“What about sex in a public place?”

Sweet, nice Sophie Sullivan smiled at him. “Define public.”

Jake sucked in a hard breath, feeling like he’d just been punched—repeatedly—in the gut. Still, he had to try one more time, one last-ditch effort to make Sophie see what a mistake she was making with him.

“Okay,” he said as easily as he could between clenched teeth, “so you’ve played around a little bit. But you and I both know what a guy like me needs isn’t something a girl like you wants to give.”

“Wanna bet?”

The last thing he expected was for her to throw the same words back at him that he’d said before he grabbed her and kissed her. He shouldn’t want to do it again, shouldn’t be a heartbeat away from shoving her up against the front door and ripping off that silky dress so that he could make good on showing her he meant every word he’d just said.

“I’m not a soft, gentle lover like the guys you’ve been with before. You make the mistake of taking one step inside this house,” he warned her in a hard voice, “there’s no going back.”

As if in slow motion, Jake watched as Sophie reached for the doorknob, turned it, and took that fated step into the house. He was paralyzed, couldn’t do anything but stare at her as she moved further into the house, her hips swaying with every step she took. When she reached the living room, while still in full line of sight from the front step, she paused for a moment before turning around to face him.

Her face held hope, desire—and something that looked too much like love—as she reached for the zipper on the side of her dress and began to pull it down.

No.

God, no.

He needed to put a stop to this right now. But instead of barking out an order to stop acting crazy, instead of turning away as if he didn’t care one way or another if she undressed in front of him, he was struck stupid yet again. It was as if she’d cast a spell over him, one he couldn’t break if it meant he missed one single second of her shockingly gorgeous unveiling.

He’d guessed earlier she wasn’t wearing anything under the dress, but he hadn’t ever expected to confirm it in person. In seconds, the dress would fall and he wouldn’t have a prayer of doing the right thing.

“Sophie,” he said, her name a ragged plea from his lips.

A plea to stop...and a plea to let him finally see all of her.

A plea to leave...and a plea for her to promise she’d never, ever give up on him, no matter what happened.

The zipper came all the way down and she held the dress in place with steady hands. Her eyes were huge, but he didn’t see fear, didn’t see nerves in them.

Only anticipation.

And a desire strong enough to match the lust eating him up from the inside.

A moment later, she let her dress drop to the wood planked floor, and stood before him wearing nothing but a pair of pink heels.

“I’m yours, Jake.”

Chapter Eight

“Holy hell, you’re beautiful.”

Jake’s words took the chill away from her naked skin just moments before the front door was slamming shut and she was in his arms. His mouth covered hers, taking, claiming, branding her with a kiss that blew every other kiss away. His hands cupped her hips and as the kiss spiraled more and more out of control he dragged her naked body into his. He trapped her legs between his spread thighs, the thick bulge behind his zipper throbbing and pulsing against her belly.

She wanted to touch him everywhere, wanted proof that this moment was real and not just a dream she was going to wake up from, frustrated and alone. He was holding her so tightly against him that her forearms were pressed up against his rock-hard chest, but she could splay her hands against him, could rub the pads of her fingers over his chest through the fine cotton of his dress shirt.

But it wasn’t enough for her. Sophie was desperate for more of him, for more of this kiss and the chance to slide her hands up over his shoulders, up his neck, to cup the planes of his beautiful face. When he began to rain kisses over her cheeks, her chin, and then into the hollow of her neck, she threaded her fingers into his hair, then arched her head back and pressed her breasts harder into his chest as he pressed kisses to her skin.

And then—oh God, how long had she waited for this moment?—she felt his mouth move lower, and lower still, until his tongue curled over the tip of one breast.

She’d never felt anything like this, had never known what it was to step inside a bolt of lightning and become light and flames. The explosions started deep in her belly, down low where everything was throbbing with arousal, waiting for Jake’s savage possession.

She gasped his name and he answered her by moving one of his hands from her hip to cup and tease the other breast, just as he slid his other hand over her sex. She dropped her gaze down to his dark head, only to find that he was looking up at her, too, and in that instant that their gazes connected, Sophie lost hold of the thin thread that had been holding her together.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she came apart against him, her hips instinctively rocking into his hand as she rode the shockingly unexpected climax. His sensual touch, the warmth of his fingers in her most intimate place even as he moved his mouth to her other breast, his stubble scratching against her chest in the most deliciously rough way, sent her spiraling off even higher, from a prelude of pleasure to an encore that came out of nowhere and seemed to just go on and on.

Her legs would have buckled if not for Jake slipping one arm beneath her knees and the other around her rib cage as he lifted her off the floor. He didn’t give her any time to think as his mouth came down over hers again, his tongue thrusting against hers. And as he carried her through the living room and down the hall, she felt so incredibly sexy, naked with only her heels on in his strong arms.

She heard him kick open a door and the next thing she knew he was lowering her onto a soft velvet bed covering. His mouth still over hers, she realized he wasn’t kissing her anymore, that he was taking her wrists in one of his large hands and lifting her arms above her head, holding them firmly in place. Holding her right where he wanted her.

