She wound her arms slowly around his neck and smiled. “Nope.”
He gave a soft, husky groan, and then his mouth closed over hers.
Heat and sparkling energy crackled through her. He made the kiss last a long time, not rushing her.
A slow hunger that had nothing whatsoever to do with peanut butter and crackers built inside her, tightening her lower body.
She could kiss him like this for weeks or months at a time,” she thought, relaxing into the embrace.
The sleek, muscled contours of his back felt wonderful beneath her hands.
Experimentally, she slid her palms under his tee shirt and around to the front of his chest. She spread her fingers in the crisp, dar air she discovered there.
“This,” he announced, releasing his grip on the counter to peel off the tee shirt, “is a whole lot bette han peanut butter and crackers.”
He pulled her close a second time. First she felt his lips on, her throat. Her head tipped back. Then she felt his teeth. Thrill after thrill coursed through her. She had been wrong, she thought. She could not go on kissing him like this for weeks or months. If she did, she would suffer unbearable frustration. She needed much more, and she needed it right now.
Obviously he was able to read her mind because the next thing she knew, his warm, strong hands were gliding downward toward the bones that defined the curve of her hips. He flexed his fingers, squeezing gently.
He was so strong. He could break things with those hands. But he wouldn’t hurt her.
She knew that intuitively in every fiber of her being.
He touched her as though she were made out of silk and moonbeams, making her feel as though sh ere a rare and magical being, capable of sorcery. She sensed wonder and a deep, clawing need in him. No man had ever made her feel that she could cause him to shudder with desire.
Excitement and a heretofore undiscovered sense of her own feminine power swept through her, a rus f pure, intense sensation that left her dazed and breathless.
She let her hands drift down his sides until her thumbs slid just inside the waistband of his jeans. Slowly she moved her fingers to the front where she could feel the hard, shockingly masculine bulge.
“If I weren’t a tough, seasoned journalist, I would probably succumb to an attack of the vapors right about now,” she said.
His laugh was rough and sexy. “If it weren’t for my rigorous training, I’d probably be doing the same thing.”
He scooped her up against his chest. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clung to him. He carried her out of the kitchen, negotiated the narrow hallway with amazing deftness, and put her down on the tumbled bed.
He paused just long enough to get out of his jeans and briefs and remove a small foil packet from the pocket of his pants. He tore off the top of the packet with his teeth.
And then he was coming down on top of her, one leg anchoring her thigh so that she was open to his touch.
He tugged the nightgown up to her waist and higher still until he could pull it off entirely. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the crumpled garment go sailing off into the nearest corner She didn’t see it hit the floor because she was too utterly focused on the looming shape of Luke as he bent his head to her breast.
When he took her nipple between his teeth she heard a soft, 1 breathless sigh of pleasure. It took her a moment to realize that she was the one who had made the sound.
She reached down and enclosed him with her fingers, exploring the length and breadth of him. The fierceness of his ~” erection excited her. She felt him grow even tighter and bigger at her touch.
His hand moved up the inside of her thigh. She did not know whether to urge him to hurry before sh ost this glorious pulsing sensation, or if she wanted him to slow down so that it had time to intensify. Decisions, decisions. She was entering uncharted territory. Her trusty vibrator was home in Glasto ove in a drawer beside her bed.
One long finger slid slowly, deeply into her, stroking, prodding and stretching.
Another finger followed. She could feel the slick dampness gathering between her legs.
So far so good. But she knew that without the vibrator this was probably as exciting as it was goin o get.
Not bad, though, she told herself. Not bad at all.
Luke did something very interesting with his thumb, startling her out of thoughts of her vibrator. Jolted, her body clenched tightly around his invading fingers.
“Luke?”
“Mmm?” He nuzzled her belly.
“Now,” she urged, digging her nails into his shoulders. “Please, yes, now.”
He did the thing with his thumb again. “There’s no rush.”
“Yes, there is.” She tried to shake him, but it was like trying to move a large boulder.
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re still tight. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me.” She clutched him harder and moved her hips against his hand.
“The thing is,
I never get this far without—” She broke off. Don’t go there, she thought. Too much information.
“Let’s see if we can make you a little wetter first.”
He started to move farther down her body, pausing here and there to drop kisses onto her sensitive skin.
He reached the inside of her thigh.
“No, wait,” she gasped. “Come back here.”
She heard his low, wicked laugh again, and then felt his warm breath and his tongue on her, right ther n the place where she usually relied on Big Guy.
It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming.
It was too much. He was taking control, demanding a kind of surrender that she had never been abl o give any man. It was unthinkable. She barely knew him. How could she trust him with her most intimate responses?
A moment later the climax rolled through her, as deep and unstoppable as an earthquake.
She was vaguely aware of Luke shifting his weight, sliding heavily between her legs.
He pushed himself deliberately into her, stretching her, filling her completely.
She was stunned to feel herself coming again. Luke rode the new tremors with her, pounding hard and fast into her body. His back was slick with perspiration, every muscle rigid.
The ancient bedsprings groaned loudly, rhythmically in protest. The headboard slammed again and again against the wall. Her emotions were in utter, mystifying chaos. She wanted to laugh and was amazed when she felt tears in her eyes. The only thing that mattered was the man in her arms.
It seemed impossible, but Luke’s hoarse shout of exultant, triumphant release gave her as much pure, unadulterated pleasure and satisfaction as her own climax.