warm, male presence beside her, both secure and exciting. She’d worried that trying a full-on sex act with him wouldn’t work, but everything seemed to be full speed ahead, so why not go with the flow?
His lips crossed her cheek and angled down her throat. Her head fell back and he speared his hand in the back of her hair to hold her in place. He feasted on her skin and she felt her blood rising to the surface to meet his kiss. Her breasts ached, pushing against the bodice of her dress, and she moaned, grabbing blindly for his hand so he could provide some relief with a firm, masculine touch.
He smiled against her skin and let her press his palm to her fabric-covered chest. But he didn’t knead her skin or test the fullness. Instead, he merely let his heat transfer through the material, adding kindling to the fire already inside her. “Maybe we should change the venue,” he murmured.
Change the venue? The phrase sounded too technical for her brain, reduced as it was to primitive, primal reactions. “I don’t know what that means,” she said, then whimpered as he moved upward to suck on her earlobe.
His laugh was seductive in its arrogant surety. She should dislike it, she thought, but in the state she was in and because of her tenuous hold on her sexuality, she was grateful that he seemed certain of exactly how to proceed.
He could be the one in charge, she thought. No problem. Please. And then she whispered it, her voice breaking in desperation for something more. “Please, Gage. Please.”
He laughed again, soft and indulgent. “Let’s go inside.”
She fumbled with the handle of the door, but her fingers were clumsy. Gage had it open before she did, and then she realized she’d forgotten she’d toed off her sandals. Leaning over, she reached for them, but Gage was again first. The crushed shells on the driveway crunched as he squatted and took up her shoe, then slipped her foot inside. His fingers brushed her bare skin as he made quick work of the fastening. Then she felt his mouth against her ankle.
She sucked in a startled breath at the hot wetness of the kiss, shuddering with the unexpected delight. He placed a second on her shin, then another on her knee, sending a hum of bliss up her femoral artery and from there to the rest of her body. Placing his palm over that damp third kiss, he spun her on the leather seat so her legs dangled out the opening. Her left shoe was buckled as deftly as the first.
Trembling, she waiting for a second set of kisses, and he didn’t disappoint. His mouth brushed her ankle, the sleek skin of her calf, the cap of her knee. Then, sliding the blades of his hands inward, he nudged her knees apart. The hem of her dress, caught at his wrists, rose with the movement, almost to the bottom edge of her panties.
Cool air washed her hot skin. Skye stared, captivated, as he lowered his head and the rasp of his evening beard teased the soft inner skin of her upper leg. Her hand tangled in the silky dark locks of his hair, but she didn’t have the strength to push him away. Or the will. She could only quiver as he gave a tiny bite to the vulnerable flesh, moan as he sucked there, hard. The sweet, stinging delight hadn’t abated before he left a second love bite on the other inner thigh.
Desire was crashing her nervous system and she was certain she couldn’t walk as his hands curled around her waist to draw her to her feet. “I won’t be able to stand,” she protested.
“I’ll help,” he promised. “C’mon, honey.”
Her body swayed as her weight landed on her feet and he had to slide an arm around her hips to keep her upright and against him. “Told you,” she said, leaning into his chest.
He kissed her cheek, her ear, her temple. “You should come with a warning label.”
“What?” She frowned up at him.
“‘Combustible,’” he said. “I expected you’d be a lot harder to warm up, lady.”
“I am hard to warm up! I’ve always been hard to warm up, even before—” She broke off, not wanting to voice the thought. It had no place here, not now. Not tonight.
Not when he was laughing at her again, in that indulgent, arrogant way he had. “It’s just me, then, I guess,” he said, looking smug.
She