He knew she wanted him.
It wasn’t as though she could hide the hardness of her nipples as they pressed into the thin material of the blouse she wore. Or the heavy pulse of blood in her throat.
His gaze, heavy with latent lust and intent, flicked to the throbbing of the vein at the side of her neck, then back to the hard tips of her nipples.
Sensation raced over her flesh as heat built in her womb and fired a need she still had no idea how to handle. Hell, she didn’t even know how he managed to do this to her. What she did know was that resisting him wasn’t going to happen.
“You didn’t answer me, Piper.” He stopped just in front of her, his wide chest separated from the hard tips of her nipples by no more than a breath of space.
“What was the question again?” Oh, Lord, she was supposed to keep up with the conversation?
With him walking around with his broad naked chest? Oh, dear Lord, she didn’t think so.
“Would you want to know if your sisters were in danger?” he asked again.
“I remember the question.” She glared back at him, determined to bluff her way through having not heard it the first time. “That’s not the point, so why answer?”
A knowing smile curled his lips.
“Really?” Settling his hands on her hips, he brought her body flush against his.
Broad, fiercely erect, the length of his cock pressed against her belly behind the denim covering it.
“Really.” Trying not to appear too greedy to touch him, she let her fluttering fingers press against his chest.
“Beside the point, huh?” he asked.
Piper closed her eyes, hoping to find some measure of control against the hunger flooding her system.
“It really is.”
Closing her eyes didn’t help.
Oh, God, it only made it worse.
Jerking them open, she fought to catch her breath as his lips settled against the side of her neck for a heated kiss.
“Jed, what do you do to me?” she whispered, needing to know, to understand why she couldn’t deny the fire raging between them.
“The same thing you do to me, sweetheart, maybe?” His teeth raked against her neck as he finished the question, bringing a low, keening moan from her throat as she arched her neck.
“Do I make the world burn for you, too?”
Jed lifted his head, staring down at her, amazed by the question.
God, was that what he did for her? Did he make the world burn down around her? Because he swore that was exactly what it felt like to him as well.
It felt as though the world were burning down around him, and nothing mattered but the flames edging closer toward them.
“Baby, the world doesn’t even exist for me when I’m touching you.” Were those words really falling from his lips?
What the hell was she doing to him?
Moving his hands from her waist, he lowered them to the belt that cinched her waist loosely and released it. He dropped it to the floor, and his fingers moved to the buttons of her blouse.
Was that him actually fumbling with a button as his lips touched hers?
But, hell, her kiss was fire itself. It was the flame burning the world around him and searing him with pleasure. It was the fuel feeding it, and the only hope he had of surviving the effect on his senses.