But feeling Isabelle so close to him made his blood pound. It was as if they were connected, and he could hear her heart beating, sense the blood rushing in her veins. He picked up her scent, sweet and musky-a heady combination that entered his senses and drove him crazy. He dragged his fingers through his hair.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” Her voice had gone soft.
“Nothing.”
“You’re a really bad liar, Dalton.”
“Am I?” He used to be really good at it.
“Yes.”
“And what do you think I’m lying about?”
“Your thoughts. You’re thinking about me.”
He let his smile show. “Isn’t that a little vain, Isabelle?”
“No. I could almost feel it, like you were touching me.”
Shit. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “I can’t explain it. I could feel your thoughts like a whisper across my skin. It happens when I think about you. Weird, huh?”
Weird, no. Uncomfortable as hell, yes. And her telling him this wasn’t helping his resolve to be stoic. His supposed impenetrable wall of reserve was buckling. The night was hot, and so was the woman in front of him. What harm would it do to-He felt something wet and lifted his head. The first fat droplets fell on his arm, then his face.
“It’s starting to rain. We need to get inside.”
She didn’t budge. “I don’t mind getting wet. And I’m not going to let you run from me this time.”
“I’ve never run from you.”
“Haven’t you? You keep telling me you trust me, that you think of me as human, but here I am, Dalton, asking you to prove it to me. This is your chance.”
The rain came down harder now, soaking them both, the wind picking up and whipping her hair around her cheeks. Her clothes were wet and stuck to her skin, outlining her breasts, her nipples. Dalton grabbed her hand and they ran onto the porch. He stopped, turned to her, his gaze raking every inch of her rain-soaked body.
She followed where he was looking, then lifted her gaze to his eyes. She wasn’t smiling, but he read every emotion on her face, from interest to desire to invitation.
She licked her lips. “Dalton.”
“Ah, hell,” he said, moving in on her, caging her against the front door with his hips. He threaded his arm around her waist and did what he’d wanted to do for days.
He kissed her.
CHAPTER NINE
Isabelle absorbed the shock of Dalton’s kiss. Her toes curled, her hair stood on end. She sizzled all over as if she’d experienced a lightning strike. And oh, it was the sweetest lightning ever.
Actual lightning pulsed just beyond them, along with a driving rain that seemed to feed off her needs. The primal energy of the storm surrounding them matched her own rising passion.
She knew it was going to be like this with Dalton-a wild maelstrom of intense heat turning her insides to liquid. Her nipples hardened against his chest, tingling every time he shifted to press closer against her. The length of his cock, hard and insistent along her hip, whipped her into a fury of desire. She slid her hands around to his back and lifted his shirt, needing to press herself against his bare skin. She wanted much more than this, but just to be able to touch him was going to have to do for now.
As it was, she was dizzy under the assault of his mouth as he performed magical things, his lips sliding against hers in a slow, tender dance. Could a woman faint from being kissed? She was losing her mind, every nerve ending in her body sizzling. She needed to quench this fire, and the only one who could do that was Dalton.
A kiss wasn’t going to be enough. She needed more. She lifted her leg, wrapped it around his hip, and surged against him in an effort to get closer, to communicate her needs. Dalton dragged his lips from hers and kissed her jaw, then reached behind her and grasped her hair, jerking her head back to bare her neck so he could lick the side of her throat.
God, the sensations were intense, like fire licking along her skin. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, still holding on to her hair so she couldn’t move, couldn’t look at him. She was stretched in an impossible position, her back arched, yet she wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Not with the way he took possession of her. She wanted more of his mouth and his teeth grazing over her skin. When he bit lightly into the tender skin between her neck and shoulder, she shuddered.
“More. Please, Dalton, hurry.” She lifted her hips, searching out the hard, hot part of him that would give her the greatest pleasure.
“Not yet,” he growled against her neck, then moved up and took her mouth in another kiss that blindsided her, left her breathless and clinging to sanity. She palmed his back, then moved her hands forward to touch his abdomen, feeling his muscles flinch there, loving that he reacted to her this way. When she moved her hand lower and dipped it inside the waistband of his shorts, he dragged his mouth from hers and pulled her head forward to look her in the eyes.
She gasped at the darkness she saw in his eyes, the hunger. He barely looked human. A normal woman could almost be afraid of a look like that, because it meant he’d lost control, that he was ready to take what he wanted.
She wasn’t a normal woman, and she wanted to give him whatever he wanted to take. And then she wanted to take from him. Whatever she wanted.
She wanted a lot.
“Yes,” was all she said, and Dalton scooped her up in his arms, pushing the front door open and kicking it closed behind him.
She thought he’d carry her to one of their beds. She was wrong. He marched the short distance into the kitchen, swept the napkins and a few other things off the kitchen table with one swoop of his hand, and laid her on top of it, then nudged the chair out of the way and loomed over her.
Her body prickled with desire. She felt like a feast. His feast. She bit down on her lower lip to keep from whimpering, then raised her hands to his wet shirt, dragging it up. He lifted, jerked the shirt off, then reached for her top, spreading both his hands underneath it, using his knuckles to raise it inch by inch over her stomach, her ribs, finally baring her breasts.
“Too damned beautiful,” he murmured. She sensed he wasn’t all there anymore, like he was in some kind of trance. She didn’t care, as long as whatever had taken hold of him took them where they needed to go, where she’d needed to go for a long time with him.
He cupped one breast and took her nipple into his mouth, devouring it like a man starved. He sucked, licked, rolled his tongue over the taut bud, teasing the piercing there until the sensations were like shooting fireworks, all heading south to that spot that burst with crazy need. Then he tormented the other nipple with the same sweet pleasure. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held on tight, certain she wasn’t going to survive Dalton’s lovemaking. It was equal parts tender and torturous, ratcheting up her desire to explosive levels. She felt like she was climbing a ladder one rung at a time, and unable to see the top. She knew there was nirvana up there, but she couldn’t quite make it. She needed help.
“Dalton.” His name left her lips on a ragged gasp as he slid his hand over her belly, delving into her shorts to cup her sex. He parted the folds of her moist and needy flesh, dipping into her core, exploring her with soft, deliberate strokes that sent her spiraling into oblivion. She’d gone too long without and this was exactly what she craved, but she wanted to hold on, to take him with her.
But Dalton was relentless, using his fingers to stroke her into madness. He dipped, caressed, demanded her response that she couldn’t hold back. She climaxed with a blinding cry that Dalton absorbed with a deep kiss, shattering her completely. He held her while she rocked against him. She was too drugged with passion to do anything but hold on to him and tremble against his lips.