Still playing hero. But she thought that was sexy, too.
He spread her arms out on the covers. “Don’t move them. Not so much as an inch.”
She wasn’t about to make a promise that she couldn’t keep. Her fingers were already itching to caress him.
But he was caressing her. He’d bent his head, and his mouth—warm, wet—opened over her breast. He licked her. Sucked the flesh, and Cassidy almost came up off the bed.
His hand was on her stomach, sliding lower and lower until he found the heat between her thighs.
He kept licking and kissing her breast even as his fingers stroked the center of her need.
Cassidy tried not to move—she truly did, at first—but her fingers slid away from the covers. She reached for him.
“Remember the rules, Cassidy.” His head had lifted. His fingers pressed her wrists back against the covers. “You don’t get to move.”
“You were hurt, too.” She’d seen the bruises on him. The cuts.
“And you’re the one that matters more.”
Wait, what? That didn’t even make any—
His mouth was on her other breast. When he licked her nipple, she could feel the rush of sensual fire go straight to her core. Her hips jerked from the bed, pushing against his. He still had on his jeans, and the rough friction of that fabric was driving her wild.
The man always kept his clothes on too long. Those clothes needed to be on the floor. Cassidy wanted to feel all of him, flesh to flesh.
He was giving her so much pleasure, stroking her with those maddening touches. Using his mouth, those slightly rough fingertips in caresses that were so gentle. Too light.
She didn’t need gentle. She just needed him.
“Cale!” The whip of demand had entered her voice.
He eased away from her, ditched his clothes. When he came back to her, the heat from his flesh seemed to scorch her, and it was exactly what she wanted.
Craved.
Their mouths met. She kissed with the frantic need that had built inside her. Let him taste her hunger and desire.
His mouth was harder. More demanding on hers, even as his hands carefully pushed her thighs apart.
So much care...
Then he was between her legs. The heavy ridge of his arousal pressed against her.
She arched toward him.
He thrust into her.
Her nails dug into the covers. Pleasure hit her, cresting over her almost instantly as he withdrew and thrust deeper. Again and again, and she was lost. She gasped out his name and let the release sweep over her.
The thunder of her heartbeat filled her ears, wild and drumming. And Cale was there surrounding her, holding her. Kissing and stroking and making the desire build again. Always, again.
The second time the release hit her, he roared his pleasure, too. Cale stiffened over her, then drove inside her, even deeper than before.
This time, the pleasure wasn’t sharp. It was long and consuming. Ripping away the brittle facade that had surrounded her and leaving her feeling exposed, empty—
And very, very much...his.
* * *