as she watched, in silent invitation. A feline smile curled her lips. She crawled across the bed and knelt on the edge, feeling a surge of power and control at the way his gaze tracked her every move.
“C’mere,” she demanded. He obeyed instantly and she felt every step he took toward her like a magnet being drawn toward its match. By the time he was within a foot of her, the press of his skin against hers was inevitable, a scientific law.
She twined her arms around his neck and hauled him to her for a kiss, but this time it wasn’t desperate and defensive. This time it was pure, sweet need. Clean, simple lust. She burned.
Tyler responded with gratifying ferocity. He bore her back to the mattress, the scalding heat of his bare skin making her feel like she’d been dropped into a furnace, inside and out. They fell in a tangle, but he found his way naturally between her thighs. He kissed her deeply, slicking a finger between her folds until she was twisting beneath him with pent-up desire. “Tyler,” she groaned, “now, please.”
At her plea, Tyler’s vexing patience evaporated. He tugged her hips down the mattress until she was tucked beneath him at just the right angle. Thrusting into her, he filled her in one deep, smooth stroke. Zoe clenched her inner muscles, her breathing reduced to ragged gasps. He took up a steady rhythm, muscles clenched with the effort, sweat slicking the muscles of his back as she clutched them.
That caged feeling was back, but this time she knew exactly how to find the release she needed. Digging her heels into the mattress, Zoe canted her hips and moaned, “Harder,” into Tyler’s ear, her lips caressing the lobe. Tyler grunted an unintelligible reply and his hips began pistoning faster, intensifying the delicious drag of each withdrawal and jarring spike of pleasure at every pounding return.
Her orgasm built like the electric tingles in the air before a storm, an ominous anticipation. Zoe twisted her face away from Tyler, pressing her cheek into the mattress, startled by how cool the sheet felt against her skin. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing every particle of her being on the storm rising inside her.
But then Tyler’s lips caressed her jaw, his fingers cradled her face. There was a roughness, almost a violence in their mating, but his touch was so gentle, so damn tender, she couldn’t resist it when he turned her face back to his for a startlingly chaste kiss.
Her climax burst through her, not like a storm, but like the sudden radiance of the dawn, light spilling through her. She opened her eyes, startled by the sweetness of it, and his gold gaze was directly above her. Eyes like the sun bore into hers, illuminating every corner of her being, and she flew. This is the freedom I’ve been missing. Tyler roared, his claws digging furrows into the mattress as his own release took him, but the sunrise in his eyes never wavered from hers as aftershocks in pinkish hues sent pleasure down to her bones.
Zoe wrapped her arms around Tyler and pulled him over her, loving his weight pressing her down into the mattress, but also needing his cheek beside hers so he couldn’t look into her eyes right now. She felt…disoriented, like some small piece inside her had shifted, changing its purpose, and all the rest of her had to figure out how to operate around the change.
She couldn’t face him right now. God, please don’t let him try to pillow talk me. Zoe closed her eyes and let the muscles in her arms loosen, falling lax and slipping off his shoulders. She made the rest of her body boneless and gave a soft, breathy sigh. Feigning sleep wasn’t the most mature approach to handling the aftermath, but the alternative was too intimidating.
Tyler lifted his weight away from her and she fancied she could feel his gaze on her, checking to see if she really slept. She kept her breathing even and her body still—which would have been a warning sign if he knew her, since Zoe was a distinctly restless sleeper.
She half-wondered if he would leave—just slip out as no strings seemed to imply—but Tyler settled himself against her, one strong arm wrapped around her ribs beneath her breasts. He pressed along her right side and her body quickened for him, but Zoe forced herself to remain still.
She focused on the deep in and out of