off was just as ridiculous, but she did her best to mimic the easy, graceful way he’d stripped. Only she failed, because she got herself good and stuck halfway, with the bralette across her face, arms up. “Dammit. Don’t look yet.” She struggled harder for a beat and then froze when she felt his hands on her thighs, sliding northbound.
Okay, this was still going to work. He was going to help her.
But his hands stopped low on her hips, his thumbs hooking in the lace waistband of her thong.
“A little help?” she asked, somehow just by his touch utterly frozen in place with her hands above her head.
“Shh.” He began to slowly—of course—so slowly she wanted to scream, drag her panties down at the very same time that his mouth captured a bared nipple. This had her struggling anew. She felt him smile against her, but that didn’t stop her from finally freeing herself of the bra with a huff.
Still on a mission, Kel shifted a little lower, kissing and teasing his way down her body, making himself at home between her thighs, which he held open with those broad shoulders. But his mouth wasn’t where she desperately needed it. Nope, he’d stalled at her hip, which he nipped with his teeth before soothing the spot with his tongue.
“Kel.”
Again she felt him smile against her as he moved south, to the top of her thigh. And then her inner thigh. And then . . . finally, and then. He found the spot, the very best spot without any instructions, guidelines, or a treasure map. Her body tightened and her toes curled. A little unnerved by her shocking, over-the-top reaction to him, she froze for a beat.
Turning his head, he gently kissed her inner thigh. “Still with me?”
She bit her lip, glad he couldn’t see her face from this position. “I think that you know that I’m very much with you,” she managed as lightly as she could.
“You still want this?”
“Again, I think that’s obvious.”
Lifting his head, he met her gaze. She did her best to hold it. “I want to hear you say it, Ivy.”
She drew a deep breath and gave him the utter truth. “I want you,” she whispered. “In me.”
“This first,” he said huskily, stroking his fingers over her wet, quivering flesh. “I want you to be with me all the way.”
“Where else would I be?” she asked, both his words and actions having her stomach doing that butterflies-on-crack routine again.
He flashed her a sexy smile and . . . went back to what he’d been doing. Which was that thing that had her breathing like she was trying to outrun a speeding train. It was good, so good she heard herself panting his name like a chant, a plea . . . And when their gazes met across her writhing torso, that was all it took for her to come.
When she could breathe again, she stared up at the ceiling and had to laugh, finding it exceptionally funny that this had been the best sex she’d ever had and he hadn’t even gotten inside her yet.
Kel crawled up her body and licked the hollow of her neck where her pulse was still racing before coming into her field of vision, his eyes dark with heat and male satisfaction.
“Show off,” she whispered.
“I’ve had over a whole week to fantasize about doing that to you,” he said. “I suppose that freaks you out.”
“No.” She ran her hands down his body to wrap around what she was starting to think might be her favorite body part. “It makes me even more impatient.”
At her touch, his head fell back. When she stroked, he groaned and kissed her hungrily before reaching to the floor for his pants, coming up with a condom. Watching him roll it on was a sexual act all in itself, so much so that she sat up and had to add her hands to the cause. He was just so beautiful. The cut of his body, the way he moved, the low timbre of his voice, how he looked at her, the feel of his hands as they caressed her into quite the state . . .
When he sank inside her, deep, her soft moan mingled in the air with his rough, heartfelt groan, and she thought it was maybe the best moment they’d ever shared.
He stuck to long, slow strokes at first, his body hard against hers, his mouth at her throat, then her ear, telling her