Something warm entered Rhys’s gaze until his shoulders slumped. He nodded, his voice hoarse. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll talk to Dean.”

That ache, the pleasurable kind I’d felt in my chest earlier, spread through me again. Tenderness filled me. I stood from my seat and walked slowly toward Rhys on the bed.

That warmth in his expression turned to heat as I pushed between his legs to curl my hands around his neck. He reached for me, his fingers flexing on my waist as he pulled me close.

“Had a shitty night, Tink,” he said, his voice low. “You interested in making it better?”

A shiver tingled down my spine as I felt a familiar tug of need low in my belly. I brushed my thumbs along the bristle of his cheeks and leaned in to whisper against his mouth, “I’m interested in making it phenomenal.”

He grinned, his eyes dancing. He slid a hand under my shirt, and I trembled a little, undermining my verbal cockiness. “Big talk, sweetheart.”

“You don’t think I can make your night phenomenal?”

Rhys deftly unclipped my bra and my eyes widened. His grin softened to a sensual smile. “I was exhausted when I walked in this door. But all you have to do”—he slipped his hands out of my shirt to grasp the hem—“is press that gorgeous little body of yours to mine”—he drew the shirt up over my head, and I raised my arms to help him—“and I’m harder …” Rhys paused as he watched me lower the straps of my bra. Nervousness filled me as I bared myself to him.

I wasn’t voluptuous.

Not at all.

I worried for about a millisecond that I wasn’t enough. Only a millisecond because Rhys literally growled under his breath as he stared at my breasts. His eyes dragged back up to meet mine as his hands coasted up my sides. “The last time I was this hard, I was a fucking teenager, so my night is already phenomenal, sweetheart.”

I gasped as he cupped my small breasts in his big hands, shivering against the delicious rough calluses on his palms, moaning as his thumbs caught my nipples. “Rhys.”

Seconds later I was in very real danger of turning into a melted puddle as Rhys tugged me toward him so he could wrap his hot mouth around my left nipple.

Pleasure zinged straight between my legs. I clasped my hand behind his head, writhing against him as he lavished worshipful attention upon my breasts. Swollen, needy, I sighed as he trailed hot kisses up toward my neck. I bent to him, offering my mouth, which he took with a voraciousness that shattered my control.

“Too many clothes,” I gasped against his mouth, pushing at his shoulders.

I felt him chuckle against me, and then I let out a squeal of delight as I suddenly found myself on my back on the bed.

Rhys’s eyes burned with a desire that rocked me as he reached for the top button on my jeans. “You first,” he demanded, gruff with impatience.

Shimmying my hips, I aided him as he yanked my jeans down my legs. Once he’d discarded them, his eyes held mine as he reached for my underwear. My breath caught as his fingers curled around them. Sensing he was waiting for permission, I attempted not to smile at the sweetness of the gesture and nodded. He pulled them slowly down my legs, eyes locked on mine, until I was so beyond ready, a whimper escaped me.

Rhys drank his fill as I laid out on the bed for him. I bit my lip, my nipples tightening as anticipation rippled through me.

“Fuck,” Rhys choked out. “Fuck, Parker, how can anyone be so beautiful?”

His tender words caused a burn of emotion in my throat and suddenly, I was no longer concerned about comparing myself to the other women Rhys had been with.

This was so much more than that.

For both of us.

I just knew it.

Something seemed to snap in Rhys as he divested himself of his clothes much faster than he’d divested me of mine. I watched him in awe, studying the light and shade of his beautiful body. I’d never been with anyone like him before. I’d always thought I’d be intimidated because he was so much bigger than me … but I was excited by the idea of being covered by him, wrapped up in all that sleek hardness. My brutish boxer with his gigantic heart and secretly gentle soul.

My eyes explored him, moving down his roped abs to—

Oh my.

I swallowed hard as I watched him tear open a condom wrapper. He rolled it on and as he did so, I grew wary over his size.

“Do you think that’ll fit?” I blurted out.

Rhys blinked as my words penetrated, and then he grinned through a groan as he moved onto the bed. “We’ll make it fit.”

“Um …” My gaze was locked on him, hard and very, very big. Not just long but the girth … oh my. “Rhys, seriously … I am very small, and you are very big.” He crawled over me and my legs automatically spread to accommodate him. “You can’t fit a large object into a tiny immovable hole—it’s physically impossible. That’s a scientific fact.”