He took his time restoring her skin to its usual smooth, soft glow. When he was done, he threw the towel into the linen basket across the room and straddled the long wooden bench. She moved one leg across it to face him. Her skin was flushed, the pulse at her neck racing. She looked nervous. But also aroused.
And happy...most of all she looked happy. It was how he always wanted her to be.
“Kiss me, Sean.”
He slid a couple of inches closer and reached up with one hand to cup her jaw. Gently, and oh-so-softly, he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Their kiss was barely more than a breath against each other’s lips, but he could feel the impact of it all the way down in the deepest part of him.
He wanted to take. Wanted to ravage. Wanted to possess. At the same time, he also wanted something he’d never known he could want before: for their kisses to be as emotional as they were sexy. And for each one to be more than just foreplay. More than just a way to tease, to tempt.
But though he could tell Serena was as affected by these kisses as he was, he also knew from the way her body was winding tighter with each one that she was hungry for more. He’d felt her hunger last week, too, but she’d hadn’t been ready for more than kisses. And even now that he swore he could feel the heat radiating from her, he didn’t want to make the mistake of pushing her too fast. But, he wondered as she made a little growly sound at his next super-soft, super-sweet kiss, could it finally be time to start gently leading them down the road in the direction they both obviously wanted to go?
“Is this how you want me to kiss you?” Yet again he pressed his lips against hers, no tongues, no teeth, just the sweet, simple pleasure of being close to her.
Her hands had moved to his thighs by then, and he didn’t know if she realized how tightly she was gripping him, her fingers loosening every time he kissed her, then tightening when he drew back.
“I really like it,” she whispered against his lips a beat before she surprised him by saying, “but I want you to kiss me like this.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As her mouth crashed against his, he moved his hands to her hips to drag her even closer. Instead of pulling away, she wrapped her legs around his waist and bucked against him as she moaned into his mouth.
Layers. There were too many layers of clothes between them. He didn’t stop to think before he found the hem of her long-sleeved Stanford Football shirt and yanked it up over her torso. Clearly as desperate as he was to get rid of at least one of the cotton barriers between them¸ she helped him get it over her head and toss it onto the bench.
He stroked her nearly bare back, only her bra left on her upper body now. She was so warm, and when she arched into his touch, he finally saw what he’d uncovered.
“You’re—” Beautiful didn’t even come close. Gorgeous was just a word. “A miracle.”
Apart from that night at the frat party, she’d always worn baggy clothes. He’d been careful tonight to make sure that the shirt he’d bought for her to wear at the game hadn’t been too fitted, either. But now, with her br**sts swelling over the top of the surprisingly sexy silk bra, he wanted to touch, wanted to stroke, wanted to taste.
But when he looked up at her face, he could read every one of her fears, every bit of her hesitation. And he also finally realized that he was gaping at her like a horny idiot.
“Serena, you don’t have to be frightened.” Instead of touching her br**sts, he threaded his fingers through her hair. “You don’t have to worry.” He pressed his lips to hers, slow and soft and sweet. “It’s me.” He kissed her again. “I won’t hurt you.” Their lips brushed, tongues licked, teeth nipped. “We’re only going to go as fast as you want to go.” He was reminding them both. “We can put your shirt back on if you want to. If you need to.”
“No.” She moved closer. “I don’t want that. I don’t need that.”
“What do you want? What do you need?”
But instead of answering him, she put her hands over his and moved them to cup her br**sts over the silk. He had to close his eyes, had to take a breath, and then another, to try to keep his shit together.
So good. She felt so good. Soft and warm and round and perfect.
“This,” she whispered. “I want this. I want you to touch me like this. I need you to touch me like this.”
Her ni**les were pebbling against his palms through the silk, and thank God she’d just told him she wanted him to do this, because he didn’t know if he was strong enough otherwise to stop himself from brushing his thumbs over both gorgeous peaks.
A low moan emerged from her throat. “Again.”
It was just what he’d said to her at the Frisbee Golf course when she’d surprised him with a kiss, and he loved that she was the one saying it to him now as he cupped her br**sts in his hands. She held on to him as he stroked her ni**les so that they grew even harder against the pads of his thumbs.
“More. I want more.”
He knew what she wanted, knew what she was asking for, but still he hesitated. It would be so easy, too easy, to just take and take and take from her. But it wouldn’t be worth it if he only ended up losing her once the rush of pleasure had passed.
But then, as if in slow motion, he watched her drop her hands from his and reach around to her back. He heard the soft click as the latch of her bra came undone, almost undoing him at the same time.
“Please.”
She’d not only just given him permission to strip her bra completely away, but had also made it perfectly clear that she wanted him to touch her skin to skin, without anything between them for once. Not even the thin layer of silk.
And yet...he still didn’t lift his hands from her silk-covered br**sts. Didn’t give in to the urge to see her naked chest completely revealed. Because for as much as he needed it, for as desperate as he was to make her his, he needed this to be about more than just two horny college students copping a feel in a deserted locker room.
“Why?” He knew he wasn’t being clear, wasn’t making sense. “Why me?”
“Because I trust you.” Something flashed in her eyes, something that he thought looked like a lifetime of wondering about the motives of everyone around her. “You’re the only one I’ve ever trusted.”
He shifted his hands so that her bra fell in a soft heap of fabric between them, but he still didn’t drop his gaze from her eyes. “I’m going to keep earning your trust, Serena, every single day.”