“Desperately.” Wanton need flickered in her jade irises.
Never had he felt more desired. A feral grin curled his lips as he released her and stripped off his jeans, undershorts, and then bent to remove his socks—because there’s nothing more ridiculous than a man wearing nothing but a stiff cock and his socks.
In doing so, he exposed his back to her. The mattress creaked, and soft fingers stroked his ragged skin. He braced himself for her reaction, but no words came, only a gentle kiss between his shoulder blades.
That sweet gesture melted something deep inside him, a defensive wall he hadn’t lowered for anyone since the disaster. Tears prickled his eyes. Blinking them back, he rounded on her and pressed her into the mattress.
“Sweet Addy.” He slid his hand between their bodies and parted her folds, plunging his middle finger into her liquid heat while his palm cupped her mound. Massaging gently, he probed with his thumb until he found the firm bud of her clit. He licked into her mouth, stroking her in time with his movements below.
Addy moaned and jerked, her stomach muscles clenched, her legs tight around his hips. He thrust another finger inside her, pumping slowly, all the while angling his cock away to keep from spilling himself on her thigh. Head flung back, she squeezed her eyes shut and keened, her inner walls gripping his fingers.
“That’s it, love. Let go. I’ve got you.” Clutching her tight, he kissed her arched throat as she rode out the throes of her climax.
With a sharp tug on his hair and a sexy growl, Addy threw her thigh over him and rolled him onto his back, rising above him on hands and knees. Eyes glittering, she grasped his cock and notched it at her entrance. Every instinct demanded he plunge into her slick heat, but he gritted out a strangled, “Condom!”
“Right.” With a laugh, Addy swiped her snarled hair out of her eyes and dove toward the nightstand.
Kieran beat her to it, his fingers closing around a foil packet.
“Ready for tonight, were ya?”
“Hopeful.” She bit her lip, and her gaze lasered onto his cock as he quickly sheathed himself and clutched her flushed, sweat-slicked body to his.
“How do you want me, love?”
“Every way.” Her teeth closed on the flesh of his shoulder, a bright flash of pain that fired his blood even hotter.
He rolled atop her and pinned her hands above her head, reveling in her needy whimpers. Holding her gaze, he sank into the heaven between her thighs—liquid heat that hugged him tight and filled his mind with stars.
“Addy, you’re so…” He couldn’t finish the thought because she seized his mouth in a greedy kiss.
He did his best to rein in his driving need, but when she arched her back and screamed his name, his control shattered. Bucking like a wild beast, he rammed into her again and again, her cries of pleasure ringing in his ears as his own climax roared through him.
Afterward, when his vision cleared and his breath slowed enough for speech, he gathered Addy into his arms and breathed in the springtime fragrance of her bed-mussed hair. What could he possibly say to her? Words were not adequate to the task of describing howchangedhe felt—at once relaxed and uplifted and transformed and feckin’ marvelous, and all of it thanks to this beautiful, generous woman who saw his wounds up close and still welcomed him into her bed, her mind, her glorious body.
And now, the only question pulsing through him: how to win her heart?
Chapter Ten
Thatwas…
Addy lay on her side and traced swirls on Kieran’s skin, her body thrumming with the impact of the most devastating, delicious, divine sex of her life. How had she made it to age forty-one and never known lovemaking could be this good? Drunk on pleasure, her analytical brain struggled to comprehend what had just happened between her and Kieran.
Quit overthinking,she scolded herself.Don’t spoil this fleeting moment.
But the process had already begun, ephemeral joy fading into cold reality. Giving herself to this amazing man, joining their bodies in bliss, talking and laughing into the night…none of that solved anything on her to-do list of impossible decisions.
But oh, the pleasure of his feather-light touch as he traced her silhouette from shoulder to hip in a slow, lingering exploration. Kieran Gallagher was a master of afterglow.
His soft lips pressed to her forehead. “Happy, love?”
Love.He’d called her that several times now—probably just a linguistic quirk from his Irish roots, right? Nothing to get worked up about or build her hopes on.
“I am,” she answered truthfully, returning his kiss. “You, Kieran Gallagher, are a talented man.”
A sheen of pink tinged his cheeks. “I’m an inspired man, thanks to you.” His warm hazel eyes glowed in the low light of her bedside lamp. “I’ve never felt this good, Addy, not with anyone.” He raked his fingers into her hair, and the soft scratch of his callused fingertips on her scalp coaxed a whimper from her throat. “Promise me this wasn’t our only night.”
“I promise.” Though the clock was ticking toward her departure from Trappers Cove, while she was here, Addy could no more deny this man his place in her bed than she could deny her next breath.
