And now he knew it. Ugh.

I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling like a kid who’d made a total ass out of herself in front of her teacher crush. Had I really suggested he take me back to his bedroom? Shaking my head back and forth, I tried to erase the memory of his rejection.

So much for seduction.

But the longer I lay there, awake and shivering a little beneath the blanket, the more I realized I wasn’t sorry for trying. At least I’d taken a risk. Acted on an impulse. Granted, it hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, but still—Mack had kissed me.

I turned onto my side, pulling the blanket up over my shoulder and closing my eyes.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there when I felt a hand on my hip. I opened my eyes and saw Mack crouched next to me, balanced on the balls of his feet. Shirtless.

My breath caught.

He put a finger to his lips.

My heart started to pound. Was this real or a dream?

Without wanting to know for sure, I put my hand in his and rose from the couch. He led me through the dining room and into his bedroom, closing the door soundlessly behind me.

“Mack. What are you doing?” I whispered.

Instead of answering, he pushed me back against the door and kissed me hard and deep, his arms caging me on either side. “I changed my mind.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been lying here for fucking hours and I can’t stop thinking about how much I want you.” His voice was quiet but gravelly, more growl than whisper.

“But you said—”

“I know what I said. But I’ve decided I’d rather be reckless than responsible tonight. If you’re in, I’m in.”

I put my hands on his chest and pushed him back. “I’m in.”

Then I grabbed the bottom of the shirt I wore and whipped it over my head. Immediately our bodies came together, our bare chests pressed tight, our mouths sealed. Somehow, we managed to make it over to the bed, where he worked his pants off and stretched out above me. My heart was pumping so furiously, I was nearly afraid the doctors were wrong and there was something it couldn’t handle—getting naked with Declan MacAllister.

I shivered.

“Are you cold?” he asked.

“Are you serious?”

He smiled down at me in the dark. The warmth and weight of his masculine, muscular body was like heaven, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him. His erection pressed hard against me.

“We have to be quiet,” he whispered, his breath on my lips.

“I can be quiet,” I promised.

“Good.” He kissed me then, sending stars shooting throughout my body, to the ends of every finger and toe. I kissed him back like I’d never kissed anyone before, like he was the air I needed to breathe. I loved the warmth of his skin on mine, the way he smelled, the thickness of his chest.

Mack, Mack, Mack.

He put his hands on my breasts, making me arch into his touch and bite my lip to keep from sighing too loudly. He moved his mouth down my throat and chest, stroked my tingling nipples with his tongue, teased them into unbearably hard peaks that he sucked and flicked and caught between his teeth. I wove my hands into his hair, writhing rapturously beneath him. When he kissed a path down my belly, I began to panic that I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise about being quiet.

He barely lifted his mouth from me as he dragged my underwear from my legs. Then his head totally disappeared beneath the blanket, and he pushed my thighs apart.

At the first sweep of his tongue, I yelped. I couldn’t help it. Immediately, I slapped a hand over my mouth. I heard him laugh before he gave me another long and luscious stroke across my clit. I yelped again and clapped the other hand over the first.

Mack pushed the blanket off his head. “Should I stop?”

I shook my head. Vehemently.

“Then you have to be quiet, angel. Shhhhh.” He returned to what he’d been doing, and I whimpered helplessly behind my palms. He slid a finger inside me, and I covered my face with a pillow. He sucked my clit into his mouth while he fucked me with one finger, then two, causing my body to hum and tighten and fill with uncontrollable longing, until finally it was too much for me to contain and everything burst wide open in an explosion of stars that rained down around me.

I might have been quiet. I wasn’t really sure.

With one last kiss on my inner thigh, Mack moved up my body again. “Jesus Christ,” he said, his voice raw.

“Was I too loud?” I whispered.

“I have no idea. I was too busy trying not to come from the way you taste.” He kissed my neck. “And the way you move.” He kissed my jaw. “And the way it’s going to feel when I get inside you.” He covered my mouth with his, and I twined my limbs around him, desperate for the very same thing. I could feel how big and hard he was as he rocked his hips above me.

“Yes,” I said against his lips. “I want you inside me. Now.”

Mack leaned over me to open the nightstand drawer. Ten seconds later, he’d shoved his underwear off his legs and was kneeling between my legs, rolling a condom on. I’d seen other guys do this twice before, but it was always awkward and fumbling, like they hadn’t wanted me to even look at them. Granted, those had been skinny adolescent boys compared to the man in front of me now. He was mature and confident, rugged and strong. Everything about him exuded masculinity, from the stubble on his chin to the hair on his chest, to his muscular arms and thick, hard cock.

But I barely had time to admire his silhouette in the shadowy dark before he was above me again, positioning himself between my legs, then easing inside me. Slowly. Inch by hot, rock-solid inch.

I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes as my body got used to being stretched so tight and filled so completely.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You can tell me to slow down.” But he was already starting to move, his hips undulating over mine in deep, unhurried strokes.

Echoing his rhythm, I moved my hips beneath his, sliding my hands down his back and whispering in his ear. “I’m more than okay. I want this so much.”

He kept the rhythm slow and steady, his voice low in my ear. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about fucking you right here in this bed?”

“Tell me.” I struggled to speak

“So many nights.” He changed the angle, making me gasp and sink my teeth into his shoulder. “But you’re even better than my fantasy. Sweeter. Hotter. And I fucking love how wet you are for me. It feels so damn good.”

God, I loved his foul mouth. I’d donate every cent I had to the swear jaw if he’d just keep talking to me that way.

And the way he moved, oh my God …

Already aroused from my first orgasm, my body was more than responsive to a second one. Within a few minutes, I felt myself at the edge of the cliff once more, and every deep, hard thrust of his cock pushed me closer to jumping off. And if Mack’s strangled moans and ragged breaths were any indication, he was just as close.

I clawed at his skin. I choked back cries. I grabbed his ass and pulled him into me, wanting more, more, more, even though I knew my body couldn’t take it. “Mack,” I begged. “Mack …” Just saying his name, feeling it on my lips as he moved inside me, was a kind of ecstasy.

Sex with Mack was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Rougher. Deeper. More intense. It felt like the real thing, like the times before were silly imitations. And every sensation was heightened by the fact that we couldn’t be loud. It was damn near impossible! All my effort was needed to keep from crying out—in pleasure, in pain, in total disbelief that this was actually happening.