yet, even in the rush to get her naked, Connor felt a driving need to take his time, to savor this moment that had been so long coming.
Deliberately, he slowed things down, forcing himself to strangle the urge to toss her onto the bed and bury himself inside her. He unbuttoned her shirt and carefully slid it down her arms to drop to the floor. She shivered as she stood before him wearing only her bra and a pair of blue jeans.
“Are you cold?”
“No,” she said. “The way I feel right now, I may never be cold again.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Good. That’s good.” He trailed his fingers down her sides, sliding over her rib cage, down to her abdomen and up again to the front clasp of the black bra that looked devastatingly sexy against her smooth, honey-colored skin.
He thumbed the clasp open and let her breasts spill into his hands. He cupped their weight and rubbed his thumbs across the tips of her hardened nipples. In response, she sucked in a gulp of air and swayed unsteadily. Connor knew how she felt. His insides were twisted together in heavy, hungry knots. He’d never known such overpowering desire for anyone. Never experienced such pleasure from a simple touch. Maybe it was because of the growing connection they shared because of the triplets. Maybe, he told himself, it was because they’d waited so long to satisfy their shared hunger. Maybe his own dreams were feeding the reactions scuttling through his body like skyrockets.
But the why didn’t really matter. All that did matter now was her and the smooth, silky feel of her.
He bent his head to taste her, taking first one nipple, then the other into his mouth. Her breath raced in and out of her lungs. She arched into him, silently asking for more. His heartbeat galloped when she responded by lifting her hands to his shoulders and holding him to her with a nearly desperate grip.
But she couldn’t keep him still, not when he wanted to explore all of her. He was a man on a mission now, with nothing more on his mind than fulfilling all of the fantasies he’d indulged in over the last week or more. He slid down her length, his hands moving to release the snap of her jeans and then the zipper. Slowly, he pushed the denim, along with the black panties they’d been hiding, down her legs, following their trail with his mouth. Her legs went weak until she locked them in place. He pulled her jeans off, stroking every inch of her skin as he did, then he stood up again slowly, sliding his hands over her body, reveling in the sweet feel of her. This was so much more than he’d imagined it would be. Her desire fed his, fanning the flames within until he was a walking inferno, ready to combust.
When he straightened again, Con took her mouth in a hungry kiss while allowing his right hand to shift to the sweet spot between her thighs. A muffled groan tore from her throat when he touched her so intimately for the first time. Then she pulled him closer as their mouths fused and their tongues tangled in nearly frantic desperation.
She was hot and slick and so ready for him, Connor could hardly breathe. He tore his mouth from hers so he could look down into her passion-glazed eyes as he worked her body into a frenzy. His fingers stroked and delved deep. His thumb slid across that hard nubbin of sensation at her core until she whimpered with the crashing need consuming her.
His hand cupped the back of her neck, holding her steady as their gazes locked. She was helpless to hide her response from him and didn’t try. Her hips rocked into his hand as he pushed her higher, faster. Caressing her inside and out, he drove her to the edge of completion then pulled her back, refusing to allow her to find release too quickly. He wanted...needed to keep touching her. To hear her sighs, her whispered pleas. He wanted to stare into her eyes and watch as passion flared.
Her hands curled into his upper arms and even through the fabric of his shirt, he felt that contact like match points, burning into his skin.
“Let go, Dina,” he told her softly, unable to look away from her amazing eyes. Such fire. Such passion. All for him. “Stop fighting it and let go.”
“Connor—” She gasped for breath, his name barely more than a strained whisper shuddering from her throat.
“Do it, Dina,” he demanded and plunged two fingers into her heat.
She exploded. Her body shook, her hips pumped wildly against him, and she tossed her head back, crying out his name in a strangled gasp.
Before she had even stopped trembling, Connor reached down and threw back the dark red duvet, exposing crisp white sheets. He laid her down, stripped out of his own clothes and paused only long enough to grab a condom from the bedside table, rip open the package and sheathe himself before he joined her on the massive bed. She lifted her arms in welcome and he slid into the circle of her heat, her warmth, like a man who had been freezing for far too long.
She parted her thighs and took him inside her. He entered her in one long stroke, feeling her silky heat surround and envelop him. For one long, heart-stopping moment, he held perfectly still, savoring the sensations of finally being where he most wanted to be. Then her legs came up to wrap around his hips, pulling him deeper, closer. He moved within her, slowly at first, setting a rhythm she matched, even as her hands moved up and down his back, her short, trim nails scoring his skin, driving him on. His hips pistoned, his body claiming hers in an ancient blending of selves.
They moved as one, pushing each other toward a release that hung just out of reach. He kissed her again and again, their mouths taking and giving as their bodies raced to completion. He felt the tremors of her release take her and when she tightened her grip on him and shouted his name, he let go and joined her, submitting to the inevitable as his soul shattered.
* * *
Dina held him long after the last aftershocks of what could only be called a nine-point-five on the Richter scale slowly faded away. She’d never known anything like that. Hadn’t even guessed that her body was capable of feeling so much. Oh, she wasn’t a virgin, reacting to the first experience of a male-driven orgasm. But in a weird way, the fact that she’d had three previous lovers only underlined the extraordinary truth of what had just happened.
Until tonight, she would have said that sex was good and orgasms were pretty nice. But those pitiful words didn’t come close to defining what had just happened to her. With his every touch, Connor had set her body and soul on fire. She’d felt him right down to her bones and even they had trembled under his sensual onslaught. Now, with his weight pressing down on her, she felt...complete somehow, in a way she never had before.
And that’s when it hit her. She loved Connor King. Dina didn’t know when it had started, or when she had taken that last slippery slide into love, but it was here now. She was sure of it. Oh, God, how clichéd was that? Have incredible sex and assume you’re in love?
She squeezed her eyes shut as her brain raced. This wasn’t just about the sex, her brain argued. It was about everything else—the way he handled the triplets, his loyalty to family, his willingness to include her, even his stubbornness—and the amazing orgasms were pretty much just the icing on an incredible cake. Yet another part of her mind demanded to know how this was even possible. She’d known him about two weeks. It shouldn’t have been feasible to love someone after such a short period of time. It was nuts to even think it, but this feeling she had was undeniable.
Opening her eyes again, she stared up at the ceiling as the irony of her situation sank in. For most of her life, Dina had avoided situations that could lead to love, and here she found herself loving the very man she’d been at odds with from the beginning. It had to be a cosmic joke at her expense.
But while she worried over the implications, she also couldn’t help relishing the moment.
