“The first time I saw you was the first time I felt butterflies, and those butterflies have never, ever gone away.”
It’d been as if he’d inspired them to awaken, spread their wings, and leave their cocoons. I’d also been a little horrified of the reaction, thinking that funny feeling was something bad, and I should hide it.
Right then, I didn’t feel like hiding.
A tender smile that somehow still oozed of sex pulled across his lush mouth, his lips so full, his own tongue sweeping out as if his mouth were watering. “That makes me very, very happy to hear, cupcake.”
There he went, calling me names again, although this name made me feel hot inside, something gooey and needy and wild twisting through my body and tightening into a ball of need.
I bit down on my bottom lip to stop the blush, staring up at those brown eyes that were hypnotizing me.
As if they had the power to turn me into someone different.
Someone confident and pretty and brave.
Or maybe it was even powerful enough to peel back the layers to expose what was waiting to be discovered underneath.
“How so?” Was that almost a tease coming from my mouth?
A grin spread across his gorgeous face, and he brushed his thumb across my lips. “Because now . . . now I’m going to kiss you like I’ve been wanting to do for years. And then I’m going to undress you so I can adore this gorgeous body. From there? It’s up to you.”
My heart squeezed, a prisoner to his hand, all the love I’d felt for this man rising to the surface. Getting ready to make a break. But would he accept it? The significance of what I felt? For me, this went so much farther beyond the physical.
But oh my God, did I want that, too.
Cockiness deepened that grin, one eye arching as he looped a strong arm around my waist. “As long as you’re cool with that?”
My throat felt achy and raw, wobbling with a need I hadn’t ever felt before. “I think I’m very, very cool with that.” Only, I was pretty sure I was the least bit cool I’d ever been, the words quaking as they trembled out.
Nerves rattled, need racing, my limbs heavy and achy.
He threaded his fingers through my hair, and my eyes dropped closed, and I luxuriated in the feel of a man touching me in a way that I’d never been touched.
Tenderly and with reverence.
And there was a part of me that wanted to shout out for him to wait. To explain that I’d never even been kissed, but his gaze struck me mute, stole the words from my mouth just as he was pressing his mouth to mine.
Gently.
Sweetly.
As if he already got it.
Understood me in a way no other person did.
A tiny squeak of shock climbed my throat at the contact, sparks and delirium and joy. My hands shook, and I had no idea what to do with them, but I figured placing them against his rock-hard chest was a good start.
His skin was warm and smooth and all kinds of solid underneath. I could die a happy girl right then, getting to experience this.
The feel of this man beneath my palms. The feel of his heart thundering, the flexing and bowing of his muscles at my touch. All mixed up with the intoxicating feel of his lips moving over mine.
A hand went to the back of my head, and he angled to the side, taking that mind-altering kiss deeper.
Invading.
Conquering all my fears.
A gasp raked down my throat, and I was opening my mouth.
A gush of desire flooded my body when he swept his tongue against mine.
Soft and languid. Yet somehow those gentle strokes were a command.
His mouth was the most delicious place I’d ever been. I wanted to stay there forever, and it was as if he knew because he was taking that kiss to a new level. His lips pressing and pulling and sucking, overwhelming in their pursuit of me, his tongue plundering and invading.
Warmth flooded through my body, that waterfall hit with a flashflood, everything pouring over. Pounding, pounding, pounding.
An empty, achiness blossomed in my belly, begging for him to take it away. To fill it up. To keep it forever.
Shock rasped from my lungs when he suddenly hoisted me from my feet and propped me on the counter, and somehow my legs were parting, making him room.
Instinct kicking in, all too eager to welcome him into the cove between my thighs. Another mortifying moan left me when he pressed the long, hard length of him to my center, his sleep pants thin and my shorts thinner, and oh my God, this feeling built inside of me.
Built and built and built as he rubbed against me.
Something so big and intense that I thought I was going to burst and die.