“Please, Tanner, I want more.” He trailed his mouth down her throat, licking her skin, soothing one ache only to cause another.
“I’ll give you everything,” he promised, and moved her from his lap so they both could stand up.
Lifting her into his arms, he carried her to the kitchen, much to her surprise, and set her down in front of the counter. She looked at him with a question in her eyes, but he just smiled as he undid her jeans and peeled them from her legs, his eyes lighting up at the sight of her panties.
A full-on blush suffused her cheeks when she remembered her impulsive buy. She squirmed in front of him. Obviously, she hadn’t been expecting to make love this beautiful Christmas Eve.
“I love them,” he said, chortling as he began removing her Rudolph panties.
“Ummm, it was a weak moment,” she said, embarrassed until he kissed her stomach right above the elastic at the top of said panties. Then, he began blazing a trail of wet kisses upward to her swollen br**sts.
Crying out when he clasped a nipple between his teeth, she forgot all about the poor red-nosed reindeer. When he lifted her up onto the counter, sending a few dishes crashing to the floor, she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him close.
Once again joining his lips to hers, he quickly removed his slacks and then pressed his body fully against hers. She reveled in the feel of his hardness.
“Yes, please,” she told him.
She heard the ripping of foil and then he was pulling back just a bit, making her cry out in protest until she felt him come close again, and then finally he was pushing inside her.
“Oh, yes.” Desperate for him to drive into her, she cried out her approval as he stretched her open, inch by glorious inch.
“You feel so good,” he groaned as he stalled halfway inside.
“Don’t stop!” she almost wailed. She wanted motion, blessed friction, and she urged him on with her gently gyrating hips.
“Hold on,” he growled, giving her body time to adjust.
But she didn’t want time; she wanted him — now!
For a moment, he clenched his teeth as he looked into her eyes; then he surged forward, burying himself fully inside her heat, making her head fall back as she cried out. If he moved even a little, she knew she would cl**ax. She’d never shattered so quickly while making love. As if he could read her body, he withdrew and drove back in, sending her spiraling over the edge, making her clench around him, forcing a groan to come ripping from his throat.
He drove slowly in and out of her, prolonging her pleasure until the last of her tremors died away. Then he grabbed her head and kissed her deeply as he began to move with long, deep strokes.
Time lost all meaning as his hands explored her body and his mouth ravished hers. The beating of her heart pulsed in time with his movements. The pressure within her began building again as he continued his lovemaking, and suddenly she felt her release first rippling through her again, then rushing headlong through her body as her pleasure spiked.
As she shook in his arms, he groaned, sinking deep inside her again, pulsing, spilling, and then becoming still. His head collapsed against her shoulder as a final shudder racked his body. She tasted the saltiness of his flesh, loved the flush that had stolen over his beautiful skin.
An eternity must have passed before he drew back and looked at her passion-spent face.
“That was unbelievable,” he said as he again caressed her cheek. “I didn’t think anything could be better than the first time we made love, but I was wrong.”
“I never want to stop,” she replied, bending forward and brushing her lips against his, needing this man over and over again.
“A lady after my own heart.” He lifted her from the counter and began moving through his apartment.
“Where are we going?”
“Take a guess. We’re going to continue doing it over and over and over again,” he said with a wicked smile.
“Oh, I must have been a very good girl this year.” She laughed in delight as he set her down on his bed and quickly climbed in after her.
“Mmm, yes, you have. You’re definitely on Santa’s good list.”
“That’s too bad. I kind of like the idea of being on the naughty list,” she said, then blushed.
“This just keeps getting better and better, Ms. Ridgley,” he told her after a pause.
“I can’t imagine it getting any better, Mr. Mystery Man, but I’m more than willing to give it all I’ve got. We could at least try to stay on a roll.”
They didn’t have to try very hard at all.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Merry Christmas, Mr. Storm. You’re a free man.”
Tanner looked down at his monitor-free ankle and sent the officer a withering look. He needed these guys to get the hell out of his apartment before Kyla woke up and found them here.
When this had all begun, he’d been planning on beating the officers out of the building as soon as the ridiculous contraption had been removed. Now, it was Christmas morning and he had a beautiful woman sound asleep in his bed.
He and Kyla hadn’t gotten more than two or three hours of sleep the night before. Still, he felt more energized than he could ever remember feeling. He didn’t know whether that was from a night of great lovemaking or because he was off house arrest, but the ankle device was history, and he could finally return to his beautiful penthouse.
Why wasn’t he just writing her a note and thanking her for a great night, telling her that she could have whatever she wanted from his apartment and that it had been fun, but he was out of here? Sheesh, what a bunch of questions. But he’d gotten what he wanted. There was nothing else for them to say to each other. It was finished.
Of course, he’d never done that to a woman, and he didn’t want to be the kind of man who did. Kyla wasn’t some cheap hooker, and he wasn’t a complete bastard. Or at least he hoped he wasn’t.
Even just thinking about bailing out on her like that turned his stomach. When the officers left and he shut and locked the door right behind them, he found himself wandering back to his bedroom, just standing there in the doorway and watching the rise and fall of her beautifully bare chest as she breathed evenly in her sleep.
She was stunning both inside and out. It was depressing to think that he’d never really looked beyond the externals with any other woman he’d been with. He’d really only cared that they looked good on his arm and satisfied his needs in the bedroom.
Kyla had seemed like a completely new woman last night, much different than the shy woman he’d been with a week earlier. Her confidence with him and with her own body had made her bold and daring, and she’d taken his breath away more than once. She’d teased him once again about leaving his socks on, but he’d found a satisfying way of distracting her when she’d told him she was going to pull them off. The last thing he’d wanted was for her to find the monitor. But that was a nightmare in his life that was now over and done with.