“Please, Nolan. You could still stay with me a while tonight, couldn’t you?”
Did she sound too needy? Too desperate? She hoped not. Raina held her breath, waiting for Nolan’s reply.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
“Then that makes two of us,” she said with a slow smile spreading across her face.
Nolan kissed her. This kiss so different from the last. It was as if Nolan was trying to imprint himself on her, get lost in her, perhaps. Whatever it was, she welcomed him with equal fervor, her lips parting under his possession like the petals of a flower opening for the sun. Desire licked along her veins like wildfire and with it her body came to aching life.
Her breasts felt full and swollen in the cups of her bra, her nipples wildly sensitive against the lace. Nolan continued to kiss her like a man trying to lose himself in sensation, and Raina was only too willing to meet him head-on, matching his passion with her own.
She yanked his sweater up in the back and shoved her hands underneath, her palms flat on the warm smooth skin of his back. She stroked upward along the muscles that ran parallel to his spine then lightly scraped her nails down again. He shuddered in her arms, a groan coming from his mouth as he tore his lips from hers.
“Raina, I want you so much. I never thought I...” His voice trailed away and Raina pressed another kiss to his lips.
“Me either,” she whispered softly against his mouth. “Make love with me, Nolan.”
His pupils flared, making his eyes look darker, hungrier than she’d ever seen them. A shiver of need ran through her. Nolan was always so in control, so self-assured. She wanted to see him lose that control tonight, and she wanted to be the reason for it.
“Are you sure, Raina? There’re things I haven’t—”
Not tonight, not now, she decided. She didn’t want another woman in bed with them tonight. Instead, she kissed him again. “I’m sure. I don’t think I can say it any clearer than that.”
A smile tugged at the corners of his beautiful lips. “I guess not,” he agreed.
She shook her head and gave a small laugh. Even with her blood pumping through her body, her lips swollen from his kiss and her senses focused on the pleasure she knew she would attain with this man, he could make her laugh. It was a gift, she realized.
“Let’s stop talking. Start doing,” she urged, curling her fingers and embedding her nails in his back more firmly.
“Whatever the lady wants.”
She led him to her bedroom where she gently closed the door behind them and flowed into his arms as if she belonged nowhere else in the world. And, right here, right now, she didn’t.
His lips were teasingly gentle when they kissed this time. He made a sweet exploration of her mouth, her jaw, the sensitive cord of muscle down the side of her neck. She moaned as his lips burned a trail to the neckline of her blouse. He brought his hands up between them, his fingers busily plucking her buttons undone until he could ease the fabric aside. He pushed it off her shoulders and let her blouse drop to the bedroom floor.
Raina watched his face as he looked at her. The desire reflected there was tempered with a look of awe that made her feel invincible. As if his world, his attention, began and ended with her and no one else. This was what she’d always craved. A bond between two people that was so perfect that nothing could tear it apart.
Nolan eyes met hers and she quivered a little at the intensity of his gaze.
“I love you, Raina Patterson. I want you to know that before I show you just how much it’s true.”
She parted her lips to speak, but no words came out. Emotion closed her throat, making it impossible to speak, but he didn’t appear to mind that at all as he slid his hands to her waist and skimmed them upward, his fingertips brushing her rib cage and sending goose bumps all over her skin.
* * *
He only took a second to size up the bed behind them. The double bed was small, but more than sufficient for their purposes, he thought as he backed Raina toward the mattress and guided her down onto it.
He eased himself over her body and, propping himself up with one elbow, began to trace featherlight designs on her skin with his fingertips, punctuating them with a kiss, a nibble, a swipe of his tongue. She quivered underneath his onslaught and he could see her pebbled nipples against the soft pink lace of her bra. He’d never been a big fan of pink, but right now it was most definitely his favorite color. Nolan bent to cover one tip with his mouth, sucking hard through the delicate lace. Raina’s fingers threaded roughly through his hair and she held him to her. She arched her back, thrusting herself upward. Unabashedly offering herself to him.