paw and watched me with slitted eyes. Carefully, I scratched the top of her head as I passed, and she gave me a happy, rumbling purr in response.
That had me smiling as I walked around the edge of the couch.
Bauer was still lying there, his long legs sprawled out and one arm flung over his face, his chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. Briefly, I paused because oh geez, had he fallen asleep?
But as quickly as I thought it, he dropped his arm and pinned me with an inscrutable look as I stood over him.
Okay, so this part was one that I hadn't thought out. Like the choreography of my little gesture.
No second thoughts, I reminded myself.
With both hands, I reached for the hem of my shirt and tugged it up over my head.
Bauer sat up slowly as I let it drop to the floor, his jaw tightening, eyes burning furiously over the skin I'd just exposed. Left in my leggings and simple bralette, I took a step forward and swung one leg over his hip so I could settle onto his lap.
His hands slid up my back, and he dropped his head into the crook of my shoulder while he seemed to try to get his breathing under control. Underneath me, he was big. Hard. Ready.
My hands wandered up his shoulders and over the back of his head. I kissed his temple, then licked along the edge of his ear, insanely gratified when his fingers tightened painfully on my back. They moved then, started to tug down the strap of my bralette. His mouth trailed along the skin on my chest, small sucking kisses that he soothed with his tongue.
When he reached the tops of my breast, he used the edge of his thumb to work me into a rolling mass of want. Still, we hadn't kissed. Still, we hadn't spoken a single word.
His head came back, eyes almost black in the dying firelight, and he searched my expression carefully.
I gripped the sides of his face firmly, so he wouldn't—couldn't—look away.
"I want you," I told him. "I want this, with you."
Bauer surged forward and took my mouth. Oh, he took it deep and sweet and hot and hungry. Endless, wonderful kisses that had us panting and sighing and moaning as my hands ripped at his shirt.
He took pity, breaking away to tear it off. My hands slid over his skin, wonderful and gorgeous and stacked with muscles.
Using his hands underneath my ass, he picked me up and turned us so that I was underneath him on the couch. Once I was settled, those hands moved onto the waistband of my leggings as he peeled them off. They landed in a heap with his shirt and mine. My underwear came next, his tongue coming out to lick along his bottom lip in a way that had me writhing helplessly while he stood and shucked off his pants and boxer briefs.
Before he came back between my legs, Bauer snagged his wallet from the side table and pulled out a condom.
I widened my legs so that he could settle his hips between them, and our hands greedily swept over all the places now bared to our eyes. After only a few minutes, I cried out because that wrist thing he'd done earlier in the day, the twist of his hand that felt so dirty when I was fully clothed, had me damp with sweat and my toes curling against the couch.
"You're so perfect," he murmured against my chest, kissing down along my ribs.
My hand found him, and he hissed loudly in pleasure from the pressure of my fingers and palm.
"Bauer, please," I begged, arching my hips up.
"Soon, princess," he growled, pushing himself into my hand again. "I have one condom and no intention of rushing through a second of this."
"Please, please," I whispered against his mouth. "I can't handle this anymore."
He sat up, and I raked my fingernails down his abs as he ripped open the condom.
"I guess we'll have to get creative once I get you upstairs, eh?"
I grinned, sitting up to drop a kiss on the edge of his hip bone. "I guess."
Bauer came down over me again, hands bracketing my head on the couch. I pulled my leg up, my knee braced against his chest while the other wrapped around his hips.
Slowly, he moved forward. So slowly, I thought I might die, in wordless, helpless, incredible agony. My mouth was open, my neck arched back, a moan