She stepped closer, until her breasts touched his chest and her hips were snug against his. “Because you weren’t deliberately keeping the truth from me. You were trying to tell me all along, working your way up to it. You brought me all the way to New York so you could.”
He blinked away his surprise as fast as it appeared and cupped her jaw. “You are the most fascinating creature, Faith.”
She’d wanted him from the moment they’d first met and he’d startled her on the beach. Wanted him still. But she didn’t have the level of experience he was used to with other women and her nerves would get the best of her if he didn’t take control soon.
Swallowing hard, she looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I don’t know if I’ll be any good at this.”
“At what? At sex?”
“Yes.”
A low chuckle rose from his throat. “Foolish woman.”
He leaned in and seared her mouth with a kiss, going slow, going deep. One hand threaded in her hair and held her to him while his tongue explored and conquered. His other arm hauled her solidly against the hard wall of his chest, pinned her there with restrained strength. Delicious heat pooled between her legs. She didn’t even know her feet were still on the ground until her knees buckled.
Now there was the earth-shattering kiss he’d threatened weeks ago.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured against her lips. Reaching behind her neck, he untied the knot holding the dress. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you put on the dress.”
“Me, too.”
His grin slipped as he tugged the dress down her torso, over her hips and to her ankles. He looked up at her from where he knelt on the floor and helped her step out of the dress. Molten desire replaced the humor of the moment and had her pulse at dangerous levels. He wrapped his large hands around her calves and slowly slid them up to cup her hips.
“You look good enough to eat,” he said and placed a kiss to her stomach, and another between her breasts when he rose to full height. “Smell good enough to eat, too.”
Her nipples rasped against the yellow lace, begging for his mouth. Instead, he stepped away and she reeled. He opened the nightstand, removed a packet, and set it by the lamp. Then he pulled down the comforter, revealing forest-green sheets.
When he turned back, he just looked at her, as she stood there in the lingerie Lacey had insisted she buy and Faith had envisioned Alec stripping off. His gaze slid up to hers and held while he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it. A thin scattering of black hair covered his chest and trailed down to the V of his waist, disappearing. The belt was next, followed by the gray slacks and finally the black briefs. Sure, swift movements to rid the barriers between them. He stood before her in all his glory.
And he was glory.
Muscular thighs, toned abs, wide shoulders, defined biceps, and an erection that stood at attention. The erection held her gaze. He wasn’t so large that she worried he wouldn’t fit, but he was close. The wide head brushed his navel, the thick shaft emerging from a light patch of black hair. He had the body of a trained runner. He had neither bulging muscles nor a thin, wiry frame—instead he was lean, toned, and tan. Her mouth watered, wanting the weight of his body pinning hers, him relieving the ache between her legs.
She swallowed hard, suddenly nervous again. When he touched her, he took her out of her head and into a dizzying passion. But he wasn’t touching her now, he was looking at her as if he’d never seen a female before. She’d certainly never seen anyone like him, what with the very little practice she had.
Slowly, like a predator, he strode toward her and cupped her cheeks. This time the kiss stole her sanity. The precision with which he slid his hands down to cup her breasts through the bra, the deliberate and meticulous way his fingers grazed her nipples, bespoke of his familiarity with the female form. He knew how to touch, to taste, to drive her out of herself and back with crushing velocity.
She never knew being touched, being kissed, could be like this. Potent. Insistent.
Breaking the connection, he grazed his lips over her jaw, down her throat, and licked her collarbone. “I want you so badly I can’t think.”
His voice alone could make her damp and dreamy. A coarse murmur with need raking it raw. Hadn’t he said something similar, before the party? Yes. “You promised you’d make me forget to think.”
He groaned into her neck, a purely male sound of pleasured frustration. “Consider it done.”
Grabbing the back of her thighs, he spread her legs, lifted her, and spun to deposit them both on the bed. He sprawled over her, hands everywhere, mouth everywhere.
“I knew you’d be good at this,” she breathed. Or tried to breathe.
“It’ll only get better, darlin’.”
His voice was thick with his native southern drawl, something she only noticed when he was frustrated or confused. Or aroused, it seemed. His thick shaft pressed between the apex of her thighs, grinding into her heat, and her neurons splintered.
He unclasped her bra and tossed it over his shoulder. His tongue swept over one nipple, then the other. She arched up to meet him, tangling her fingers in his thick hair, but he was already on the move, kissing his way down her belly.
“God in heaven, Faith. You smell so damn good.”
His fingers dipped into her panties. Tugged them off.
She pried her eyes open and looked down at the top of his head. Her only other lover had never engaged in oral, so she didn’t know what to expect, how to react. Nerves pinged. She reached for him to draw him back up, but he pressed his mouth over the pulsing, aching heat of her core and her body bowed in bliss.
He licked, nipped, and moaned, never allowing her to fall over the edge, but pushing her so, so close. In the throes of the most spectacular frustration, praying for release, she threw her arms over her head and pressed her palms against the headboard. Surely this couldn’t kill her, could it? Death by ecstasy.
“You ready to come, darlin’?”
Was he kidding? All she could do was nod.
Without warning, he climbed up her body and reached for the condom. Foil ripped. His breaths became pants and his weight settled between her thighs. Then his arms were between her and the mattress, cradling her back, lifting her to straddle his hips as he sat back.
His blue-gray eyes bore into hers, heavy with want and desperation. “I want you to come with me. I’ve wanted you for weeks, so we’ll come together.”
With hands secure on her hips, fingers digging into her flesh, he raised her enough to align himself and brought her down around his shaft.
She gasped, holding his shoulders at the full feeling of him deep inside.
Oh. Oh God, yes.
He stilled, breathing heavily into her hair a moment before claiming her mouth and kissing her with long, strong strokes of his tongue. Tension and restraint bunched the muscles under her hands, until he was quivering with need. Or was that her?
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she rolled her hips. The slide of him against her sensitive flesh made her tremble, lose whatever she’d been grasping on to.
His arms came around her back, one around her middle, the other sliding up into her hair. “Let me see your eyes.”
She opened them and met his gaze, so close to the edge of control and yet achingly tender. He drew his hips back as much as the position would allow, keeping her banded in his arms, his eyes never leaving hers. After holding out long enough to make her beg, he finally drove up while urging her down, her body taking him deeper than she thought possible.
Air whooshed from her lungs. Every nerve inside her came alive. Sparked. Inflamed. The friction of him hitting her nub and the pressure of him filling her so fully had her teetering near oblivion. He pumped inside her in earnest, emitting a groan with every thrust. He chanted her name against the skin below her ear, over and over.