Hero (Hero 1)

He broke the kiss, pulling back only an inch to gaze into my eyes. His lashes were low-lidded with lust as he studied me. I held his heated gaze, my lips swollen and stinging, my whole body taut with need.

Caine slowly lowered my leg and for a few awful seconds I wondered if that was it.

“Take off the dress.”

His voice was thick with need, but still there was authority in it—bossiness.

Turned out in the right situation, Caine being bossy was less annoying and actually very, very hot.

Slowly, I let go of him, and still holding his gaze, I reached behind my neck for the crystal clasp on the halter.

Caine took a few steps back, allowing cool air to rush in around me.

I’d undressed for boyfriends before. It wasn’t something I’d ever been shy about, because unlike most of my friends I didn’t really have any body hang-ups. But it was different standing in front of Caine, preparing to bare myself to him. For some reason it didn’t just feel like I was taking off a dress. It felt like I was letting him see me naked.

And there was a difference.

I hesitated, my fingers fumbling on the clasp.

Caine saw it. His answer was to tug at the bow tie around his neck. I watched him as he removed it and then he began to shrug out of his jacket. As he started unbuttoning his shirt, he said in a low, deep voice that made me pop the clasp, “I fantasize about fucking you in this office a hundred times a day.”

His confession made me breathless.

I’d wondered if he was attracted to me, but I never thought he’d admit it or act on it.

But to know he was as attracted to me as I was to him … well, that made me brave again.

I pulled the halter of the dress down and watched Caine’s eyes grow impossibly black with heat as I bared my breasts to him. My nipples pebbled under the kiss of the cool air, and gaining my confidence, I tugged down the dress and shimmied out of it. I lifted it up off the floor and draped it across the back of the sofa. Caine’s gaze devoured every inch of me.

I was left in only my jewelry, my underwear and my heels.

I curled my fingers into my panties.

“Stop.” Caine took a step toward me and I let my own gaze eat him up. His shirt was completely unbuttoned, revealing a sliver of his tan skin and hard abs. “Leave them on. Sit on my desk.” He moved aside of it, leaving me a clear path.

He could hear how breathless I was when I asked, “Are you this bossy with all your women?”

Caine grinned, a wicked full-on smile that made my heart palpitate. “No, you just bring it out in me.”

I smiled back. “You’re saying you have a thing for bossing me around?”

“Just like you have a thing for being a smart-ass. Now sit on my desk and spread your legs.”

My whole body zinged with anticipation and I released a hitched breath.

Caine’s eyes gleamed at my response.

Straightening my shoulders, I walked toward his desk and him, my breasts bouncing with the movement, and I was more than smug about the fact that Caine’s arousal was straining to break free of his zipper. I slipped past him and lowered my ass to his desk. I shivered at the coolness of it against my skin as I settled my weight on it and spread my legs.

The air in the room fairly crackled as Caine approached me. His fingertips trailed over the tops of my thighs as he moved in between my legs and bent to brush his lips over mine. I clung to his waist and captured his mouth again before he could pull back.

Soon the kiss was out of control, wild and hurried, as I pushed his shirt out of the way and smoothed my hands over every ripple and hard muscle on his torso, and he touched me everywhere.

Abruptly Caine pulled back, panting. “No, you don’t,” he murmured against my mouth.

“No, I don’t what?” I said, confused by being suddenly wrenched from his lips. God, the man could kiss like no one could. “I want your tongue back.”

“And you’ll get it.” He pulled away only to tug his shirt off impatiently.

I grew hotter at the sight of him half-naked and turned on. His strong shoulders, muscled biceps, and hard, sculpted six-pack … All he needed was a trickle of sweat running down those washboard abs and he would be a diet soda ad. I licked my lips and Caine groaned.

“Do you know how sexy you are?”

A burn, the exact opposite of the burn that had been stinging in my chest all week, flared out near my heart. “I do now,” I replied softly.

Because I did.

I had never felt more so in my life than in that moment under Caine Carraway’s needy, heated gaze. I’d never felt more wanted.

And from a man I thought would never want me.

Tonight was blowing my mind in more ways than one.

Caine lowered himself to the floor and curled his hands behind my knees, tugging me gently until my ass was practically hanging off the desk.

My head fell back in a groan as he began pressing soft, teasing kisses along my inner right thigh. I jerked at the touch of his mouth against my sex. He blew the lace of my panties against me and I shuddered.

“These are soaked.” Caine curled a finger around them, brushing my labia. “Let’s get rid of them.”

“Uh-huh.” I was barely coherent.

Suddenly the panties were gone and Caine was pressing my thighs apart again. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said reverently, his breath puffing against me.

“Please.” I slid my fingers in his hair, staring down at him in torment. “Please.”

His eyes blazed up at me. “You want me?”