“Yes.”
“And this?”
“God, yes.”
There wasn’t an inch of her body that he didn’t examine with his rough palms and warm lips. He spent a lot of time on the curve of her spine. “I always thought the small of a woman’s back was the most erotic turn-on… until I saw your breasts,” he told her. And she had to agree that he’d revealed a new erogenous zone for her.
He traced her butterfly tattoo and pressed his lips to it. “It’s my mark on you,” he said with hoarse possessiveness.
Then he showed her another erogenous zone — the back of her knees. By then, she was a quivering mass of flesh. She whimpered for release, but he just laughed, holding her down with a hand on her back. When he skimmed the crease at the back of her knees, a current of electric pleasure shot through her legs, up, up, up. When his tongue repeated the caress, something wild and frighteningly intense broke free inside her.
At the first spasm of her approaching climax, he turned her on her back and took a breast into his mouth. He drew on the aching tip with a rhythm that matched the waves ebbing between her legs, undulating outward. She tried to scream, but her throat closed. Increasing the strength of his suckling, Rafe whisked a hand over her stomach, skittering over the damp curls, then touched her.
She saw stars.
When she tried to close her legs, he kept them open with one knee, exposing her to his tantalizing fingertips.
“No more, no more, no more,” she sobbed, and pounded against his chest.
“Easy, easy,” he coaxed every time her thighs tensed against the onslaught. “Stop fighting me. Relax.”
“Relax?” she squeaked in disbelief, trying to hold his wrist in place. He withheld his hands until she obeyed. Then he embarked on the exercise again.
Over and over. Raging arousal. To the edge. Then halt. Relax. Start again.
When she finally reached her peak and shattered, she heard the high-pitched squeal but could barely connect it with herself, this flailing, arching, brazen woman pleading for forbidden delights she’d never dreamed existed.
At the height of her orgasm, Rafe demanded in a strangled voice, “Look at me.”
She unshuttered her heavy lids and saw him poised on his knees between her widespread legs. Her knees were bent, buttocks resting on his thighs. Even as shudders racked her in waves, he placed both hands on her hips, lifting her higher and wider.
“No,” she said, realizing his intent.
“Let me…” Lowering his head, he nuzzled her hair from side to side with his mouth, then used his tongue against the molten slickness, turning her to liquid fire.
Another agonizingly intense climax began to build.
She thrashed. She bucked. She fought the cataclysm.
He no longer entreated her to relax. He was making low, masculine sounds of heightening excitement.
Then he adjusted their positions, and slammed into her, filling her. Her body welcomed him with shifting ripples and fierce clasps.
She screamed.
He roared.
“So hot!” he gasped out. “So good!”
“Oh… Oh!”
“I wanted to be gentle.”
“Don’t…you…dare.”
He almost pulled out and gazed at her through eyes that seemed misty, teary-eyed. “Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she whispered.
He plunged into her so hard and deep he drove her off the blanket. She wrapped her legs around his waist and cried into his ear, “I’m losing control.”
He chuckled. “That’s the point.”
“I’m afraid.”
“I’m with you. Together.”
So she held on and matched him stroke for stroke, letting him lead the way on a journey she’d never taken before. Beyond sex and biology to a joining of flesh with spirit.
He rolled onto his back, still in her, and let her set the pace for a while. Slower. Deeper. He touched her breasts while she rode him, and she felt herself melt around him, anointing him with her pleasure.
“You’re wonderful… wonderful… wonderful. I never dreamed…”
“Say it,” she pleaded.
He hesitated. She could tell he didn’t want to. But he did. For her. “I love you.”
She closed her eyes and surrendered to the overwhelming spirals.
He turned her on her back again and pressed her knees to her chest. “Hold on tight, babe. This is the last stretch.” Braced on muscle-strained arms, he thrust into her with shorter, harder strokes. “Now!” he shouted, and she felt him expand, then come inside her.