His strong grip at her hip kept her steady on one shoe while he bent her knee and brought her inner thigh to his mouth so he could nuzzle his hot, firm lips against her skin, grazing damp kisses that incited her to mewl in distress.
“I won’t let you fall,” he murmured reassuringly, shoulder muscles flexing under her grasping hands as she tried to balance.
“It’s not that. I—” Lauren swallowed, dizzy and a little frantic. Her fingers dived into his hair to stop what he was doing to her and when she had both feet on the ground she instinctively pressed her thighs together, trying to ease the throbbing pulse between them.
Paolo chuckled softly, his breath on the lace triangle a sinful caress. He hooked his finger in them and tugged one side down.
With Paolo’s sultry eyes holding hers in a kind of trance, Lauren let her thighs relax so he could drag the scrap of lace and silk down to her knees.
They dropped around her ankles and he sat back on his heels for a long, unabashed study.
“Step out of them.” It was a graveled command, but his knuckles showed white where his hands rested on his thighs. The rise and fall of his chest was uneven.
Seduced by how affected he was, she brazenly lifted one foot then the other, setting her feet down well on either side of the abandoned lace.
Paolo’s breath hissed in and he lifted his gaze in an agonizingly slow and sensual drift upward, making each square inch of her tremble and burn. Her thighs shivered, the secretive place between dampened with liquid heat, pulsing for the breach of his thick shaft. Her stomach quivered under the impact of his gaze and her breasts thrust upward again, this time in proud invitation as she took a constricted breath.
Like an animal scenting his mate, his nostrils flared and he rose in a rush of power, overwhelming her in a heartbeat with his looming size. But his grip was gentle as he pulled her into him, crushing her naked front into his clothed one while he took her mouth in a rapacious kiss.
They both opened their lips in passionate hunger. The flick of his tongue was a claiming and they were pulled into the undertow of suppressed desire released at last.
Every blood vessel in her body lit up where she pressed to him, like polarity on a magnet gravitating to its source of attraction. Her skin flooded with sensitivity and she couldn’t help rubbing the aching orbs of her breasts into the friction of his shirt. The tips stung with need.
Paolo made a noise in his throat that was pure, frustrated predator. She understood. He was roaming his hands over her, melding her to him as though he could absorb her through his skin. She couldn’t reach enough of him, but his clothes were in the way. Both wanted the offending garments gone and neither wanted to pull away to remove them.#p#????#e#
Lauren tilted her hips, intuitively seeking contact with the hard proof of his craving for her. She lifted higher on her tiptoes at the same time. Her fingers dug through his hair and she pulled him down as she pressed her lips harder to his, yearning for everything he could give her. Now. Please.
With a curse, he dragged his head up and pressed her back a step.
She couldn’t help it. A hitch of horror and chagrin caught her. It was last night all over again.
“Dio! Don’t look at me like that! You’re pregnant. I’m not going to take you to the damned floor. I’m about to—”
Before she realized what he was doing, he had swooped low and caught his arm behind her knees, sweeping her into a cradle against his chest. His long legs took the few steps to the bed and he set her there gently, glaring with disgruntlement.
“One of us has to try to control this.”
Lauren didn’t move, too fascinated by the struggle she could see behind his scowl. His skin was dark with a flush of arousal, his movements jerky as he yanked at his clothes with brutal disregard for their value. The tension in his cheeks pulled his mouth into a grim line, but his eyes were like blazing coals, singeing her skin as he raked his gaze over her.
“Look what you do to me,” he said, kicking away the last of his clothes to stand before her naked and proud. His muscled frame was pure power, the thrust of his erection stunningly potent. He worked his hands into fists that he loosened and gripped, his control visibly tenuous.
Awed, Lauren slowly swung her feet to the floor, but remained sitting on the edge of the bed. With a bold suggestiveness she had never imagined herself capable of, she spaced her wicked shoes far enough apart to open her knees and motioned him closer, eyes on the proof that he wanted her beyond bearing. “Come here.”
“You are out of your mind if you think I can hold out for that.”