soon as she stepped away from the hand on her face, she regretted moving at all. She liked how warm and work roughened his palm felt against her skin and wondered what it would feel like if he ran those hands all over her body. She’d gotten a small teaser that afternoon. It wasn’t enough. She wanted more.
Ready to retreat to the safe zone of her kitchen, she spun on her bare heels and would have walked away.
Noah’s hand closed on her shoulders. “Um, sweetheart, did you have a little trouble getting dressed?”
“What?” Hearing him call her sweetheart made her knees weak.
His fingers brushed the bare skin of her back. “Let me get that zipper for you.”
Once again, his rough fingers skimmed across her skin and a shiver of anticipation rippled through her.
“I find myself wanting to skip dinner altogether.” Rather than zip the dress up her back, his fingers hesitated.
Rachel closed her eyes, willing herself to control the raging desire rising up like a tsunami inside. “Me, too,” she said, all her self-coaching flying out the window with Noah’s fingers touching the middle of her naked back.
She leaned against his hand, filling her lungs with much-needed air and letting it out a little at a time, hoping to slow her racing heart.
“Is it wrong to go straight to dessert?” He whispered the words against the back of her neck, his warm breath stirring tendrils of her hair, causing her nerve endings to ignite.
“Who needs steak?” she said, turning in his arms, her determination to hold off until she spoke to him crumbling.
“I can wait to eat.”
Resting her hands on his chest, she gazed up into his eyes. “Why now?” she asked.
“Because I ate a late lunch, and I can’t think of anything else but kissing you.” He bent to brush his mouth across hers.
“No, I mean we’ve been seeing each other at the ranch for weeks. Why the sudden interest in me now?”
He shook his head, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Not sudden. I’ve always been interested. I just didn’t know if you returned the interest until today. I was taking it slow.”
She snorted. “Slow? You made turtles look speedy.” Her eyes narrowed. “And now?”
“And now my life has been turned upside down. The truth as I knew it is a lie, and I don’t know anyone anymore. You are the only constant in my life and I guess I was afraid if I didn’t do something soon, I’d lose you.”
“Oh, Noah, I’m not going anywhere. I was waiting for you to show interest in me.” She bit her bottom lip, knowing now was the time to tell him her part in the events that led up to his DNA test and the revelation that he was Reginald Adair’s son. “Noah, I need to tell you something—”
He didn’t give her the opportunity. He swept his mouth across hers and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue past her teeth.
Rachel melted into him, her arms circling the back of his neck. This was where she’d wanted to be. Forgotten were the marinating steaks and the potatoes waiting to be popped into the microwave.
Noah’s fingers slid down her back to where she’d half zipped her dress. Instead of sliding the zipper up, he dragged it downward and slipped the straps off her shoulders.
The dress dropped to the floor around her feet and she stood in only a pair of sexy black lace panties. Nothing else.
She dragged his shirt up out of the waistband of his jeans and over his head, tossing it to the floor. Next she unbuckled his belt and slid it through the loops. It joined the shirt. Then she loosened the top button on his fly.
Noah lifted her by the backs of her thighs and backed her against the wall. “If this is going too fast, say the word and I’ll stop.”
Too fast? He wasn’t moving fast enough. “Please, don’t stop.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and wove her fingers into his hair, bending to press her lips to his temple.
He captured one beaded nipple between his lips and sucked it into his mouth, tonguing it until it tightened into a bud.
Her heart racing, she arched her back and urged him to take more.
Holding her against him, he spun around and carried her to the middle of the living room and settled her on the Persian carpet in the middle. She’d never lain naked on the carpet and felt the deliciously soft texture against her skin.
The sun sinking low on the horizon spread a golden glow over Noah’s naked torso, casting him in bronze as he dropped over her, settling between her legs. A shadow moved over him and then disappeared as if something had briefly blocked the sun through the window. Perhaps a bird, a plane or a passing truck on the street outside.
Rachel had been so intent on drinking in his tapered muscles and gleaming chest she wouldn’t have noticed the shadow if it hadn’t blocked the golden glow.
Then he was kissing her again and she forgot who she was, that this was supposed to be a dinner date to confess her sins.
Noah caught her mouth in a long, lingering kiss. He scraped his mouth over her chin and down the length of her throat and over her collarbone, angling toward the swells of her breasts.
She rose up to meet him, her breasts beaded and already sensitive to his touch. He tongued one, rolling the nipple between his teeth, then performed the same ritual on the other. Moving downward, he blazed a path of kisses and nips over her belly and down to the apex of her thighs.
Her breathing grew more ragged the lower he swept.
Hooking his fingers into the elastic waistband of her panties, Noah dragged them down her legs and off before tossing them to a corner.
Rachel’s knees fell to the side and she raised her hips.
Noah parted her folds and touched her there with his tongue, tapping gently.
Like fireworks exploding in rapid succession, her nerves ignited and sent sparks shooting to the very outer edges of her skin. Her breath caught and she held it as his tongue swirled, flicked and dipped lower, until she catapulted over the edge of reason.
Noah was climbing up her body, his member nudging against her entrance, where he paused.
“Why are you stopping?” she cried, ready to take him inside.
His jaw tight, he gritted between clenched teeth, “Protection.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and removed his wallet, fumbling through. “Damn.”
“You don’t have any?”
“No.” He stared down at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “I don’t suppose you do?”
Rachel shook her head, her racing heart barely slowing at the possibility of calling a halt to what she craved so much.
Noah tossed his wallet to the side and bent
