10:15 A.M.
“Don’t you ever need sleep?” Sloane mumbled, stuffing her face in the pillow.
Derek grinned, moving her hair aside so he could kiss her neck. “When you’re in bed next to me? Not a chance.”
Sloane cracked open one eye and glanced at the clock. “It’s after ten. Weren’t you supposed to go through your Army Ranger workout at the crack of dawn, or at least do some push-ups or something?”
“I did my whole workout at five when you were out cold. But I could definitely go for some more push-ups.” His palm ran down her side, over her hip, and across her thigh, his fingertips making lazy circles toward his goal. “By the way,” he muttered. “I gave the hounds a two-mile run. So if they complain, they’re lying. Ignore them. I, on the other hand, am still enjoying being used. You did promise to outdo my fantasy with your reality. You made a nice dent last night. But then you conked out. Which means you still owe me. So pay up.”
Laughter bubbled up in Sloane’s throat, and she rolled onto her back, gazing up at him. “You’re impossible.”
“It’s one of my best qualities.”
“No, that would be your stamina.” Sloane’s palms glided over his biceps, then across his hair-roughened chest, and down to his six-pack abs. “Mmm. I can feel the burn. Good workout.”
“Thanks.” He caught her hand and dragged it down his torso, right to where he wanted it. “Now I can feel the burn.”
“A mere spark,” she assured him, her eyes glinting. “I’m just getting started. You’ll go up in flames before I’m through. After all, I did say scout’s honor.”
“Yeah, you did.” Derek gritted his teeth as she teased him with her fingertips, her touch feather light—and right on target.
“Were you a Girl Scout?” he managed.
“Mm-hmm.” Sloane repeated the motion, this time intensifying the friction. “For years and years.”
Derek arched, his entire body rigid. “Thank God.”
The foreplay lasted as long as either of them could withstand it. Then Derek hooked his arms under her knees, lifting and opening her as wide as possible, and pushed all the way inside her—and then some.
He was going for amazing.
It was better.
Banter vanished. The only sounds in the room were harsh groans, ragged breathing, and the creaks of the bed frame, which kept getting louder and faster with each stroke, until the headboard was slamming against the wall.
Neither of them heard it.
Derek pinned Sloane to the bed with the full weight of his body, his thrusts deep and primal, his chest heaving with each breath. Sloane wrapped her legs high around his waist, meeting him thrust for thrust, as their climax roared down on them.
A split second before he came, Derek grabbed Sloane’s hands, lifted them high over her head, and interlaced his fingers with hers. She didn’t fight it. She didn’t pull away.
She didn’t want to.
Her grip tightened in his as the first spasms of her orgasm wrenched through her. She cried out, convulsing again and again as Derek spurted into her, coming as violently as if he hadn’t done so just a handful of hours earlier.
The whole experience was overwhelming—far more than Sloane had wanted it to be. Not just the sex, but what went with it. Emotions were starting to get tangled up in whatever was going on between them. Then again, maybe those emotions had never gone away. Maybe the two of them were playing out some elaborate charade that was more avoidance than it was reality. If that was the case…well, right now Sloane wasn’t ready to think about it. And she certainly wasn’t ready to talk about it.
Obviously, neither was Derek. His muscles relaxed, and he sank onto her and into her—blanketing her body with his, and emitting a wiped-out groan that sounded as if he’d survived a shipwreck.
Still trembling with aftershocks, Sloane managed a weak smile. “Can I take that groan to mean ‘paid in full’?”
“You can take it to mean I think I’m dead.”
“You’re not. I can vouch for that.”
“Good to know.” Derek’s voice was muffled, his face buried in the curve of her shoulder. Their fingers were still intertwined and neither of them made any attempt to change that. “You’re so damn sexy,” he announced drowsily. “I go crazy when I’m inside you.”
“I noticed.” A pause. “I go crazy, too.”