“With hospital corners in thirty fucking seconds or else.”

“I’m impressed.”

“Good.” I stretched out above her, settling my hips over hers.

She giggled. “You’re getting me all wet.”

“That’s my plan.” Brushing her hair aside, I buried my face in her neck and kissed her throat.

She moaned softly, writhing beneath me. “Oh God, that feels good. You’re not mad?”

I picked my head up. “Why would I be mad?”

“Because of what you said today. How giving in to what we feel would be a bad idea, because you’re afraid it would ruin things.”

“Fuck what I said. I’m not afraid.” I looked down at her. “Are you?”

“No.” Her denim-clad legs twined around me and she lifted her lips to mine. “I want you. I want this. Please don’t stop.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice.

I kissed her like I’d always wanted to, like I’d dreamed of, like I’d fantasized about. She tasted faintly of honey, or maybe maple syrup, something sweet and sexy at the same time.

I couldn’t get enough.

And neither could she. I loved the way she moved beneath me—her arms might have been pinned above her shoulders, but she had those runner’s legs, and she used them, rubbing her heels up the back of my legs, crossing her ankles behind my thighs, opening her knees wide and bringing them up toward our chests.

Eventually, I kissed my way down the front of her shirt and ran my tongue along that narrow little ribbon of bare skin that had been driving me nuts all day. “Did you wear this on purpose?” I asked. “Knowing it would turn me on?”

“Truth?” she breathed. “Yes. At least, I hoped it would.”

“It did. From the second you got into my car.” I pushed the shirt farther up her stomach and kissed her ribcage. “You evil temptress.”

She laughed, the sound resonating through her chest to my lips. “I wanted you to look at me differently. To want me like this.”

I grabbed the shirt by the hem and lifted it over her head. When I looked down at her lace-edged nude bra, her breasts spilling over the top, my desire surged, and I said a little prayer of thanks I’d left the light on in my room. “It worked.” I lowered my head to her chest and moved my mouth over flesh and satin and lace. “I’ve never wanted anyone so badly in my entire life.”

Her whole body shivered. “Me neither.”

God help me, I tried to go slow.

I took off her bra and lavished each of her perfect breasts with all the attention they deserved, with my hands and lips and tongue. I slid her jeans and underwear down her legs and licked my way back up one inner thigh and then the other, reveling in the way she caught her breath, and gasped for air, and whispered my name like a plea. I pushed her legs apart and buried my face between her thighs, devouring her with long, leisurely strokes before sucking gently—and then not so gently—on her clit while she moaned and rocked her hips and fisted her hands in my hair.

And when she said, Oh God, Noah, it feels so good, and it’s been so long, I got even harder and even more determined to make her come again and again tonight.

Fuck that asshole who left her. Fuck anyone who’d ever had this chance and messed it up. Fuck everyone who’d ever been lucky enough to taste this woman I’d been dreaming about since I was goddamn sixteen years old.

Tonight she was mine.

I slid my fingers inside her. I listened. I paid attention to the way she moved, the way she cried out, the way she grew even wetter and firmer beneath my tongue. And when she came, her cries at a fever pitch, her clit pulsing against my tongue, her grip tightening in my hair, I nearly lost control and made a mess all over my bed.

She was still breathing hard when I moved back up her body. Her skin was warm and damp, her mouth open and waiting. I kissed her deeply, driving my tongue between her lips, grinding my erection against her hot, wet skin. I wasn’t going to last much longer.

She reached down between us and sheathed my cock with her hand. I groaned as she let my flesh slip through her fingers, tightening her grip as I thrust inside her palm. “You’re so big,” she whispered against my mouth. “So hard. And I want you inside me so badly.”

My dick threatened to come right there in her hand and sent a serious 911 emergency call to my brain. NOW or else, asshole.

Prying myself from her, I leaned over and grabbed a condom from the box in my nightstand drawer. It had been so long since I’d needed one, I was surprised the box didn’t creak when I opened it. The thing was probably covered with dust.

I tore the packet open with my teeth and rolled it on, loving the way she watched me. The way she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. The way her chest rose and fell with every anticipatory breath.

Ten seconds later, I was easing into her, every muscle in my body tensed with the effort of maintaining control. I went slow, giving her time to adjust to me, listening as her sharp gasps became soft sighs of pleasure.

“Yes,” she whispered as I began to move in an easy, rhythmic, rocking motion above her. She slid her palms down my back and over my ass. “Yes, just like that.”

Sustaining just like that took some effort on my part, since my body was desperate to abandon this slow, decadent pace and gallop for the fucking hills. But I took deep, measured breaths, inhaling the scent of her skin and hair. I forced myself to think of all the times I’d longed to feel this very thing—my body inside hers, at her invitation. I stayed intensely aware of her every breath, her every word, her every move, wanting this to be perfect for her.

“Oh God, Noah. You’re gonna make me come again,” she panted in my ear, her hips meeting mine thrust for thrust. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me . . .”

Annnnd that was the end of just like that.

Her words snapped the last frayed rope tethering me to self-control, and the beast in me was unleashed. I grabbed her wrists and pinned them in an X above her head. I drove into her hard and fast and ferociously. I took perverse pleasure in the way she struggled and failed to free her arms, in the way her piercing cries could be those of pain or ecstasy, in the slick, hot layer of sweat that covered our skin.

And then I went deeper, using the weight of my pelvis over hers to sink even farther into her body and fucking her with tight, quick thrusts of my hips. “Come again for me,” I demanded. “Let me feel you.”

I knew when it happened, because her head dropped to the side and her mouth fell open. Then she screamed my name, and I was lost.

My orgasm was a detonation felt in every bone, every muscle, every cell of my body. I gave myself over to it, my vision going black, my groans long and loud, my cock throbbing inside her again and again and again. I never wanted it to end.

When my senses returned, I propped myself up and looked down at her. “You okay?”

Her eyes were closed, but they popped wide open. “No. I really don’t think I am. But it’s a good thing.”

She was fucking adorable—flushed cheeks, messy hair, swollen lips. Her expression a mix of self-satisfaction and awe. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

The pink in her complexion deepened. “Stop.”

“I’m serious. You’re fucking beautiful.”