Page 67 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

“I need to shower. How ’bout I dirty you up again first?” He swung her into his arms, eliciting another round of giggles.

“Hey, I thought you had to get to work.”

“I do.” He easily took the stairs two at a time. “I may have given Maggie the impression that my departure was imminent, but I have a couple more hours before I have to leave, and I don’t know how much time we’ll have to spend together over the next week or so.”

Week or so?

Her chest ached more than she thought possible. As much as she wanted to be in his arms every night for the next week, making love until dawn, it would never happen.

Enjoy this moment.

Because it would be the last time. Had to be the last time.

He carried her into the master bedroom—his bedroom. She’d never been in there before. Seeing it now was so…intimate.

Using his elbow, he flicked on the bathroom light then set her on her feet. The master bath colors were predominantly white, with a creamy crackle tile running up the inside of the glass-enclosed shower stall. More neutrality.

She wanted to laugh at the irony. For a man who surrounded himself with black, white, and boring, there was nothing neutral or boring about the way he made love. Sex with Eric was like being in a kaleidoscope of color, bursting with every sensual crescendo in the spectrum.

He leaned in to crank on the spray. In a fluid motion, he slid his hands beneath her tank top, lingering on her breasts before pulling the shirt over her head. Unlike the first time he’d done that, she no longer felt self-conscious and exposed. Being naked and comfortable with a man had never been so exciting.

Next came her bra, shorts, and panties. Every inch of skin he touched made her blood sizzle and left her crazy with the need to have him inside her again.

She yanked up the hem of his T-shirt, allowing him to tug it over his head while her hands roved his bare chest. Then, he kissed her, a deep, penetrating, consuming kiss that left her head spinning, and all the while he sped up the lets-get-naked process by kicking off his jeans.

Ooh. She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, admiring his high, tight ass. Apparently, he didn’t always wear underclothes.

He opened the top drawer of the vanity then rifled around in the back, eventually finding a packet of condoms. After reopening the shower door, he slapped the condom on the soap ledge then held out his hand for her while she stepped inside. She turned to close the door behind her, and when she turned back, he was watching her with eyes so dark with desire, her breath hitched. The man was more than the proverbial sex on a stick. He was perfect in every way possible and not just physically. What she felt for him was inexplicable. Complicated and so much more.

Addictive was the word that sprung to mind.

Steam swirled around them. Hot spray pounded their naked bodies. For a moment, neither moved, then in a gesture so tender it nearly broke her heart, he cupped her face with one hand.

“Tess,” was all he said, then he brushed his lips against hers, rubbing them back and forth, teasing, hinting of the incredible lovemaking to come.

She cupped his muscled buttocks, smoothing his skin with her hands, wishing—no, craving with a desire so fierce it stole the breath from her lungs—that they could remain in this shower forever, shielded from the ugliness that awaited them outside these glass walls.

If only…

He kissed her again, with a gentle passion that made her belly quiver and her womb clench with need. For him. Only him. She could live to be a hundred, and there would never be anyone else in her heart.

Bending his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth. She sighed, part groan, part ecstasy. When he lifted his head, his eyes glittered like shards of ice.

“Stay with me,” he whispered. “When this is over, I want you to stay here. Jesse, too.”

“Oh, Eric.” Her heart threatened to burst from her chest. “I want to.” But I can’t.

She couldn’t say the words—yet knew them to be true. Her other truth: she was falling in love. It was both wonderful and the worst thing imaginable.

Is it so foolish to hope we can stay here?

Not with her and Jesse’s secret lingering out there in the dark like an insidious disease. If there was any chance of making a life here in Flemington—with Eric—the truth would have to come out. Soon, but not now. This moment was so beautiful she refused to ruin it.

Tess pressed her lips to his chest, inhaling deeply, reveling in the heady, intoxicating scent of moist, male skin. She kissed her way down his abdomen then lowered to her knees and took his long, thick erection in her hand.

She flicked out her tongue to the tip of his penis. “Sex on a stick” suddenly took on new meaning.

Sexy lollipop.