“I want you,” she said, answering his unspoken question.

“Be sure, Darcy. A few minutes ago you wanted to kick my ass.”

“I still want to kick your ass.”

He smiled. “And?”

“And … up until a few minutes ago I didn’t know we had the serious hots for each other.”

His hands skimmed down to cup her ass and rock her against a most impressive erection. “Liar.”

“Okay, so up until a few minutes ago I was pretending I didn’t know we had the hots for each other.”

“You’re as bad a pretender as you are a liar,” he said.

“You really going to piss me off right now?”

He laughed low in his throat and it was an incredibly sexy sound. “I think it’s a safe bet to say yes,” he said. “Yes, I’m going to piss you off. It’s what I do best.”

Brushing her mouth along his delicious rough jaw, she whispered, “Surely there are some other things you do even better.”

He let out a slow, sure smile, and on the menu of AJ smiles it was the appetizer and the main entrée and the dessert all in one. “As a matter of fact, there are,” he said, toppling her to her back on the bed and coming down over the top of her.

Eighteen

AJ wasn’t surprised when Darcy rolled them both across the bed so that she was on top, braced above him on her arms, smiling triumphantly into his face. He wanted to yank her down and crush his mouth to hers, but she looked so sexy bending low to give him little nibbles here and there. Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, he fisted his hands in her hair and held her still.

“Careful,” he said. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“I’m not hurting right now.”

“Let’s keep it that way.”

Breath warm against his face, she sighed, slowly rocking her hips against his, ripping a groan from him as he let her tease both herself and him. When her robe slipped open, giving him peekaboo hints of her gorgeous body, he swore roughly. “Kiss me.”

Breathing labored but clearly pleased with herself, she flashed him a smile as her hands slid up his shoulders. One curled around the back of his neck to hold him to her as she slowly, finally, deepened the kiss, giving him her mouth.

He let her dictate the pace for as long as he could take it, which wasn’t all that long. Needing her under him, naked, buck wild with his name on her lips, he took over, rolling them again, pinning her to the bed.

“Hmm,” she said, sounding like she might be pleased.

Entangling his hands in hers, he pulled them up over her head. “Wrap your legs around me.”

“Feeling dominant?” she murmured, even as she did what he’d asked and wrapped her mile-long legs around his hips.

He nipped her lower lip. “Feeling something,” he said, and kissed her hard, letting himself get more than a little lost in her. He’d never get over the shock of this, how fast she could wind him up and take him to a place he hadn’t been in a damned long time.

If ever.

When they were both breathless he lifted his mouth a fraction of an inch and stared down at her, assessing, making sure she wasn’t hurting, that she was still into this. One never knew with Darcy. She could be over it. She could be pissed off. She could be anything.

Definitely she wasn’t hurting. Her eyes were glazed, her mouth slightly open as if she needed it that way just to drag air into her lungs.

Just as aroused and shocked as he, he saw, and felt slightly mollified.

Again he lowered his mouth to hers, wanting inside her, wanting a hell of a lot more than that, too. He wanted to possess her heart, body, and soul … Pretty fucking terrifying considering that she didn’t tend to do heart, body, and soul for anyone.

“AJ.” That was it, just his name as she tore at the shirt he’d thrown on to chase her back to her room, pulling it out of where it had been half tucked into his sweatpants.

Her hands were icy on his hot skin. “Cold?” he asked.

“No.” She let out a low laugh. “Nervous.”

And hell if that didn’t turn him on all the more. He smiled down at her. “Cute,” he said, using the same adjective she’d used for him.

She snorted while her hands were very busy trying to get into his sweats. He liked where this was going, a lot. To help her get there, he pulled off his shirt and skimmed his hands down the front of her robe to jerk it open.

“Damn,” he said. “You’re beautiful.”

She flushed. It was the sweetest, hottest thing. “You’ve seen it all before. You—” She broke off on a shuddering moan when he lowered his mouth to a breast, and then again when he sucked on the tight tip, trapping it against his tongue.

Beneath him she wriggled and panted. Music to his ears. Palming her thighs, he pressed them open and slid down until he was at eye level with heaven on earth.

“AJ—” she choked out.

“So beautiful,” he said, and slipped his hands beneath her, cupping her ass, holding her still for him.

She cried out with the first stroke of his tongue, but he wouldn’t let her rush him, not now that he finally had her right as he’d been fantasizing about. He’d had a great time in those fantasies—and there’d been many—but not a single one compared to Darcy in the flesh. Taking his time, he gave her a taste of her own medicine, teasing her until it was her turn to swear at him. He licked and sucked while she writhed helplessly against his mouth.