“You make me kinda crazy, but I would never hurt you,” he mumbled against her neck.
“I wasn’t scared. Kinda turned on, but never scared.”
He drew back and peered at her. “Yeah?”
“Mm-hmm.” A lusty laugh broke from her chest. “You’re pretty hot when you go all alpha.”
He wasn’t sure what to do with that. He couldn’t remember going “all alpha” before. “Is that good or bad?”
“Depends. This business of snapping your fingers last night and the night before and—”
“Didn’t happen.Doesn’thappen,” he spouted. “And Ursula was so bitchy I couldn’t wait to get off the phone. Are we good here?”
Submerging himself in her blue depths, he searched for proof she believed him. She gave him that proof when she ran her fingertip along the side of his cheek and his jawline. Her touch caused tiny chills to spiderweb beneath his beard. Every square inch of his skin blazed for her.
He peppered the corners of her mouth with more kisses. “You’re the only woman I want. It’s yourface I want to see when I make you come.”
Desire flared and darkened her eyes. “We’re good,” she breathed. “Can we stop talking and move on? Unless we’re switching to dirty talk, which I’m totally down with.” She placed her soft mouth to his neck and flicked out her tongue.
They were fully clothed and hadn’t done a damn thing, but everything about the moment, about being pressed against her, felt sinfully erotic. A switch tripped, and urgency as raw as his anger had been mere moments before bloomed inside him. Instinct locked into a single track. He wanted her naked under him. He wanted to taste hereverywhere. He wanted her upstairs.
Her good hand fisted his T-shirt, and she gave it a forceful yank, pulling him off balance and flush to her.
“Show me I’m the only woman you want.”
Chapter 25
The Storm
This vortex raging betweenthem was heady stuff. A savage storm. Explosive waves. A violent, tossing sea. Hailey wasn’t sure she was strong enough to ride it out, but she clung to it, desperate to delve into the depths with this man who was causing seismic shifts deep inside her.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” that man murmured as he devoured her neck and earlobes, deftly avoiding her lips. Though his mouth hadn’t fused with hers, it was managing to raise goosebumps over her entire body, fed by the frissons of pleasure skittering up and down her spine.
“Contrary to what Dixie thinks, I’m not a china doll. Just kiss me already,” she gusted out. His damn arms remained planted on either side of her, and she wanted them on her, crushing her to him. She wanted all that steely strength surrounding her.
He drew back and scanned her face, his full mouth curving into a devilish smile that carried promises she was impatient for him to keep.
“Demanding, aren’t we?” he chided. His gleaming dark-green gaze dragged down her face, lingering on her lips with a single-minded focus.And she ate it up. He wanted to claim her, and damn it, shewantedhim to. She wanted him to brand her all over with his mouth, his teeth, his powerful hands. She wanted him moving inside her, pounding into her with wild abandon while she clawed his back.
Oh boy, she was in trouble.
At last, he slid an arm down and wrapped it around her, tightening his hold, while his other hand reached up, tugged off her scrunchie, and loosened her tresses. Fingers diving into her hair, he cupped the back of her head and lowered his mouth to hers in a soft, tentative kiss. His tongue snaked out and gave her lip a little swipe.
“Does that feel okay?” he whispered against her lips.
She couldn’t even feel the cut. “More than okay,” she exhaled, slightly embarrassed by the telltale breathiness in her voice. Her fingers were twisted in his T-shirt, and she rested her damaged hand in the muscled channel of his back. His frame practically surrounded her, and a familiar soap-and-pine-and-leather scent invaded her nose.
Every inch of her tingled with awareness.
With both hands now, he angled her head and slanted his mouth over hers. The instant the tip of his tongue touched her lips, she opened, eager for a taste, desperate for him to sweep inside and lay claim. He neither hesitated nor disappointed, licking into her mouth, exploring, savoring. He tasted as good as he smelled, a hint of honeyed spice and man. She drank him in as though she’d been stumbling across a desert under an unrelenting sun.
He tilted her head to deepen the kiss. While his tongue mapped her mouth, one hand continued cradling her head. The other glided to her waist and squeezed, then to the small of her back, where he splayed strong fingers and pressed her closer. She grew hyper-aware of every touch, every lick, every pinpoint where his skin leaked heat into hers. The slide of his soft beard against her chin electrified her nerve endings. Her tongue tangoed with his, greedy for more. She feasted on his kisses, unable to get enough.
The kiss jumped from zero to a hundred in a frenzied burst, transforming from cautious exploration to a demand filled with urgency and heat and the passion he’d kept leashed. Satisfaction soared inside her;shehad brought that out in him. Her heart thudded so hard against her chest wall she thought he might feel it slam against his own. Little criesand mewls she fought to contain vibrated at the back of her throat as lust boiled in her blood. Her breathing choppy, she released his shirt, running her fingertips up his powerful arms, plowing into his silky hair. Soon she was digging her nails into the planked muscles of his solid shoulders, urging him to take it farther and deeper. Her mind whirled around what “it” was. Strip her down and push her onto the couch. Bend her over the credenza. Fuck her till she couldn’t remember her own name.
What the hell had possessed her?
Who cares?
