He snorted. “You should be worried about you.”
“You don’t scare me.” She lifted her chin and tossed her hair back from her face. The fire in his eyes glinted at her as he moved steadily closer. Daisy took a breath and held it, not sure she’d be able to draw another. He was big and powerful and looked just a little dangerous and, oh, her entire being was quaking with banked eagerness.
When he stopped on the step just below her, their eyes were level and he said softly, “I should, Daisy. I should scare the hell outta you.”
She studied him for a long moment and saw past the desire and the heat in his eyes to the shadows lurking deep within. Shaking her head, she reached out to cup his cheek in her palm and whispered, “You’re no danger to me, Jericho King.”
He covered her hand with his own. “No,” he agreed, “but I can’t say the same for your virtue.”
Daisy laughed, but the sound was cut off as Jericho grabbed her and slammed her close to his chest. Her head fell back and her eyes were linked with his when she nodded slowly, telling him silently that she wanted him as badly as he did her. Then she said, “My virtue isn’t an issue. My need for you is.”
“Thank God,” he muttered and tossed her over one shoulder.
She yelped in surprise, but Jericho paid no attention. He’d damn near killed himself getting back to the lodge while the moon was still high. He’d wanted her to himself. He’d finally accepted that he wasn’t going to get any peace until he’d satisfied his body inside hers. And tonight was the night. He slipped one hand beneath her nightgown and caressed her panty-covered behind as he hit the landing and started down the hall for his room.
“No more waiting,” he told her. “No more thinking and dreaming about this. Tonight, I’m going to make you scream my name until you’re hoarse.”
She shivered and a tiny moan escaped her throat.
His own body tightened at the images racing through his mind and he hurried his steps. The little dog nipped along at his heels, but he couldn’t have cared less. He reached his bedroom, walked across the wide space and tossed Daisy onto the mattress. She bounced, settled in atop the handmade quilt and then stared up at him through wide, whiskey-colored eyes.
He tore his clothes off, telling her, “I even stopped to bathe in the river so I wouldn’t have to waste time with a damn shower once I got home.”
She grinned and pushed herself up onto her elbows.
“Must have been cold.”
He shook his head. “Didn’t feel a thing.”
Then he was on the bed with her, pushing her nightgown up and over her head, baring her luscious br**sts to his gaze, to his touch. He bent over her, took first one nipple then the other into his mouth, licking, nibbling, sucking, and felt her fingers thread through his hair, holding him in place.
His hands moved over her skin, fingers dipping below the elastic band of her panties, a tiny scrap of white lace.
With one quick move, he snapped that band and tugged the lace free of her body. Then he touched her, covering her heat with the palm of his hand, feeling her body arch into him and listening to the soft sighs of expectation sliding from her lips.
“Jericho…”
“First time’s going to be hot and hard, baby,” he muttered against her breast. “I’ve been waiting for you too long.”
“Yes,” she said and met his gaze when he lifted his head. “Now, please. Fill me. I need you so much.”
He didn’t need to hear more. Jericho shifted position, knelt between her legs, then parted her thighs. He stroked her most sensitive skin with the tips of his fingers until she was writhing helplessly beneath him. “Jericho, now…”
“Almost,” he told her, watching her squirm, watching a passion-induced haze slide over her eyes.
Then, when he was satisfied that she was on the teetering brink of completion, he pushed his body into hers.
She gasped, lifting her h*ps to accommodate him, and he took advantage of her move, sliding ever deeper inside her. Her tight, hot body surrounded his and he groaned aloud at the sweeping satisfaction of finally being exactly where he’d dreamed of being.
This was all he had craved. This was what he needed above all else. Daisy. With her hot welcome, with her warm sighs and the soft ease of her lush body.
He levered himself over her, hands on either side of her head, and their eyes met and locked as he pumped himself into her. Plunging, claiming, again and again, his h*ps rocked against hers.
Her arms came around his neck, she locked her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper, tighter on every thrust. Breath mingled, mouths met and tongues twisted.
And when at last she tore her mouth from his and screamed his name, Jericho shouted in victory and allowed his body to explode into a pleasure so profound, it left him shattered.
Eight
They’d been at it for hours.
He was insatiable, Daisy thought with an inward smile. And very creative. Her body felt used and complete and was practically humming with stored energy. There was just something about incredible sex that made her feel strong enough to move mountains.
But even as that thought slid through her mind, she knew it was more. Knew that this long, incredible night had been about much more than simple sex. This wasn’t just a case of needs being met, hungers assuaged. This was something else.
And that worried her.
She hadn’t planned on loving Jericho.
But it seemed, she told herself, that it was too late to avoid it.
His body covering hers, she ran her hands up and down his spine, loving the hard, warm feel of his skin against hers. His breath puffed across her throat and their heartbeats thundered in time.
She’d gone to King Mountain because of his connection with her brother. Because she’d felt that Jericho and the military owed her one. They’d taken her brother—her only family—from her and she’d come to collect on that debt. But now, it was so much more complicated than that. She’d come to care for him and during the long, sex-fueled night, she’d taken that last trembling step into love.
Which left her exactly where?
“You’re thinking,” he murmured against her skin. “I can practically hear the wheels in your head spinning.”
She smiled and moved her hands up to thread through his hair. “Well, maybe you could think of something to do that would completely shut down my brain.”
He lifted his head and grinned down at her. “Is that a challenge?”