Tension mounted.
Liam drove into her. Forceful now, demanding. His early gentleness evaporating in the face of urgent need.
She tightened her legs around his waist. He fondled her buttocks in his hand, spearing her hard, banging into her.
The inside of her thighs rode his hips. Relentlessly.
She could feel his legs quivering, knew he was on the verge of climax. It was gonna be big.
They exploded, shattering into pieces, the orgasm tearing through them simultaneously. She felt it ripple from her womb. Felt the shot of his heat flood through her.
At that very moment, Katie fell deeply in love.
LIAM HAD NEVER FELT happier in his life. He propped himself up on one elbow and lay watching her sleep, his eyes tracing the outlines of her dear face.
She’d spoiled him for good. After her, no other woman could ever compare.
And he was deliriously happy about his ruination.
To his mind, Katie was the sexiest woman in the world and he wanted her all the time. They had such fun together. Both in bed and out of it. He admired the way life delighted her. And her unfettered heart unfettered him.
Her impulses were elegant, lovely things, and it was troublesome, but astonishing, to appreciate the way she managed him. It wasn’t deviousness on her part. It was just the way she was and she had him twisted around her little finger.
Because of his past and his issues with Finn Delancy, Liam feared he might never be able to able to have an open and honest relationship with a woman. But his growing feelings for Katie overrode his trepidation. His need for connection was stronger than his fears that he didn’t measure up.
Liam acknowledged that she needed more time, that her own fear of commitment wouldn’t disappear over night. That was fine. He had all the patience in the world. In the meantime, he was determined to show her exactly how much she meant to him.
And that she could depend on him to be there for her, no matter what.
LATER, Katie woke to find Liam’s leg thrown over her waist, his hair sexily ruffled, his gaze fixed upon her face. She closed her eyes and smiled when he leaned over to kiss her.
She had to admit it. They were glorious together. Sex with Liam was the best she’d ever had.
He nuzzled her cheek lightly. She lifted her lashes partway, still smiling, and slanted him a flirtatious glance.
The way he looked at her made her feel as if she were the sexiest woman who’d ever lived. She thought she knew her body well, but through the lens of his eyes, she was different. Unknown to herself. And he was adventurously charting her unexplored territories.
Liam pulled her close. She rested her nose against his collarbone, smelling his essence, resting her chin against his curly black chest hairs. They lay unmoving, enrapt by the sounds of their own heartbeats.
Slowly, she became fully aware of the weight of their touching bodies. She eased from the circle of his arms, kissing his skin as she went.
Eyes flashing, he edged his fingertips up the slope of her inner thigh, tickling her.
Katie’s laugh, thick and erotic, oozed out into the room. She sounded husky and languid, as if she were changing, becoming someone new.
And Liam was the channel, guiding her into being more than she’d ever thought she could be.
In the process, she was learning to let go of her need for constant excitement, adventure and stimulation. Learning she could, indeed, trust these tender feelings swelling inside her. Liam had brought her to his bed, brought her into the daylight. He’d taken away her deepest fear-that she had no staying power for the long haul.
She grasped his shoulders to steady the fluttering of her pulse against the tingling of his gentle strokes. He rested his head against her belly. Her breath came quicker, deeper. A thrust of understanding expanded her heart.
He raised his head to look at her. They gazed deeply into each other’s eyes. Not saying a word, just taking each other in. Katie spied something that she’d never seen in a man’s eyes after lovemaking. It was a certainty. A knowing that only true and honest loyalty could bring.
What did her eyes say to him? Could he tell that he’d changed her? Could he see that she was letting down her guard, letting him in, going where she’d never gone with any man before?
Respect passed between them. A promise yet unspoken, but solidly real.
His erection stirred against her thigh, growing hard and hot all over again. She reached down to caress him, admiring his size and texture.
Anticipation sparked in his eyes as she increased the measured stroking, cupping his balls in her other hand. She delighted at the way they drew up against his crotch. Instantly, she felt a corresponding pressure, a tightening of her own nerve endings.
She bent her head. Kissed his satiny tip, tasted his pungent tang. She slid her tongue down one side of him, tracing his pattern.
He groaned.
Her tongue traveled, roaming over the brilliant territory. As her excitement grew, her control slipped. Her mouth closed delicately over the head of him.
Liam lay motionless, straining against his impulses. She clutched his hips with both hands, sucked him first slowly all the way to his tip, turning her head so she could feel every part of him, then slipping down to the base of his shaft.
Katie dove, her tongue swirling, in one fluid movement.
Sitting up, she moved her hands around his buttocks to the inside of his firm, muscular thighs. Gently, she stroked, moving over him with a shivering lightness. She glided with him.
Yet the whole time she was holding back, holding something in reserve. Their pace quickened and they never lost contact. They swayed in unison.
“Katie, Katie, Katie,” he groaned, his head thrown back, his eyes tightly closed.
His body went rigid. The signal she was looking for. The signal to wait.
Katie did not move, her mouth resting on the base of his shaft, the head of him throbbing inside her.
He shuddered in premonition.
She wrapped her legs around his thighs so he could feel her warm wetness, dripping with excitement. She undulated her hips in rhythm with her mouth, moving up and down him once more.
His hands reached for her. He touched her hair. His fingers moved blindly over her shoulders, trying to find a place to hold on to as he arched his back.
She wriggled away from his hands, determined to focus all her attention on his pleasure, knowing he would return it tenfold. She closed her eyes, calmed her pulsating heart. All her consciousness pooled in her fingers and her tongue.
He was close. So very close.
His breath came in rough gasps. Her body simmered in sweet sweat as they rocked together. She moved her mouth and her fingers took over. With a burst and shudder, he came, his juices leaking over her hand onto his belly.
He cried her name.
And she collapsed against him. Together, they lay breathing heavily, absorbed by ecstasy, until slowly they slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.
WHEN KATIE WOKE again, dawn was rising on the skylight beyond the lanai. The morning breeze was slight. Birds chirped happily in the palm trees, greeting the new day.
Beside her, Liam slept like a sexually satisfied male-lying on his stomach, arm slung over a pillow, his gorgeously naked butt on delicious display. Grinning, she slipped out of bed, careful not to awaken him and padded naked into the kitchen to put on the coffee.
After a night of rigorous sex, Katie was feeling a tad achy. She pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and twisted off the top. She found her purse-after stepping over the pile of clothes they’d left scattered at the front door-and dug for a travel bottle of ibuprofen.
As she did, her fingers brushed the corners of the pink envelope from Lindsay Beckham.
Her third Martini dare.
The first two had turned out so splendidly, she was intrigued to discover what the third dare entailed. She swallowed two of the pills and put on Liam’s discarded white shirt. The hem of it hit at the middle of her thigh, and it smelled of him. She pressed the collar to her nose and inhaled the scent of him as she sat down on the sofa. She propped her bare feet on the coffee table and slid her fingernail under the flap of the envelope.