me, then cocked his head. “Disappointed?”
“That you could live a life of leisure in early retirement and instead choose to work a grueling job, saving people’s lives?” I ringed my arms around his neck. “Everything you do and everything you are, Asher, just makes me want you more.”
He took my face in his hands and kissed me softly, then harder, and the flame that had been simmering flared hot again.
“Where was I?”
“Here,” I said and moved his hand between my legs.
A low sound issued deep in his chest. “I’m about ten seconds away from fucking you on the hood of my Jeep.”
“I can live with that.”
He shook his head, his eyes dark and hooded. “I want you in my bed. Now.”
Asher lifted me up and my legs went around his waist, and somehow, he managed to get us inside while kissing me, his hands cupping my ass. I was dimly aware of his house in the dark, lit only by moonlight. Tribal art that I didn’t recognize on the wall, a Maui hook carved from wood. Masculine décor that honored the place where he lived. I kissed him harder.
Finally, Asher brought me to his bedroom.
“Asher,” I whispered between kisses as he lay over me on the bed, our hips rising and falling together, frustrated by clothes. “Please…”
“Your ankle,” he said. “I should be careful.”
“Don’t you dare.”
Our kisses became frenzied then; releasing days’ worth of tension and pent-up need. I pushed him back so that I could sit up and get my dress off. Asher obliged by lifting it over my head, then tore off his own shirt and knelt in front of me.
His mouth moved over the bare skin of my chest, over my heart, his thick, soft hair brushing my chin. His hands unclasped my bra in the back, then slipped around to the front. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head to feel his rough hands caress my breasts, hefting their weight in his palms. He ran a calloused thumb over one nipple while his mouth found the other, biting and sucking. My hands sank into his hair, grazed over his scalp and then down his back, fingernails raking the smooth skin.
“We should have been doing this ages ago,” I whispered, and then cried out as Asher took one nipple between his teeth and sucked.
“Then it wouldn’t be this fucking perfect,” he growled. His hands went to my hips and hauled me forward, sending me sprawling on my back. With another feral sound of want, he tore off my thong panties. He stared down at me, naked and exposed and ready for him. “But fuck yes, I’ve been dreaming about tasting you.”
“Oh, God…”
My hands flailed and then gripped the bedspread to cling for dear life as Asher put his mouth on me, tongued me, nipped and sucked me. I stared at the ceiling, incoherent sounds pouring out of me as Asher went at me like a wild animal, sending wave after wave of pure sensation coursing through me. Every cell in my body lit on fire and I arched off the bed, into him, wanting all of it. Even the twinge of pain in my ankle I relished and added to the tsunami of pleasure that took me higher, higher…and then Asher took my clit in his mouth the same way he had taken my nipple and sucked it between his teeth.
The wave crashed.
I clutched at the bed as if it could keep me from floating away or disintegrating into a million pieces. I screamed his name; it came pouring out of me on a tide of pleasure and heat that I’d never felt before with any man.
“Jesus Christ,” I panted. “How…did you? I can’t… move. Or think.”
“Don’t pass out on me.” Asher propped himself over me. “I’m not done with you yet.”
He kissed me, then stood and went to the nightstand for a condom. I hauled myself to sitting, watching him move—big, but graceful in the dark.
I wasn’t done with him, either. I hadn’t even started.
“Come here,” I said, when he had the condom in hand.
He stood in front of me while I sat on the edge of the bed. I undid the button on his jeans, then the zipper. I put my mouth on his stomach, kissed the warm skin, ran my tongue along the hard lines and ridges of his abdomen while I shoved his pants down. His erection strained against his boxer-briefs, and another flame of want began to burn in the center