she was losing the buzz from his touch, and reality was creeping back in. Rachel didn’t want reality. She wanted to soar.
“This is a matching set, right?” he said, before his hands fisted in her boy shorts and ripped them in two. “Better keep them matching,” he muttered as he tore them from her body.
There was something deliciously caveman about his actions. “Michael, hurry up.”
A hand at the back of her head straightened her until she was staring into his exasperated eyes. “It’s a good thing I like bossy women.” And then he was kissing her again.
Rachel wrapped her arms and legs around him, feeling his hot length against her sensitive core and wondering when he’d gotten rid of his shorts. Hands grasped her behind and scooted her even closer to the edge of the pool, and she’d never been more grateful for that raised ledge because it allowed him to achieve the perfect position. A hand slid between them, trailing through her own particular wetness, making her gasp. Then he was guiding himself inside her.
Bliss.
Perfection.
His width stretched and filled her. But the feeling wasn’t just physical. She was sure he’d also seeped into her soul. Warming the cold places. Soothing the anger that always seemed present.
His lips took hers in a rapturous assault. The room was spinning, and he was her anchor. She tightened her legs around him and again felt his hand between her breasts.
“Lean back,” came the rasped order.
Her arms refused to hold her, and she fell to her elbows, vaguely aware Harvard was holding her weight so that she didn’t hurt herself. Her head fell back and her eyes closed, her focus on the feeling of him moving inside her.
She felt his mouth on her breast, nipping, licking, sucking. It was all too much.
“You can handle it,” he said before resuming his glorious possession.
A hand splayed low on her body, his thumb angled over her clit. A long moan escaped as he gently strummed that bundle of nerves while moving inside her and teasing her breasts.
It was like nothing she’d ever felt. This was no fumble in the dark as she’d experienced as a teen. And far removed from the empty encounters she’d attempted as an adult but had been unable go through with. This was something else. Something much more. Playing her body like a virtuoso, he was taking her over. Speaking to her with his touch.
Making love.
And she felt the chains around her heart loosen. Then one by one, they broke and fell away until all but a few were gone. She’d never survive this. He was changing her, inside and out. And she wasn’t sure if she was desperate for it or terrified.
The tension in her body grew, building to a crescendo, taking her higher and higher until she rode atop a wave of such vast proportions that it almost overwhelmed her. Secure in his arms. In his touch. In his care.
“Give it to me, Rachel,” he growled the words.
His thumb pressed on her clit. His length surged inside of her. And the wave broke with her cry, “Michael.”
Strong arms enfolded her as she floated away.
In the back of her mind, a breath of a voice whispered, So this is love. And then it was gone, as though it’d never been there to begin with.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time they reached the TayFor offices, Rachel was back to acting like she hardly knew Harvard. Which wasn’t a surprise. Retreating behind a wall of ice was how she coped with change. All he could do was wait her out. Just as well he had an abundance of patience.
“I’ll be in the security room looking at footage with Ryan if you need me,” he told her once he was sure her office was secure and there were no more nasty photos waiting for her.
“I won’t need you.” She turned her attention to the open laptop in front of her, dismissing him.
With an amused shake of his head, Harvard closed the door on her. “Got anything for me?” he asked Elle, who was busy at her desk.
“You mean apart from being glad the bet’s off?” She pointed at his throat. “That hickey would have cost me fifty pounds.”
He wasn’t embarrassed. “A hickey isn’t evidence of sex.”
“It is with Rachel. That wouldn’t be there unless she’d decided to let you have access. Trust me, I know the woman. It’s all or nothing with her.”
He hoped so, because he wanted everything. “What’ve you got from the photos so far?”
Blue