New Year's Eve

My breath caught.

Loved?

No.

I didn’t love Joe.

I shook my head, searching the room for my jeans.

I couldn’t love Joe.

No way.

Trembling even harder, I spotted my jeans in the corner, folded on top of a chest of drawers. Hurrying over to them, I pushed down my pajama shorts and was just reaching for the jeans when Joe suddenly marched into the room.

My heart lurched in my throat as he drew to an abrupt halt.

His cheeks flushed at the sight of me standing in nothing but my Henley and plain cotton underwear.

Joe’s gaze dipped to between my legs and the area throbbed in response.

“Joe?” I whispered hoarsely.

His hot dark gaze drifted down my legs and back up my body, drinking every inch of me in. “One,” he rasped, voice hoarse, “Not my type?”

I shivered. “Small, petite brunettes ring a bell?”

“Apparently they don’t make my dick as hard as a tall redhead with legs that go on forever and the most beautiful fucking green eyes I’ve ever seen in my life.”

I gasped, my gaze falling to see his jeans straining with his erection. Oh my God. My skin flushed hot from head to toe, and my breasts suddenly felt heavy with need.

“Two,” Joe continued in that thick voice, “I don’t have a thing for women who need to be taken care of. Do I like to take care of my woman? Yes. But the woman I care about has an independent streak a mile wide, and I like it a fuck of a lot. Three: This isn’t just a ‘little attraction’.” He took a step toward me, determination and need dark on his face. “This is a code red situation.”

“Code red?” I could barely breathe.

“Code red: I can’t live my fucking life because all I can think about is you.”

Oh my God.

“Joe—”

His eyes flashed. “I want to hear you say my name just like that as I move inside you.”

Oh. My. God.

“Joe—”

Then he rushed me. Our bodies collided seconds before our mouths did.

Joe’s kiss was ravaging. It was a man’s kiss. Dark, deep and sexual. His stubble rasping against my skin.

His hand fisted in my hair as he held me to him, and I grasped onto him as he plundered my mouth. It was as if Joe couldn’t kiss me deep or hard enough.

I whimpered against his tongue as his other hand gripped my ass hard to pull me against the hard-on straining against the zipper of his jeans. The whimper turned to a moan, reverberating into his mouth. Joe ground his hips harder into me, squeezing my ass. I slid my hands under his tee in answer, shivering at the delicious feel of his smooth, hot skin beneath my fingertips.

He groaned as I touched his nipples. The sound rumbled in my mouth as we kissed harder, bruising each other’s lips.

I needed him inside me. I wanted to be overwhelmed by Joe. To have all my senses captured by him. To feel and taste and smell and hear nothing but him, all around me, over me.

Inside me.

Fumbling for the button on his jeans, I made that very clear.

Then suddenly I was in his arms for a few seconds before finding myself on the bed, Joe covering my body as we pawed at each other’s clothing. Or what little I wore. Joe broke our kiss to whip off my Henley, and I reached around my back to unclip my bra. He took hold of it and ripped it away from me, throwing it over his shoulder. His fiery eyes devoured my naked breasts.

“You were over one Saturday,” he suddenly said, even as his hips undulated against me with a mind of their own. “Nicole was there too. You were both in your bikinis. But I couldn’t stop looking at you. Every time you laughed, I wanted to kiss the sound into my mouth. I wanted to press you up against the pool, rip off your bikini and suck on your nipples.”

Wet slickened between my legs. “Joe.”

“I broke up with Nicole after that.” He reached for my breasts, caressing them, plucking at my nipples as they tightened into hard points. “I couldn’t be with one woman when all I could think about was another. And all the nasty, dirty, grown-up things I wanted to do to her.”

“Do them,” I begged, my mind a haze of lust. “Joe, please. I want you so badly.”

“God, baby, you have no idea how badly I want you back.” He kissed me again.

I frantically pulled his shirt off, breaking the kiss to do it, wanting to explore his beautiful body… but then he bent his head to my breasts, sucking a nipple deep into his mouth and I forgot about everything but what he was doing to me.

I cried out, arching against him.

His long fingers curled around my underwear, and he tugged so wildly I heard them tear.