Unable to wait any longer to feel his skin against hers, she boldly swept her hands down to his waist and the hem of his shirt. Eagerly, she pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Heat poured through her, molten, liquid heat, searing her veins, pooling in her groin. He gasped when her hands glided back up his hard, hot chest.
Kate swept her hands over the smooth, solid muscles and contours of his body, exploring his strength. She couldn’t get enough of touching him, wanted to press into him and feel that power and heat against the length of her and absorb it through her skin. When his hands settled on her waist and he touched the hem of her top, Kate groaned at the feel of his hands against the bare skin of her waist. With one sweep, he pulled it over her head and away from them. The removal of her bra was a whisper of silk and lace.
She stepped closer to him, her breasts jutting out, aching for contact. What was left of her breath evaporated as her breasts flattened against him, her nipples burning and aching at the contact.
Jericho growled low in his throat as he kissed her. He trailed his fingertips down the indentation of her spine, stroking every inch of her skin, every hollow. Dragging her against him, he lifted her hips to his. The hard ridge of his arousal broadcast loud and clear how badly, how urgently, he wanted her. She wrapped her arms around him, her breasts sliding against the hard wall of his chest. She kissed his throat, his shoulder. Her tongue dipped into the spot at the base of his throat and desire surged through her.
His fingers fumbled with the button and zipper at the back of her skirt. Kate sent her hands back there to cover his, aiding him, her heart contracting at the way his hands trembled. With frantic hands, he sent the tailored skirt down around her ankles. His fingers played with the waistband of her blue lace panties, his fingers like licks of flame against her skin.
At last, she was naked in his arms. His eyes flashed a heat in the quiet room as he drank in the sight of her with starving eyes.
“Exquisite,” he whispered. He pulled her tight against him. His mouth found hers again and he kissed her with a hunger that spoke volumes.
Kate moaned, reveling in the sheer texture of his mouth, the heady scent of a powerfully aroused male. She was beyond need as Jericho bent her back over his hard, muscled forearm. This was what Paige had been talking about, the full, carnal experience of a man and a woman. It made her so acutely aware that she had been doing nothing but merely existing. This was life at its essence, at its most intense. It throbbed through her, pulsed within her, made her ache with hunger.
She arched into his touch when his hand closed over her breast. He cupped it gently and she gasped as the need for his touch burst inside her. The shattering sensations his fingers evoked as they played over her flesh made her breath shallow and quick. When he slicked both hands down her spine and over her buttocks, kneading, squeezing, she slid her arms around his neck and rose again on tiptoe against him, offering all that she was. His fingertips traced down the center line, his eyes taking great pleasure in watching her reaction. She gasped at his exploration, his fingers, arousing and clever, set off detonations of utter sensual ecstasy, skipped across each nerve ending to coil and vibrate at the base of her spine. Then his hand slipped between their bodies, and he speared his fingers into the nest of soft curls that covered her femininity, and fire burst through her, taking her breath. With each slide of his skillful fingers, her hips jerked forward and back uncontrollably.
“That’s it,” he whispered, stroking the silken, moist, ultrasensitive flesh between her thighs. “Want me. Show me how you’ll move when my cock is inside you.”
Slowly he lowered her to the blue cushions of the couch directly behind her, following her down, sprawling over her. She arched her back off the cushion as he found her breasts with his mouth, capturing her nipple between his lips and sucking hard on the aching tip, then stroking her with his tongue. He repeated the process again and again, until she thought she couldn’t stand the sweet torment a second longer, then he captured the other straining nipple and feasted on her.
Kate entwined her hands in his dark hair and moved impatiently beneath him, soft, wild sounds of longing thrummed in her throat. She wrapped her legs around his hips, the denim of his jeans rough against the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, the abrasion setting off explosions in her groin. Lifting her hips against his belly, she sought contact with the hardest part of his body, seeking to assuage the vital ache that burned at the crux of her desire.
With his thumb, he pushed against her stiff, swollen clit. With a deep moan, Kate opened her legs to his touch, aching for him to fill the hot, tight, silken pocket between her thighs.
He delved into her sheath, sinking deep, then almost retreating from her, widening his fingers as he eased out of her, holding her open for a beat before thrusting deep into her again.
“Oh, Jericho!” she cried, frantic, helpless, on the aching brink of fulfillment.
He raised his head and smiled at her. Her lips, swollen from his kiss, moist and parted, begged for him as another part of her was begging for him.
“You like this,” he whispered, stroking deep, then easing slowly out of her, opening her, stretching her.
“Yes,” she gasped, lifting her hips, trying to urge him into her again.
“Think how good it’ll be when my cock is deep inside you,” he coaxed in a silky-smooth voice. “I want to see you come again,” he murmured. He kissed her quivering stomach, mouth open, hot, wet tongue dipping into her navel. “Do you want it as bad as I do, Katie?”
“I want you inside me.”
“Have you ever taken what you want, Katie? Really taken.”
She sucked in a heated breath and writhed in response to the coil of craving that constricted and squeezed within her. She’d never been more ready, never wanted like this. She reared up, pushing on his shoulders, shoving him back against the cushions of her couch with all her strength.
She reached for the button on his jeans, grasping at the zipper tab, desperate to free him.
His body tightened as if in a vise and he moaned softly at her show of force. She fought to get the zipper down over his erection. Just as she did so, his cock appeared as if spring-loaded.
At this moment Kate didn’t know the meaning of the word patience. She wanted Jericho. Now. She reached for him again as he shoved his jeans down. Sitting up, she pressed fervent kisses to his chest as she closed her fingers around his thick, pulsing shaft.
She had barely gotten her mouth around the head of his erection when he jerked her away. “No,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t last, and I want to be inside you.”
She tumbled him back onto the cushions. He slashed a hand across himself to keep her from taking him into her body. Momentarily confused, Kate looked down into his eyes.
They were like chunks of burning wood. “Protection,” he whispered hoarsely. She pushed his hand aside and protected him herself before guiding him to her. He squeezed his eyes shut as she eased his tip into her. His chest was heaving. Every muscle quivered with the strain of holding himself back. Then Kate took the decision away from him, surging over him, taking half of him before crying out.
“Jericho! Oh, Jericho!”
“Take me, Kate,” he whispered between clenched teeth. She was almost out of her mind with pleasure, wanting nothing more than to bury him deep within her.