His erection felt solid and competent, and it hit just the right spot between her legs. She managed to keep her eyes from crossing, but her voice emerged more breathy than the ironic she was shooting for as she suggested, "Responsible, then?"
"Yeah. Responsible's good. A helluva lot better than sweet ." He lowered his head and touched his lips to a vulnerable spot behind her ear, then moved his mouth along her neck. "That's a good word for you, though. Considering that's the way you smell, the way you taste." His lips moved back up to her mouth. " God , you taste sweet," he repeated hoarsely before his mouth once again claimed hers.
Lily clung to his broad shoulders and allowed herself to be enveloped by his heat and his strength, to be seduced by his mouth. She retained just enough presence of mind to warn herself not to become addicted to Zach's kisses. But they were soft and lingering, then strong and fierce, and it would be so easy to become dependent upon them, especially when his tongue went from teasing hers gently to demanding full capitulation as he boldly countered her every parry and thrust.
Absorbing his heat, she undulated restlessly beneath the weight of his body. The scent of him surrounded her, an amalgamation of the triple-milled soap from the bathroom they shared, laundry detergent from his T-shirt and jeans, and the healthy musk of aroused man radiating from his hot skin. Excitement burned in Lily's veins, and with a need to touch him, to feel the strength and heat of his muscular body, she reached down to tug his red Henley tee from his pants.
It had barely cleared his waistband when he slid off her onto the mattress, and without breaking their kiss, propped himself half over her. He disentangled a hand from her hair and stroked his fingertips down the side of her throat and along the V neckline of her thin sweater. Lily stiffened a little, waiting for him to transfer all his attention to her breasts. It had been her experience that where those particular curves were concerned, men often forgot there was an actual woman attached to them.
But she should have remembered from her session with him in the hallway that Zach never did the expected. Instead of diving into her cleavage, or enthusiastically fine-tuning her nipples like a radio operator trying to dial in a static-filled station, he seemed perfectly content to trace lightly along her sweater's neckline. When his fingers did stray lower, it was with a touch so gentle she found herself holding her breath and thrusting her breasts out for closer attention. Behind the lace of her bra, her nipples distended.
When a moment later, he removed the only true source of satisfaction she had going for her by raising his head until their mouths were connected only by the light play of his tongue, Lily growled in frustration. Lifting up she kissed him hard, then grabbed the hand that teased her and dragged it over the aching swell of her breast.
The impact kicked Zach like a mule. Finally, he had his hands on her. When he'd felt her stiffen a moment ago, he'd forced himself to go slowly, but damn , the temptation had been strong to fill his hand with her breast. Now that he finally had, its tactile impression was everything he'd known it would be. It was firm and round with that marvelous inner jiggle that made tits such a magnet for men. A guttural groan rumbled in his throat, and he returned her kiss with a strength that drove her head back into the coverlet as his fingers massaged her breast's full softness. He moved his palm lightly to feel the fluid movement beneath it, and was so enthralled with the result that it was a moment before he even noticed the thrust of her nipple trying to drill a hole through his palm.
He ripped his mouth free to look down at her. "I've been a good boy scout, Lily; I've been patient and true. But you have on way too many clothes, and I want to see you."
Hot color washed up her throat and onto her face, but she coolly raised her eyebrows and met his gaze with the directness he expected from her. "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours."
"Oh, honey, now that's what I call a sweetheart deal." Pushing back to sit on his heels, he reached for the hem of his T-shirt.
By the time he'd tugged it over his head, Lily had divested herself of her pullover sweater, and Zach's shirt fell from suddenly nerveless fingers. "God," he whispered and stared at her, all lush golden skin and killer curves in a wine-colored lace bra. "You're even prettier than I imagined. And trust me," he said with a slight smile as he tore his gaze away from her body to meet her eyes, "I've spent a lot of time imagining."
Lily might have stuttered out an unimaginative, "Ditto," if every drop of moisture hadn't suddenly deserted her mouth. Instead, she simply stared. But ho ly petunia.
His shoulders were wide, his arms were powerful, and his stomach was flat and ridged with muscle. But it was his broad chest that tempted her to check her chin to make sure the moisture missing from her mouth wasn't a result of having drooled it all out.
His chest was all sculpted brawn that looked harder than granite. But stone usually denoted a certain gray chill, and she already knew Zach's tanned skin would be hot to the touch. Flat copper nipples played peek-a-boo behind the fine fan of ebony hair that covered his pectorals, and Lily wanted to search them out and catch the tiny nail-head points of them between her teeth. More than that, however, she wanted to feel her breasts flatten against all that hard muscle, only this time without any clothing to separate them. Sitting up, she rolled onto her knees and reached behind her to unhook her bra. Peeling it down her arms, she knee-walked across the short space separating them.
"No, wait," he said. "Wait, Lily. I want to look at you."
But she didn't stop until she was pressed against him, and they both sucked in a sharp breath at the first bone-melting contact of hot, naked skin against hot, naked skin. Lily reached up and looped her arms around his neck.
She felt the quick wash of goosebumps that shivered over Zach's skin, but he didn't say a word. Instead, he tucked in his chin to gaze down at where her soft curves pressed against his solid muscle.
Lily discovered she liked watching him look at them. He clearly got off on the sight, for his bottom lip developed a sensual droop, his steel-colored eyes a molten heat. She didn't have to look down herself to envision the contrast between her curves and his planes, his tanned skin and her paler olive coloring. She felt the strength of him pushing her breasts back against the wall of her chest, and she undulated a bit to rub them against the smooth, bare skin of his torso.
Zach whispered a swear word and reached behind her to direct the movement. With the heels of his hands cupping her sides and his fingers splayed wide, it felt as if her entire back was enveloped within his hard-skinned grasp as he moved her against him in voluptuous circles. Then he widened the spread of his thighs to lessen the height disparity between them, and her breasts suddenly dragged over his hair-roughened pectorals, rasping heat into her nipples. Her head dropping back, she sighed.
"Ah, man, look at this," he said hoarsely, and Lily felt one of his hands slip forward. " Pink ."
"Pink?" She couldn't seem to concentrate, and she blinked up at him. "What's pin—?" A high-pitched uh ! exploded out of her when her left nipple was suddenly captured between Zach's finger and thumb and gently compressed.
"This," he said, watching as he tugged at the small, stiff crest in his grasp. "I wondered what color your nipples would be, and now I know." He flashed her a wolfish smile then went back to gazing at his captured bounty. "Pretty, pretty pink." He gave it another pinching tug, and Lily moaned.
Heat flared in Zach's eyes. "I want you naked," he growled and laid her back on the bed. "Now." Knees splayed wide as he knelt at her side, he bent to tease her nipple with his teeth and tongue as he reached for her waistband. But despite his words, he didn't immediately divest her of her jeans the instant he unfastened them. Instead he slid his hand inside the opening.