Chapter 36

"Where did you go?" She pressed a kiss to his hip, then climbed up his body to lay beside him. Curling against his side, she cupped his face to force him to look at her. "You seemed like you were miles away."

Sighing, he wrapped an arm around her to tug her closer and kissed her forehead. "Just recuperating. Your mouth is a weapon of mass destruction."

She laughed in that whimsical, sleepy way that caused his heart to leap.

He turned on his side, sharing her pillow. He stared into her eyes, the bluest damn things he'd ever seen, and wondered if he could be patient enough to return the favor.

Since the second she'd stood in front of him in all her beautiful glory, he hadn't been able to get certain fantasies out of his head. Like tasting every inch of her soft, fair skin and playing a twisted version of connect the dots with her freckles and his tongue. But he wasn't exactly a romantic guy and he knew even less about...seduction.

Her eyes narrowed playfully. "What are you thinking about? Tell me."

"I'd rather show you." He rolled her to her back and rose over her. "Where to start?"

She grinned. "Wherever you like."

He grunted and brushed his lips across hers. "Here?"

Her lids drifted closed. "Seems as good a spot as any."

Tilting his head, he teased her lips apart with his own and dipped his tongue inside. At the first brush of hers, he retreated and did it again. He'd devoured her before and it had made his blood boil, but this measured enticement had everything inside him rousing to take notice. Chills of awareness skated over his skin and his heart thumped as if the organ wanted to reach through his chest to get to her.

Groaning, he went for a longer swim and, with their mouths wide, he swirled his tongue around the tip of hers. Her uneven exhale caressed his lips and he groaned again. Instinct told him to claim, but he dialed it back and kissed his way across her jaw to her throat. She tilted her head back, her fingers stroking his scalp.

Funny, he'd never entertained the notion of his head being an erogenous point, yet her touch seemed to send his pulse out of whack. She'd done it before when they'd kissed, but he paid closer attention this time to the nuances, the details he'd overlooked.

He moved lower to the light dusting of freckles on the swells of her breasts. "I goddamn adore your freckles, baby."

"Really?" She gasped when he took a nipple into his mouth, tracing the areola with his tongue. "I didn't think they were all that attractive."

Lifting his head, he met her gaze. "They are." Then he shut her up by giving the other pebbled peak equal attention. While they were both damp, he teased them into stiff buds with his thumbs. "You're beautiful."

She gripped his head and arched, silently seeking more. A flush worked up her chest to infuse her cheeks while she looked at him through heavy lids. She sunk her teeth into her lower lip, reddening it to a darker hue.

How could he have gone his whole adult life without this? Watching her pleasure, her need slowly build, was hotter than the surface of the sun.

He licked a path to her navel, and the scent of rain on her skin mixed with her arousal. Heady. Addictive. She rocked her hips as he spread her legs, settling between them. Instead of giving her what she wanted, he tortured them both by kissing her inner thigh, then grazing it with the stubble on his jaw.

Whimpering, she threw her hands over her head, closing her eyes once again.

Christ, he was going mad and she wasn't even touching him. He kissed her other thigh, dragging his lips north. With every centimeter of progress, she panted wilder.

Grinding his shaft into the mattress for relief, he set his hands under her hips and lifted her pelvis clean off the bed. Because it was fantasy number seven-hundred and twelve, he bit the perfect round globe of her ass. She cried out and trembled, nearly flailing out of his grasp. Encouraged, he bit the other one.

Her head whipped to the side, fingers white-knuckling the pillow, her cheeks crimson with desire. "Nate..."

And suddenly, her pleasure, her pain, was his, too. Her every quake and moan and inhale became his own. He couldn't tell which one of them was doing what, couldn't see they were two separate people anymore. Where she led, he'd follow. He'd do anything, give up everything, to keep her.

"Be my oxygen, baby, and I'll take your breath away." He had no idea where the sentiment had spouted from, but it was the first thing that had come into his head. No truer words had passed his lips.

"Oh God, Nate. You already have." Her lashes fluttered and she looked at him. Begging and pleading. Destroying him.

Again, a surge of adrenaline hit him and demanded he take. Gnashing his teeth, he fought it and dipped his gaze to her small triangle of red curls. Heart pumping, he parted her folds with his thumbs. It had been some time since he'd done this, but he remembered a few tricks. And she was ten times the woman than his previous partners.

Watching her closely, he ran his fingers through her slickness and coated her swollen nub. She thrust her head back and mewled. He sank two digits inside her and curled them. Her walls greedily gripped him. Then, he flicked her clit with the tip of his tongue, and she started to unravel.

While he pumped his fingers and flattened his tongue over her hot little button, she undulated against him, rolling her hips and issuing the sexiest noises known to mankind. He kept at her, and it killed him to keep the pace steady when she smelled irresistible and tasted even better. Faster, her hips rocked and, a few thrusts later, she contracted around him.

She wrinkled her brows in a pain/pleasure mix that froze on her face for several elongated moments. She trembled, her whole body, and he eased her down slowly while he hit the end of his rope.

When she soughed air again, he rose, went into her nightstand, and rolled a condom down his throbbing length. Kneeling between her legs, he grabbed her thighs and brought her knees up to her chest, spreading her wide.

He leaned forward and kissed her, hard, then waited for her eyes to open. "Come on, baby."

There. Right there. All that blue.

She held his face and smiled at him. "Can't talk right now."

"You only need to feel." He buried himself inside her and stilled when she gasped. "Feel me." He pulled out and pushed back in. Heaven. Goddamn heaven. And she was right there with him, succumbing. It was evident in her eyes, in her parted lips, in the way she held him. All he could do was surround himself with her, with them. "Christ, baby. Feel me."

With a hand behind his head, she brought his mouth down to hers and kissed him.

His hips pistoned as he took her with punishing thrusts that matched his errant need, the kiss a direct link to the conflicting sentiment of emotion. His body said claim. His heart said keep. And he couldn't get his mind to engage any thought tied to reason.

Her hands shook against his cheeks, and he worried it was too much for her. But when he broke away from her mouth and glanced at her, he realized she was close to coming again. He worked his arm between them and circled her clit with his thumb. On a cry, she raised from the pillow to rest her forehead to his.

The intimate, charming gesture knocked the wind out of him. Fighting, clawing, he said her name. An oath. A prayer. And she whispered his as an orgasm claimed her.

Wild. Untamed.

He followed, helpless to do otherwise.