“Please,” she gasped. “Damn you, AJ, please.”

“Aw. Since you asked so sweetly,” he said, and took her completely apart.

When she finally stopped shuddering and quivering, she relaxed her hold on his hair with a low apologetic murmur. Eyes still closed, she sighed. “I came.”

It was her tone of utter surprise that had him lifting his head to look at her.

She took in his silence and opened her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Ignore me, I say the stupidest stuff in the aftermath.”

“You say stupid stuff never,” he said. “You’ve never had an orgasm before?”

Her face flamed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I have.” She closed her eyes again. “Just not in a long time.”

“How long?”

“Since before my accident.” She kept her eyes closed. “Look, it’s no big deal. After the crash I felt like such shit for so long, and completely energyless. And then when I finally started to feel better, I … couldn’t.” She shrugged. “I tried, it just didn’t happen.”

“Tried how?”

She didn’t respond.

“Darcy.”

She blew out a breath. “I figured I’d take myself out for a test drive before I slept with anyone, okay? But I couldn’t rev my own engines. Figured that was that.”

“Did you tell your doctor?” he asked.

“No. And damn,” she said on a sigh. “Do you always talk this much during sex?” She reached between them and untied his sweats. Sliding her hand inside, she wrapped her fingers around him, hummed her pleasure, and then gave him a slow, eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-his-head stroke.

“Why are you still wearing clothes?” she asked, and nipped his chin.

He hadn’t the foggiest. He moved to kick them off and she helped, using her feet, although mostly that just succeeded in tangling them up together. The sweats got caught on his running shoes. She got a leg cramp.

She was laughing and he was swearing like a sailor when they finally were both naked.

“Now,” she whispered, her hands skimming down his back to his ass.

Yeah. They were on the same wavelength. And that’s when he remembered. “I don’t have a condom.”

She stared at him for a beat, the wheels clearly turning. “Okay, we can work with this,” she said. “I’m on the pill to keep my cycle regular, and you … maybe just had a physical?”

“Six months ago,” he said. “I’m clean.”

“Well then, I trust you.”

She trusted him. That was even better than having her sprawled naked beneath him.

Darcy swallowed hard as AJ’s eyes raked down her body, sending sparks to her every single good spot, of which there were so many more than she remembered.

She understood his need to look. She had the same need because with all that hard muscle and warm, tanned skin he was a visceral delight for the eyes. She could look all day.

But he leaned in close, blocking her view, his mouth hovering over hers. When she traced his bottom lip with her tongue, she tasted herself.

His lips curved in a sinful smile and she trembled. Only he could make her tremble with just one look. And that mouth. Good lord, that mouth.

Putting it to her ear, he whispered, “You’re hot when you come. I’m going to make you do it again.” He sank his teeth lightly into her earlobe. “And then again.”

She whimpered as his mouth bypassed her lips and skimmed her throat. Her eyes fluttered closed and she bit her bottom lip as the dark velvet sound of his voice reverberated through her, seducing her with ease. He was a man of few words, but he had a way of making the most of the ones he used, that was for sure. “So what’s taking you so long?” she asked.

He laughed low in his throat and the sound went through her like a sinful promise as he stroked his fingertips along her body, leaving a trail of fire in their wake that she felt all the way to her toes.

“Look at me,” he said.

She opened her eyes and looked into his, which were dark and heavy lidded with desire, and her stomach clenched as she caught something new as well. Need, for her. It was raw and unspoken, but as apparent as the beat of her own heart.

His hands slid south and she felt the jolt of electricity as he teased her, rubbing himself between her legs until she whimpered again. “AJ.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, positioning him right where she needed him the most, and arched her back, shamelessly grinding her hips into his.

He stilled her hips with his hands. “Wait for it.”

“But I’m not good at waiting.”

“No kidding.” Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her into a boneless, quivering mess as he slid home.

He stilled, like maybe she was the best thing he’d felt in a long time. That was all she could take in because he began to move, pulling back and then slowly pushing in again, holding her captive with the delicious glide of his every thrust. Her toes were already curling when she moaned and pushed up with her hips, grinding into him for more, panting with need.

“Killing me,” he murmured, his voice a sexy rasp.

“But not a bad way to go though, right?” she managed. His laugh was rough and she took some pride in reducing him to speechlessness.

When he moved again, he hooked his elbow beneath her knee, forcing it wide so he could go even deeper, and the laughter backed up in both their throats.

“Tell me you’re still okay,” he rasped out.