“You know what they say?” Maya murmured seductively, trailing her fingertips up his bare arms. She traced the lines of his muscles and they flexed beneath her touch. “Don’t you, Shane?”
“No,” Shane murmured. His gaze skittered over her face and his body tensed. “What do they say?”
With every ounce of strength she had and using the leverage technique he taught her, Maya grabbed Shane’s shoulders, pushed her body up, and flipped him onto his back, totally turning the tables on him. Straddling him and pinning his wrists over his head, she didn’t miss the sly smile on his face or the look of approval in his eyes.
“All’s fair in love and war,” Maya whispered.
Shane’s grin widened as he remained held within her grasp, and she felt his body harden beneath hers. His smile faltered when her grip on his wrists relaxed and she laced her fingers in his. Still he didn’t attempt to get out from under her. Memories of their tryst from earlier came roaring to the forefront of her mind, but she also remembered what he said about the seriousness of their situation.
Shane was right. This was not the time for games.
Maya went to pull her hands from his so they could get up and resume their training but Shane wouldn’t release her. His thumbs brushed along the underside of her wrists, sending tiny zings of lightning up her arms with each pass. Maya trembled, staring into the dark, limitless depths of his eyes.
I don’t want to be at war with you, Maya. Shane’s deep voice whispered seductively into her mind, sending flickers of desire through her blood. He sat up slowly, still holding her hands in his and keeping that intense gaze locked with hers. With their hands intertwined and pressed between their bodies, Maya sat in his lap, fitting there perfectly as though her body had been made just for his. I am equally resistant to love. For love is also a dangerous prospect that can wound or maim as deeply as any weapon. Shane placed a kiss at the corner of her mouth and trailed kisses down her throat, which added to the seductive sensations of the telepathic contact.
Maya let her head fall back, allowing him clear access to the sensitive skin of her neck. She knew that what he was saying was true and that taking the leap into love was as dangerous as going to war, but with his lips brushing her flesh and his voice touching her mind, all she could do was feel. Even when he tried to rationalize why they shouldn’t do what they were doing, his fingers were dragging down the zipper of her catsuit and peeling the fabric from her torso.
Moaning with desire and sheer anticipation, Maya sat up, grabbed Shane’s face, and kissed him. There was urgency between them, a stark, driving need to touch and be touched. Maya suckled his lower lip and grinned, then gripped the edge of his T-shirt and helped him pull it off. Shane tossed the offending garment aside, and Maya gasped, taking in the sight of his well-muscled chest covered with a dusting of dark hair. She trailed her fingers along his collarbone and down the center of his torso as he covered his mouth with hers.
Maya groaned and pressed herself harder against him, reveling in the erotic sensation of his bare chest brushing against her nipples. Kissing her, he pulled her hair free from the confines of the ponytail and sighed into her mouth, running his fingers through her long locks. They both needed more.
“Stand up,” Shane murmured as he broke the kiss. “I want to look at you in the moonlight.”
Maya rose from his lap, taking in the sight of him as she went. His broad-shouldered torso was perfectly sculpted, and it was plainly evident that every single inch of him was rock hard. Her eyes widened briefly and panic welled when she saw that his erection was barely contained by the faded jeans, but once she looked back into his eyes, any fear she might have felt abated.
Shane went to his knees and, with incredible tenderness, lifted her left foot before carefully removing her tall boot, tossing it aside, and placing a featherlight kiss on the tip of her toes. Maya lost her balance switching feet and laughed nervously. Shane captured her hand and pressed it to his lips before placing it on his shoulder so she could regain her balance. Desire surged as the muscles of his shoulder flexed beneath her fingers, and she watched him remove her other boot and set it aside. Shivering with anticipation, she stood barefoot in the grass as Shane rose higher on his knees and grasped her hips with his hands.
Maya threaded her fingers through his hair while he rained butterfly kisses over her lower stomach and flicked his tongue in her belly button with wickedly seductive strokes. His tongue trailed a line over the curve of her hip, and he peeled the rest of the catsuit down her legs, kissing and nibbling his way to the crook of her knee before helping her step out of the suit, leaving her totally nude in the light of the moon.
Quivering with gut-clenching desire, Maya ran her knuckles down the sides of his beard-stubbled face while he looked up at her with pure, unadulterated lust. The look in his eyes was savage and tender at the same time, and he reminded her once again of a tiger ready to pounce. On his knees with his gaze locked on hers, Shane let his fingers drift up her thighs, and his thumbs brushed lightly along the inner curve of her legs.
“You’re beautiful, Maya,” he murmured. Rising to his feet, he linked one arm around her waist and tugged her against him while his other hand drifted in between her legs, slipped between her slick folds, and began to stroke. “And you’ll look even more beautiful when I make you come,” he growled before capturing her lips with his.
Maya kissed him and clung to his shoulders desperately while his talented fingers rubbed her clit in slow, seductive strokes, delivering knee-bending waves of pleasure with every pass. She lifted one leg and draped it over his hip, allowing him full access to her hot, wet center, and cried out as he slipped one finger and then two inside of her. He gathered her hair in his hands, tilting her head back so he could devour her mouth with deep, penetrating kisses while she rode his hand and the orgasm started to crest. Somewhere through the thick haze of desire, she knew she wanted and needed more. She wasn’t ready for it to end.
Maya broke the kiss and pushed Shane’s hand aside before quickly unbuttoning the fly of his jeans and pushing them down his narrow hips. Maya licked Shane’s lip, grinned, and wrapped her fingers around the hard, steely length of him. He groaned, a low rumbling sound of pleasure, as she massaged him in her hand and ran her thumb over the velvety tip. Maya moved faster, sliding her hand over him in quick, hard strokes while he licked and suckled her lips urgently.
“I have to be inside of you,” he rasped. Shane lifted his head and linked his fingers around her wrist, gently pulling her hand away as he stepped out of his jeans. Cradling her face with one hand and circling his other arm around her waist, he pulled her against him, pinning his thick erection between their bellies. “Are you ready, Maya? Will you give yourself to me?”
Staring into his intensely handsome face, she realized she’d known the answer before he even asked, and it was the most beautiful moment of the entire experience. Shane was asking for permission to take the one thing she hadn’t given to another man in years. He didn’t take what he so clearly wanted, but asked, even with the chance that her answer might be no. Her blood surged and every cell lit up like a live wire with his flesh rubbing against hers. One word thundered through her head.
Yes, she whispered into his mind.
“Thank God,” Shane groaned before covering her mouth with his.
Kissing her, Shane lifted Maya off the ground as she wrapped her legs around his waist with his cock still pressed between their bodies. She thought he would take her right then, but he didn’t. Paying thorough attention to her lips, and with her body wrapped tightly around his, Shane flew Maya up to the roof of the giant house. She shrieked her delight when he landed on the flat section along the back of the house, just above the kitchen.