His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,51

love. He had to process what had happened and deal with his guilt. Somehow he had to get it all straight in his mind.

But when he would have withdrawn his mouth from hers, she clung, kissing him desperately.

“Stay with me?” she begged in such a seductive tone that his whole body jerked with fresh need.

“Not tonight,” he said hoarsely.

“Please….”

“Not after your nightmare about Vernon.”

Not after he’d bullied her all day, not when she was scared and vulnerable. “You go back to sleep,” he murmured gently. “I’ll be right down the hall—if you need me.”

Even as his heart pounded, he forced himself to push her away and stand up.

“Cole?” Her quick, sharp breaths sounded truly panicked at the thought of being alone.

“I’ll be on the couch,” he rasped.

* * *

Unable to sleep without Cole holding her close, Maddie counted sheep. Then she counted her rushing heartbeats. When she still couldn’t sleep, she got up, paced awhile and then went to the bathroom where she filled a glass with water. Not that any of it helped still her clamoring senses. More restless than ever, she lay back down in the dark.

She remembered Cole’s flushed cheeks, the heavy glint of desire in his eyes. He’d wanted her, too; she was sure of it. But he’d been conflicted.

Curious, and feeling shamelessly needy, she arose and padded down the hall to her living room where she found him sprawled on the couch, his dark eyes wide and glued to the ceiling.

“Can’t sleep?” she teased.

“Out!” he growled huskily.

“Don’t make me beg.”

“Can’t a guy ever say no?”

Bending over him, she slid her hands under his shirt, feathering her fingertips through the crisp, dark curls that covered the broad expanse of his chest. At his quick gasp of excitement, she seized her advantage, tracing her hands blindly down the muscular length of him, kneading him until she worked her way to the huge bulge of denim between his muscular thighs.

“I thought so,” she murmured, closing her fingers over him and stroking purposefully. “I want you naked,” she growled into his ear.

He groaned savagely in protest. “Maddie!”

“I want you,” she whispered. “But not here.” She waited a beat. “My room.” She shot him a flirtatious wink and then bolted, flying down the hall, only to be terrified when he did not follow her immediately. She needn’t have worried. Two seconds later, they were naked on her bed with her door locked. He had her flat on her back underneath him while he kissed her lips with hot, urgent passion that tore her soul. In an equal frenzy, she kissed him back.

“We’ve got to slow it down,” he whispered.

“No! I need you! Everything you have to give me! Quick. Fast. Hard. I don’t want to wait. I need it. I want to erase all the ugliness.” She had to erase Vernon for good.

“Then we’re at cross-purposes.”

With softer kisses and featherlight touches, he slowed the pace and changed the mood. With each tender kiss that he placed on her mouth, on her throat, on each of her nipples and in the center of that damp nest of dark curls between her legs, he made love to her with a reverence she’d never imagined possible.

“Next time I’ll protect you,” he promised.

“I know.”

She wanted him to take her so she could feel his strength and possessive power in every cell of her being, to know that she was safe in his arms. But he lingered over her, loving her slowly, which caused her passion to build to a frenzy.

He placed his lips between her thighs and caressed her with his tongue until her whole body felt on fire.

“My turn,” she teased when he would have taken her, “to torture you with my lips and tongue.”

She took him into her mouth, sucking gently, teasing him at first and then adoring him. In the blaze of his building rapture, the last vestiges of her nightmare were consumed. There was only Cole and the exquisite, mind-numbing delight she found in his arms.

Suddenly there was a ferocity in them both as he tore free of her mouth and pulled her underneath him and slid inside her.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes!”

He thrust and she arched, their bodies moving in perfect accord as the world tipped like a crazy top and spun faster. Then they tensed as passion washed over them.

After the explosion, she lay in his arms and wondered if two people like them, from such different worlds, had a chance together.

* * *

She awoke to a rosy dawn