I nodded and took off to the kitchen. I’m a chicken shit. I felt scattered, opening cupboards and peering in. My mind was distracted by him sitting half a room away. I ended up stopping to watch him. His back was to me and he was leaning over now, leafing through a magazine on the coffee table.

Why did I freak out so much?

Returning to the task at hand, I pulled out a box of crackers. Was I seriously going to make him a platter of crackers and cheese? What the hell was wrong with me? My hands were trembling, and I had to pause and breathe slowly through my mouth. I was trying to play hostess to a questionable man I hardly knew in my house at quarter to midnight. To top it all off, I couldn’t stop repeating his words in my head.

You’re incredibly beautiful. Was he blind? Or was he just a liar?

He’s blind, I decided. Had to be.

“Is everything alright?”

My body went rigid. He sounded close. Very close.

I turned my head to him. He was standing at the entrance of the kitchen, looking at me concernedly. Was he pitying me? Is that what this was about?

I threw the box of crackers down on the counter and faced him. “What do you want from me?” I asked out of frustration with my arms slightly raised. “I don’t get it. Why are you really here?”

He went still. Even his breathing slowed as he watched me with lips parted. I waited for a response, feeling like I was going mad. The man was gorgeous. He could be anywhere right now. Yet he abruptly re-entered my life and it made absolutely no sense to me!

“Do you want me gone?” he asked cautiously.

No! No! No!

“I just want to know what you want,” I replied.

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he stole my breath away with the look he was giving me. That same heat from before crackled between us; it was a connection that flowed like the particles of an electric current, the kind of charge you felt deep in your bones. Never before had I wanted someone as badly as I wanted him. Nine months of pining for a stranger I never thought I’d see again, and I was ravenous for his company. And the best part of all was I knew he felt it too.

His tongue lightly lapped his bottom lip as he stared down at my mouth, and I had a distinct idea what he was about to do.

I was right.

He took two steps forward and crashed his mouth to mine.

Chapter Six

Look at me

I stood still as Ben’s hands rested on each side of my face. He kissed me without restraint, moving his soft lips harshly against my own as though he never would have the chance to again. I shut my eyes and kissed him back with equal fervour.

My mind was mute, and my body was all feeling. My hands gripped his shirt as I angled my head up for a deeper kiss. The second I felt his tongue seeking a way in, I opened my mouth and accepted it. My body shook at the taste of him and his breathing picked up as his body pressed against mine. My back hit the kitchen counter, and his hand drifted down my neck and along the front of my body. He gripped my hip and squeezed it gently. I felt the press of his bulge against my stomach and lightly moaned into his mouth.

“I want you,” he panted against my opened mouth. “That’s why I’m here. It’s the only reason I’m here, beauty.”

I wrapped an arm around the back of his neck and kissed him deeply. I felt an ache already. The need to be touched. To be close.

His hand on my hip moved lower. His fingers trailed the hem of my dress before dipping beneath the fabric. Withdrawing from my mouth, he gave me light kisses along my jaw line and stroked the back of my thighs. I tilted my head up higher so he had access to my neck. I felt his heated kisses move lower as he lightly caressed my skin with his tongue.

“Do you like this?” he asked me.

I nodded.

“Do you want me to stop?”

I shook my head.

“What do you want?”

“You,” I puffed out, “and this.” So much more of this.

He picked me up and settled me on the kitchen counter. My legs spread apart and he stepped between them. My other hand drifted down his back and pulled him closer to me. I inched closer to the edge of the counter, seeking the friction between my legs to quench the pulsing ache that was growing there.

He rested each hand over the top of my bare thigh and kissed me, deeply and thoroughly, until I was groaning for more. My hand slowly drifted down his torso, feeling the hard muscle beneath the fabric of his shirt. It settled on the bulge in his pants. One rub and he pulled back instantly.

Panting hard, he said, “I don’t… I’m not here for that.”

I stared at him for a moment and nodded. I tried to rationalize his words and tell myself he was right. That… this was stupid. It was wrong, and we could wait –

I gripped his shirt and pulled him back to me. Fuck all that rubbish. I wanted him. So damn much, I was shaking.

Breathing hard against his mouth, I said, “My bedroom is upstairs. First door.”

He tensed and went still for a second, not even kissing back as he thought about my words. And then all at once his hands gripped the back of each thigh again. He picked me back up, and I immediately wrapped my legs around his waist. He kissed my mouth lightly on his way out of the kitchen. His chest was moving rapidly against my own as he took me up the stairs and to the first bedroom. He opened it and stepped inside.

His eyes stayed on mine as he rested my feet back on the floor. He took a step back and said, “Take your dress off. Now.”

I quickly did as he said, unzipping it from the side and letting it fall to the floor. All the while he was languidly unbuttoning his dress shirt and watching me with hooded eyes. He threw his shirt off before undoing his belt.

“Everything,” he then demanded in a hard tone, nodding his head to my bra. “Take it all off.”

I shakily unclasped my bra and slid my panties down. I’d done this song and dance many times before with guys I’d spoken less words to, but we were usually not sober.

I kept my arms to my side as I stood before him completely naked. It helped the room was dark, but the butterflies in my stomach reminded me of how long it’d been since I was with a guy. And this guy was something else. He was over six feet of sexy male goodness.

Keeping his gaze on my body, he took his clothes off at a leisurely pace. He was lean, tall, and strong. His broad shoulders were thick, his chest was wide, and his stomach was curved beautifully with pronounced abs.

He wasn’t overly muscular, but right in the middle between thick and lean. A perfect combination that made him appear all the more ripped. My eyes lapped him up and down, until I was wetting my lips and staring heatedly below his V-line.