But Verity seemed to be a couple of steps ahead of him. She was already in flames. Jonas was dazed by the hunger in her. She was all over him, peeling open his jacket and yanking at the buttons of his shirt, entwining her leg around his and arching her lower body into his thighs. Jonas groaned as the blaze of his passion mingled with hers. When her small, eager hand slipped down to his waist and stopped to unfasten his jeans, he came back to his senses long enough to free his mouth.
"It's cold out here. Let's get to your cabin," he ordered tersely.
She blinked as if trying to clear her head for an instant and then she gave up the effort. "No," she said, her fingers back at work on his jeans. "Here. Right now. Right here. I can't wait. I want you, Jonas. I want you so much. I've got to have you. You must make love to me."
"Believe me, I will. As soon as we get inside where it's warm." He groaned, fighting for enough self-control to get both of them off the path and into the privacy of the cabin. When she refused to cooperate, he lost what was left of his patience. He captured her wrists and held them behind her back.
She twisted, trying to free herself so that she could get at him again. "Let me touch you," she begged.
"Please let me touch you. I want to feel you. I want to hold you in my hands and watch you get big and hard and heavy and then I want to take you inside me. Deep inside me. I want to feel every inch of you. I want to drain you. Please, Jonas."
"Woman, you're going to make me come right here in the middle of the path if you keep on talking like that. Let's go." He scooped her up into his arms and almost ran to the cabin. He was on fire and so was she. The heat in her was beating at him. The night was clear and cold but Jonas felt as if he were holding a small furnace in his arms.
Verity gave up struggling and concentrated on clinging to him as he carried her. Her fingertips were tiny daggers sliding under the collar of his jacket and sinking into his shoulders. Her mouth was glued to his.
"The door," Jonas rasped when they reached it. "Open it, Verity."
With a soft, impatient moan, she did as he ordered and reached down to open the door. A second later they were inside. Jonas kicked the door shut behind him and started down the short hallway to Verity's small bedroom. He could hardly wait now.
He barely made it. For a moment he was sure that he was going to collapse under Verity's compelling touch and wind up making love to her on the hardwood floor. He managed to fall heavily onto the bed, instead. Her fingers went straight to his jeans to resume the task they had begun outside.
"Oh, yes, baby," he muttered, fumbling desperately with her sweater. "Anything you want, honey. Take anything you damn well want. It's all yours. And I'm going to have all of you in return. I'm going to get so deep inside you, you'll think I'm a part of you."
He freed her br**sts just as she succeeded in opening his jeans. His throbbing manhood leaped into her hands, pushing against her palm and thrusting between her fingers with blind hunger. Verity's nails scored him lightly, then glided over the sensitive, velvety soft head. Jonas sucked in his breath, fighting to keep himself from climaxing then and there.
"Hell, Verity."
"Is it?" she asked breathlessly.
"No, no, no." He groaned and leaned down to close his teeth lightly around one of her tight little ni**les.
"More like heaven. You're so damn hot tonight."
She slid her fingers down his shaft and continued further below. She cupped him, squeezing a little too hard.
"Jesus Christ, take it easy, honey," he gasped, torn between excruciating pain and excruciating desire.
He grabbed her hand and pulled it slightly away from its target. "Easy does it."
She frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It's okay, it's okay," he said quickly. "You just need a little practice,that's all." He pushed her hand back into position, already missing her touch. "Try it again."
She did, this time with such exquisite sensitivity that Jonas was sure he would never get enough of her.
"Better?" she whispered.
"Perfect." He moved his hand down her body to the waistband of her jeans and quickly unzipped them.
"Lift that sweet little tail far enough off the bed so I can get these damn jeans off you."
She did as instructed. Jonas made certain her silky panties came off along with the jeans. She didn't wait for his coaxing touch on her thighs. Her denims had barely hit the floor before she was raising one knee and parting her legs. The scent of her arousal made Jonas's head swim.
The feminine invitation was irresistible. Jonas's fingers clamped around her silken thighs, pushing them wider apart so that he could have free access to the treasure awaiting him. He parted the soft folds with his thumb and forefinger.
Verity moaned softly and Jonas's fingers were instantly bathed in spicy dew. He slowly probed the tight, secret corridor, groaning with anticipation as he felt her clench around him.
"You're so tight and hot," he breathed in awe. He was dazed with her excitement. She was wild for him.
Her moisture coated his whole hand. He used a second finger to open her wider, and his lower body tightened unmercifully as he felt her small muscles close fiercely around his two fingers. Deliberately he stroked deeply into the velvet sheath. Then he slowly withdrew to the entrance. Verity twisted beneath his touch, clutching at him. Her soft cries were an erotic cross between a siren's compelling demand and a woman's sweet surrender. They vibrated through Jonas, making him tremble with his own demanding need.
He stroked his fingers into her again, this time using his thumb to tease the small, rigid little bud at the juncture of her legs. She arched frantically, trying to pull him to her.
" Jonas. Love me. Take me now. I want you inside me now. Hurry. I'm going crazy."
He lowered his head to where her tiny passion bud, swollen and throbbing, snuggled into dark red curls.
He curled his tongue around it and was rewarded with Verity's desperate cry of need. She grabbed his head and tried to hold him to her, offering herself to him with uninhibited passion.
Jonas reveled in the response he had provoked. A heady sense of masculine power made him tantalize her again instead of moving to satisfy her. He loved having Verity like this, full of sweet, demanding surrender. He had never had a woman respond so completely to him. It was enough to give a man delusions of grandeur.
"In a minute," he promised, sliding one finger down beneath her hips to trace the dark velvet furrow between her clenched bu**ocks. "I'll take you completely, honey. I won't leave any part of you untouched, I promise. I'm going to go deep inside you. So deep you won't ever be able to forget me."