Take Me (Take Me 1)

Perhaps she hadn’t fully, mentally prepared herself for this moment with him.

Because her inner thighs were quivering and her pulse was racing and her body was begging for his touch…everywhere.

“Set aside your drink,” he quietly instructed.

She placed her glass in the holder carved into the armrest.

“Take my jacket off.”

She stared into his dark eyes, the color such a deep gray with a midnight tinge, they were hypnotizing.

“Kate,” he quietly urged.

The need fringing his voice sent an erotic bolt straight to her core.

She unbuttoned his jacket and shoved the material off his broad shoulders. He tossed the garment onto the seat opposite them.

Then he moved in for the kill.

One hand tangled in her curls as the other slid up the side of her thigh, under the hem of her skirt.

Kate’s heartrate spiked. Her breaths came in shorter, heavier pulls as he still stared so deeply into her eyes.

He said, “I’ve wanted you for so long, Kate. I’ve waited so long for—”

His jaw clenched. His eyes turned stormy.

“For what, Jude?” she asked on a fractured breath, his intensity holding her spellbound.

“For you to look at me like a man who can satisfy you, Kate. Not just a man you feel compelled to fix.”

“Heal, Jude,” she muttered as her fingers glided along his set jaw. “I’ve only ever wanted to heal you.”

“You’re coming damn close, Kate.”

His lips twisted and toyed with hers, the tips of their tongues barely touching. Until Kate was thoroughly captivated, wholly enthralled.

He sensed the exact moment he’d hooked her and his mouth closed over hers, his tongue curling with hers.

Kate’s fingers fisted the material of his shirt at his shoulders. Then at his biceps. Tugging him closer to her.

As their chests pressed together, she eased one hand around to his back, the other up his arm to his shoulder—reveling in the way his muscles bunched under her touch. Her fingers skimmed the side of his throat before she buried them in his thick onyx hair.

Kate let the firestorm burn through her without questioning it. She surrendered to Jude’s kiss, to the feel of his hard body against hers, to the desire and need that rode the blood in her veins.

It didn’t matter how she’d previously fought to succumb to his advances. All that mattered to Kate was the hunger they had for each other and the incessant pulsating between her legs, sparked by this man. Which could only be sated by this man.

Dragging her mouth from his, she said on a wisp of air, “Do something, Jude.” The need lacing her voice was unmistakable. “Please.”

He gazed at her with a searing look that likely matched her own.

He slowly unraveled from her, though his fingers hooked the underside of one thigh so he could uncross her legs. He shifted slightly, easing onto his knees.

Kate’s pulse jumped.

His hands slipped under the hem of her skirt. His fingers twined around the thin strands of her thong and he gently tugged. Kate lifted an inch or so off the seat.

His gaze remained locked with hers as he slowly dragged her panties along her thighs, over her knees, down her calves. He availed her completely of the thong and stuffed the satiny material into his pocket as Kate’s heart pounded erratically.