But there was no hurry, just a slow, languorous inspection of her body as he took off her clothes.

He grabbed her hand and drew her up to stand. She thought he’d lead them to the bedroom, but all he did was turn her around.

“Your back is this beautiful canvas of soft, creamy skin, Chelsea,” he said. “Do you know how much I’ve thought about getting you undressed and touching you?”

She’d had no idea. But she loved his hands on her.

He swept her hair to the side and put his mouth on the nape of her neck, kissing his way along her shoulder and using his hands to map the skin of her back. When he cupped her butt, she laid her head on his shoulder.

“I like your hands.”

“You’re going to like them a lot more when I make you come.” He swept his hand around, teasing her stomach and the rim of her underwear with his fingers. When he tucked his hand inside her panties and cupped her sex, she gasped, arched, her body damp with need and desire.

She shuddered. This was what she needed. This was what she came for. To be touched by Bash, to delve into this mind-numbing response. She’d danced around him for years, watching him date all the wrong women.

She wasn’t the right woman for him, either. They weren’t right for each other.

But tonight she was his, and she intended to take everything he offered.

And what he offered was pure, unadulterated erotic bliss. His fingers slipping inside of her while his other hand caressed her breasts. His hard body rocking against her. His mouth on her neck making her tingle all over. It was sensory overload in the best possible way. And as Bash whispered in her ear, dark words coaxing her to give in, she was connected to him in ways she had never imagined.

She climaxed in a wild rush of quivering sensation, grasping his wrist to hold his fingers in place while she rode the wildly out-of-control pulses that threatened to drop her to the floor. But Bash was right there, continuing to hold her, caress her, and murmur dark, sexy words to her until she finally settled and found some semblance of calm.

Then he turned her around and claimed possession of her mouth in a wild, passionate kiss that took that calm and shattered it. She wound her arms around his neck and held on, diving deep into the pleasure he gave her, the crazy lust he’d awakened inside of her.

This was just the beginning, and she wanted so much more.

Chapter 20

Bash had barely touched on the flame burning deep inside Chelsea. She was a carefully banked fire and he intended to ignite her into an inferno tonight.

As he kissed her, he could feel the tightly coiled passion she held in check. Even after one orgasm, he knew she had more. He wanted to give her more. He also wanted all of her for himself. Selfish, he knew, but if she hadn’t found some guy to release that tension, then he intended to benefit.

He pulled away and looked into her eyes. Fiery green, and yeah, there was that fire.

He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Pretty mouth. Sassy mouth. I like the things that come out of it when you talk.”

Her lips curved. “I can do a lot more with this mouth.”

His cock tightened. “Yeah, I’ll just bet you can. Come on. I need to stretch you out on my bed and get you naked.”

After a quick search for Lou, who he found in the kitchen next to the island, asleep on the kitchen towel that she’d pulled off the cabinet door, he led Chelsea down the hall and into his bedroom.

It wasn’t a fancy room, but he wasn’t a fancy guy. He had a king-sized bed, because he liked to sprawl. There was a dresser, and enough room for him to walk around in there. That was pretty much it.

He yanked the comforter down to the end of the bed, and Chelsea sat on the edge of the bed.

“No, that’s not good enough,” he said, then used his hand to give her shoulder a gentle push. “Lie down in the center of the bed.”

She did, and he shrugged out of his sweats and underwear.

She was up on her elbows eyeing him when he came back to the bed.

“You have one hell of a body, Bash,” she said.

He grinned. “Thanks. So do you.”

He grasped her panties and pulled them down her legs, shaking his head in awe at the thatch of red hair covering her sex.

So damn sexy. So hot. And he was so damn hard and eager to be inside of her, but he knew she was picky about men, and she’d chosen him. So he was going to take this slow. Make it good for her. They had all night. And, because he’d bargained with her, they had all day tomorrow, too.

He was going to need it, because he wanted a lot of time with her. Chelsea was not a one-time-only kind of woman. Or maybe he just wanted more than once with her. He knew he was only going to have tonight—and tomorrow. He was going to make good use of his time with her.

He stood at the edge of the bed and grasped her ankles, absorbing the soft, silken feel of her skin under his work-roughened hands before sliding them up her legs, memorizing the feel of her strong calves, her sweet thighs, spreading her open.

He sucked in a breath at how beautiful, how utterly sexy she was. He pulled her legs forward, letting them dangle over the bed, then dropped to his knees and draped those gorgeous legs over his shoulders so he could align her sweet sex with his mouth.

Chelsea rose up on her elbows again to watch him. He liked that she was bold, that she wanted to see what he was doing. He put his mouth on her, breathing her in as he took a long, slow swipe of her sex. The sounds she made told him he was in the right place, so he followed the map of her responses.

Chelsea was vocal about what she liked and where she wanted him, which not only drove him crazy with lust—it also helped him spiral her up. She had her hand in his hair, her hips working overtime arching into him.