He paused, breathing raggedly, to strip off his shirt, and she gasped at the sight of him like that, looming over her, his chest thick with dark hair, the bronzed muscles rippling, his face dark with passion, his eyes almost black. She could feel the heat of his body, see the fine tremor of his arms.
“Come here,” he commanded, kneeling before her.
She rose to her own knees, and he pulled her to him, pressing her breasts hard against his hair-roughened chest and making her shudder with the fierce pleasure of it. He held her there, kissing her deeply and shifting her against him in the process until her nipples were so sensitized that they burned and her nails dug into his back.
“I want...you,” was dragged out of her throat. She buried her face in his neck and clung to him, her hips against his, her thighs trembling. “I...want...you.”
His hands went to her hips, grinding her into him, and a burning sensation shot through her lower body. She shuddered helplessly, gasping with pleasure and barely contained desire.
“Lie down,” he whispered shakily. “Lie down under me. I’ll make you stop shaking. I’ll make you part of me...”
“The door... Is it locked?” she asked huskily, feeling his weight come over her, his hands urgent on her body.
“Locked?” His hands stilled, and he looked into her feverish eyes. “Elissa?” He swallowed, his bare chest rising and falling with the force of his heartbeat as he looked down at her. “Elissa... I could make you pregnant.”
She was hardly able to breathe. His eyes were the world. She loved him, and she hadn’t known. He was more than her friend. He was everything. And to have his child—the thought was too wonderful for words.
Her eyes went down his body possessively, loving its long, powerful lines, loving every inch of him with sweet abandon. Her hips moved sensuously under his, eliciting a groan from him.
“No, honey,” he whispered, stilling her impatient movements. “Don’t make me. We’ve got to stop while we can.”
“Why?” she asked dazedly.
“We can’t make love with Bobby and Bess sitting in the next room.” He laughed brittlely. “I must have been out of my mind to let things go this far.”
His hands cupped her head, and he dropped a hard, quick kiss onto her lips. Then he sat up, smoothing his hands blatantly over her breasts, his eyes appreciative and boldly possessive. “God, you’re something,” he said. “As hot and wild as I am. We’d set fires together,” he added with what sounded like regret.
She sat up, too, more than unsettled by the confusing sequence of events and moods. Feeling uncomfortably exposed beneath that frank stare of his, she tugged at her bodice, but his hand prevented her from tugging it up.
“Not yet,” he murmured. His hand went to her back, arching her over his arm, and his mouth opened, taking her breast inside the moist darkness.
She shuddered, biting her lip to keep from crying out. It was the sweetest kind of ache he made there, his tongue rubbing lazily at her nipple, his lips tugging at her. She clutched the back of his dark head, holding him there, while his free hand came up just below his mouth and cupped her sensuously.
It was a long time before he lifted his head, and he clearly liked what he saw when he looked at her. “I’d like to have you on the beach, just the way I dreamed of.”
She flushed to the roots of her hair at the image that had haunted her all day, too.
His hand moved over her soft breasts. “You’re very pale here,” he said. “I’d like to teach you the delicious pleasure of sunbathing nude. Swimming nude.”
“You do,” she said without thinking, her voice breathless sounding.
He lifted his head, smiling slowly. “Yes. You’ve watched me sometimes at night, from your kitchen window, haven’t you?”
The flush got worse, but she didn’t look away. “I was curious,” she confessed softly. “There was moonlight once, and you came out of the water very close to the cottage... I never knew a man could be beautiful.” She faltered, blushing furiously. “I didn’t think you’d know I was watching.”
He brushed his mouth over her eyes. “I knew,” he murmured. “I don’t mind if you look at me.”
She was still trembling when he got to his feet and pulled her up with him, slowly retying the straps at her shoulders.
“You look loved,” he said unexpectedly. He brushed her tangled hair away from