I ruffled the little bit of lace, feeling my skin pebble. I dipped my hand underneath the fabric, arching into my touch.

He licked my spine.

A moan escaped my mouth as my nipples instantly hardened, sensitive and tight. I tugged at my shirt, and my breasts tumbled out. As my left hand danced across my skin, my right hand dipped below, sliding inside my panties.

He licked my spine.

What was it about that that made me go stupid? There were certainly other body parts, much more secret, wicked, and certainly more intimate, parts. Or maybe the spine was my new erogenous zone. Maybe my entire body was my new erogenous zone. Maybe I was now zoned solely by Leo Maxwell.

But meanwhile, back on the ranch, there was only me touching my . . . mmm.

My breath caught as I felt my body coming alive under my hands. Desire pooled in my tummy, spreading all through me. What did he sound like when he came? Did he shudder, silent and strong, or did he groan, panting my name as his hand slid back and forth over his rock-hard—

I was fantasizing about what he looked like when he was touching himself . . . while I was touching myself? So hot.

I was on fire. I slid my fingertips down, finding my own heat. Slick and wet, I almost arched off the bed, my hips rolling as I moved my fingers, seeking that perfect balance of pressure and—sweet Christ, that was good! I cried out his name as I danced right on the edge, the pressure building in my belly . . .

Buzz.

Buzz. Buzz.

I looked to the right, saw my phone light up with an incoming text. Leo’s name flashed across the screen. Leo was incoming—if only! I groaned at the interruption, but in case he’d happened to text me a picture of his prize-winning . . . rooster . . .

I snatched up my phone.

I’m outside.

Oh.

And I can hear you.

Ohhh.

You said my name.

Oh. My. God.

Let me in.

Chapter 13

I ran down the stairs and threw open the door. Leo stood in the yard, staring up at my window. Jesus, he really did know what I’d been up to. I went out onto the porch in my underwear, and as the screen door closed behind me, he looked my way.

His eyes widened when he took me in, barely clothed and flushed pink from what I’d been doing. He was across the yard in three strides, and had me up against the door in one more.

I should have known when he licked my spine that this guy was going to ruin me. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, his arms caging me in, one leg nudging between mine. “Couldn’t stop thinking about you.” His mouth came down on my shoulder, kissing a path toward my neck, up along my jawline to my mouth. He hovered there, his breath mingling with mine. I grasped his hips, angling him toward me, the energy between us sparking and electric.

“I was thinking about you too,” I whispered. As he pushed his leg farther in, his thigh into my heat, I gasped.

He nodded. “I heard.”

He kissed me hard, my teeth and his colliding, heads turning this way and that. If I could have climbed inside his mouth, I’d have done it. “Roxie?” he said, lifting his mouth from mine for the briefest of seconds. I swooped in to kiss him again, not wanting his lips to get away from me.

“Mmm?” I managed.

“Fuck,” he hissed as I pulled his hips into mine once more. “I’m dying to see you.”

“Me?” I asked, arching against the door to get more leverage. “What did you want to see?”

He tugged the strap of my tank top. “This.” He kissed between my breasts. “You. All of you.” He spoke to my skin, his breath warm.

And just like that, every sense filled with Leo. The scratch of the wooden door against my back as he thrust his hips into mine, grinding and winding me up. The way my skin reacted to his body, goose bumps rising even through the heat of the night. The way the light from the shed lit his profile, showing me hints of cheekbone, and tousled hair, and that sexy, raspy beard. The raspy beard sliding between my breasts, his nose and teeth already shoving my shirt high around my collarbone to allow him access to ravage. The groans from the back of his throat as he licked my belly button.

“You smell like honey and taste like heaven,” he murmured, his rough voice reaching my dizzy ears before he rose back up my body to plant kisses over every inch of my neck.

I forgot my name. I forgot his name. I knew only that I had a doorknob in the small of my back, what felt like a doorknob between my thighs, and I was once again climbing Leo like it was exactly what I was put on earth to do.

And then the doorknob between my thighs shifted, felling much more like a door knocker. Like the kind you’d find on a really big church.

And speaking of seeing God, Leo’s right hand slid up my thigh, slipped underneath, and pulled it around his hip. That rough, callused hand on my soft inner thigh made me want to weep, it was already so good. While I was still able to speak, I lifted his head from my shoulder looked him in the eye.

“If this happens—and I need this to happen . . .” I paused, because though his lips had stopped, his hips had not, and the slow grind was brain melting. My own hips circled, aching, needing.

“Need is a curious word,” he murmured with a slow circle of his hips. “You need food. You need water. You need shelter.”

“Sex. Sex is also a need,” I panted as his lips moved down to bite my neck. With one hand—one hand!—he tore my camisole from my body. I blinked. The poly/Lycra was now tatters and shreds. I blinked again. Holy shit.