He gave her a look.
She grimaced. “You know what I mean. Indiscriminately.” She let out an angry sigh. “It’s bad enough to feel like this…so out of control, without facing the fact while the attraction might be mutual, it’s not necessarily at the same level.”
He said a pithy Chinese curse, knowing she wouldn’t know what it meant. Why did women have to analyze things like this? Emotions…as if they were something logical to be measured and compared. Desire was desire. He felt it. She felt it. They both struggled with control. Did it matter if he was better at winning the battle? Should he not be? He was the man, a man moreover who was used to being in control of more than his own life.
He’d been here with his mother and sisters, though. Seen them do the same thing with other men, with him even over different things. It frustrated the hell out of him, but he also knew he had to answer her concerns or the problem would only escalate. He had seen that, too.
He brushed her hair behind her ear, a deliberate gesture of affection that connected them. “I did not say I did not feel this inexplicable draw, merely that my choice to follow it was my own. As is yours,carida .”
“I’m not sure I’m making choices I would otherwise do.”
He was careful not to let the exasperated sigh trapped in his chest escape. Of course the choices were unique. The situation was different than anything he’d experienced and he was sure it was the same for her. “I would not have minded if you came over and touched me, but the fact that you did not shows that you have easily as strong a sense of control as I do.” Or at least very close to it. “What we feelis mutual. So, too, is our unwillingness to let it completely control us.”
She looked so damn uncertain and that was not an expression he wanted to see on her face. She needed a more concrete connection than a small touch of affection. She needed to feel his desire and know it was as real as her own. He took her water from her and placed it on the small table; then he tugged her from her chair straight into his lap.
She gasped, her aqua eyes going wide. “What are you doing?”
“Shoring up your confidence.” As his head lowered toward hers, he assured himself this was for her, not his overactive libido.
Their mouths touched and all thoughts of altruism fled while electricity sparked and crackled between them. Never had such a simple, almost chaste caress caused such a conflagration to his senses. Rapacious hunger blazed to life inside him for more of the tempting lips that tasted like the best sex he had ever had, but as sweet as vanilla spice.
Her mouth fit his perfectly and he explored every millimeter of her soft flesh, memorizing her taste and feel on an elemental level he did not begin to understand. He felt like Adam discovering the delights of Eve, but he was no inexperienced youth. He had known many women sexually and yet he could not deny the sensation of newness coursing through him now. It made no sense and his superior brain was too hazy with desire to attempt to understand.
Compulsively he ate at her lips, every nip, lick and caress making him crave more.He could not get enough. He wanted more…to go deeper, to claim all that she would give him. He pulled her lower lip between his teeth and sucked demandingly. She took the hint and opened her mouth for him with a small, high-pitched moan.
His big body shuddered under her and he plunged inside with his tongue, tightening his hold on her, yanking her body to press against his. Soft to hard. Curves to muscular contours. Perfect complements, all the more arousing for how right it felt. She was stiff for a heartbeat, as if she would try to hold herself back, but then she melted into him, her arms sliding around his neck.
Damn. Nothing had ever felt this good and he was not even inside of her. She fit him as if they’d been created for this very connection…it would be even better when they made love. It would be perfection.
Her tongue tangled with his, sliding and sparring in perfect feminine counterpoint to his masculine aggression. Her taste intoxicated him more effectively than a magnum of his favorite champagne and his head swam. He wrapped his hand in her hair, holding her head in place, though she was making no effort to move it. He had to taste every hidden recess of her mouth and mark it with his taste as his own.
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He’d never felt this primitive possessiveness before, but it felt right, too.
Too damn right.
The frisson of alarm from that thought did not stop him from increasing the carnality of the kiss.
He cupped her hip, sliding his hand in a caress along her leg, his thumb dipping down to brush her inner thigh through her skirt. She trembled, her slim legs parting slightly in tentative invitation. She was so thin, she felt like a waif in his arms. A very sexy waif, but with an ephemeral quality that engendered the irrational fear she would float away.
His hold on her hair tightened involuntarily, but even in his aroused state, he was careful not to pull at the silky strands. This woman would feel nothing but pleasure at his hand. Ever. Or anyone else’s, his predator’s mind growled in unexpected warning as his other hand slid around to cup her bottom possessively.
She moaned at his hand’s movement on her beautifully shaped derriere. The silky fabric of her dress acted as no barrier to his touch. He could feel the heat of her smooth skin beneath it and explored each dip and valley of her bottom before returning to her thighs where he moved inexorably toward her delta.
She cried out against his mouth when his fingers brushed against her apex and she arched her pelvis in blatant invitation. His sex was so hard, it pressed against confinement. He surged up from the chair, molding her body to his and using his hold on her backside to move her against his erection. He’d never been so close to spending in his trousers.
He rocked their bodies together, seeking some measure of relief for the agonizing pleasure. He wanted her. Now.
He considered dropping to the floor and having her right there, but a final spark of sanity prevailed and he headed toward the bedroom with her body locked against his. She didn’t seem to notice their movement, writhing in his arms, kissing him ferociously.
But when he pressed her back onto the bed and came down on top of her, she tore her mouth from his. “Wait! What are we doing?” The words came out between gasps that made his male pride spike.
“Do not tell me you do not know,mi dolce carida .” Oh, shewas sweet and utterly delicious.
Particularly the way she bit her bottom lip, her aqua eyes almost pleading with him. “I thought we were going to have dinner.”
She could not be serious. They were practically making love with their clothes on. “I would rather have you.” He emphasized the point by thrusting against her with his hardness.