Only then did he turn to Helen. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Rafe was wearing only his camouflage slacks, slung low on his hips, exposing his navel. Beads of water still rolled off his slicked-back, wet hair and down his neck to bead on his chest. He had even shaved.
Helen swallowed and a knot of tension coiled in her stomach. She tried to avert her gaze from the wide expanse of shoulders, the muscled planes of biceps and ridged abdomen, the flat male nipples. She really did try — but his body was so beautiful.
“I like to look at you, too, Helen,” he rasped out.
Her eyes widened, locking with his. He smiled knowingly at her, but not in a mocking way.
He moved closer, an easy job in the close confines of the tiny room. The hungry, predatory gleam in his eyes alarmed, and excited her.
Helen backed up a bit, hitting the wall next to the bed with a bang. The comb she still held in her hand dropped to the floor. “What… what are you doing?”
“Collecting my reward,” he said huskily, reaching out to brush a loose strand of damp hair behind her ear.
She gasped at the intense pleasure created by just that whisk of his fingertips across her face. “What reward?”
He grinned, then licked his upper lip with his tongue. He made a low, savage sound deep in his throat and stepped even closer. An animal moving in for the kill. “My kiss. Don’t you remember, Helen? You promised me a kiss.”
A kiss? That’s all he wants? A kiss? Helen’s jumbled brain tried to assimilate the softly murmured words. She felt the heat of his bare chest, only inches away. She smelled the strong odor of lye soap, and clean male skin… Rafe’s own scent. Her breasts filled and tautened into aching points. A delicious shudder rippled through her body, and she clenched her fists at her sides to keep from opening her arms in welcome. She’d never been aroused so swiftly or so fiercely by a man in all her life.
“A kiss. That’s all. One kiss,” she insisted, forcing a cool tone to her voice, praying for control.
“One kiss,” he agreed with an enigmatic chuckle. “For now.”
His lips were so near. She closed her eyes.
“Why did you moan?” His warm breath fanned her lips.
She hadn’t realized she’d moaned. She would have to be more careful. “Because I want this to be over as quickly as possible. Just do it so I can go to sleep,” she snapped, scrunching her closed eyelids even tighter. I’ll never sleep tonight. Never.
“Liar,” he hissed, placing two fingers on the wildly beating pulse in her neck. “And don’t give me any of this I-am-a-martyr-and-you-are-the-satyr bit. This is going to be a mutual kiss, a willing give-and-take. We’re talking long, hot, slow, wet — ”
Her eyes flew open. “I never agreed — ”
But it was too late. His lips were already covering hers. Soft. Brushing back and forth till she opened for him. Slanting. Seeking the right fit.
She didn’t know who moaned then, him or her. It didn’t matter. She wanted his kiss. She wanted his kiss desperately.
He put both hands on either side of her face, and his firm lips took possession of her mouth.
Willingly, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. With one hand behind his nape, she pulled him closer. His lower body sought out the cradle of her hips, and she knew, without a doubt, that he was as aroused as she was.
With his tongue buried in her mouth, he inserted a determined thigh between her legs, separating them. Expertly, he undulated his arousal against her arousal.
She tried to keen out her spiraling pleasure, but his tongue, slipping in and out of her mouth, stopped her cries.
All the time, he continued to kiss her, ravenously, never coming up for air, probably fearing that the minute they broke contact, the kiss would end. Their agreement would end.
With a growl of frustration, Rafe put both hands on her buttocks and lifted her, pulling up the hem of her nightgown, adjusting her bare legs around his waist. She locked her ankles and tightened her thighs against his hips. Her shoulders rested against the wall.