She’d been bluffing out on the front steps, of course. She hadn’t ever been blindfolded, hadn’t had public sex. Not because she was afraid to do those things, but because she’d never had the right man to do them with.

Until tonight.

Until Jake.

She tried to wrap her legs around him, wanted him to take her, to make her his, but he wouldn’t let her lead, instead using his body to still hers beneath his.

Held deliciously captive beneath his strong muscles, she watched his beautiful mouth say the words, “Let me love you.” His mouth moved to her earlobe as he licked at the skin behind it before biting into the sensitive flesh. “I just want to love you.”

Love.

He wanted to love her.

Her muscles melted like butter beneath the sweet stroke of his free hand down the side of her body, from breast to waist and hips to thigh and she opened up for him again, for the sweet slide of his hand over her sex.

He raised his head to look down at her as he cupped her, his heat melding with hers until she didn’t know where she ended and he began. Sophie had to arch her hips up into his hand, searching all over again for that pleasure he’d given to her mere minutes ago.

“That’s it,” he urged her as she rocked against his hand as she tried so desperately to take herself back over that incredibly high peak. Her inner muscles clenched and pulled at his fingers as he thrust them into her, sometimes fast, sometimes excruciatingly slow.

“Please, Jake,” she begged him, the plea falling from her lips unbidden.

“Anything,” he vowed. “Anything for you.”

And then his mouth was back on her breasts oh-too-briefly before he was moving lower, kissing and biting at the skin stretched taut over her stomach. Somewhere in her head she knew what was going to happen, that he was going to put his mouth between her legs and taste her. Of course she’d fantasized about what it would be like to be with Jake so intimately, but she’d never actually believed it would happen.

His hands moved to her inner thighs, gently pushing them apart. “Show me how beautiful you are. Let me taste your sweetness.”

No one had ever talked to her like this during sex, like he was a starving man and she was a feast laid out before him.

“Beautiful.” He breathed out against her aroused flesh and a shiver took her over. “So damned beautiful.” And then he was lowering his head down, then down further still, until he was covering her, breaking her apart one slow swipe of his tongue at a time.

She should have been prepared for her climax this time, should have known it would send her reeling, should have been able to take it in and hold onto the feelings of extreme pleasure to mine later in her memories. But she didn’t have a prayer as his stubble rubbed against her folds, over her slick and damp curls. He sucked her aroused flesh between his lips and as he tugged at the incredibly sensitive ball of nerves, her limbs shook and her heart pounded so hard it nearly jumped through her ribs and skin, as she came for him. Her cry of pleasure sounded through the bedroom, the tall ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass windows echoing it back.

When the currents of pleasure finally subsided, never leaving her completely, Sophie knew a deeper exhaustion—and satisfaction—than she’d ever had in her life. Her eyes were heavy, so heavy that even as the mattress shifted beneath Jake’s weight, she couldn’t quite manage to open them to see what he was doing.

Soon, she felt the bed move again and knew he was back with her. She reached for him, her eyes still closed. But when he grabbed her hands in his and lowered his mouth to them instead of letting her touch him, she had to push her eyelids open.

The most beautiful sight in the world awaited her.

Jake was a bronzed, perfectly formed god, kneeling between her thighs, his head bowed down to her hands as if in prayer. A tattooed tail of an animal she guessed was a dragon travelled across his rib cage from his back. She’d seen the band around his arms when he’d worn short sleeves, but she’d never had the chance to appreciate the artistry that shifted and pulsed with the tightening of his muscles.

She couldn’t focus on his tattoos for very long tonight, though. Not when he was also shockingly erect, his shaft already covered with a thin layer of latex. For several moments, she couldn’t tear her eyes from it, could hardly believe anything that big could ever fit inside her.

But when he raised his gaze to hers, she was rocked by what she saw in his dark eyes. Not just desire, but something fierce.

Possessive.

“I shouldn’t do this.” Each word from his lips was raw. Broken. His face was ravaged with conflicting emotions. “But I can’t walk away this time. I have to take you, Sophie.”

“Yes,” she urged him, “take me. Now.”

He was shaking his head, but even as he did, he was letting go of her hands and moving to cup her hips to pull her closer. When he was nearly against her and she was holding her breath waiting for the precious moment when they finally became one, he stopped and gripped her hips so hard she knew she’d have bruises in the morning.

And then he thrust into her, so hard and deep that his name burst from her lips on a cry of the deepest pleasure she’d ever known. Being claimed by the only man she’d ever truly wanted, was a thousand times better than she’d ever dreamed it would be.

She reached up and put her arms around his neck to pull his face down to hers. Their mouths came together in a desperate kiss as she met him thrust for thrust.

“I love you,” Sophie whispered against his lips, causing Jake to still above her so suddenly, so sharply, the sudden shift of his body actually kicked her over the edge she’d been teetering on again since the first moment she looked up and saw him poised to take her.

“I love you so much, Jake.” She wasn’t afraid to tell him anymore. Not now that he’d shown her how he felt about her with his body, worshipped her with it. “Always,” she vowed even as waves of pleasure washed through every cell in her body.