He let out a rough, ragged breath, then leaned down and pressed his mouth to the nape of her neck. Her entire body erupted in goose bumps. She heard a shockingly needy moan and realized it was hers.

His hands slid up her arms to her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing the tense muscles there. “So tense.” He dug in a little and it was so good she moaned again.

His soft laugh huffed against the side of her throat, just beneath her jaw.

“You’re laughing at me.” Her eyes fluttered closed. “I’m melting into a puddle of goo right here and you’re laughing at me.”

“Not at you.” His tongue flicked on the shell of her ear, then danced along her skin in a tantalizingly slow motion that matched the rocking of his hips. “With you. You’re not the only one who’s…tense.”

His fingers were currently killing brain cells at an alarming rate, not to mention what that very large erection was doing to her. She opened her mouth to say something, but he had his thumbs on the nape of her neck, running them up and down her tense muscles. All she managed was a garbled moan.

When he slid those talented fingers down the entire length of her spine, she shuddered. He stopped just short of her ass, digging into the knot of muscles low on her spine. “TJ…”

“Yeah.” His mouth worked its way to that sweet spot just beneath her ear.

She could feel the stubble on his jaw, could feel his warm lips, the heat of his exhale while his hands continued to work their magic on her body. “TJ…” His fingers were beneath her shirt now, skin to skin. Her eyes actually rolled back in her head. “TJ…”

“You said that part already.”

“Yes, but your hands-I keep forgetting what I want to say.”

Then those hands slid around to her belly, and just as she had that night in Desolation, she ached, ached to feel him wrapped around her.

“Oh, God,” she whispered as his fingers slid up…and her head fell back to his chest. “I need-”

“Tell me.”

“I need-”

“This?” He cupped her br**sts, his thumbs slowly rubbing over her ni**les, sparking a flash fire inside her that was nearly an orgasm.

At the sound she made, he whipped her around to face him and backed her to the counter. “I’m going to ask you again,” he said, his mouth busy on her throat, his fingers on her br**sts. “What’s going on with you and me?”

“Um…” God. He was hard. And she was getting wet. So wet. She and Nolan had spent plenty of time together, if not on dates, then at his shop. This overwhelming need and raw, desperate lust had never happened.

“Harley.”

“Wh-what do you think is going on?”

“Oh, no.” His breath was hot on her skin, his voice pure sex. “We both know what I want to be going on. We’re waiting on you to decide.”

CHAPTER 19

Harley knew TJ was braced for her answer. How to tell him that making the decision wasn’t the problem? Facing it was. Because if she did as she should and sent him home, she’d always wonder. And if she did what she wanted and ate him up for lunch, she was going to get good and hurt.

Yet that seemed intangible at the moment, with his hands on her, his eyes dark and sexy as he waited.

He wanted a sign.

Lifting his head, his eyes met hers, silently waiting on her to take the next step. Just one little step, that was all she had to do, and he’d get her to where she wanted to go, she knew him that much. Trusted him that much.

Through the last of her resistance came one thought-he brought what she’d been yearning for.

Passion.

He brought it without strings, and she was hungry enough for him that the promise of it overrode common sense.

“Harley?”

Into show and tell instead of words, she sank her fingers into his hair and dragged his mouth to hers, kissing him long and deep.

Apparently he got the message. His fingers tugged the cups of her bra down and stroked her bare ni**les. When her legs threatened to give, TJ solved that problem by sliding a rock-hard thigh between hers.

She slipped her hands beneath his shirt and felt warm skin, hard sinew, and the beat of his heart, faster now, not as steady. Keeping her eyes locked on his, she shoved up his shirt.

Reaching up, he tore it off over his head.

Oh good Lord. If he hadn’t been holding her up, she might have slid to the floor. He was so beautifully made she leaned in and took a lick. Buoyed by the shuddery breath that escaped him, she did it again, her tongue catching on one of his ni**les.

Swearing softly, he tightened a hand in her hair and lifted her head for a plunging, deep kiss as he pulled off her tank top. Lifting his head, eyes still dark and heated, he watched as his fingers trailed up her arms, then slid her bra straps from her shoulder.

She let out a shuddery breath when his lips and teeth gently nipped the skin he’d exposed. “Bedroom,” she said.

He took her hand and led her there without hesitation. Nudging her inside the room, he shut and locked the door behind him, leaning back on it to look at her from beneath sleepy, sexy eyes. “You sure?”

In answer, she let her bra fall to the carpet.

“Okay, you’re sure,” he said on a shaky breath. Pushing away from the door, he headed toward her, then nudged her onto the bed. With a knee to the mattress, he followed her down until he was over her, his forearms flat on either side of her head, his big hands on her jaw, the tips of his fingers in her hair. His hair was a sexy mess from her fingers. She took a deep breath and inhaled the scent that was TJ, all warm, heated male.