Her chest fluttered, then grew tight. Her stomach flipped and she began to shake.
“Shhh, baby,” he said as he stroked down the curve of her body. “Just let me love you. We’ll figure this all out, Sophie. I swear it.”
“You don’t hate me?”
His eyes softened, and he leaned down to kiss her hip right above the band of her panties.
“I feel a lot of things for you, Sophie. But hate isn’t one of them.”
His thumb hooked into her underwear, and he carefully slid it down leaving her naked and vulnerable to his touch and sight.
Her hand fluttered over her belly, and she turned her face into the pillow, no longer able to bear his scrutiny.
“Do you have any idea just how beautiful you are?”
There was awe and reverence in his voice that had her looking back at him. It was there in his eyes as he simply stared down at her.
He bent and kissed her hip again and then showered a line of kisses down her leg to her ankle. He lifted her foot and kissed each toe until she twitched at the ticklish sensations.
He eased her foot down and moved behind her again. He lay down, his mouth close to her neck as he spooned against her. Her buttocks cupped his erection, and she moaned in anticipation.
He didn’t move her. Didn’t turn her over. He simply lifted her leg and eased it back over his until she was open and bare. His cock lay between her legs, but it was his fingers that found her heat.
“Sam ...” she whispered as he stroked the soft folds.
He parted them and dipped one finger inside her.
“You’re hot and wet and so damn tight,” he said in a near groan.
Another finger slipped inside her, and she arched helplessly. She wouldn’t last. Her body was painfully aware of him. She wanted him with every breath. She turned her head, and her cheek met his lips. He kissed her. The sweetness of that one kiss melted her senses and sent a trembling awakening through her heart.
How could she love someone she was so unsure of?
Sudden tears flooded her eyes. She blinked furiously, angry that she would be so weak at such a vulnerable moment.
“Make love to me,” she choked out. “Please, Sam. I need you.”
He paused for just a moment, and a low shudder worked its way through his body, pressing into her. She could feel his energy and his reaction to her soft plea.
His fingers left her to grasp his cock. He positioned himself at her entrance and then found her ear with his lips. One kiss. Two. And then he murmured low and sweet.
“Just relax, baby. Let me take you this way so you don’t have to move. Let me take care of you.”
He nudged forward, his hips pressing into her buttocks as he breached the tight clasp of her heat. She sucked in her breath, then closed her eyes when his shallow thrust sent streaks of pleasure through her pussy.
Back and forth. He rocked against her slow and measured, none of his thrusts going too deep. His hand left his cock now that he had position, and he laid it possessively over her hip. His fingers curled into her, holding her as he moved faster now but still as carefully as before.
He was driving her crazy. She flexed and pushed back, eager to meet his movements, but he gripped her hip and held her in place.
“Let me,” he whispered again.
Her leg lay over his, and she tucked her foot between his legs, enjoying the rasp of hair on her bare skin. His legs were muscled, lean and so strong. They flexed and twitched with each forward thrust.
Then his hand moved from her hip and eased underneath her leg, pushing it upward to give him room. He supported her thigh with his forearm and reached up until his fingers found her clitoris.
His thumb teased the entrance his cock rubbed back and forth over, while his fingers parted the soft flesh above and tenderly stroked the stiff, sensitive bundle of nerves at her center.
No longer able to lie still, she tightened and bucked back against him.
His thrusts got stronger, and he sank deeper, until her buttocks were flat against his abdomen.
“Are you ready, honey? Go with me. Come with me now.”
“Just one more second,” she breathed.
She closed her eyes and rocked against him. His fingers grew more assertive, and he moved his thumb up to roll over her clit in a demand for her to respond.
“Yes. Oh my God, yes. Just like that, Sam. Don’t stop please. Don’t stop.”
She was pleading. Her voice was hoarse and needy, and each demand came out in a short burst of air.
He drew back and then pumped deep just as his thumb rolled in a tight circle.
She cried out and tensed. Her fingers curled into balls, into fists so tight that her hands shook with the strain. Cascades of color flashed, little and big spots that floated through her vision even when she closed her eyes.
Sam was thrusting hard and fast now as he sought his own release. His hoarse shouts mixed with her agonized sounds. It sounded as though she was in the worst sort of pain, but the pleasure, ah the pleasure, was so intense, so beautiful that she didn’t want it to end.
She reached down to still his hand when the sensation became too intense to bear. He eased his thumb away but continued a gentle rocking motion that sent his cock gliding through tissues slick with his release.
Finally he stopped, lodged deep within her. She didn’t move for fear of displacing him, and she lay there simply enjoying the feeling of being so intimately connected to this man.
He kissed her back, rubbed his thumb in circles around the ball of her shoulder and then kissed her again, his erratic breaths sending goose bumps over her skin.
“I need you.”
His voice was quiet and regretful, as if he had no liking for the admission and hated voicing it even more. She wondered why he’d been honest; maybe he too was tired of all the deceit between them.
“I can’t explain it. Not sure I want to, but damn it, I need you, Sophie. It’s not just physical. It can’t be. I’ve had physical before.”
He moved slightly, and for a moment she feared he was pulling out of her, but he stayed locked tight, their bodies joined as he shifted closer to her.
He slid his hand over her waist and splayed his fingers over her belly. His grip was possessive and tender and told her more than words that he was claiming what was his.
He continued to pet and stroke her belly, his touch light and soothing. He rested his mouth on her shoulder, and neither spoke. She floated on a cloud between sleep and awake, existing in a state of delicious lethargy. Finally she dozed, and only came awake when she felt him finally pull away in a warm rush of fluid.
“Be right back,” he said.
He returned with a warm towel and gently cleaned between her legs. Then he settled next to her in bed once more and pulled her in close to him.
“Don’t we have to leave?” she mumbled.