“You—I—we—” Her mind scattered when he bit her neck with exquisite care.
“Oh yeah.” His voice was deep, hoarse. “Us. Damn, sweetheart. It’s going to be so good. You want us straight up now or in the bed as fast as we can get there?”
She gave him a dazed look, eyes huge and dark with gold flashing unexpectedly when the light caught her just right.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he said roughly.
“I—it’s you.” She shook her head and fought to breathe. “Bed. I can barely stand up.”
“Your knees hurt?” Hunter asked, concern shadowing the fire in his body.
“What knees?” she asked with an odd laugh. “It’s not the bruises making me shaky. It’s you.”
He bent to kiss her hard and deep, but stopped. If he started here, they wouldn’t get to bed the first time. Hell, maybe even the second.
He breathed out a rough word. “You’re killing me here.”
She glanced down his body and smiled, feeling less shaky, less blindsided by the heat burning through her.
“Those jeans look tight enough to bruise.” Lina’s hands reached for the steel buttons on his fly. “Let me see if you’re hurt.”
With a strangled laugh, he grabbed her hands and led her down a short hallway. The bedroom was like the house, small. Or maybe it was the bed that took up more than its share of the room.
Before Lina could draw a breath, Hunter dropped her in the middle of the mattress and followed her down, landing over her in a sprawl of muscle and heat.
“Gotcha,” he said.
She smiled and slid one hand between their bodies to find him, rub against him, digging her fingernails into denim, flesh hot and hard beneath, and his breath shuddered. “Gotcha right back.”
“I’m trying to slow down.”
“I’ll tell you if you go too fast.”
“Promise?” he asked.
“Yes.”
She barely got the word out before his long fingers had the business jacket off her shoulders and down to her elbows. He tugged her blouse out of the matching slacks. She tried to help him, but kept getting distracted by her own need to get his clothes off so that she could enjoy him. The fact that her jacket was around her elbows didn’t help. She felt her bra suddenly loosen and then his mouth was on her, licking and nibbling at her breasts. When he sucked one nipple into his mouth, her back arched and she twisted beneath him.
Reluctantly Hunter released her nipple, his tongue teasing every bit of the way. “Too hard?”
“Get me out of this damn jacket,” she said, trying to work the sleeves down her arms.
“You sure?” Hunter looked at her full breasts framed by her pushed-up blouse and her crumpled jacket. Her dark, hard nipples swayed with each breath, each movement. “You look damn good just the way you are.”
He leaned down and nipped gently, then sucked her deep.
“Jacket,” she gasped.
He lifted his mouth. “Can’t.”
“Why?”
“Your hands are in my jeans.”
She made a startled sound and realized he was right. Both of her hands were inside the waistband of his pants, rubbing over the thick crest that was even now damp with his hunger for her.
“Help me, Hunter.” Her voice was breathless, needy.
He reached down with one hand and tugged at metal buttons. Suddenly her fingers had freedom to move over his full, aching length.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” she said breathlessly. “But it’s good.”
Hunter groaned at her hungry caresses. Then he moved fast, stripping off her jacket and blouse, sending them flying with her bra onto the floor. He lowered his head again to the curves that had aroused him from the first time he had sensed them beneath the prim professor clothes.
“Your boots are still on,” she said.
And her hands circled his erection, squeezed, and approved from base to tip.
“Keep that up,” he said, “and they’ll still be on when I’m inside you.”
“Too fast?” she asked. Her voice was like her hands, hot and teasing.
“Just warning you.”
“Just enjoying you,” she said.
Then, slowly, she released him. He shuddered and forced himself to be reasonable.
“Boots,” he growled. “Will you strip while I undress, or are you shy?”
“I was. Before you.”
Her eyes became even more heavy-lidded. She toed off her low shoes and opened her tailored pants. Before she could lower the zipper, Hunter had kicked off his boots and was shoving his jeans over his feet. His underwear and shirt followed. By the time the narrow waist of her pants reached her curvy hips, he was naked, watching her.
And she burned, watching him in return. Slower now, she shimmied out of the bottom of her pantsuit, feeling a little embarrassed and a lot aroused by the stark male hunger in his eyes. His eyes never left her as he ripped open a foil packet from his jeans and put on a condom. Her simple underwear caught in the pants fabric. She lifted her hips and tugged harder.
“Darn my big butt,” she said between her teeth.
“Big? Hell, no.” His hands swept off her tangled clothes and kneaded the curves in question. “Sweetheart, you have the most amazingly perfect ass I’ve ever seen. Makes me want to…bite.”
He leaned down and did just that, sucking hard, his mouth leaving a brand against her rich skin. She cried out in surprise and pleasure, then in shock as his mouth moved lower.
“I—can’t,” she said, writhing beneath his hungry tongue. “I’ve never—”
Turning away from the shy feast he’d barely tasted, he kissed the inside of her thighs and murmured, “Next time. Or the time after. I want you like I’ve never wanted a woman. All of you, sweetheart. Everywhere. Everything.”
Lina moaned at the same time a rush of liquid heat left her core. Before she could draw another breath, he came back up her body like a storm tide, covering her, tumbling her around and around, entering her, engulfing her. She hung on to him with her arms, her legs, her mouth, everything she was, moving as he did, giving and taking and demanding. Then she cried out as her body bowed in an arc of passion that turned her inside out, breaking her and remaking her with each wave of release.
Hunter locked deep inside her and rode her orgasm until he could no longer hold back his own. Release pulsed and racked him until he was empty, fulfilled, and knew only her. Breathing hard, he licked the slow tears from her cheeks.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked.
“No. You…” Another wave rippled through her. Deep inside, she clamped down on him, milking him. “So good.”
“Amen.” He shuddered as he felt her caressing him, holding him sweet prisoner.
When she was finally still, he rolled aside. He knew he should separate their bodies and get rid of the condom, but he felt too damn good to move.
“This could be addictive,” he said against her skin.
Her breath sighed out and her hands stroked the slick heat of his back. “I’ll risk it.”
Reluctantly he pulled out of her. She made a disappointed sound.
“Condom,” he said.
She mumbled something and snuggled under the covers while he disposed of the protection.
“Shower?” he asked, turning over and reaching for her.
“Sleep.” She burrowed close to him, skin to skin.
He pulled the bedspread over them and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. So was she.
HUNTER AWOKE AS HE HAD SLEPT, A SENSUAL TANGLE OF HEAT and flesh, female and male. He watched the sun spill across Lina’s face. Dark hair, eyelashes black half circles against her creamy brown skin, her lips full and red. Her beauty made his heart ache. They had reached for each other again and again during the night and he still wanted her. Knowing that she wanted him in the same way was a miracle he was still trying to absorb.