He was very hard and very big.
Heart thudding, she reached up to touch his face, her fingers moving lightly against his beard-roughened jaw.
‘I didn’t say it last night, but you don’t disappoint either,’ she said softly.
Abruptly he leaned forward and, wrapping his hand in her hair, lifted her face to his and kissed her—a hard, hungry, open-mouthed, searing kiss that stole the breath from her lungs so suddenly that her head was spinning and she was shaking...
A moan that seemed to come from the hot, molten core of her body rose up in her throat and she rocked against him, her fingers sliding through his hair.
He grunted, and in one motion grabbed her arms and rolled her onto the bed, unbuttoning her jeans and tugging them down her legs, taking her panties with them.
For a moment he just stood at the end of the bed, watching her, face taut, jaw clenched tight, muscles bunched, eyes dark with an undisguised hunger that sent flickers of excitement scampering over her skin.
And then he was pulling off his jeans and boxer shorts.
It was the first time she’d seen him completely naked.
Her mouth felt as if it had been sandblasted. He definitely didn’t disappoint, she thought, sucking in a sharp breath.
Then suddenly he was on the bed beside her, pulling her into his arms.
Breathing shakily, she ran her hands over the hard, defined muscles of his chest, her fluttering fingers tracing the line of dark hair down his stomach.
A shiver of need ran through her as she took him in her hand.
Then leaning into him, she drew up her leg, to meet the blunt tip of his erection. He jerked against her, a raw sound breaking from his lips, and, reaching past her, shook his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.
Pulse quivering, she watched him unwrap the condom and slide it onto his hard length, and then his dark eyes locked with hers as he pushed gently against her.
‘Is that okay?’
‘Yes.’ She breathed out slowly, opening her legs wider, then wider still. ‘Yes, like that. Yes,’ she said again, curling her hands around his shoulders.
He was pushing up inside her, his hand lifting her bottom so that there was nothing between them but heat and sweat, his thumb stroking her clitoris as she moved. His dark eyes locked with hers and she cried out, her body tensing in release, and then he was thrusting hard into her, pulling her close and burying his face against her throat.
For a moment he lay on top of her, breathing shakily, and then, lifting himself from her body, he rolled off her and got to his feet.
His eyes scudded down her body then back up to her face. ‘I’ll be right back.’
She stared after him, savouring the broad expanse of his back and the muscular curve of his shoulders. He was so unashamedly male, and she felt so unashamedly satisfied.
She shivered. Without the warmth of his body, she felt cold. Shifting backwards up the bed, she wriggled under the covers.
Moments later he slid in beside her, pulling her against him.
She let her hand rest lightly across his stomach, feeling calmer than she had for weeks...maybe months. Coming back had felt like a risk, but maybe this was what she’d needed all along. Intimacy. Physical contact.
She had read in a magazine that hugging someone produced feel-good hormones, and sex was the most intense kind of hugging. That must be why she felt so good.
Only nothing this good ever lasted.
‘Don’t overthink it.’
Startled, Frankie looked up. Arlo was staring down at her, his grey eyes steady and unblinking.
‘What just happened—don’t overthink it,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s not that complicated.’
Isn’t it?