Page 63 of Serve ’N’ Protect

“Yes,” she whispered, standing on her toes and linking her arms around his corded neck. “Yes.”

He turned and set the alarm on the new keypad then pointed to Ghost. “Guard.” Then he lifted her in his arms, carrying her up the stairs and beelining for her bedroom. Once inside, he set her on her feet and flipped on the lights.

He slid his hands beneath the hem of her shirt and tugged it over her head. Beneath her satiny bra, cool air tightened her nipples to hard peaks. He cupped her breasts, kneading them gently and rubbing his thumbs over the sensitive nipples. Thumbs were great, but she wanted his mouth right there, teasing and tasting and suckling on all the parts of her body that craved his attention. And there were a lot of parts.

With shaky hands, she reached for the top button of his jeans, popping it open and dragging the zipper down the hard bulge straining to be freed. When she cupped the cottony-soft black fabric covering him, he groaned, thrusting his hips forward, and shoved his hands down the back of her pants beneath her panties, clasping her bare ass and hauling her against him as he took her mouth in another fiery, toe-curling kiss. With their mouths fused, she shoved the jacket off his shoulders, wanting—no, needing—to touch every inch of his magnificent body.

They tore at each other’s clothes until they were completely naked, standing only inches apart at the side of her bed. She hadn’t thought Markus’s eyes could go darker, but they did, glinting like hard obsidian as his heated gaze lowered down her body. For a moment, self-consciousness rose to the surface, but he’d already seen the worst of her scars and hadn’t cared.

He reached for her, his big, rough hands at her hips then seeking every curve of her ass and waist. His long fingers traveled slowly, teasingly, across her sensitized skin, sending uncontrollable shivers rippling through her body.

“You are so beautiful.” His voice was low and husky.

“I’m not, and you don’t have to say that.” There’d been a time, before the accident, when she might have occasionally considered herself pretty but never beautiful. Now, even pretty was a thing of the past.

“Hey.” He took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “I didn’t say it because I had to. I said it because I meant it. Anyone who thinks you’re not beautiful is shallow and superficial.” While he didn’t say it, they both knew he was referring to Hugh. “You’re beautiful and perfect just the way you are, and you never lost that.”

“Thank you.” Tears stung her eyes and she quickly blinked them away, her gaze landing on the angry pink scar on his abdomen. With the tip of her finger, she traced the raised ridge, unable to stop imagining the blade that had caused it.

Markus tugged her hand to his lips, kissing the backs of her fingers. “Don’t think about that, either. Right now, there’s only you and me in this room.”

As much as he was right, it was still a tall order to follow. But all thoughts of Markus’s injuries and her ex disappeared as he smoothed his hands down the sides of her rib cage to cup her ass, and a pulse of heat shot straight to the juncture of her thighs.

“Now, where were we?” The grin he gave her was so sexy and filled with promise, her belly fluttered as if it were filled to the brim with tiny, beautiful hummingbirds. “Oh, yeah.” He caressed her breasts then leaned down to suck hungrily on one nipple.

“Ohhh,” she moaned, letting her head fall back, arching her back and wanting so much more from him. Openmouthed and panting, she clung to him, digging her fingers into his shoulder muscles then dragging her short, blunt nails through the springy hairs on his chest.

He lifted his head then began a steady trail of wet kisses up her breastbone to her neck. “How long has it been?” he asked, just before sucking her earlobe into his mouth.

“How long has what been?” she murmured on a sigh, desperately trying to increase the contact between their bodies.

He released her lobe with a slippery pop. “Since you’ve been with anyone.”

Oh, that. “About a year.” Since before the accident. After that, self-consciousness about her body had tanked her sex drive into the negative numbers.

“In that case, baby, we need to get you wet.” Markus’s lips tipped up in the sexiest smile she’d ever seen. “How about I give you a different kind of deep tissue massage?”

Her inner walls clenched just thinking about what he had in mind.

He laid her gently on the edge of the bed then spread her thighs, draping her legs over his shoulders as he knelt on the floor.

With his fingers, he parted her folds and she nearly arched straight off the bed to the ceiling. Oh, God. Calm down. If she didn’t, this would all be over before it began, and she wanted it to last. Because she might very well not have many nights with him, and she wanted to savor every single moment.

As he settled his mouth and tongue right where she wanted him to, her insides melted like the center of a chocolate lava cake. The shock of having him down there dissipated as his tongue probed deeper, stroking and sucking on that special spot, laving it until she was ready to scream.

He inserted two fingers inside her, still focusing his lips and tongue on her clit and leaving her undulating her hips in a frenzied rhythm she could barely control. Well, he’d wanted to get her wet and she was.

A deep, appreciative rumble came from the back of his throat, the vibration sending tightly coiled waves of pleasure arrowing straight to her core. Pressure continued building until her body began shaking with tremors, and still the stroking and licking of his relentless tongue drove her closer and closer to the edge.

She fisted her hands around the duvet, whipping her head from side to side as the powerful orgasm ripped through her like a raging inferno. Her body bowed off the bed, and she cried out at the intense waves crashing over her.

Cassidy strained and bucked through one aftershock after another, and still Markus’s wicked tongue kept its relentless pace, gliding and stroking her hypersensitized, super-wet core. “Oh God, Markus. Please!” Whether she was begging him to stop or keep going, she honestly didn’t know.

Still shuddering and sucking in air as if she’d just run a 10k, she sank to the bed, her body spent and totally sated. Between gasps, her only thought was…wow. Just…wow.

Markus licked his lips, a totally masculine and extremely pleased look on his face.

“Now it’s my turn to give you a deep tissue massage,” she said in a voice so husky she barely recognized it as her own.