vanish, same as when he’d helped me when I was stuck underneath Nellie. He leaned down so that his beautiful eyes were level with mine. They were the most beautiful, crystal clear blue-green, like emeralds dropped into the ocean, with a darker edge.
“Let’s see.”
He was so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek. His scent was like a forest, dark and alluring. I wanted him so badly that I was growing wet between my legs. He placed his thumb beneath my eye, gently drawing my eyelid lower, while cupping my jaw and cheek with the rest of his massive hand.
Kiss me, please just kiss me. I couldn’t keep up this nonsense of something stuck in my eye any longer, staring at him with lips trembling.
He narrowed his eyes, smiling a little.
“There’s nothing in your eye, is there?”
I shook my head, never breaking his gaze and the words tumbled from my lips like a child taking their first steps. “I was hoping you’d kiss me.”
He groaned, a lion-like purr from deep within his throat. It was a softer version of what I’d heard him do when some physical effort took all his strength. “Kissing is just the fucking beginning of what I want to do to you.”
Oh lord. I couldn’t take this anymore. I just couldn’t.
Dizzy with desire, I reached up and pulled his face to mine, kissing him first.
I felt him pull back, ever so slightly, as if in surprise…but then he took over, driving me up against the side of the milking shed with a thump, and ravaging my mouth. With one hand he held my face, and with the other he began to explore my body. I inhaled hard against his cheek, realizing I had hardly breathed since he leaned into me. He tasted so good, and he smelled musky and sexy and delicious.
He was a powerful, aggressive kisser and it took my breath away. He kissed me with all he had. Before long, his hand was sliding down between my legs. He cupped me there, like my body was his and his alone.
With the heel of his hand, he ground against my most sensitive area, and I felt myself being swept away with the need to let him do whatever he desired—I wanted to feel everything.
But I withdrew with a gasp, planting my hand on his chest to push him back. To create distance where I wanted none.
“You should know,” I said, with my chest heaving, “I’m…. I’ve never...” Now it was my turn to search his face for something like shock or horror.
I saw no such thing. Instead, I found nothing but respect and more adoration. His eyebrows lifted and he smiled “You’re a virgin?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. My eyes were open so wide that they actually stung. “Yes,” I gasped.
Instantly, he changed from an animal going after his prey to a perfect gentleman. The bulge in his pants pressed against my thigh, an alluring, rock-hard mass, but he gave no signal of how turned on he was—which was surely just as turned on as I was.
He ran his hand down his dark stubble, and then slid his palm through his thick hair. “We better get back to work.”
Gripping his forearm, I looked up at him. “I want you so much. You have no idea.”
He looked me up and down, with this greedy sparkle in his eye, as if to say, I most definitely do have an idea.
Once again he pushed me up against the barn wall, this time firmer and more slowly. “We’re going to fucking take it slow, Iris. We will get there. But not until I say so.”
He had a simmering, powerful fury, that made me so, so wet. As long as he wasn’t pushing me away, I could be as patient as he needed me to be. I would follow his lead without question. The idea of allowing myself to be controlled by him was powerful, and somehow it felt like I was able to control myself because of it.
I looked up at him and nodded. “I understand.”
He took my face in his hand once more, as if to kiss me. But this time he didn’t. Instead, he pressed his forehead to mine, gripped my cheek in his hand, looked me in the eye and said, “You are fucking perfect.”
As that day went on, he was as gentlemanly as ever. I still heard his words in my ears, the way he’d growled out my name, and it drove