Hot and Bothered - Erika Wilde Page 0,58

along with the vulnerable curve where neck met shoulder. Then he opened her hands so she released the bedspread and intertwined his fingers through hers so that she felt physically bound to him. His hot breath grazed her cheek and his mouth touched her jaw and glided down to a vein throbbing in her neck. His teeth nibbled, and she closed her eyes and shivered, her stomach constricting with excitement as she wondered if he intended to mark her again in such a possessive, carnal way. It seemed appropriate, considering how inherently primitive their position was.

She was on edge, frustrated that he was completely in control while she was a bundle of restless energy just waiting to come apart. For him, with him. “Noah, please. Don’t make me wait any longer.”

“You feel so damn tight, so hot and wet,” he murmured into her ear, then flexed his hips against her bottom, lifting her pelvis higher. The dampness of her own desire eased his way deeper, making them both groan at the exquisite friction he created. Then he withdrew almost all the way out and pushed slowly back inside her, until he was buried to the hilt and she felt impaled by the hard length of him. He pulsed within her, breathing raggedly against her neck as his mouth sought a tender place to brand her.

She quivered, waiting, and when he finally sank his teeth into the tendon of muscle at the curve of her shoulder, she moaned long and loud. Her eyes rolled back, and she felt the erotic pull all the way down to her sex, making her inner muscles contract around him.

Finally, he drove into her, hard and deep, wringing another cry from her. He thrust again, his hips working like a piston, too quickly for her to catch her breath. He groaned her name. A demand. A plea.

And she answered him with a whispered “Yes.”

He gave one last violent thrust, spiraling them both into a vortex of all-consuming pleasure that seemed more vital than each rapid heartbeat, more essential than each labored breath she drew. She shattered right along with him, blinded by delirious sensation and intoxicated by his wild need for her.

For a brief time as they made love, he made her forget the threat surrounding her. But in the back of her mind, the fact remained that someone was after her, and she had no idea who, or why.

* * *

It was nine thirty the following morning before Noah heard the upstairs shower turn on and assumed that Natalie had finally gotten out of bed. As for him, he’d been awake since before his alarm clock had gone off at six. He’d taken his own shower, had quietly gotten dressed for the day, then left Natalie burrowed deep in the covers while he headed downstairs. He wanted to get some work done in his office before she woke up and he finally explained her past relationship with Chad Freeman.

Last night, the woman in his bed had been completely and utterly insatiable to the point of exhausting them both, he recalled with a smile. They’d made love three times, and once their passions had cooled, peace and calm had settled over her. When she’d snuggled up to him and asked him to just hold her, he hadn’t been able to shatter the cocoon of intimacy with a serious discussion. He knew there would be plenty of time for that later.

Like this morning, just as soon as she came downstairs.

With a resigned sigh, he closed out his email on his laptop, then grabbed Natalie’s case file and headed into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee for her, and himself. He could use another dose of caffeine to get him through the next hour or so.

By the time the coffee was done percolating, Natalie walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of cotton drawstring pants and a blouse she hadn’t bothered to button up all the way. Her hair was still damp and combed away from her freshly scrubbed face, and she greeted him with a soft “good morning”, an affectionate kiss on the cheek, and a sweet smile he knew he could get used to seeing every day for the rest of his life.

His heart thumped hard in his chest, the knowledge that he’d fallen in love with this woman undeniable. She fit so perfectly in his life, in a way he’d never imagined any woman could. For years he’d embraced his playboy, bachelor