“Gods,” he groaned. “This is how I imagined you.”
His large hand slid up her spine and into her hair. Knowing he’d fantasized about her made her that much hotter. Her climax screamed toward her. White light flooded her vision. She opened her mouth to cry out. But just before she reached the peak, his hand closed around her hair and pulled. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough for a sharp sting to echo in her scalp and shoot down her spine, keeping the orgasm hovering just out of her reach.
“Not yet, sweet thing.”
She gasped. Groaned. Rocked back into him, wanting more, needing everything. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her upper body away from the carpet until her back was plastered to his chest. Letting go of her hair, he trailed his wicked hand down her chest and over her breasts.
“Wait for me, Daphne.”
Sweat drenched Daphne’s skin. She couldn’t find the words to answer as he plunged inside her. All she could do was grip his forearm and brace her knees against the carpet.
“Just a little longer,” he breathed against her, “and it’ll be so good.”
His fingers slid down her belly and into her wetness. She dropped her head back against his shoulder and groaned with every thrust, with every flick of her clit. He grew harder, pressed deeper, reached places she hadn’t known existed. And when he drew her earlobe into his mouth and suckled, when he hit that most perfect spot, the orgasm she’d been chasing crashed into her and exploded.
He buried his face in her neck and kept thrusting while she rode the pleasure, driving deep again and again and again. Electricity raced down her spine, through her sex, and then it was there, another blinding orgasm, consuming her, dragging her down, making her melt. He whispered frenzied words she couldn’t make out. His thrusts grew faster, harder, longer. And then he plunged deep and held, spilling himself inside her and quivering with his own release.
Daphne fell forward, the soft carpet almost painful against her sensitized skin. She turned her face toward the fire, dragged air into her burning lungs and tried to catch her breath. Ari’s sweat-slicked skin slid along her back, then he collapsed next to her, struggling for his own breath as he wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her back against him.
She didn’t fight the tug, didn’t have the strength, didn’t want to. His chest pressed against her spine, his hips to her ass, and though his flesh was hot, kicking up her body temperature, she didn’t care. She liked the way he fit against her. Liked the way he held her. Liked the things he could do with his wicked hands and tongue and that super sexy hero body.
“You...are...a surprise...little nymph,” he said in ragged breaths. “A very pleasurable...surprise.”
He was too. A delicious surprise she never expected. She had no idea what she was going to do next, but she knew for certain that she wasn’t finishing her mission or going back to the Sirens. And no matter what, she wasn’t letting anyone else finish it either.
Smiling, Daphne reached for his hand at her waist and drew it to her mouth so she could press soft, wet kisses against his fingers. Sliding her tongue along his index finger, she drew the digit away from the others, closed her lips around the tip, and sucked.
He groaned behind her and pressed his awakening erection against her ass. “A very wicked surprise.”
Daphne’s lips curved around his finger before she let go. She shifted around and looked up at him. “You like wicked? I can be wicked.”
Sitting up, she pushed her hand against his shoulder and rolled him to his back. A lusty, heated grin curled his mouth as she climbed over him. His hands landed on her hips. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you have in mind.”
She settled on his lap, then braced her hands on the ground near his head and leaned forward. “Everything. I have everything in mind for you, warrior.”
His smiled faded. He slid his hands into her hair as his gaze skipped over her face and he looked at her, really looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. And though she couldn’t read his expression, she knew he was as moved by all of this as she was. And that something important had happened here tonight. Not just sex, but a connection. One that had the power to change everything.
“Show me,” he whispered.
She leaned down and kissed him. And planned to do exactly that.
*