And that was his first glimpse of her when he lifted his head, the smug smile and erotic glow of a woman who’d just discovered a dangerous and exciting secret. His blood stirred all over again. She looked…triumphant, he realized. Just who, he wondered, had ravaged who?
“You like it,” he repeated.
“Mmm… I want to feel this way again. And again and again. I want to feel cherished, too, the way I do when you’re gentle. I want to feel everything. I made you forget.” She opened her eyes again and laughed when she saw the stunned and sated look in his eyes. “I seduced you. Didn’t I?”
“You destroyed me. I tore your clothes.”
“I know. It was exciting. Will you do it again?”
“I…” He shook his head, but when it didn’t clear he gave up and lost himself in her eyes. “Anytime.”
“Can I rip yours?”
Words failed him. He managed a couple of strangled sounds before clearing his throat. “We’d better get off the floor.”
“I like it here. I like knowing you wanted me so much you couldn’t wait.” She lifted a hand to toy with the dark curls that fell, damp, over his forehead. “I like the way you’re looking at me right now. It’s probably wrong, and I don’t care, but I like knowing you wanted me for years. That you watched me, and wanted me. Like this.”
“I didn’t exactly picture it like this.”
Her lips curved again, a sly, knowing smile that made his blood swim. “Didn’t you?”
“Well, maybe.” His brain was still numb. It was the only part of him that seemed to have shut down. “Once in a while.”
She pressed her lips together, ran the tip of her tongue over them. “I can still taste you.”
“Oh, God.”
A quick and delicious tremor coursed through her as she felt him move inside her. “I’m doing it again.”
“Huh?”
“Seducing you.”
He couldn’t get his breath. “Looks like that.”
She felt powerfully a woman, a normal, competent, well-loved woman. “Tell me you love me, Devin. While you’re filling me, while you’re wanting me, tell me you love me.”
He couldn’t keep himself from hardening again, from driving deep into her, from groaning as her body rose and fell with him.
“I love you.” Helpless, he buried his face in her hair. Somehow she’d taken the reins from him. He could do nothing but ride. “I can’t stop.”
She absorbed it all, the love, the passion, the power, willingly matching his fast and desperate pace. When she knew he was falling off the edge with her, when they were both defenseless, she turned her lips to his ear.
“I love you, Devin. I love you. I think I always have.”
When he could speak again, he gathered her up, cradled her in his lap. “I’ve wanted to hear that for a long time.”
“I meant it. I couldn’t have said it unless I did.”
“I know.” And it left him shaken and without defenses. “You’ve tossed my master plan into the Dumpster, Cass.”
“How?”
“Well, I had it plotted out, you see. By my reckoning, I’d get you to fall in love with me by Christmas. Then I’d keep things at a nice, steady pace, and talk you into marrying me by spring.”
“Let’s not talk about marriage, Devin. Not yet. Not now.”
He tipped her head back. “When?”