* * *
Lust flashed through every inch of Mattie’s body. Through a haze of desire it occurred to her that she wasn’t far away from coming apart just from Kane’s tongue on her breasts.
Surely she ought to be embarrassed at how easily she fell? But she wasn’t. Not remotely. Still, there was no harm in retaking the reins a little, was there?
Wriggling on his lap, she pressed herself against him, solid and ready even through their trousers, making him groan. Making them both groan. And making her realise, far too late, that she wasn’t in control of anything at all. Least of all her thundering heart.
When Kane moved his hands to her hips, lifting her off him for a moment, she actually felt bereft. But then he flipped her around, laying her down until she was lying on her back on the bedroll, and after pulling off his tops with one economical movement he lowered his body to cover hers.
Hard, and ready, and full of deliciously uncompromising promise. Mattie sighed in appreciation and ran her hands over the sculpted ridges of his back. Then her fingernails. She dipped below his waistband to cup his backside and pull him against her as she shifted her legs until the hardest part of him was settled against the softest part of her.
Bliss.
‘If you carry on like that, I can’t guarantee this is going to last long once I’m inside you,’ he growled, and she might have giggled at the seriousness of his expression had her body not been roaring for him to do exactly what he was saying.
She shifted again and felt him flex against her heat, his sharp intake of breath speaking louder than any words could. And the idea that Kane was almost as close to the edge as she was was just too thrilling.
Kane seemed to think so too. Because the next thing Mattie knew, he was lifting himself up from her, like the most elegant push-up she’d ever seen, before rolling back on his heels and reaching for her boots.
She watched transfixed as he swiftly removed first her remaining clothes then his, all the while the moonlight and firelight seeming to take it in turns to dance across his bronzed, hewn torso.
Kane Wheeler. The first boy she’d ever loved.
And the man a part of her would probably always love. No doubt there were a million reasons why this—here, now—was a bad idea, not least because they could have no future together. Not the way things stood. Yet Mattie couldn’t bring herself to care.
She’d tried moving on and look where that had got her. Her career as a colonel and as a doctor were her future, and that would be more than enough. But tonight she had one more thing. She had Kane, the only man who had ever been able to tease her until she’d gone practically out of her mind with desire.
Funny how she should remember that suddenly.
‘One more night,’ she whispered, not knowing whether she was asking or telling.
‘One more night,’ he rasped back, but it told her nothing.
Then, before she could speak again, he lowered his head and drew one hard nipple into the wet heat of his mouth again, cupping her other breast with his big hand and flicking the pad of his thumb over the pink bud.
Mattie’s mind went instantly blank. She gasped as sensations surged through her, turning her inside out all over again. Wicked tongue, clever tongue, and all Kane. She gave herself up to the exquisite torture as he worked his way across her body. Down her body.
And then he was right...there.
His shoulders were between her thighs, nudging her legs wider, and wider again, as though he wanted to take just a moment to savour the view. She could feel his breath warm on her sex and only making her ache for him all the more. All her senses were so heightened, so taut, like any of those fragile ties could snap at any moment, and yet she held still. Her fingers were tunnelled into Kane’s hair but she forced herself to hold still, not to give in to this desperation.
And then he licked into her and white heat slammed through her. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, but she lifted her hips and rocked, unable to help herself, especially when he grasped her backside in his hands and held her in place. Gentle yet firm, reminding her that this was his show as he kept on playing with her hot, wet core.
Mattie could hardly stand it, and yet she couldn’t get enough. She wanted more.
Needed more.
She could hear her own ragged breathing loud in the quiet night air but she didn’t care. She was nearly mindless, hurtling towards some invisible edge, and still Kane kept driving her on. Letting his tongue slide over her, drawing lazy patterns on her before dipping inside. He knew exactly what to do to send her wild.
Only when she thought she couldn’t take any more did he finally, finally, draw her into his mouth and suck, slipping a long finger deep inside her. Then another.
Mattie cried out, her hips bucking as she came apart, right there in a ruined building in the middle of nowhere, and still Kane didn’t stop. She fractured and splintered as if wave after wave of spine-shattering intensity were tossing tiny parts of her into the ether, never to be recovered.
Mattie had no idea how long it took her to come back to herself. Minutes perhaps. Or maybe hours. But when she finally did, it was to the blissful sight of Kane, hard and intense, and the most masculine sight she’d ever seen in her life, moving up her body.
He drew her into his arms as he settled himself between her legs, nudging her with his sex and, incredibly, making her begin to ache already. Cupping his face, she met his searching gaze, almost believing that he was trying to see right into her soul. Right into her heart.
The thought was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Yet she held the contact, refusing to let her eyes drop away. And then he slid inside her, slowly at first, giving her chance to recover. She let her fingers drift down his jawline. Tight and locked and intense as if it was costing Kane dearly to keep the pace low. As though with one swivel of her hips she could send him hurtling off into the same oblivion he had just sent her.