“No,” he said. “Just the straps.”
Sensation shivered over her skin as she trailed her fingers along the upper curves of her breasts to the straps and urged them off her shoulders. The fabric covering her breasts loosened slightly. Lucas kissed his way down the memory of the bra strap, using his rough chin to push the cup to its limits. His scruff gently abraded her skin, a shocking contrast to the wet heat of his mouth. She moaned.
The plea implicit in the sound didn’t stop him from doing the same thing on the opposite side. She gripped his arms and trembled under him, her nipples peaked against her silk bra.
“Now,” he said.
Under his heavy-lidded gaze, she unfastened the clasp and drew the thin silk to the side, revealing the tight tips. When he bent and took one between his teeth to lave it with his tongue, she looped her leg around his and tried to pull him down. He laughed at her efforts and moved to the other breast. Both tips were red, swollen, and wet by the time he moved down her breastbone and over her belly.
She watched him, idling her fingers through his hair.
“Now these,” he said with a nod at her jeans.
She unbuckled her belt, opened the fly, and shimmied both denim and silk down to the tops of her thighs, but his legs straddled hers, preventing her from getting them all the way off. He took in her exposed hip bones and the top of her mound, then bent to her mound and slid his tongue into the soft folds. Intentionally or not, he grazed her clit and she quivered under him. Then he levered back up and kissed her mouth. She tasted herself on his tongue, and slid her fingers into his hair to grip the back of his head and hold his mouth to hers.
“Remember what I said about patience?” he asked.
The sound she made was positively carnal and held an edge of desperation. That was the only explanation for the way she pushed, pushed at his head to force him back down her body. He took his time, let her feel the strength of him at her command as he once again retraced his path along jaw, throat, collarbone, sensitive nipples, belly. Taking his weight on one elbow, he tugged her jeans down far enough for her to kick them off and spread her legs.
“No more teasing,” she said.
He bent and circled her clit with his tongue, the movement steady and firm. He didn’t rush her to climax, made her wait as the pleasure built and built, tight and hot and undeniable. Her fist tightened in his hair as release crashed through her.
She subsided into the bed, her muscles trembling with aftershocks as Lucas opened her nightstand, sheathed himself. Without preamble he slid into her, and she cried out as his thick shaft stroked over hypersensitive nerves and set off another wave of need. She wound her arms over his shoulder blades and her legs around the backs of his thighs as he withdrew and plunged in again. It was hard and fast and a little rough, each thrust forcing a hot little cry from her throat. To her utter shock, another climax detonated deep inside. As her nails dug into Lucas’s spine, he growled, plunged deep, and shuddered as he came.
He eased down against her, sweat slicking the contact between their bodies. “You okay?” he rumbled.
“Fine,” she said, then cleared her throat, said it again, and added, “Why?”
“I was pretty rough at the end.”
“I liked it,” she pointed out.
“Just checking.”
“You didn’t mind that I . . . wanted that?”
He sat back on his heels, disengaging their bodies and establishing some distance in one movement. “I found it incredibly hot that you not only wanted that, but told me you wanted it.”
A little smile ghosted across her lips. “Just checking,” she said.
Aside from his opened jeans, he was still dressed, so cleaning up was a simple process. She tugged her bra off and pulled up the sheet and spread to ward off the evening chill.
“I’ll start tear-out this weekend,” he said. “I’ll start in the basement, replacing the plumbing.”
“All right,” she said. “I dropped Cody off at home earlier today. He’s pretty isolated out there.”
His head came up. “I know you mean well, but take it easy with Cody, okay?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“He’s a kid on the poverty line, with no real future, and he knows it. Just get him through the community service. That’s all you can do right now.”
“You’re the one who sent him to the library,” she pointed out. “You must have thought the experience would be good for him.”
“I thought it was the least-risky place to send a kid caught stealing. Do him a favor and don’t get too involved.”
He strode down the hallway. Moments later she heard him click for Duke, then the dog’s nails on the linoleum and the screen door closing.
“Like you?” she said.
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