He pulled back and stared at her so long she thought he’d turn away. Then with renewed fervor, he brought his mouth down with a heated tenderness that buckled her knees. His lips ate at her mouth with the slow deliberateness of a man who wanted to savor every last morsel.
He reached for the hem of her nightdress. Each inch of skin he exposed brought a new eruption of goose bumps. He kissed her neck, leaving a trail of warm tingles as he traveled upward until his tongue teasingly flicked the edge of her ear. In a flash, her nightgown disappeared and Rafe walked them backward to the bed.
He was everywhere: in her head, in her body. A slow glow of need turned hot when he cupped her breasts in the palms of his hands and caressed both nipples with his thumbs. At the sound of her lusty groan, he did it again, this time giving them a gentle tug.
She was exposed to him, in more than her nakedness. It was as if he could see straight through her shivering flesh to the insecurities beneath. The questions. The doubts. The false bravado she had a nasty habit of conjuring when things got uncomfortable. Rafe didn’t let her hide. With a gentle touch, he caught the hands she automatically lifted to cover herself and linked them around his neck.
“Nuh-uh,” he admonished her with a soft kiss. “Never hide yourself from me. You’re fucking perfect.”
“Hardly,” she scoffed. “But it’s what I’ve been given.”
Rafe kissed her again, making her breathless by the time he pulled away. A mischievous smirk kicked up his mouth. “And you’re giving it to me. You have no idea how much I want it, Red. I want to toss you down on that bed and bury my cock into your body and never come out. I want to taste every last inch of you. I want to explore you. All of you.”
God, she wanted that, too. Her body was on fire for it. She rubbed her breasts against his still-covered chest and smirked at the rolling growl it pulled from his throat. “So what’s stopping you?”
“The thrill of the journey.” He kissed her down onto the bed before leaving her in its center and getting back to his feet.
There was no way to hide her awed expression as he dragged his pants down in one swift movement. He was the epitome of masculinity. The eagle tattoo on his chest flexed as he tore his shirt over his head. His erection, already thick and proud, made it no secret he was as eager for this to happen as she was.
“Like what you see, sweetheart?” He let her look her fill, and one edge of his mouth twitched into a grin. She didn’t think she’d ever get enough of him.
Her voice was lost, her mouth so dry all she could do was nod as he climbed back onto the bed. Both his hands and his mouth glided up her body. She writhed beneath him, loving the scrape of his raspy stubble.
“Jesus. I don’t want to rush this with you, baby, but I honest-to-God don’t know if I can hold back anymore,” Rafe admitted.
“Who said anything about holding back?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” A haunted look clouded his eyes as his gaze dropped to her healing wound. He bent, softly trailing his mouth up her leg until he was inches shy of the puckered skin. “Do you have any idea how close I came to losing you a few days ago?”
“Close enough to know I don’t want to waste this chance.” At the pained look on his face, she cupped his cheek and tilted his gaze toward her. “You’re not going to hurt me. And you don’t need to hold back. I don’t want you to hold back.”
“I think you’re underestimating how much I want you.”
“So why don’t you come up here and show me?” Penny’s lips melted into a naughty grin, the smirk widening when Rafe chuckled. She loved the lightness that glittered from his eyes when he laughed. At least if she couldn’t hold onto the man, the memories were hers forever.
He kissed every inch of her in excruciating slowness: the curve of her hip, the indent of her belly. By the time he flicked her hardened nipple with the tip of his tongue, she was already three-quarters into her own blissful little world.
Penny dropped her hand to his granite-hard erection, making it jump on contact. Slow and firm, she stroked it, spreading the bead of moisture leaking from the tip down his thickening shaft. Just when she didn’t think he could get any harder, he did.
Rafe pushed himself deeper into her hand. One thrust, then two. She pumped harder and quicker, flying on a sexual high created by his low moans. The second she slipped her other hand toward his tightening balls, Rafe gently pinned both her wrists above her head.
“Fuck, baby.” He panted breathlessly. Wide and dilated with arousal, his blue eyes looked nearly black in the dim light. “Those hands should be registered as lethal weapons.”
“You never know what other kind of weapons might be hanging around. Maybe you should frisk me.”
*