this. As if he were a delicious meal she couldn’t wait to devour. Knowing he made her feel that way stoked his ego. Filled the gaping hole he kept hidden deep in his heart with wonder and ecstasy.
He hadn’t realized how alone he’d been until Sara. Until she bulldozed her way into his dull, predictable, solitary life with her bright smile, engaging personality, and determination.
Agreeing to her crazy idea had changed him. He didn’t stop to consider why or precisely how. He couldn’t. Not when she gazed at his torso with those gorgeous, desire-filled eyes. The pink tip of her tongue slowly drawing across her bottom lip as if savoring what was to come.
Reaching behind his back, Luis unhooked her legs, then grasped her toned thighs and oh, so slowly slid her down the front of his body until her feet touched the hardwood floor.
He grasped the hem of her top, pausing for her assent. She lifted her arms over her head for him. Luis tugged the orange Lycra material up her torso, stretching it carefully over her face, then her ponytail, stopping when he reached her forearms to leave the stretchy material cinched around her. Lightly clasping her slender wrists with one hand, he held them in place above her as he cupped her jaw with the other and ducked down to cover her mouth with his.
She grazed his lower lip with her teeth. Sucked it into her mouth. Laved it with her tongue, then surprised him by taking control of the kiss. Driving him wild with each thrust of her tongue as her lithe body mimicked the motion against his.
His erection pulsed, begging for release.
As if she too were nearing her limit of foreplay, they broke apart, chests heaving. Eyes locked. In the quiet of the house, a rush of emotions fueled by the intensity of their pent-up desire built to a frenzy, sweeping over them with hurricane-force winds.
Suddenly they were scrambling to remove their beach clothes. Her bathing suit top flung across the room to land on the shelf next to the flat-screen TV. His board shorts and her bottoms were kicked aside. Together Luis and Sara moved to the bed, its ocean reef comforter apropos for the culmination of the titillating foreplay that had begun back at South Beach.
Sara pivoted into the bathroom, where Luis heard the rasp of a zipper.
Arms behind her back, his sexy mermaid returned to the foot of the bed where he waited. She whipped out a condom packet, her face lighting up like she’d found the key to paradise and was willing to share.
Unfortunately, it was only one. As in. One. Single. Packet.
Torn between laughing out loud or groaning his disappointment, Luis looped his arms around Sara’s slender waist as he shook his head. “Ay, sirena, one isn’t going to be nearly enough. But it’s a start.”
They tumbled onto the bed together in a tangle of arms and legs and shared laughter.
* * *
“Would you rather . . .”
Sara popped a green grape in her mouth and pondered what options to throw at Luis in their back-and-forth getting-to-know-you game.
In the past, she’d played for fun. Challenging friends with surface-level, purposefully difficult-to-choose-between, often meaningless options.
With him, she had an ulterior motive—find out what made this strong, moral, generous man to whom she was in danger of losing her heart tick.
They sat on the bed facing each other. He, leaning against the padded headboard. She, cross-legged in the center of the mattress. The sheets, a rumpled mess after their delectable lovemaking. And yes, making love with Luis could most certainly be described as beyond delectable.
The man had an uncanny, toe-curling way of finding her body’s sensitive spots. Like the juncture between her ear and jawbone, the hollow at her inner elbow, the base of her spine, her inner thigh as he trailed his tongue higher.
Sara shivered as desire unfurled inside her in warm, heady waves.
Good god, they’d already used two condoms from the box she’d packed in her toiletry bag, having modestly left the container in the bathroom at first. No need to appear greedy. Although frankly, when it came down to it, there was no denying her eagerness. The mere thought of Luis’s lips kissing her, licking her, driving her wild again set her body on fire.
Sex with Luis had been the most intense, sensual experience. Absolutely incredible. And scary.
Scary because she couldn’t stop herself from wanting more with him. More of everything. But as much as she might want to broach