He ran a hand up the inside of her thigh. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Her breath caught, and then she gasped when he lowered himself between her thighs. Steele flattened his tongue against her hot pussy, savoring her taste, her heat, the way she arched so responsively at the first stroke.
He gripped her hips to hold her steady as he licked her again, slower, deeper, until her hands fisted the sheets.
“Oh my god—Hudson—” Her voice broke on his name, and he smiled against her, greedy for every sound. He worked her with his tongue, circling, teasing, then delving into her slick heat, giving her no mercy and no escape. Her thighs quakedagainst his shoulders, her body shivering under the force of his touch.
“You’re safe,” he murmured against her, sliding a finger inside, curling it just right as his tongue continued its relentless strokes. “Safe, and so damn perfect. Let go for me, Izzy.”
Her cry tore through the room as she shattered, arching high off the bed, trembling hard while he guided her through the wave, drinking in her release like a man starved. Steele didn’t stop until she fell back against the sheets, panting.
When he finally rose over her, his lips glistened with her taste, his chest heaving. Her eyes fluttered open, dazed and shining with something more than lust. Something that dug deep into his chest and squeezed tight.
She reached up, caressing his jaw with trembling fingers. “No one’s ever—” She cut herself off, swallowing. “No one’s ever made me feel like that.”
A fierce surge of pride lit him from the inside. He kissed her gently, slowly, letting her taste herself on his lips. Then he tore off his remaining clothes, donned a condom and pressed against her, groaning at the slick glide of her body welcoming him in.
He slid deep inside her, filling her in one long thrust that left them both gasping.
Izzy clutched his shoulders, legs wrapping tight around him. “Hudson!”
The sound of his name on her lips wrecked him. He drove into her, solid and steady, every thrust more than pleasure, every kiss more too.
She met him stroke for stroke, her cries mixing with his groans, their rhythm building into something wild and consuming. He buried his face against her throat, breathing her in, holding her like he’d never let go.
Her body tightened around him. Christ, he felt the tremors of her orgasm starting again.
He reached between them, finding her swollen bud with his callused thumb, pressing, circling, demanding her release. “Come for me again, Izzy. I want to feel you fall…apart…around me.”
Her scream was muffled against his shoulder as she broke, clutching him with frantic strength. The rippling squeeze of her body pulled him over the edge, and he thrust once, twice, before spilling into her with a growl that shook his chest.
For long moments they lay tangled, breaths ragged, bodies slick with sweat, hearts pounding as one. Steele pressed his forehead to hers, easing her damp curls back from her face.
“You’re everything I never thought I could have,” he murmured.
Her smile was soft, sleepy, but filled with something fierce. “Can’t have? Pretty sure you just laid claim to every inch of me.”
This was so much more for him than sex. He couldtalkto her.
He held her close, the weight of the world lifting from his shoulders for the first time in years. In this bed, with her wrapped around him, there was no mission, no danger—only Izzy. And he knew, deep in his bones, that he’d burn down the world before letting anything touch her.
* * * * *
Izzy lay tangled in Steele’s soft, high-thread count sheets, the warmth of his body pressed along her back, his arm heavy around her waist.
The mansion was hushed, and she tried not to think of the silence as almost eerie after the night she had. But for such a big house filled with so many people, no footsteps tapped downthe halls, no clatter of someone grabbing a late-night snack came from the kitchen. Just the steady rise and fall of Hudson Steele’s chest against her shoulder.
The sex had been good. Better than good—the kind that left her boneless and trembling and her mind reeling…
Her heart hammering in ways that had nothing to do with simple physical release. She should’ve been floating on the aftershocks of bliss and drifting off into sleep wrapped in his arms. And part of her was. But another part, the part that never seemed to shut off, kept spinning.
Good sex was easy to explain. Good sex with a man like Hudson was a tangle she didn’t know how to unravel.
She shifted slightly, trying to settle her thoughts. His arm tightened, pulling her closer until his lips grazed her hair. “Where are you going?” His voice was rough from sleep and sex, that deep gravel that always seemed to scrape her insides raw.
“Nowhere.” Her murmur wrapped around them. “Just thinking.”
“Dangerous habit.”
