A guilty blush rose up my neck, but he didn’t fool me. I knew he was fully aware of the effect he had on me, and judging by that lusty, mischievous light in his eyes, he was thinking the exact same thing.
“At this point, I think we should leave the ending unplanned, unwritten,” I said. “But how about we write the next chapter together?”
He nodded, looking deeply into my eyes. “I think we should keep going. Because I know our story doesn’t end here.”
In an instant, I was in his arms. Words were swept away in the madness of lust. Both chairs toppled backward onto the floor, and we collided together in the middle. A wild tangle of grasping, groping, and kissing ensued, both of us holding on as tightly as we dared. His lips crushed against mine, and the kiss deepened into something neither one of us could finish in the kitchen, something that promised much more.
Without another word, he literally swept me off my feet and carried me up the stairs. We then staggered down the hallway, his mouth on my lips, my neck, my collarbone.
Chapter 11
I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS is happening again. Magic is like lightning, right? Not supposed to strike twice?
James laid me on the bed without a word, rolling his eyes over me as his lips crept into a grin. His dark hair fell across his forehead in messy little waves, and his skin seemed to glow silver in the light of the full moon that spilled through his window
The stage was set, and it was clear that we were both beyond ready
“I really wanted to do this again.” His voice was quiet, so quiet I almost didn’t hear, but there was a deep warmth to it, the kind that washed through me from head to toe as I lay on the bed in front of him.
Every single day since I met him, I had thought about him. Every night, I dreamt of the man on the rooftop, wished I could see him again, if only for a moment. All along, I desperately wanted to know if he was thinking of me, too, and now I knew he was.
I propped myself up on my elbows, feeling a little overwhelmed. “I did too,” I said, my voice dropping to a soft whisper with my confession.
Moving with a confidence and grace that still took my breath away, James removed the rest of his clothes and lowered himself on top of me. Then, with hands so gentle I had to visibly acknowledge that they were really there, he rolled me onto my stomach and kissed my cheek and my ear. “I’m going to make love to you like no one ever has,” he told me. “You’ll compare every lover you ever have to this night with me.”
My breath hitched in my chest as I stretched my arms upward.
“I’m going to enjoy every inch of you,” he commanded softly, running his hands up the center of my spine.
It was only when the zipper began to slide slowly down my back that I realized what he was doing. My eyes fluttered shut, and a hidden smile played across my lips as he eased my dress down my waist, over my legs, and off of me entirely.
James moved slowly and sensually, grazing his fingers over my skin as he took his time undressing me. When my lace underwear finally hit the floor, he turned me over and gazed at his handiwork, his eyes silently declaring how beautiful he thought I was. He didn’t have to say it; it was written all over him, in the way his face softened into a gentle smile, the way his eyes traced the length of my body, the way he reached out a long finger and stroked the center of my chest, then lingered on my neck for just a moment.
It was only then that I realized I wasn’t completely naked after all, for James had left the ruby pendant in place, the one he’d placed around my neck the first night we met. He picked the jewel up and caressed it briefly between two fingers before his eyes returned to mine with a radiant smile. “You kept it?”
“Of course,” I replied, reaching up to touch it myself. “It was all I had to remember you by.”
He bowed his head and, for a fleeting moment, looked truly touched. Then he lifted his chin again with a devilish grin on his face, and he cocked his head teasingly to the side. “The only thing?” he repeated, his eyes frolicking with mischief. “I’m pretty sure I gave you one or two other things that night. Surely you haven’t forgotten those.”
A heated flush swept through my skin, and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from releasing a girlish giggle. “I honestly don’t remember,” I liked, twirling a lock of hair between my fingers, feigning innocence. I swept the curl casually across the top of my breasts, noticing that James’s eyes were following my every move. “Perhaps you can remind me.”
He slanted his mouth over mine to give me slow, exploring strokes with his tongue. I felt like I was melting around him, seduced by his kiss.
I had wanted to kiss this man for so long.
And here I was...
I knew the second I met him that there was something special about him. There was nothing in this world that felt better than kissing James. He melted every single part of me. It was like when we kissed, all my problems melted away and everything was right in the world once again. Just one kiss. It’s all it took for him to become my world from the second we met. This moment was so perfect and I knew it was only the very beginning.
He slid his hand across my stomach, his fingers teasing me at the lace edge of my panties.
Our kiss built slowly, in sensuous heat. My fingers combed through his hair. He stroked my jaw and my throat, his kiss falling to my neck in that soft spot below my ear.
James slid his hand from my hip down to my thigh. His fingers stole along the smooth curve of my inner thigh and I knew he could feel the humid dampness before he ever touched me. Parting my inner lips with one finger, he was unprepared for lush wetness and heat that greeted him. He groaned aloud against my
breast and sheathed his fingers within me. My passage seemed to consume him, melt him, and his body responded, rigid and sharp. As he worked his fingers inside my slickness, stroke after stroke, I gasped. He withdrew his fingers, his mouth plundering mine.
The sexual tension, all this foreplay that seemed to last forever, and the passionate way he possessed me was mind-blowing.