He was on her before she could take another step, his hands in her hair, tugging her head back, his mouth on hers, hard and hot and demanding.
“I need you,” he said, the words raw and savage. “Now. Right now. No waiting. No preliminaries. I need to be inside you.”
His hands were all over her, under her sweater, unzipping her jeans, pulling them down her legs. His touch was rough, primitive, terrifying. Ice filled her veins.
“Wait,” she gasped. “Zacharias, wait…”
She tried to pull away from him. He wouldn’t let that happen. He caught her wrists. Forced her arms to her sides. Captured her mouth with his again.
“I need you,” he growled.
And without warning, ice turned to fire.
A soft cry broke from her throat.
She kissed him back, sucked the tip of his tongue into her mouth. Leaned into him, rubbed her breasts, her pelvis against him.
Zach groaned.
“Yes,” she whispered, “yes, do it, do it, take me, now, now, now…”
There was a cabinet behind her. He lifted her, sat her on the edge of it, ripped aside her panties and drove into her.
Her scream of ecstasy pierced the silence of the room.
The room spun around her. She hung on the brink of consciousness, the brink of the universe; her lover’s name fell from her lips again and again and again as he filled her, filled her until she thought they might die this way, together, always together in a world of light and color and music that only they could hear, and then it happened again, that transcendent rush through blood and body and heart. Jaimie screamed again; Zach said her name as no one had ever said it before and the world went away.
* * * *
Moments slipped by. Zach held Jaimie tightly in his arms; her arms were wrapped just as tightly around him. Her face was buried against his throat; the taste of his skin, salt and sweat and man, was on her tongue.
Then Zach stirred.
“Jaimie? Honey, are you all right?”
She nodded. She didn’t have the energy to speak.
“Baby.” He tried to draw back; he wanted to see her face. She wouldn’t let him. “Jaimie. Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
Her voice was low. The barest whisper. God, what had he done? He’d never taken a woman this way before, blind to everything but need. No kisses. No caresses. Just him, deep within her.
“Jaimie. Look at me. Honey, I didn’t mean—”
Jaimie raised her head. Her eyes were wet with tears. Ah, dear Lord. He had made her weep. He had made her cry. And that was the last thing he’d ever wanted to do to her.
“Baby. I’m so sorry—“
“Zacharias.” Her lips curved in a smile he knew he would never forget. “That was—it was —She laughed. “Will you stop looking at me like that? That was wonderful.”
Zach blinked. She laughed again, leaned forward and kissed his mouth.
“Forget that pizza. I want a steak. Rare. A baked potato with butter and, to hell with it, sour cream. Chocolate cake. And cheesecake. And whipped cream. And…” Her eyebrows rose. “I don’t see you taking notes, Mr. Castelianos. How are you going to remember all this? And you’re going to have to. A woman needs to keep her energy up if she’s going to make amazing, incredible, out-of-this-world love with an amazing, incredible, out-of-this-world man like you.”
A slow smile eased over Zach’s mouth.
“Yeah?”