hard-muscled line when she was pressed against him. But now she could see him in all his glory. Beautiful brown skin covering tight abs and a powerfully built chest.
“I like bossy women,” he said and set his glass of water on the nightstand before he pulled her closer. “Have I mentioned how incredible your behind is?” He cupped it, his fingers digging into her flesh.
“No, but a lady always loves a compliment.” She pulled off his shirt and then pushed him back on the bed. She unzipped his pants and gave him a silent signal to lift his hips. She was growing wetter and wetter with each piece of skin she had revealed. It was something special to have a gorgeous naked man in her bed, one who she knew wanted her, one who was so aroused that she was afraid he wasn’t going to fit inside her.
He pulled her on top of him, their naked bodies colliding. He groaned as her breasts rubbed against him. “Beautiful girl...” His voice was husky and breathy. He ran his hand down the length of her back. “Everything you do turns me on. We need to slow this down before I embarrass myself.”
“I promise you,” she started but trailed off when his lips looked too kissable to pass up, “that you never have to be embarrassed with me.”
He rolled over so that he was on top, his body pressing hers into the mattress. “I want to touch you.” She felt his heavy erection between her legs. She had wanted to run her hands over it, her lips, feel the weight of him.
“I really want this to last.” He kissed her slowly and so deeply that she felt like she was falling. “Talk to me. Tell me something about yourself.”
“As a child I had a cat named Sophie. She was fat and orange and I loved her to pieces. Your turn.”
“My older brother played baseball his entire life, but I find the sport kind of boring and have only watched the games that he played in.” He kissed behind her ear and ran his hand over her hip. “That was a deep, dark secret that you can never tell another soul.”
“Juicy. Perfect for blackmailing.”
“Tell me something else,” he said as she felt him press against her opening, running his head down the length of her lips.
“Deep and dark?” she panted.
“The deeper the better.”
She suddenly got overwhelmingly nervous. This had felt like a dream up until now, but he was in her bed, nearly inside her, and she had never thought this would happen. She had all but given up on men. “I have something big to tell you.”
He must have heard the panic in her voice, because he stopped what he was doing and rolled them to their sides. “You’re married. You share this house with your husband, and he’s about to burst in here with a shotgun.”
“No! Of course not.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Strike two.”
“You’re not going to tell me you’re a man.” He touched her between her legs, slipping a finger inside her to stroke her. “I can tell.”
She cried out. “No. I’m a virgin.”
* * *
“Excuse me?” She was lying to him. She had to be lying to him. Cricket was definitely an enigma. She was odd and brainy and probably leaps and bounds smarter than he was. But she was so damn funny and sweet, and she had the body of a video vixen hidden beneath her cute sundress and prim cardigan.
She was a sex goddess and he was lucky enough to be taken to her bed, and she was telling him that she had never been with a man before? He just didn’t believe it.
“You don’t kiss like a virgin.”
“I’m only one in the technical sense.”
“Explain.”
“I was with a man for over five years who was born with a defect and couldn’t...you know. It was fine, because sex wasn’t terribly important to me, and he did other...intimate things to make up for it. But we broke up three years ago and I haven’t made it this far with a man since.”
“Have you tried? All you have to do is look at a man and he’ll want you.”
“I want you.” She slid her hand up his cheek and kissed him softly.
He wanted her, too, and this revelation should have shaken him, but he was surprised to find that he wanted her even more. To be the first man inside her, to be the first man to have her body like this. “I’m glad you told me.”
“You aren’t going to walk away right now. It will kill me if you did.”
“I’m not walking away. I can’t, and I don’t want to.”
She let out a sigh of relief. He was surprised by her more and more each moment. She didn’t see herself the way he saw her. Thick and delicious. So incredibly sexy that it made his teeth hurt. Being with her wasn’t just a want, it was a need. For the first time since he had snapped his wrist, he wasn’t feeling so damn empty. He stroked between her legs as he kissed her. She moved against his hand, her hips moving in a way that made it hard for him to believe that she was a virgin. He felt bad for her. She was clearly a sexual person with needs that had gone unfulfilled for so long. He felt even worse for that poor slob of a boyfriend. It must be torture to be this close to perfection without being able to have it.
He was going to have her tonight. Things had heated up so quickly between them. He liked to take his time with women. To seduce them. But he was too far gone. He had never wanted another woman so much. He was more than hungry for her. He felt like if he didn’t have her, he would die.
Without giving it another thought, he slipped inside her. The noise that escaped him was primal. She was so wet and so hot and squeezing around him so tightly, putting him in extreme danger of coming before he even started.
He forced himself to hold back and not plunge inside her like he so desperately wanted. “Am I hurting you?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Oh, God, no.” She wrapped her legs around him even tighter, taking him deeper inside. “I need more.”
He slid a little harder into her, which caused her to cry out his name. He kept his rhythm controlled and firm. He gave her deep kisses as he pumped away; he kneaded her flesh between his fingers, paid careful attention to her body, to what she liked. He kept his eyes open so that he could look down into her face. He wanted to remember this night, every single ounce of it, because he was sure he would never be able to have another night so damn perfect again.
“Elias...” She dug her nails into his back and squeezed around him so tightly that he lost all his control. She was trembling beneath him, her orgasm coming on hard and fast. He came with her, pushing into her one last time before he spilled himself inside her.
“Thank you for this, Elias,” she said a few minutes later. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for letting me be the man to do it.” He kissed the side of her neck before he lifted his head to look down at her. She was flushed and glowing with perspiration and smiling. He had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life, and he didn’t want to get out of bed to
