“I knew you would be, too, Megan.”

Her eyes rose to meet his again and that was when he felt it: a deep moment of connection that neither of them had wanted to acknowledge...but now could no longer deny.

Sex was easier, so much easier than losing control of their emotions, so when she yanked her gaze away and turned her focus back to removing his clothes, he didn’t stop her.

Still, in the back of his brain he had to wonder how either of them was going to be able to hide from what was happening here tonight. From what had been happening long before clothes had started coming off. Before their day on the mountain. Before their dinner together. Even before the holiday party and that first kiss.

But figuring it all out, deciding what to do with something that was so much bigger than just one night of incredibly hot sex, that was more than just a handful of orgasms, was too much thinking about one stolen night together.

He watched Megan take a deep breath as if steadying herself before pulling his zipper down. His shaft immediately sprang free from the denim, tenting his boxers. Lifting his hips from the bed, he helped her pull his pants off.

Her lower lip moved between her teeth and he was utterly mesmerized by her wide-eyed expression as she lifted the cotton fabric from his erection and slid it off.

What, he wondered wildly, was she going to do now? Every muscle in his body was tight with anticipation as he watched her take him in, her eyes big and so aroused he nearly lost it without another damn touch.

He watched her reach for him as if in slow motion and then her slender fingers were wrapping around him so gently that he couldn’t control the urge to push harder into her fist. She tightened her grip, and Gabe knew that if this was as far as they got tonight, it was already the best sex of his life.

He couldn’t pull his gaze away from the sight of her hand around his shaft, the way she almost reverently worked him, the slow sweep of her thumb over the broad head. Jesus, he already knew the image of this would be forever imprinted in his brain, that it wouldn’t take more than just this memory to send him over the edge again and again.

He was so mesmerized by what Megan was doing with her hand that he was a full step behind as she slowly lowered her head down over him. It wasn’t until the tips of her soft hair brushed across his thighs that he realized what she was about to do.

Her warm breath found him first, so soft, so seductive, and then—sweet Jesus, he was never going to make it through this night in one piece—she was moving her tongue over him, just where her thumb had been.

It shouldn’t have been possible for things to get even hotter than her tongue on him, but the soft little sound of appreciation she made took him there in a millisecond. He felt himself begin to lose it against her tongue and—oh lord—she was right there, covering him, taking him deep into the hot depths of her mouth.

He didn’t want to come like this, not their first time together, but he soon realized as his hands found her hair and his hips thrust up into the perfect warmth that surrounded him, he was just about at the end of his control. If he didn’t pull out now, he’d have no choice but to give in to the most incredible blow job he’d ever experienced.

On a desperate groan, he pulled from her mouth, the suction of her lips sounding in a little pop in the small hotel room.

She looked up at him in surprise as he shifted them on the bed, a sensual goddess, her full lips red from his kisses and the pleasure she’d been giving him.

She lay back and watched him move off the bed to where they’d thrown his pants. “Gabe?”

He answered her by pulling a condom from the back pocket of his jeans. She reached out her hand and said, “Let me,” but he was only one touch away from going off, so he quickly ripped open the package and rolled the condom on.

As he came back onto the bed, she automatically spread her legs for him to move between her thighs. He wanted—needed—to be in her, but first he had to kiss her again.

Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him back with so much passion he got lost there, with his mouth against hers, until she shifted her hips and the head of his shaft was seared by the slick heat between her thighs.

He had to pull away, then, had to lever up on his arms to watch their bodies come together. “You’re so gorgeous, Megan,” was all he could say as he took in her soft curves, her skin damp with sweat from their intense lovemaking.

She made a sound of agreement as she moved her hands down over his chest, his abdomen, and then behind his hips.

“Take me, Gabe.” Her eyes fluttered shut as their bodies began to slide into place. “Please love me.”

“Watch with me,” he urged her in an unsteady voice and somehow managed to wait until she’d opened her eyes again and turned her gaze to the shockingly beautiful sight of their bodies coming together.

He rewarded her by pushing in another inch and then sliding out before doing it again and again until he was nearly all the way inside of her, one slick thrust at a time.

“Oh God.”

In the end it was the sexy sound of those two little words, along with the feel of her heat clasping around him, that had him finally losing his last grasp on control.

His hands moved from the bed to cradle her head, and with his weight on his elbows and forearms, sliding in so deep, so hard they both groaned at the intense pleasure of it, Gabe made Megan his.

But even as he made love to her, Gabe knew it was the other way around. Megan had already made him hers with her legs wrapped around his waist, her body opening up to his, taking everything he had to give, and giving back even more.

Their mouths met again, along with tongues and teeth, as their bodies gave in to what neither of them could keep from happening another second. He wished he could have loved her like this for hours, that he could let this feeling of being so perfectly, so intimately joined with Megan go on forever, but he’d wanted it too much, for much too long.

Still, for all his loss of control, he wouldn’t go over the edge without her.

