Her hair lay in ringlets on the gold comforter, red and gold like the sun. Her lips were swollen from his kisses, and her nipples were a dusky rose that beckoned to him. He drank in her beauty, his heart beating hard. Beating true. Beating as if it were finally full for the very first time in his life.
“I’ve never seen anything as magnificent as you, Charlie.”
She flushed beneath him, her skin drawing his mouth and hands to her body’s beautiful contours. “I thought you said my dragon was magnificent,” she teased.
“There are levels of magnificence,” he murmured as he lowered his lips to the curve of one breast. “And you are way above the dragon.”
Her laughter got lost in a pleasured gasp as he laved one taut peak slowly with his tongue. “Sebastian.”
The sound of his name falling from her lips notched up his need to an epic ache. “I’ve waited so long for you, Charlie.”
It wasn’t just the weeks since he’d first walked into her yard. It wasn’t even since the moment he’d seen her dragon and felt a kinship with her as an artist.
No, the truth was that he’d been waiting forever to find her. He’d never thought there would be someone like Charlie—a woman he wanted so badly that his insides felt like they were coming apart even as he was filled with pure emotion for her.
“I’ve waited for you too.” She put her hand to the back of his head and pulled his lips to hers. “Kiss me again. Kiss me everywhere,” she whispered before she took him to heaven with her mouth.
She toyed with him, sipped his lips, took his tongue, kissed him hard, then soft, twisted her head to come at him from a different angle. Playing. Tormenting. Seducing. They rolled together until she drew up her knees and straddled him. Leaning over, she licked his skin, ran her fingers through the hair on his chest, tugged gently. Then she sucked his nipple between her lips. She licked, suckled, teased, and finally bit him, just enough to send a shaft of pleasure-pain straight to his core.
He grabbed her hips as his body surged against hers. He was hard enough to burst, desperate to possess. He shoved his hands beneath the folds of her skirt and along her thighs until he found the elastic of her thong, and ripped it off her. She tore at his pants the way she’d gone at his shirt, and when they were both naked, he pinned her to the bed and took her mouth again. The kiss was primitive. Insatiable. Not just for him, but for both of them. And though he already knew he’d never have enough of her, never be able to get his fill, all the weeks of waiting had made him greedy for more than just a taste.
Tonight he needed absolutely everything, wouldn’t stop until he’d kissed her everywhere.
His face at her apex, he breathed in the heady scent of her arousal. He tested her with the tip of his tongue, finding her sweetness, then slid off the bed to his knees in front of her, and nuzzled her. “You’re so pretty down here too. Everywhere.” He took his first erotic taste, delving with his tongue.
“Oh.” It was a gasp. “Oh, God.”
She clung to his shoulders, her fingernails pricking his flesh, and it was so damned good. She was like a sweet wine whose grapes had stayed on the vine until they exploded with flavor. Her hot little sounds—a cry, a moan, a hoarse groan—drove him deeper. Flicking his tongue over her, he had to have more of her, had to slide one finger inside.
“Please, please, please,” she begged.
She quivered and quaked, and he forced her higher. There was only one thing he wanted, needed, and craved in this moment—her sweet release against his tongue.
Her breath hitched, her fingers tangled in his hair, pulled at the roots, until her body clenched around his fingers, released, tightened again. Then she cried out, shaking as she rode out her pleasure.
He didn’t let her senses quiet. Instead he moved back over her so that his chest was flush with hers. “Can you feel how much I want you?” he said against her throat, layering her skin with kisses, licks, little bites as she wrapped her fingers around his erection.
She finally opened her eyes and, instead of answering his question, said, “You should have done that to me weeks ago.”
He laughed—she would always be able to make him laugh, even when they were making love—and he swelled even bigger in her hand. “I should have done this to you the very first day.” He nudged her legs apart and rolled between them. “Taken you in the sunlight.” Her fingers tightened around him, stroking him, and he shuddered, pushing hard into her palm. “No, on your workbench. The first time I had my hands on you.” The first time he’d made her tremble. The first time he’d felt her come and fantasized about how much more she had to give—and how he wanted every last ounce of her pleasure to be his.
“All those times I could have had you.” She pushed her head back, closed her eyes, smiled in bliss. Then she cupped the base of his manhood, squeezed with an ideal touch until he thought he’d lose it all right then. “All those times we could have had each other.”
“Inside you,” he managed. “I need inside.”
He’d never been crazy or out of control before. Not until Charlie became a recklessness in his blood. He rolled, opened the side table drawer, and withdrew a foil packet. She took it from him, leaving his hands free to run over her gorgeous curves until she straddled his legs, ripped the packet, and took him in her hand.
“So beautiful,” she whispered, leaning close as if she were speaking only to that part of him. “So thick. And hard.” She swiped her tongue over the crest, and a tremor surged through him. “You taste so good.”
And then—finally—she slid down to take him inside.
The feel of her around him, over him, sent him to a place beyond words. He could only groan, arch his head into the mattress, and grab the pillow between his hands, squeezing tight, fingers aching with the effort to stave off his climax.
“Take me, Charlie. Take all of me.” It was part plea, part wild, reckless need that wouldn’t wait for anything. Not one more second.
She enveloped him even deeper with her body, sliding only so far before rising again, squeezing him tight inside her as he held her hips, played her flesh, testing the suppleness of her skin. Desperate for as much of her as he could get, he took her sweet, succulent nipple in his mouth. She let out a breath laced with a little hum of pleasure and took him deeper. But it wasn’t far enough. Wasn’t anywhere near enough.
He wanted to fill her all the way to her heart, giving over everything that was in him. “More.” He rolled, pinning her body beneath him. “I need all of you.”
And when she echoed more against his lips, he thrust home, high and deep inside her. His muscles bunched and flexed against hers, their bodies pressed tightly together as though they were welded into one part. One body. One soul. His hands gripping her hips tightly, he rocked with her, taking her higher and higher as he moved deeper. Faster. Harder.
He lifted his head from the crook of her neck. “Kiss me, Charlie. I need you.”
Their lips melded, their tongues twined, and their bodies shuddered as their worlds crashed. They rode the tsunami together as she cried his name against his mouth and endless waves of pleasure rolled through them both, head to toe.
She was what he’d been searching for without even knowing it. And now he knew that no matter what happened between them in the future, even if things somehow turned toxic, he would never be able to walk away from her. Because she was his. And he was hers. Forever.
When it came to Charlie Ballard, Sebastian knew to expect the unexpected. Even the most unexpected thing of alclass="underline" Falling head over heels in love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Take all of me.
As Charlie wrapped herself around Sebastian, it felt like so much more than the simple act of two bodies coming together. It felt like his soul speaking to hers.