belt for him. When she went to slide the zipper down on his jeans, her hand slid over the bulge, gently caressing and stroking, stopping for a moment to squeeze.
He shuddered. “I think this will be a hell of a night,” he muttered.
“I know it’ll be a hell of a night.” She took off her bra, kicked off her sandals and the scrap of cotton briefs with it, and raced to the bed. Pulling back the sheets, she kneeled in the center of the bed and opened her arms.
He didn’t know what the hell happened, but she was like a whirlwind. He walked toward her—proud, erect, and dying for the experience he’d been looking forward to since he’d first met her.
She threw herself into his arms and whispered, “Love me, Johan. Make me feel alive. Remind me why we went through all this shit these last few days.”
“How about I do even better than that?” he said. “How about I love you and remind you that life is so much more than what we went through this week.” And, with that, he gently kissed her, but the fire and passion between them soared and seared as they came together from hips to chest in a fury of skin and nerves. Myriad sensations shuddered and rolled through them both.
She sighed, then whispered, “I need you so badly.”
“Lie down,” he whispered.
She immediately dropped down on top of the sheet and opened her arms.
He slowly covered her, but, when she started to pull him to her, she spread her thighs wide, hoping he would come to her immediately. He shook his head.
“Not just yet.”
She groaned but lay shuddering under his ministrations as he stoked the fires within her. He didn’t want it over quite so fast. Not their first time, not like that. So he kissed and caressed her, his fingers stroking until he slid one finger inside her, and her hips shoved upward, sending it deeper as she cried out.
She melted all around him, and he watched with joy as her passion overtook her, and she let go, completely unfazed and natural in her response. When she lay shuddering before him, she opened her eyes.
“Now I want to be with you.”
He gently fitted himself against her entrance and carefully slid deep inside. She cried out, her body coming apart yet again. Still shuddering, she reached up and whispered, “Dear God, I don’t know what you’ve done to me,” she said, “but this is too damn perfect.”
He slid right to the hilt and slowly moved again, driving them both faster and faster to the peak. When she came apart in his arms for a third time, he finally allowed himself to relax and to let his own release find him.
When he collapsed beside her, his head hitting the pillow, he whispered, “I think you killed me.”
“No,” she said. “I didn’t. But I might by morning.”
Laughing, he opened his arms and held her close. “Bring it on,” he whispered. “Bring it on.”
Epilogue
When Galen Alrick walked into the kitchen of Ice and Levi’s compound, he was feeling pretty decent. As Harrison looked up at him with a grumble on his face, Galen’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, I thought it was a good day,” he said laughingly.
“While you guys solved your problem,” Harrison said, “we got the brakes put on ours.”
“Yeah, you were supposed to give us a hand, weren’t you? Good thing we didn’t need it.” Just enough gentle rivalry existed between the two groups for him to want to rib Harrison a little bit over this one. Galen originally had worked for Bullard for a good seven years, but now he was doing an exchange program here, and he wasn’t exactly sure what his future held. He’d already talked to Bullard about it prior to leaving, wondering if it wasn’t time to move on and to do something else. Bullard had just shrugged, smiled, and told him to come back when he wanted more work, saying he would always be welcome.
But then they’d heard about Johan’s decision to come and work for Ice, and Galen had jumped on board with that, wondering if the change would be enough for him. Now he was here, and that was a darn fast job he had just completed with Johan, not at all what Galen was used to, but it was kind of fun.
“Did Johan come back with you?” Harrison asked.
Galen snorted. “Well, he stayed to help Joy take care of the last things she needed to