“So you admit that we belong together.”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t be with you like this if I didn’t believe it.”
His gaze was reverent as it roved over her face. He touched her, his fingers drifting down her cheek, across her lips. She shivered at his gentle caress. “We can make this work, can’t we?”
“Yes. I hope so,” she whispered, closing her eyes when he kissed her, his tongue thrusting against hers. Yes, they certainly could.
The realization filled her with such joy, she was almost afraid she might cry.
Rafe couldn’t believe what Cat just admitted. She’d saved herself for him all of these years? And she was a virgin?
Had he ever had a virgin in his bed before, even when he’d been an untried youth? He didn’t think so.
In fact, he knew so. The girl who’d introduced him to sex had been a knowledgeable seventeen-year-old who’d been only too eager to show him everything she knew. Which she did, for hours and hours on end. He’d walked away from her thankful for the experiences she’d given him.
Knowing that Cat had saved herself for him was…mind blowing. Shocking. He should view the gift of her virginity as a privilege. She was untouched, pure, just for him, and he should treat her with all the respect and gentleness that she deserved.
And here he’d groped her in the back seat of a car. Slipped his hands in her panties and gotten her off with a few precise flicks and thrusts of his fingers. Treating her like she was some sort of common woman, easy to give it up to him.
He felt like a complete shit.
“Cat.” He kissed her, restraining himself, not wanting to frighten her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” she said, her voice full of so much conviction he could almost believe her.
But he feared he would. He wanted her, too damn much. Look at how quickly he’d attacked her in the car. Only moments ago he’d had his hand in her panties already, stroking her wet, hot flesh. She wanted him too. He knew this. But he couldn’t take it too far, too quickly. He needed to be careful with her. Respectful.
“I want to make this good for you,” he murmured as he eased up off of her.
She grabbed hold of him, keeping him in place. “You already have.”
Closing his eyes, he fought the wave of frustration—mixed with a healthy dose of lust—that wanted to overtake him. Had he ever felt like this? He wanted to tear into Cat and fuck her into oblivion. Forget everything else. Just looking at her nearly naked and spread across his bed like his own personal plaything made him want to take her. Make her his.
Mine.
The word ran through his head again and again as he bent and took her lips in a decadent, lush kiss. As he ran his hands all over her silky soft flesh, earning whispered cries of pleasure from Cat for his efforts. Those sounds encouraged him, and he slid down her body, kissing her everywhere, licking her nipples, mapping her stomach with his lips. He gripped the flimsy sides of her panties, literally tearing them from her body and a shocked gasp escaped her, reminding him that he was nothing but an animal.
“Sorry,” he muttered, pulling her destroyed panties from her body, his cock twitching when he caught sight of the bounty before him. Scant, dark, curling pubic hair hid her pretty pink depths.
“For what?”
Glancing up, he saw her glazed-with-lust eyes, the way her chest rose and fell rapidly, her skin flushed delicately. She was aroused. The knowledge aroused him further, but he refused to let himself get out of control. He’d probably frighten her and turn her off sex for the rest of her life. And they couldn’t have that. “I need to control myself.”
“Please.” She brought herself into a sitting position, giving him no choice but to back away from her. Grabbing hold of him, she looped her arms around his neck, pressing her naked body against his in the most tantalizing of caresses. “I don’t want you to be controlled. You don’t need to hold back for my sake. I won’t break, Rafe. I want you wild.” She purposely brushed her breasts against his chest. He could feel her nipples come into contact with his skin, and he broke out into a sweat. “Show me how wild you can be,” she whispered.
Groaning, he kissed her, thrusting his tongue inside, searching her mouth. She pulled him down on top of her, her hands roaming all over his skin, driving him crazy with lust. She trembled beneath him, reminding him that she had no experience, that he was the first man to show her everything, and the knowledge filled him with an unmistakable surge of power.
He would make this good for her. He had to. She deserved no less.
Cat wrapped her legs around his hips, anchoring her to him, and he rubbed against her, his cock nudging her sex, bathing the tip in her wetness. Closing his eyes tight, he breathed deep, afraid he’d push forward and plow into her like some untamed beast.