From the sounds she was making and the rhythmic clasp of her inner muscles around him, he knew she was close. It was pure instinct to slide one hand between their bodies and lift his mouth from hers.

“Come with me, sweetheart.”

She held on to him as her green eyes went dark with pleasure. And then her eyelids were falling shut and she was arching up off the bed as her climax hit them both with so much force that it was all Gabe could do just to hold on tight as he exploded inside of her.

He forgot to leash his power, forgot how small she was, forgot that he wanted their first time to be slow and gentle. And Megan was right there with him, tugging his head down, bringing his mouth back over hers, and kissing him with all the rough passion he was unleashing on her body.

Perfect.

She was perfect.

On the other side of the storm, they panted in each other’s arms and he licked across her sweat-dampened shoulder. Rolling over with her in his arms, she laid her head in the crook of his shoulder, wrapped her arms around him, and, almost instantly, he felt her muscles go lax as she fell asleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Morning had always been Megan’s favorite time of day. When she used to go into an office, rather than working from home, she had been the annoyingly cheerful person on Monday morning. But waking up in bed with a warm male body wrapped around her was a whole different kind of good morning.

Last night when she’d given in to her desire, she’d known that they could only have one wild night. But even though the first rays of light were starting to peek in under the curtains, it was still dark enough in the room that she could let herself pretend they were still in the midst of their forbidden night together. So when Gabe stirred against her, his erection hot and hard against her bottom, she refused to let herself come fully awake.

Megan had never been a vixen, had never been the kind of woman who would wake a man up in the middle of the night to have him one more time...but nothing that had happened with Gabe so far had fallen under the “normal” category. And until the day really and truly began, weren’t all rules still off?

Including the ones that said she shouldn’t slowly turn in his arms and press a kiss to his chin?

Her heart was beating hard enough that she was certain if he were awake, he would feel it beating through from her skin to his.

When Gabe didn’t stir at her soft kiss, she wondered if she’d imagined him pulling her closer into his hips a few seconds earlier. Had he just been moving in his sleep? And, if so, was she bold enough to make the first move like this? To take what she wanted, what she needed, one more time before shutting down those desires forever?

She pressed her mouth a little lower, just below his chin, against the dark bristle of stubble right where his pulse throbbed against his skin. She tasted that pulse with the tip of her tongue, then had to follow that up with several more little licks at his collarbone and then over the shoulder that was raised up off the bed where his arm was curving over her.

Each soft kiss, each stroke of her tongue against his warmth, made her bolder.

Last night there’d been too many sensations to hold on to. The sheer shock of being intimate with Gabe had been more than enough for her to deal with and she hadn’t been able to explore him nearly enough. Now, she took that chance, and as she slid her hand up to press the muscles of his chest, she shifted away just enough to see how small her splayed fingers looked across his broad chest.

She’d often heard woman giggle about firefighters, dreaming about what they wanted to do with them. But Megan had gotten married so young she hadn’t ever really had time to build up those kinds of fantasies. And then after David had died, she hadn’t let herself think about firefighters or cops or SEALs like that.

Oh, but if she had, she thought with a small smile of pleasure that she didn’t bother to contain while Gabe still slept, she would have been dreaming of a man just like this. Big and beautiful and utterly committed to wringing every ounce of pleasure from her.

Pleasure that was only growing with every moment she stole in his arms as her hands roved gently lower.

Megan was so lost to the glory of her explorations of Gabe’s body that she was caught utterly unaware as he suddenly shifted and rolled her onto her back. She lost her breath as he came over her, one of his strong thighs between hers, his eyes clear and perfectly awake as he stared down at her.

“You were awake the whole time,” she accused when she could get her voice back.

“I am now,” he said, and then his mouth was over her breasts and he was using his big hands to push them together so he could lave both nipples at once.

She could feel his erection hard and throbbing against her thigh, knew he had to feel how wet, how ready, she was. She’d never woken up like this, ravished before breakfast by a man who stole away not only her breath, but every rational thought she’d ever had, completely. All that remained between them was the slow move of skin against skin, the caress of each other’s hands against sensitive flesh, the press of their mouths against whatever they could reach, whatever they could taste.

Megan wanted this final lovemaking to go on forever. She wanted to make sure that she could remember every touch, every moan of desire, every gasp of pleasure for later, when she was alone again. But everything they’d done in the dark, the slow seduction, the naughty risk of doing what he’d asked her to do, only fueled her need for more. As if they were of like mind, in unison, they shifted so that both of her thighs were around his. But then, just when she thought he was going to take her, brand her as his, he was moving them both so that he was on the bottom.

Moments later, she was sitting up on top of him, high enough out of the covers that she could see the sunlight streaming in earnest, the night before nothing but a distant memory.

She shut her eyes tight, not wanting the real world to intrude on her fantasy come to life. Just a few more minutes. That’s all she was asking for.

Fortunately, she didn’t need her eyes to be open to shift into place over Gabe’s erection, which was the only possible thing she could wrap her brain around at present.