Another step. He leaned close, so close that she could smell coffee, apples, and his intoxicating woodsy aftershave. “Because your nearness has been driving me insane.”
She suddenly couldn’t fill her lungs with air. She also couldn’t keep from reaching for him, letting her hands explore his biceps and forearms.
So hard. So warm.
He tensed. A low rumble came from deep within his chest.
Beneath her fingertips, his muscles tensed. “Careful,” he warned.
“Of what?”
“You’re playin’ with fire.”
For one heart-stopping moment, he stared at her, unblinking. Everything happened in slow motion then, and it felt surreal: him angling his head and pausing, his lips a hairsbreadth from her own, the press of his rock-hard thigh against hers, her heart taking flight …
“Kiss me,” he finally murmured, “before I lose my mind.”
Tremors rippled through her at his low voice and barely restrained passion in his tone.
“Please.” His voice was rough.
One syllable, and she was helpless to stop herself from pressing her lips to his.
The feel of his mouth on hers again rocked Jannie to her core. Yes, she’d been here before, only this time, Nick took her lips with infinite care, gently, so very gently that she moaned into his mouth, wanting more. Her heart hammered, and her hands slid to his shoulders, gripping, pulling him closer, her nails scraping his epaulets.
Head spinning, she leaned into him, immersed in the tenderness he freely offered and in the slow, tantalizing glide of his tongue over hers. A surge of warmth blossomed in her core, radiating outward like the glimmering points of a shooting star.
She’d never been kissed with such care, and she kissed him back with equal softness, caressing his face and holding him there, never wanting this to end.
Because Nick’s kiss felt like a gift rather than a demand, and that was something she had never experienced before.
It took a while for Jannie to draw back, and even then, she felt as if she hadn’t had her fill.
“I’m sorry I was a jerk last night,” he murmured against her mouth. He raised his head, looking down at her, contrition in his eyes. “Forgive me?”
“I might.” She yanked him close again. “Apologize some more.”
With a deep groan, he crushed her to him.
It was like fire to gasoline.
The air whooshed out of her, and now she felt him, long and hard against her belly as he opened his mouth over hers and took her lips again. She thrust her pelvis forward, grinding, even as she repeated the motion with her mouth.
Flames seemed to ignite all around them, and Jannie found herself engulfed in heat. This was the opposite of the first kiss: deep, aggressive, and just short of savage.
Plundering. Devouring.
He groaned, and she slid her hands upward, reveling in the silky softness of his hair before burying her fingers in the mane at the top of his head and pulling.
She sucked on his tongue, then on his lower lip, nipping, barely restraining herself from biting down, and the only thing that stopped her from licking his chin and biting that, too, was his beard. She growled in frustration. Never in her life had she felt so wild, so wicked, so …
Out of control.
A frisson bolted through her. Adrenaline surged through her veins, and she had visions of tearing off his clothes, dragging him down, andattacking him right there on the kitchen floor.
It almost scared her, this level of unhinged behavior he provoked, and dimly, she realized that, although he’d responded just as fiercely, it was she who was the aggressor.
The next second, he grasped her hands, slowly bringing them down to trap them in his large ones as he broke the kiss.
