He slid one hand over her stomach down to the slick flesh between her legs. “I love touching you,” he murmured against her mouth. “I’ve never felt anything so hot, so soft, so perfect.”

“I love it, too,” she gasped as she moved herself back and forth over his hand, her breath coming faster with every push of her hips against him. She had her arms wound around his neck and was holding onto him so tightly that he could feel her heart pound faster and faster as she rose higher, then higher still.

When she pulled her mouth from his, and threw her head back so that she could arch her hips closer to his hand, he had to taste her breasts, had to draw her nipples in between his lips to taste first one, then the other. Her cries of pleasure echoed against the tiled walls of the bathroom.

Moving his free hand to the nape of her neck, he threaded his fingers into the wet tangle of her hair. “Open your eyes, sweetheart.” She blinked once, twice, before she was able to focus. “I want to watch you come. Let me see you. I need to see you.”

As if his request, and his desperate need, had flipped a switch inside her, a heartbeat later she was climaxing...and what he saw in her eyes, and in her expression that held back nothing at all from him, touched Ian in a way nothing else ever had.

Not only pleasure, not just arousal, but a depth of emotion that had him wishing, harder than he’d ever wished for anything in his life, that he was capable of loving Tatiana the way she deserved to be loved.

But it was the sweet and trusting smile she gave him even before she’d come down from her orgasm that nearly broke him. He’d already made the mistake of stealing her innocence. He couldn’t make it even worse by making her promises he’d never be able to keep.

Lifting her out of the tub, he carefully wrapped her in a towel, and as he picked her up to carry her back to his bed, she said, “I’m ready for you to show me slow and sweet now, Ian.” She kissed him softly, just the barest brush of her lips against his, before whispering, “Although if you want to know the truth, I’m ready for fast and hard again, too.”

His hands shook as he gently laid her on the bed, the towel falling open to reveal one perfect breast and a long length of leg. He’d been little better than an animal their first time. So no matter how hard it was to hold back a little longer, her pleasure mattered more than anything else.

She seemed to believe he’d given her enough orgasms already. But she was wrong. If he showed her nothing else before the night was over, he hoped she’d come away knowing just how much pleasure she deserved.

“Not yet,” he murmured against her skin as he moved over her to press a kiss to the underside of her breast.

“Please,” she begged when he slid her towel the rest of the way off so that he could run kisses over her rib cage and stomach.

“We’re almost there,” he promised, nipping lightly at her hipbone, then gently putting his hands on her thighs to push them open. “But not quite.” Lord, she smelled good, and for a few moments he just enjoyed looking, just let himself breathe in her heady scent.

“Ian.” There was a faint hum of panic in the way she said his name as she looked down at how open she was to him, and then at him, clearly poised to put his mouth on her. “I promised I’d tell you if I hadn’t done something bef—”

Her confession of further innocence fell away as he licked a wet, heated path over her aroused flesh.

“Now,” he told her, “you’ve done it.”

Just as quickly as she’d taken to everything else they’d done, she was instantly lifting her hips back to his mouth for more. Wanting to oblige her every sensual wish, he cupped her hips in his hands and drew her closer. He loved her taste on his tongue, loved the way she gave herself over so completely to him every single time, loved the thrill of knowing he was driving her back up to the peak again.

He knew the instant her orgasm started to roll over and through her, when on a low moan of pleasure, she gripped his hair in her hands hard enough to make absolutely sure that he wouldn’t take his lips and tongue away. Of course, there was nowhere he’d rather be than taking her up and over another crashing climax.

She was still trembling from the force of it when he moved on to his back and tugged her over him so that she was straddling him. “You’ll control everything this way,” he explained as he reached for another condom. He was just ripping the package open when she took it from him.

“This is another thing I haven’t done.” She shifted slightly so that she could look down at his erection. She reached for him with one hand, gripping the base of his shaft to hold him steady while she slowly unrolled the condom over his tip with the other. “How am I doing?”

He was gritting his teeth so hard in his attempts at control that he could barely tell her, “So good that I might not last until you’ve got it all the way on.”

Clearly delighted with the effect she had on him, the sweet sound of her laughter filled his bedroom. He was so struck by the beauty of it that it took him a few too many seconds to realize she’d moved again so that she was levered right over him.

She moved her hips over his in just the right way to make his eyes roll back in his head, and when she laughed again, the sound was utterly sensual, and full of newfound female power...and pleasure, too.

“You know what? I think I like being in control.”

And though it just might kill him the way she took him into her one slow, torturous inch at a time, Ian liked it, too. Loved it.

Her eyes closed as she lowered herself onto him, savoring the moment as though she wanted it to last forever, and though he did, too, in the end his primal need to have her couldn’t be denied any longer.

Gripping her hips hard enough that she’d likely have marks on her skin the next day, Ian held Tatiana right where he wanted her, then thrust hard into her. She gasped as he drove deep, but he knew this time that it was pleasure rather than pain that had her pushing just as hard down over him.

“It’s so good, Ian. So, so good.”

