Breathing her name again, he slid his mouth to her neck and sucked at her skin as he slipped his hands beneath the back of her shirt.
“Oh, God. Shane. That feels…”
Yes. It felt too good for words. It felt right and he spread his fingers over her back and moved them higher. “I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said against her neck before he bit her and felt her shiver in his arms.
“Oh,” she breathed.
When he pushed his hands higher, she lifted her arms, and suddenly her shirt was off and Shane felt stunned. He kissed her shoulder, breathed in her scent. “Is this okay? Please tell me it’s okay.”
“It’s okay,” she said, a smile in her voice.
“Thank God.” He moved a hand behind her legs and picked her up, laughing when she screamed. “Have I ever shown you my hand-carved headboard?” he growled.
“Ha! I bet you use that line on all the girls.”
He didn’t, actually. He wasn’t usually friends with the women he slept with. Just long-term acquaintances. Or short-term ones.
He laid her on the bed and laid himself on top of her, his hand sweeping down her belly just to feel her skin. Her hair fanned across his pillow in a dark sweep. “I’ll go slow, all right? I’ll go slow, just…let me, Merry.”
“Yes.” Her eyes dropped shyly away, but she reached for the buttons of his shirt.
Shane held himself still and watched her fingers work, freeing first the top button, then the next. It was a terrible pleasure, watching her move so slowly, knowing that when she was done she’d touch him. When had he become so desperate for this? When had it changed from idle curiosity about a cute woman to a need that made him shake?
S
he finally pulled his shirt free of his jeans and spread it open, her fingers trailing pleasure over his shoulders and down his arms. Then she really touched him. She pressed her palms to his chest and smiled. “You’re kind of…furry.”
He looked down at his chest as if he’d never seen it before. “I guess I am.”
“I like it.”
He glanced up and smiled into her shy eyes. “Good.” He kissed her while she was still laughing, and then each touch blurred together into the next. His belly against hers, her ribs beneath his hand. And then he unclasped her bra and swept a palm over her breasts as her breath came harder.
Oh, God, she was soft and sweet and her rose-brown nipples puckered under his touch. They tightened even further when he dipped his head and kissed her, circling her with his tongue before he sucked gently. He loved that. The way she arched into him, the way her hands clasped his head as he rolled that deliciously hard nub against his tongue.
He wanted inside her. Now. Needed it. But he’d promised to go slow. She deserved that. If he couldn’t give her a commitment, he could at least make this good for her. As good as he possibly could, his own needs be damned.
And fuck, this was pleasure on its own, listening to her soft sounds of need, teasing her until she tightened her hold and pulled him closer. He pressed his teeth gently against her nipple and was rewarded with a tight gasp. When he lifted his mouth, she whispered, “Don’t stop. Please,” and he smiled as he tipped his head to her other breast and sucked her into his mouth.
This sigh was louder and edged with a high note that gratified the animal howling inside him. This time, as he teased her, he slid his hand down her belly and unbuttoned her jeans. Her stomach sucked in in surprise. He felt her tense, but when he scraped his teeth over her nipple, she grew wild again, and seemed to forget that he was pulling her zipper down.
“God, your mouth,” she moaned. “It feels so good.”
Shane’s pulse drummed so hard it almost drowned out her words, but he heard them and they twisted through his head and joined up with the knowledge that he was about to touch her. He felt mad. Tortured. His hand shook against her stomach as he flattened it to her skin and slid it beneath her panties.
His fingers touched soft hair as her belly pulled in again. Shane raised his head and looked at her. Her wide eyes watched him with a slightly unfocused gaze. Her pink lips were parted, her breath coming fast. Shane’s hand slid lower. He brushed her wet heat, and her eyes squeezed tightly shut as her hips tipped up. “Oh,” she said, her mouth forming a perfect circle of surprise. “Oh,” she gasped again as he slipped his fingers along her.
He watched her face, stunned by the beauty of her pleasure as he touched her clit. She looked young and somehow pure. It made no sense, of course. There was nothing pure about the wetness that soaked his fingers or the way his cock throbbed with every heartbeat. There was nothing pure about the way her neck arched as her hand curled around his biceps. She clutched him as if she were falling. It was lust on her face. Need. Hunger. But it still managed to be pure.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he growled.
She shook her head and spread her knees wider.
Merry needed more and so did he. He needed her naked and open for him, but it was damned hard to stop touching her. To tear himself away from the sight of her face, flushed and tight with gorgeous tension. But he was going to have to force himself if he wanted inside her, and he wanted that more than anything in the world. More than life. Because he’d die if he didn’t feel her. Soon.
He went to his knees to tug her jeans down. Merry didn’t stop him. In fact, she lifted her hips and twisted as he pulled, and then she was all bare legs and black panties. Jesus, she was lovely.
Looking down at her, he slowly eased her panties down, hardly able to breathe when she was finally naked before him. Her thighs were the color of cream and looked like they were made to cradle a man’s hips. And just above, a dark triangle of curls that made his mouth water.