Raising one hand, she traced the faint hollow of his dimple with her fingertips. The corner of his mouth lifted in response to her touch, deepening the sexy indent. He leaned over her to rub his lips over hers in a tantalizing caress. With an encouraging murmur, she slid her fingers into his hair and brought him closer, deepening the kiss.
Tongues dancing, mouths fused as the heat between them increased, Harper decided the reality of Ashton Croft’s kisses was so much better than any fantasy. She wanted to savor the feel of his lips on hers forever, but already her body needed more. Working blindly, she slipped all his shirt buttons free and stroked the fabric off his shoulders. A purr of satisfaction rumbled from her as her palms coasted over the hills and valleys of muscle from his collarbone to his belt.
He seized her lip between his teeth and bit lightly before licking the tender spot. Standing up, he stripped off his shirt, shed his pants and shoes. She scrambled to her knees and peeled off her sweater, but in her haste got her arms caught. Turning the soft knit inside out, she freed herself in time to meet the rush of Ashton’s lips as he rejoined her on the bed.
In a jumble of limbs, they rolled across the mattress. Somehow Harper ended up on top. Breathless and laughing, she pressed her lips against Ashton’s throat. His hands coasted over her butt and down the backs of her thighs, urging her against the erection straining his boxer briefs. Her head spun as she waited to see where his fingers would explore next.
When they dipped below the waistband of her yoga pants and followed the seam between her butt cheeks to the molten core of her, she gasped. As fleeting as his touch was, it seared her through. She whimpered a protest as he retreated, palms gliding back over the same path. This time he caressed upward, riding the hem of her camisole up over her rib cage.
Almost too shaken to move, but dying to feel his hands on her breasts, Harper placed her palms on the mattress and shoved herself upward. As she’d hoped, he claimed her breasts in his large hands, sending wave after wave of acute pleasure surging through her with his firm touch. She ducked her head as he finished removing her top and emerged from the folds of fabric with a jubilant cry. The sound was cut short as Ashton rolled her beneath him and pulled her nipple into his mouth.
First he sucked, and then swirled his tongue around her nipple, the sensation heightening the lust rampaging through her. She combed her fingers into his hair and held him close. From her throat, mindless, encouraging sounds erupted. She was beyond words. Completely at his command. Whatever he wanted from her she’d give him.
Why had she denied herself this amazing experience for so long? She should have slept with him the first day they met and every time after that. Obviously she wasn’t thinking straight because she’d completely forgiven him for all those months of frustration.
Ashton shifted his attention to her second breast and devoted a considerable amount of time driving her desire to alarming heights. His fingers were as busy as his mouth, tracing the skin across her belly, making her stomach muscles pitch and roll. At last he hooked her waistband and applied pressure downward. Harper lifted her hips off the bed to make his job easier. He peeled her pants down her legs, and she finished removing them with three frantic kicks.
His tongue dipped into her navel. Sensation lanced downward. He shifted his broad shoulders between her thighs and used his thumbs to part her folds. Harper clutched the sheets just as his mouth settled over her. Her body jolted, the movement wringing a murmur from her. That’s all she had strength for. The rest of her energy was focused on the amazing thing he was doing with his tongue.
Sex wasn’t usually on her weekly agenda. She found it difficult to make time to indulge in a decadent spa treatment or take an afternoon and go shopping. Finding a man she was attracted to seemed far too challenging a prospect, so she went long periods of time without being intimate with anyone.
When first Scarlett and then Violet had fallen in love, Harper might never admit it out loud, but she had envied their glow, the satisfied glint in their eye. Nor had it helped that she’d just begun working with the roguishly handsome Ashton Croft. Hormones long asleep had begun to stir with ever-increasing agitation.
She’d put his ability to exasperate her down to their differing approaches, but with Ashton’s mouth sending her into orbit she realized it had just been sexual chemistry and she’d been too long absorbed in her work to recognize the signs.
As pleasure rose, she planted her feet against the mattress and hung on for dear life. His fingers flexed into the soft flesh of her butt, his firm grasp the perfect catalyst to send her spinning out of control. She cried his name as her body exploded. For a second there was a burst of light behind her eyes, and then it slowly faded and she drifted in darkness.
Dimly she felt Ashton shift away from her, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t protest his leaving. Dimly, she heard the rustle of a condom wrapper and was glad that he’d thought to protect them both. Very few seconds passed before the mattress dipped again. Her lashes fluttered upward as he moved over her once more. His mouth stroked across her lips, tongue dipping between them to tease and arouse all over. Harper put her arms around his shoulders as he shifted his hips between her thighs.
She felt him nudge against her entrance and raised up to meet his thrust as he pushed inside her in one fluid movement. Her inner muscles shuddered in delight, and Ashton buried his face in her neck with a ragged sigh. He was not a small man, and she was a little shocked that her body was able to take him fully. But the rightness of their joinin
g was not to be denied.
Slowly, he started to move. Finding his rhythm took her barely any time at all. Soon it was as if they’d made love a hundred times. She ran her hands over him, finding spots that excited him. He adjusted the angle of her hips and drove into her a little more forcefully. The evocative twist he gave as he plunged into her over and over quickly brought Harper back to the brink of release. As it swept up to claim her once again, she clutched Ashton’s forearms and welcomed the frenzied pounding of his body into her as he, too, closed in on his orgasm.
They didn’t quite climax together, but it was awfully close. Harper felt the first spasm hit her and dug her nails into Ashton’s skin. He kissed her long and hard and with two deep thrusts emptied himself into her with a powerful shudder.
Stunned by the power of what had just happened between them, Harper buried her nose in Ashton’s neck and held on while his body trembled. Her sparse personal life hadn’t given her a lot of experience in these sorts of matters, but Harper was pretty sure Ashton was as moved as she was.
So what came next?
As if in answer to her question, Ashton shifted his lax muscles and collapsed onto the mattress beside her. They lay side by side, staring up at the ceiling. Harper listened as his breath returned to normal. Her skin was cooling fast. She needed to decide whether to put on her clothes and get out of here or to snuggle against Ashton. Before she’d made up her mind, his fingers closed over hers.
“Don’t run off just yet.”
Harper turned her head and realized he was watching her. “You don’t know that’s what I was thinking.”
“Don’t I?” He rolled onto his side and caught her around the waist, pulling her beneath him. “Tell me you weren’t going to make the excuse that you had to get back to work.”
With his warm skin pressing against hers, she knew her opportunity to make a clean getaway had just vanished. Surrendering to the pleasure of his large body overwhelming her, she slid her hands along his muscular arms and marveled at the beauty of his broad shoulders. Already her body craved to be possessed by his once more. He was going to be a hard man to get over.
“I wasn’t.”
“That doesn’t sound much like the Harper I know.” He drew back so he could look into her face. “What’s happened?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m not the Harper anyone knows.”
“I don’t understand.”