the overall feel of her room was a shabby chic look, feminine without being too fussy. Zach should have looked incredibly out of place on her bed, with his beat-up jeans and black t-shirt. But he didn’t.
He looked like he belonged there. In her room. With her, with that faint smile on his face and that intimate, watchful look in his eyes. The vivid color of his tattoos wound around his arms and she found herself wanting to pull his shirt off and learn the detail of those tattoos in ways she’d never done before.
He was too beautiful for words.
Logically, she knew that. She’d appreciated the sheer beauty of him before. But knowing it and having it hit her like this were two very different things. Her belly, all hot and tight, twisted with need as she stood there staring at him and it took her a few more seconds to remember that he’d asked her something. A question. Oh, yeah.
“No,” she said. She didn’t regret kissing him at all. “I just . . .” She shook her head and shifted her gaze to somewhere other than him.
“Why did you kiss me?”
Blood rushed to her face and she turned away, focusing her attention on the sprawling window that stared out over the desert. At night, she could stare out at the spread of the sky and feel lost in the beauty of it. During the day, she could stare at the desert and find some peace in the chaos of her day.
But right now, it wasn’t working.
Hearing a faint movement behind her, she turned around as he came to a stop just inches away. “No answer?” he murmured, reaching out to tug on a lock of her hair.
She jerked her chin up and fell back on the attitude that had gotten her through things when little else could. “Hey, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I could always ask you why you kissed me back,” she shot off.
A hot grin appeared on his face and he dipped his head to whisper in her ear. “But I can give you an answer for that. Are you really sure you want to hear it?”
Abigale rolled her eyes and tried to back away from him. But he followed her. Step-by-step, until she stood with her back braced against the wall just by the window, the heat of the sun already warming her skin. “I probably already know what it is,” she said, curling her lip at him. “You’re a man, right?”
“Well . . . there is that.” He closed his hands around her hips, holding her steady as he leaned against her. She felt the heat of him, the length of his cock like a brand against her belly and her breath caught in her lungs, lodged there as he started to rock, slow and steady.
Each movement sent flickers of heat flying through her, turning her brain into absolute mush.
“But there’s the real reason.” He rubbed his lips against hers. “You see . . . I’ve only been waiting for you to kiss me for a good long while now. I can’t be held responsible for liking it when you finally do it.”
As he took her mouth again, a hot wave of delight flooded her.
* * *
That skirt of hers was going to be the end of him, Zach decided as he gathered the flowing material back up in his hands, dragging it up over the length of her legs. Once he could palm the curve of her ass, he nipped her lower lip and then lifted his head and stared down at her. “I wanted you to kiss me. I wanted to kiss you . . . and I wanted to do this . . . feel you, just like this. And a hell of a lot more, Abby.”
She blinked up at him, her eyes wide and dazed, fogged with heat, with surprise. Her tongue slid out to wet her lips and he followed the path it had taken with his eyes, ready to devour her, completely.
But he needed to slow this down.
She was already nervous as hell and he wasn’t about to blow this.
“Do you want to know what else I’ve wanted to do?” he whispered, shifting until he could push one thigh between her legs.
Her lashes fluttered down and he watched her head fall back, exposing the elegant line of her neck. Sweeping his head down, he raked his teeth along the delicate curve and then muttered against her ear, “Do