She swatted at his bare stomach. “You’re just trying to get in my pants, and let me tell you, Hank Renshaw, even when I was a teenager, I was never easy to sweet-talk around.”
He covered her body with his again, a low growl rumbling his chest. “How about I try a different form of persuasion?”
A knock sounded on the door, jerking his head upward. Ginger tugged on the covers and Hank frowned, readying to call out for whatever room service or maid waited outside to come back later—
The opening door preempted him. What the hell? He’d secured the lock—pissed off already because of the old-fashioned keys. Heads were going to roll in security in about sixty seconds.
But first, he reached for the gun he’d kept on the bedside table for Ginger. Gripping the barrel and blocking Ginger from sight ranked as his number-one priority.
The portal filling with a quartet of men cut short anything else he’d even considered saying as recognition stunned him silent.>While he stared, she acted. Ginger gripped the bottom of his sweater and bunched the wool in her hands. With a smooth sweep that brought both her arms over her head in a move that had him swallowing hard, she tugged the sweater over his head, momentarily blinding him—damn it.
Then sight returned and he palmed the sweet curve of her bottom to bring her flush against him, skin to skin. It may have been a long time since he’d been with a woman, but he had a solid memory and he knew full well this female felt special.
Someone unique.
He dipped his head for another kiss, his hand plunging into her soft hair again, releasing more of her floral perfume.
Need for her surged through him and he eyed the looming four-poster bed. Making love in the chair could be fun, and certainly worth considering for later. But he had something more intense and thorough in mind for their first time together.
Starting now.
Chapter 6
Oh my, she hadn’t expected to find this again.
She’d been lucky to enjoy that toe-tingling passion with Benjamin. She’d only expected—maybe—to discover friendship with another man, with the warm comfort of a shoulder to rest her head against.
Even with the sizzle of their morning kiss, the inferno now pulsing through her, the urgency that sent her hands grappling at Hank with frantic need surprised her. Even shocked her. Ginger arched her back, pressing her br**sts against his chest.
Her jeans itched against her oversensitized skin. She wanted him to peel them off her. She’d missed being undressed by a man.
More than that, she’d missed undressing a man.
She wanted to see Hank. Her frenzied fingers found their way to his belt buckle. Then, better yet, she uncovered his zipper. He eased her from his lap until they both stood by the roaring fire. He locked his arms low around her, a good thing since her feet weren’t all that steady under her as she worked at unfastening his pants.
The raspy glide of his zipper sliding down, down echoed through the room. Hank’s pupils widened in response a second before his lids lowered to half-mast and his hands went into action.
His thumbs tucked inside her jeans and began inching them off her body. She was more than happy to help with an extra shimmy and hop as his fingers skimmed over her legs. Ginger kicked the pants free and helped him out of his own until he loomed over her, tanned and toned.
Wow.
Just wow.
She’d seen him in swim trunks before and noticed he was a handsome guy, but goodness, had she been wearing blinders? Hank was all man. Hot, solid man. She wished she’d been ready for this sooner because she’d certainly been denying herself some major benefits in this friendship.
Ginger pointed one finger and planted it in the middle of his chest, pushing him backward one step at a time. “Bedtime, General.”
A smile dented one corner of Hank’s wind-weathered face. “Yes, ma’am.”
He let her topple him backwards onto the fluffy comforter. One slow step at a time, she advanced, kneeing up onto the bed until she straddled his waist. She brought some experience to this, and she intended to enjoy it to the most…
In case there wasn’t a repeat?
The scary notion threatened to chill her at a totally inopportune moment. She focused instead on warming herself with the heat radiating from Hank’s muscular body and the crackling fire. She extended her arms in a gesture for him to finish undressing her. As his hands swept up to find the center clasp between her breasts, she couldn’t help but think about when he’d touched her there for the first time while fastening the listening device. Her world, her senses, had changed forever in that instant.
Another thought slithered through as she wondered how much more her world would change as they took these touches deeper, to the most intimate of caresses, by making love.
He rolled to his side, stroking her face before reaching off the bed to where his jeans had fallen when he’d kicked them free. “I don’t want to break the mood, but I planned, too. During our shopping, I picked up…” His hand came back with a condom.