"What?" I asked.
"This."
Somehow – I still don't quite know how he did it – I was suddenly on my back, lying across his sofa. He loomed large over me, a shadowed silhouette of muscle-bound splendor. He reached out to trail the backs of his fingertips across my cheek. "You're so beautiful it hurts," he said.
I leaned into his caress. "How would you know?" I teased. "It's awful dark in here. I mean, I could be a goblin for all you know."
He trailed a fingertip down my neck. "No," he said. "You're not. And you know what?"
My voice was breathless. "What?"
"If you were, I'd never see it."
"Liar," I teased.
"I'm a lot of things," he said, "but a liar isn't one of them." He moved his hand behind my neck, cupping it with hint of possession that made me quiver in all the right places. He lowered his face toward mine. I felt my lips part and my breathing grow ragged.
And then, his mouth sealed mine with a kiss of such intensity that I forgot what I'd been planning to say next. It was our third kiss. Yes, Iwascounting, because each one was better than the last, more fierce and more tender. Whatever happened later on, I wanted to remember every single one of them, always.
Too soon, he pulled away. With a whimper, I lifted my hands to his waist and tried to pull him toward me.
He didn't budge. "Last chance," he said.
"For what?"
His voice might have been playful, except for the primal edge that made turned my insides to jelly. "To run."
Right. Likethatwas going to happen. Leveraging my hands around his waist, I yanked my torso upward until our faces were just inches apart. "No way," I said.
Slowly, deliberately, he reached out and gripped the neckline of my borrowed T-shirt. His voice was raw, possessive. "Good," he said. And then, with one forceful motion, he grabbed a handful of fabric in each hand and gave it a hard yank in opposite directions.
I heard the tear of fabric and his soft inhalation of breath. Cool air drifted across my bare nipples as the torn cotton fell aside, exposing my bare breasts to whatever he planned to do next.
His hands found my breasts, tracing the outlines with his smooth fingers. I felt his powerful hands cup either side of them, pressing them together as if savoring their shape and feel.
There was something raw and wonderful about his touch, something I'd never before experienced, but something I wanted to feel over and over again.
When he lowered his face, and I felt his warm mouth on my hard nipple, I moaned into the darkness. His tongue flicked the sensitive knob, and I arched upward into him, wanting more, so much more. I raised my trembling hands to the back of his head and felt thick hair dancing between my fingertips.
Soon, I felt his hand on my other nipple. He worried it between his fingertips, playing and lightly pinching, coaxing sounds out of me that shouldn't have been possible, given the fact we were still mostly clothed.
Clothes – there were too many of them. Especially on him.
I moved my hands lower, trailing them downward until I reached the waistband of his pants. I found a button and tugged frantically against it. When the button finally came loose, I moved to the zipper. I pulled it downward, and then reached along the sides of his hips to give his pants a frantic tug.
His mouth and fingers were still at my breasts, coaxing new sensations from who-knows-where. By now, I was nearly panting. I was so wet and so hungry for him, I felt like I'd fade into nothingness if I didn't have him right now.
Years – that's how long I'd been waiting for this. Another minute felt way too long.
When I reached out to grip his length, he moaned against my breast and whispered my name. With my right palm, I encircled his hot hardness, giving it a slow and steady squeeze as I marveled at the size and feel of him.
I spoke into the darkness. "Jake?"
His mouth vibrated against my skin. "Hmm…"
"I want you," I said. "I don't want to run. And I don't want to wait anymore."
Slowly, he pulled away, leaving my nipple warm and wet in the cool darkness. In my grip, he was pulsing hard and huge, and I was dying to know how he'd feel inside me.
"But youaregonna wait," he said.
My voice was breathless. "What? Why?"
He lowered his mouth to my ear and teased my earlobe with his tongue. "Because I say so."
