To Love and Protect (Must Love Diamonds 4)

She sat up to strip off silk and lace, and then lay back down, her dark hair fanned across the pillow.

He skimmed the vision of her now naked body with a low hum of approval. “Good call.”

Then, despite the desperate need thrumming through his body, he trailed a finger from her collar bone to her breast, teased both nipples back into tight little buds, and then skimmed over her ribs and stomach.

“Dev.”

His name fell from her lips as a question and a plea. He leaned in to kiss her again, and as her tongue twined with his, he moved over her, nudging her legs apart, easing his tip inside her, until he was right at the moment of thrusting home.

She turned her head just enough to break the kiss. “Dev.”

Something in the breathless note of her voice made him still. He lifted his head, his arms trembling slightly with the effort of holding back.

Her expression was a mixture of uncertainty and…guilt? She bit her lip and lowered her gaze as she whispered, “I’ve never done this before.”

It shouldn’t have shocked him, yet of anything she could’ve said, he never expected that.

Chapter 26

Shelby held her breath as she waited for Dev’s response. She almost hadn’t said anything, but if it hurt and she couldn’t mask her reaction, she didn’t want him to think it was his fault.

Now, as seconds ticked by, she worried he was upset.

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“Are you serious?” he finally asked.

She gave a sheepish nod.

“Shelby…all this time?”

The wonder in his voice and implication in his words had her rolling her eyes with a self-conscious little smile. “It’s not like I saved myself or anything, it just…never happened, that’s all.”

Though in this precise moment, she was so very glad it never had.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No!” she exclaimed when shifted as if he might pull away. She tightened her hold on his shoulders. “No, definitely not. It’s just, I’ve heard the first time can be…not so great, and I didn’t want you to think it’s you.” When his brow furrowed, she quickly added, “But before was…” She paused, and all she could come up with was a slow smile and, “Oh, my God.”

His frown cleared with his slight smile. “It’s going to be oh my God again.”

She shivered at the husky promise in his voice and pulled his head down to kiss his lips. “Good, because I want this. I want you.”

His mouth covered hers, and once again, his hot, heady kisses consumed her until the whole world was only him as he eased inside her with a slow, rocking motion. There was no pain, only a slight uncomfortable sensation at the tight fit, but that gave way for something more as he moved inside her.

“You okay?” he whispered against her ear.

“Um-hm.” She lifted her hips to meet his, and he thrust a little harder. Sensation intensified, and yeah, she could definitely see oh my God in her near future.

Buried to the hilt, his sweat-slick body covering hers, he said her name in a gravelly tone that set off a whole host of butterflies in her stomach. She opened her eyes, and when she saw the intensity in his, her pulse skipped hard.

He lifted a hand to brush a stray strand of hair from her cheek, took a moment to tuck it behind her ear, then brought his gaze back to hers. “I love you.”

Three little words and she suddenly lost the ability to breathe. Or at least it felt like it with the way her heart was thumping high up in her throat.

“I’ve loved you since we were kids, I noticed you about the time you turned fourteen, which was extremely inconvenient for me at nineteen.”

“That’s why you stopped hanging out with me back then.”