He came up on an elbow, and I opened my eyes through the fog of desire to meet his intense, hooded gaze. I became aware of how rapidly I was breathing, but was completely helpless to stop it, especially as his hand at my waist slowly pushed my shirt upward. He held my eyes, unflinching, and I bit my lip with nerves as he slipped my shirt further upward and exposed first one breast, then the other. The cool air hitting my exposed skin made my already hard nipples pebble into painful peaks. My breath was almost coming in pants. God, I wanted him to touch me.

His eyes left mine and dropped to my newly exposed flesh. His jaw tensed, and his nostrils flared. He ran a fingertip up the channel between my breasts, and then around each one excruciatingly slowly.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered. His warm breath across my skin was too much.

“Please—” I croaked and arched up further.

“Please what?” Jack lowered his head and looked up at me through his lashes, a glint in his eye.

I moaned again, I couldn’t help it. “Please touch me,” I managed, too far gone to feel embarrassed by my plea.

He pressed his lower body harder against me. His fingers brushed across a tight peak.

I inhaled swiftly. Then his warm hand palmed my whole breast, capturing a nipple and rolling it between his finger and thumb. The sensation was incredible.

“More,” I gasped.

He made a sound low in his throat, drew my hands above my head, and held them tight in one hand. The other arm came under my arched back, holding me up as he lowered his head and sucked a nipple into his hot mouth.

Holy shit, I thought, as lust hit me like a Mack truck. Every sensation I was feeling was more intense than the last. I was a complete slave to it and completely lost in it. The aching between my legs had reached an insistent sharp throb that was hardwired to every pull of his mouth at my breast. The lower part of my body surged toward him, trying to move his leg between mine.

Jack groaned and shifted, his thigh coming up to press against the apex of my legs.

I flexed, rubbing myself against him, trying to create some friction.

“God, you’re killing me,” Jack hissed.

“Likewise,” I said between breaths.

He let out a low chuckle and took my mouth again, kissing me deeply. Then he rose up and worked my shirt up over my head and arms.

I went to help but he held my hands tighter.

“No,” he said, pulling my shirt up over my head as far as my wrists and wrapping it securely around them.

My heart thumped, but I knew I could break free if I had to.

“I have to do this, because if you touch me right now, I won’t be able to handle it.”

My insides lurched at the heady feeling his words inspired. My upper body was now completely bared to him. I wanted to feel a shy embarrassment, but his hot, raking gaze was making molten heat pool through me.

His mouth found mine again, and I kissed him back fiercely, making up for the fact that my hands couldn’t touch him.

“But I want to touch you,” I said between breaths and kisses.

“In time,” he whispered in my ear. He trailed wet kisses down my neck and throat to my chest.

Jack took his time licking and nipping at each nipple, driving me to a gasping point. I was writhing and arching against him.

One of his hands ran down my side and over my pajama’d thigh, hitching me up hard against his leg.

I whimpered as his fingers trailed over my bottom and between my legs. I was sure he could probably feel how hot I was for him through my pajamas. I tried to move against his hand.

He tensed and his breath came out forcefully. “God,” he croaked.

I knew the feeling.

He pulled his hand back up to my chest.

I wanted to grab it and press it against where I needed it most. He kissed me again, slowly, deeply and pulled away, shifting off me slightly.

I opened my eyes to him watching me. He was flushed, his green eyes intense. It was a mesmerizing sight in the dimming red glow of the dwindling fire. Both of us were breathing hard. He ran a hand down slowly from my neck to my hip bone, and then dipped inside my pajama pants below my navel. I held my breath, but his fingers slid back out and up to my belly.

“Please ... I want ... I need ... ” I didn’t know how to ask, but I needed Jack not to stop.

I knew that every pause, every slowing down, and every hesitation was him making sure I was still doing this willingly, almost like he wouldn’t trust himself to stop if he wasn’t paying attention. The knowledge made my heart swell in my chest.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut tight and swallowed before his mouth came down to mine again, kissing me deeply and slowly like he was deliberately trying to hold back the pace.

But thank God, he wasn’t stopping. His hand slid back down my belly and inside the loose waistband of my pants.

My breath was shallow, my body tense, as he lightly ran his hand around my hip, cupping the bare sensitive skin of my buttock. Instinctively, I lifted a knee up.

I moaned a breath as his fingers trailed back around the top of my thigh and into the crease between my legs. Squirming against his hand, I tried to bring it to me, and he chuckled softly against my lips. I nipped at his mouth with my teeth in frustrated retaliation.

Everything moved pretty fast after that.

He growled against my mouth as his fingers found my wetness and slid down over my sensitive nub, plunging inside me.

I cried out and arched up.

“Fuck,” Jack gasped. His tongue plunged into my mouth too, mimicking his fingers as they slid out of me and back inside, his thumb rhythmically sliding over my hot button.

I whimpered and moaned and gasped into Jack’s mouth. My wrapped hands came down locking his head to me as we devoured each other, my hips thrusting against his hand shamelessly.

His breathing matched the quickened pace of his sliding fingers.

“Feels ... so ... good ... ” I panted out between kisses, and he groaned in response, sliding deeply into my mouth again. Suddenly it was too much. I was splintering apart on an explosion of sensation. I held tight to Jack’s head with my arms as he captured my cries into his mouth, my body shuddering and clenching against his hand, his palm pressed hard against me.

“Shhh,” Jack soothed. He gave small chaste kisses along my mouth and cheeks and neck. “Shhh,” he whispered into my ear as I still shuddered through my release.

I clamped my lips between my teeth to keep from crying out any further.

His fingers slid slowly in and out, drawing out the sensation as I clenched around him. Jack’s harsh breathing against my neck matched my own, before he leisurely withdrew his fingers and drew a trail of wetness up my belly.

My heart still thudding, my eyes flickered open as I watched him lean up and paint my moist arousal around one of my nipples. Then dropping his head, he drew it into his mouth. The shocking action punched another wave of heat through my belly.

There would be no going back from sleeping with Jack Eversea. If I hadn’t been clear on that before, I knew it now.

All the experience in the world wouldn’t have changed the fact I knew deep down to my soul the kind of heat created between Jack and me was stratospheric. It was the kind of energy women who read thousands of romance novels yearned for and rarely got and certainly nothing like the times I had touched myself. I wondered, fleetingly, if I would ever bother again. He felt it too, he had admitted as much. And that had been ... before.