Craig’s hands rested on my waist for a moment before sliding down over my hips. He caressed me, almost in a reassuring, comforting way. And then he slowly pulled the zipper on my skirt down. The material clung tightly to my body so he had to guide its release, his hot breath scattering over my bottom and the backs of my legs. I tingled with need. I stepped out of the skirt and Craig turned me to face him.

I lifted my gaze to his and felt that power overwhelm me again at his expression. His eyes blazed, and his jaw was set with need and determination. Yet despite the fierceness of his countenance he was physically gentle and patient. Eyes still on mine, he plucked at the buttons on my shirt, unhurriedly, one by one, until my chest was heaving with my labored, excited breaths. Craig eased the shirt open, his fingertips teasing my skin as he nudged it off my shoulders with excruciating slowness. It dropped to the floor on top of my skirt.

Craig’s eyes traveled downward as his fingertips trailed back up my arms, across my collarbone, and down toward the rise of my breasts. He followed the rise, goose bumps prickling my skin in the wake of his touch. My breasts swelled and my nipples peaked with anticipation.

“Craig,” I murmured hoarsely.

In answer to my needy plea he gripped my hips, gently pulling me against him so I could feel the hard rigid length of his arousal.

“Take your hair down,” he said, voice thick and low.

“Craig.” His words for some bizarre reason intensified my need, slickening the heat between my thighs. I reached up with trembling fingers and began to pull the pins out of my hair. I let the pins fall to the floor as my hair fell in waves around my face.

“Fuck,” he breathed reverently as he cupped my face in his hands. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Do you believe me?”

Perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps I should have hardened myself against his compliment, but there was a ferocious sincerity in his eyes—like he needed me to believe him.

“I believe you,” I whispered.

His thank-you was a slow, sexy kiss that had me swaying in my heels.

His hands moved to my hips and cool air whispered between us as he stepped back a little to discover me.

And discover me he did.

With light strokes he learned every inch of me with his touch—my ribs, my waist, my belly, my bottom, my thighs, the backs of my knees . . . The tormenting gentleness of his hands only increased my anticipation and arousal.

And then he unhooked my bra, nudging the straps down my arms so it fell silently to the floor. Craig’s eyes darkened as he stared at my naked breasts, watching my nipples pucker into tight needy buds.

“So fucking stunning,” he murmured hoarsely as he reached up and cupped them.

I moaned and arched into his touch. Ripples of desire undulated low in my belly as he played with my breasts, sculpting and kneading them, stroking and pinching my nipples. I thrust into his touch, whimpering my need for him.

Unable to take any more without tasting him I slid my hands around his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine. I immediately parted my lips, inviting his tongue inside. He kissed me roughly, groaning as he pinched both my nipples. I gasped and his growl of satisfaction made me flush with pleasure. I was so wet. I couldn’t remember ever being this ready before. As if he’d read my mind, Craig coasted his hand down my stomach and over my knickers. He rubbed his fingers over them and broke the kiss when he discovered they were soaked with my arousal.

“Darlin’, you’re so fucking wet.” He nipped at my lips. He slipped his fingers beneath the silk of my underwear and rubbed his thumb over my clit.

“Oh God.” My head fell back, my arms gripping tight to his biceps as I undulated against his touch. “Craig . . .” The plea fell from my lips before I could stop it. Our gazes locked as the pressure inside of me began to build.

“Darlin’,” he breathed, watching me reach for it. “I knew you were fucking magnificent.”

At that I shattered. “Craig!”

Suddenly I was swept up off my feet as Craig lifted me into his arms and carried me to my bed. He hooked his fingers into my knickers and I tilted my hips to help him ease them from my body. He discarded them on the floor and stood staring down at me spread out on my bed. That awesome feeling of power returned as his hungry gaze devoured me.

His erection strained against the zipper of his jeans and I was suddenly really rather desperate to see him naked too. But instead of divesting himself of his clothes, Craig trailed his fingers across the tops of my feet, around my ankles, taking a slow, sensuous journey up my legs. He reached my knees and looked up at me.

“Open up,” his deep voice rumbled.

Oh my holy orgasm.

I did as he asked and melted into the mattress in anticipation as he nuzzled his mouth against my sex. He licked my clit, pressed his tongue down on it, and sensation blew through me. And then he slipped two fingers inside of me and the tension began to climb to the heights. “Oh my holy . . .” Orgasm! I arched back on the bed, my inner thighs trembling. “Yes!” The tension inside of me snapped and I came in hard pulses against his mouth.

I both heard and felt Craig’s satisfied chuckle against my inner thigh before he began pressing kisses up over my belly. He fell between my open legs, and the friction of his jeans against my skin felt more erotic than I could ever have imagined. My thighs tightened against his hips when his lips closed around my nipple. He sucked deep, hard, a pleasurable pain rushing through me as he moved against me. As he had done with his hands he began to play my breasts with his hot mouth until I was on the brink of coming undone all over again. He began to move his hips into mine, his jeans-clad hard-on catching my clit as he thrust against me.

“Oh God,” I whimpered, my fingers digging into his back. I was in sensory overload. “Come inside me.”

“Fuck,” he grunted and suddenly there was cold air wafting over my skin as Craig sat up. The bed moved as he clambered off it with far less patience than he’d just been showing. Apparently he’d pushed himself too far. My fingers curled into my duvet, tightening into the fabric as he was revealed to me. Broad, muscled shoulders and arms and well-defined abs that reinforced my original suspicion that he visited the gym regularly. No man just naturally looked that freaking good.

And then his jeans were gone and my mouth fell open on a pant.

He had the most perfect dick I’d ever seen. Now, they weren’t the most attractive things to look at, but what they could do to a woman was. And the idea of what Craig’s long, thick dick was possibly capable of had me practically drooling. I watched him grab a condom out of his pocket and roll it up his long length.

I drew my gaze up from his throbbing erection and he grinned and winked at me like the cocky son of a bitch he was. Surprisingly it only amused me.

Seeing my smile, that smugness in his expression turned to heated tenderness and he put a knee to the bed. His hands curled behind my knees and I gasped in surprise as he pulled me toward him. Angling my hips, gripping tight to my thighs, he held my legs open as he kneeled between them. I let out a moan as he nudged against me and then pushed inside. My slick wetness eased his way and I grabbed purchase on his biceps as I tilted my hips.

Craig’s jaw grew taut as our gazes locked. “Fuck,” he uttered as he plunged deeper.