She was practically sobbing the words as she braced her hands flat on his chest and rode him, the muscles in her thighs working hard to lift her body up, then back down, over him. Her breasts bounced, tempting him, teasing him, until he had to cup them in his hands and stroke both nipples together with his tongue.

She moved her hands from his chest to thread her fingers into his hair and tug his mouth even closer, and when the new position took him even deeper, her body eagerly opened for every last inch of him. “More. Please, Ian. I need more.”

Again and again, with words and her body, she begged him to take every last part of her...and that was exactly what he did, until they both climaxed together in a wild combination of kisses and gasps and hands that couldn’t get enough.

* * *

A short while later, Tatiana was wrapped up in his arms beneath the covers, her back to his front. He stroked her hair and breathed her in...and worked like hell not to give in to saying something in the aftermath of the moment that he wouldn’t be able to stand by come morning.

Soon, thankfully, her heartbeat slowed, and she was nestling her hips back into his and pulling his arm more tightly across her chest, holding his hand over her heart.

Ian hadn’t thought he’d be able to sleep, but Tatiana felt so right in his arms that he was nearly under himself when he thought he heard her say I love you.

But when he came, instantly, fully awake again, and waited for her to say more, she was fast asleep, breathing so soundly, so serenely, that he decided he must have been dreaming.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Tatiana woke to an empty bed, but Ian’s scent still lingered so she closed her eyes and smiled as she breathed him in.

Last night had been incredible, surpassing any dreams she’d had of what lovemaking might be like by miles. No character she’d ever played or movie she’d ever watched could have prepared her for just how amazing it was to be intimate with the man she loved. The wonder of Ian’s body. The tantalizing way he stroked and caressed her. His hardness to her softness. Every whisper, every sensual command, every look of pleasure and satisfaction in his eyes, had stolen more and more of her heart. Every time she thought she’d experienced the peak of pleasure, Ian had continually found a way to take her even higher, and then higher still.

While shadowing him, she’d thought more than once that he was superhuman, both with regards to his drive and the way he obviously thrived on his intense workload. Now, she thought with a naughty little grin, she knew that he had just as much stamina in bed, too. And, oh how she’d thrived on it…

She knew most people would think it was crazy for her to wait this long to give up her virginity. But she’d been perfectly right to wait for Ian. Not only because she was head over heels in love with him—but because, she thought with another smile that felt wonderfully wicked and wanton on her lips, there was no way any other man could possibly compare between the sheets.

Smelling coffee, she slowly pushed back the covers and slid over to the side of the bed. In the sunlight that streamed in through his bedroom windows, she was more than a little shocked to see faint red marks on her hips. She blushed as she realized Ian had marked her in his passion, with the firm grip of his hands on her hips as he drove her over the edge of bliss again and again.

“I know I should be gentle with you, but all I can think about is how badly I still want you.” Tatiana shivered as she remembered his heated words, and her own heated response: “Then take me again.”

And oh, how he’d taken her. Rough, then sweet. Fierce, then tender. Then hard, fast, and wild again. All the while, even when he’d already pushed her body far past the limits of pleasure that she’d believed she could handle, she’d begged him for more, more, more in a blur of need and desire.

And, most of all, love.

Wanting nothing more than to be near him again, to see the way his dark eyes became even more intense whenever he looked at her, she looked around for her clothes. And then she remembered: Ian had shredded not only her dress, but her panties as well when he’d torn them off her.

She had to laugh, then, at the beautiful madness that had come over both of them yesterday. And thank God it had, because she couldn’t imagine feeling this way all by herself. Besides, she’d seen enough relationships on set to know that crazy only worked when it went in both directions.

She opened Ian’s closet and took one of his long-sleeved, blue striped shirts off the hanger. Wrapping her naked body in it, she breathed in his familiar scent as she rolled up first one too-long sleeve and then the other. Seeing his collection of ties, she decided the one she’d yanked off him the night before would be the perfect way to cap off her impromptu outfit. She headed into his home office, found his tie near the door, then quickly wrapped it around her waist.

Barefoot, she walked into Ian’s open living room and kitchen. She should have known better than to expect all wealthy businessmen to live the same way, but in the morning light she was surprised all over again at just how normal it was. All of the finishes and furnishings were of spectacular quality, of course, and the view from the penthouse had to be one of the best in all of the Pacific Northwest. But where most other men with his wealth would have owned ten thousand square feet or more just because they could have anything they wanted, she guessed his home was maybe a third that size. Probably, she figured, because he had the foundation of a great family to guide him.

Ian’s back was to her as he poured a cup of coffee and she had to stop for a moment at what a gorgeous sight he was in his well-tailored suit pants and starched shirt. Knowing exactly how broad his shoulders were beneath his clothes, and the way the muscles in his arms and thighs flexed as he levered over her and thrust deep, then deeper still, simply stole her breath away.

That was how he found her, standing and staring at him as if she could hardly believe he was real. Looking at his beautiful face, Tatiana knew she’d never been happier than she was just then as she smiled at him from across the room.