“Well it wasn’t.”

“Tate –”

“He f**k you?” Tate asked suddenly and my head jerked again.

“Brad?” I asked back, confused.

Tate leaned in and bellowed, “Wood!”

“No!” I shouted back.

Then I was flying through the air. Literally flying through the air. I bounced once on the bed and then Tate was on top of me. He was wet, he was sweaty and his weight felt great. His mouth on mine, his tongue in my mouth felt even better.

I didn’t know what got into me. I simply ignited, all thoughts left my mind and I kissed him back, wanting, desperate, wild.

I put my hands in his shirt, shoving it up and his arms lifted, his hands going between his shoulder blades and he yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it away. I pushed off on a foot and rolled him, getting on top. I kissed him then my mouth slid through his beard, down his jaw, his neck, all the while my hands moved on him, discovering. I saw the tattoo that painted his shoulder, going up and over, down his arm and slithering down his chest. I was too into what I was doing to see what it was but I followed it and kept going until my mouth hit his nipple. Once there, I flicked it with my tongue then I sucked it between my lips.

Half a second later I was on my back and my t-shirt was going up. I lifted my arms and it was gone. Then Tate’s hand slid into my panties, right in, and I felt one of his long fingers fill me as his mouth latched onto my nipple and pulled it deep.

That felt so good, my back left the bed, arching straight into the air. My fingers slid into his damp hair and I moaned, “Tate.”

His finger slid out of me and hit the spot. His mouth sucked deeper and his finger moved and it hit me, it was coming, I knew it.

“Tate.” It was a whimper.

I lost both his mouth and hand and my eyes flew open.

“Not without me,” he growled and he was moving.

His hands grasped my panties at either side of my h*ps and tugged down. When they were gone and I felt Tate leave the bed, I got up on my elbows to see him standing at its foot. He pulled down his shorts and I saw all of him and all of it was equally beautiful in a way that knocked my ragged breath right out of me.

And all of him was hard.

He grabbed my calves and yanked them apart, then pushed them up so my knees were bent. He put a knee to the bed and moved forward, releasing one of my calves, his hand wrapped around his c**k and I felt his weight begin to hit me.

“You come with me inside you, Ace,” he gritted and then he was inside me, filling me, beautiful.

At the feel of him, so hard, making me so full, my back left the bed again. “Tate.”

He moved, driving deep, fast, hard. Our mouths attached, our tongues clashed. His hand went between us and he touched me and that was it. It hit me like a rocket and I combusted, my world exploding, taking me with it and I loved every nanosecond.

I tore my mouth from his and moaned, “Tate.”

“That’s my girl,” he murmured, still moving inside me.

I came down from the orgasm he gave me to feel his hands had spanned my hips, pulling them up to meet his thrusts and I still needed him. My legs wrapped around his h*ps and my hands roamed, my mouth trailed, my tongue tasted. Everywhere I could touch, everything I could reach. His sweat tasted great to me, his skin even better, the muscles under his sleek, slick skin felt amazing.

His hand left my hip, came between us again and my h*ps jerked.

“Honey –” I whispered against his lips.

“Hurry, baby, I’m close.”

“I don’t think I can –”

His finger rolled. “Hurry, Laurie.”

I didn’t have to hurry, he rushed me and that was that. His h*ps started thrusting harder, going deeper, his grunts mingling with my whimpers and then I came again. I wrapped him tight in my limbs and moaned into his mouth.

He drove deep once, twice, three times then four and five all the while he groaned into mine.

After, it felt like being with him on his bike. Out of mind but completely tuned into my body and I didn’t want to be anywhere but there, in my body, attuned to every inch of my skin and every inch of Tate that was on me and in me.

His face was in my neck when he murmured an intense, “Damn baby.”

I came back to my mind.

Oh my God. What had I just done?

I turned my head away and moved my hands from his hair to his shoulders, giving a feeble push.

I felt his head come up. “You light up like that all the time?”

“Get off,” I whispered.

“Or just for me?”

“Please,” I was still whispering.

“Babe,” he called and I shut my eyes tight because he sounded like he was laughing. “I’m not complainin’ but, later, I might wanna take things slow and, you ignite like that…”

“It’s been a long time,” I said quietly and with deep humiliation.

“How long? A decade?”

My head righted and I glared at him because of his joke and because I didn’t think this was funny but also because when I looked at him he was smiling. “No,” I snapped.

“Longer?” he teased.

“Over a year,” I shared but I did it angrily and with a push on his shoulders.

He pressed his h*ps into mine and I quit pushing.

His brows were up and his tone was incredulous. “Not even self-induced?”

My glare turned molten.

His head dropped but I caught his smile getting bigger before it did. I felt his nose flick my ear and then he muttered there, “You’ve touched yourself.”

“It’s not the same,” I informed him irritably.

His head came up, he looked at me and he whispered, “No, baby, it’s not.”

I decided to go on the offense. “I’ll remind you that you threw me on the bed.”

His smile got even bigger. “Yeah, Ace, a day of you cryin’ in my arms, sleepin’ in my arms, kissin’ you, feelin’ your body, smellin’ your hair, your perfume, only so much a man can take. I ran for an hour, hard, didn’t even f**kin’ warm up, it didn’t touch it. Come back, deal with that f**kwad, and you’re standin’ there, all legs and hair, wearin’ my shirt. Seriously. Only so much a man can take.”

I had to admit, all of what he said made me feel like I was sliding back out of my brain and tuning into my body, a body that felt warm and happy.