Yes?”
“Stop me if?—”
“I won’t.” She pulled his mouth back to hers. “I trust you.”
Those three words broke open the last barrier between them.
The talking stopped.
And the night finally, properly began.
TWENTY-NINE
LEO
“Leo…” Her voice was uncertain now, a hint of vulnerability creeping in. Her arms moved to cover herself.
He caught her wrists gently, pinning them to the mattress beside her head. “Don’t hide from me.”
“I’m not?—”
“You are.” He lowered his head to press a kiss to her collarbone.
He proved it with his mouth.
Leo kissed his way down her body with methodical thoroughness.
The hollow of her throat, where her pulse raced against his lips. The curve of her shoulder. The swell of her breasts above the edge of her bra, soft skin that made the predator inside him rumble with want.
He unclasped the bra with steady fingers, drawing it away, and Junie’s breath caught. Her nipples were already peaked, flushed pink and perfect. He cupped one breast in his palm, testing the weight of it, watching her face as his thumb brushed across the sensitive tip.
Her back arched. “Oh?—”
“Good?”
“Don’t stop.”
He didn’t. He lowered his mouth to her breast and sucked her nipple between his lips, rolling it with his tongue while his hand worked the other. Junie’s fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, her hips moving restlessly against him.
“Leo, please?—”
He switched to the other breast, giving it the same attention. She made sounds—soft moans and gasped pleas that went straight to his cock. He was painfully hard, straining against his slacks, but he ignored his own need. This was about her. About learning every response, every sound, every place that made her fall apart.
