“Where’s the quote from?”
“Do you like it?”
He nodded. “Very much.”
“It’s mine. I’ve been writing snippets of poetry since I was a kid. That’s part of a poem called ‘Star Stuff.’ I change it up from time to time. Paint new verses when it appeals to me.”
“Lots of layers to you, Cora Silvera.”
“Like an onion.”
He stood and began to help her clear the table and clean the kitchen, over her protests that he’d cooked so she would clean up. It also enabled him to be close enough to brush against her as they moved around, wiping counters and filling the dishwasher.
“Come through to the other room for a while. Tell me how long you’re going to be in Seattle.” She took the bottle of white wine along with her into the living room, where he joined her, settling on her overstuffed couch.
“I’m here for...well, for the next while. At least a year. Likely more. Love the weather and all the stuff to do outdoors. My friends live here—including you. It’s a food culture I really like. And I’m done with New York and LA. Not for visits—I still love both cities. Both were great for my career. But it’s time for something else. Seattle seems a good place to be somewhere to land. Finish this cookbook.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it. There’s a cherry walnut cake for dessert but I’m pretty full,” she said, voice lazy as she leaned against the cushions.
“We should do something else until we digest dinner.” He took her hand, threading his fingers with hers, and tugged her toward him. “I can think of a few ways to spend some time.”
“Yeah? I think maybe we have some of the same ideas on that.”
“Let’s compare notes.”
Before he knew it, she was on his lap. And like he’d figured, she fit him.
Perfectly.
“Let me know when I get too heavy,” she said, her lips so close to his, the heat of her made him a little light-headed.
“When that happens, I’ll get on top. I like being on top.”
With a laugh, she nipped his bottom lip, tugging it sharply. “I’m not surprised by that.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The way your mouth skates over my throat
is burned into my skin.
A WAVE OF dizzy delight flowed through her as he leaned her back against the arm of her couch, never losing contact. It terrified her nearly as much as it excited her. In another person she might have found it too much. But while intense, it met her own intensity. Her own want of him.
He didn’t flinch from what he wanted, instead, once he was sure she was on board—which was scorching hot in and of itself—he took it.
Nothing had ever seemed so sexy to her.
He didn’t rush to her mouth, instead he sent hot, openmouthed kisses from her temple down to the hollow beneath her ear.
It was... Well, whatever he was doing to her, it set her aflame.
He seemed to radiate sensuality and every bit of it was focused on her. Added to the sheer physicality of him—that ruggedly handsome face with those gorgeous eyes and the mouth she was currently very fond of—it was as if the universe had detonated a sex bomb right there on her couch. Sporting a seriously impressive erection if the ridge under her thigh was any indication.
Cora dug her fingers through his hair as he teased kisses down her throat. She wanted to take a big bite of him. Wanted to leave a mark.
He hadn’t even touched her boob yet and she was this mad for him.
“I want to gobble you up,” she said, shoving back at him, twisting a little to climb into his lap, facing him. In her position, he was less intimidating and more deliciously big and tall in a hot chef/lumbersexual way.
And...she could also confirm that the ridge against her thigh was indeed a very healthy hard-on.
Yay!
He groaned, pulling her closer until she groaned in return, grinding herself against him.
It wasn’t quite a frenzy, but their chemistry seemed to sizzle and rise, humid with sex. Pumping her full of desire.
His hands slid to her waist, gripping and holding her against him as he rolled his hips.
At the very end of his movement upward, he dug in just a little harder, brushing against her clit just right, even through the denim.
She gasped as a burst of pleasure brought stars behind her eyelids.
And when she opened her eyes, it was to find him watching, naked greed for her on his features.
It was humbling. It was giddy wish fulfillment. And it was flat-out hot. Shivers of delight rode her skin as he reached up to grip her by the back of her neck and brought her to him for a kiss.
Heat roared from his fingertips up to her lips, where he slid his tongue over and then into her mouth, and got busy devastating her with deft nips, licks and kisses.
In all those fantasies she’d had back as a young woman she’d had no idea what he was truly capable of. Of what he was capable of evoking in her.
Hot damn.
He wanted her as much as she wanted him. More than that, there was something else, something extra between them, that only seemed to stoke the heat.
* * *
CORA DIDN’T WANT to stop whatever was happening. She wanted to ride it out with him. Wanted to jump into whatever storm they were making.
She sucked his bottom lip and pressed herself to him, grinding herself over his cock.
He moved to lean her back, pushing her coffee table out of the way with a foot until they landed on her rug.
“You with me?” he asked her, his voice full of briars and thorns.
“Yes!” She pulled him down to her to get at his mouth again. The slight burn on her neck his beard had left behind was something she felt to her toes and straight to her clit.
He broke from her mouth long enough to angle his free arm under her shoulders to bring her where he wanted, but also to give her some protection against the floor at her back.
Not that she’d have complained.
Cora squeezed her thighs together, needing a little more sensation. Orgasm had been building since before she’d even opened her door to find him on her porch. Before he’d made her a meal and kissed her into oblivion.
By that point, her whole body seemed
