She smelled like rain and red wine and woman and his head spun with wanting her. Maybe if he were a better man, he could have held back longer, could have been more patient, could have given her more reasons to trust him.
But right now all that mattered was making her his.
He moved his hands to her shoulders and ran them over her silky shirt until he found three little buttons just behind her neck and undid them. A moment later, she was raising her arms for him so that he could slip the shirt over her head. Every inch of skin that he uncovered he had to cover with his mouth. As he slowly drew her shirt up and off and discovered the places that made her gasp with pleasure—the upper swell of her breasts, the indentation of her belly button, the hollow of her shoulder—he lingered there and there and there to please them both.
When he finally let her shirt fall to the floor and lifted his mouth from her skin, his breath caught in his throat again. She was wearing a pink lace and silk bra that was so fine it was nearly translucent. He wanted to leave it on her so that he could memorize her beauty...but primal need was urging him to rip it off her, too.
He lowered his mouth and flicked one taut peak with his tongue, and when she moaned and arched into him, her hands threading into his hair so that she could hold him close, he had to close his lips over her nipple on a moan of his own. She moved against him, pure sensual woman, and he drank in the sound of her shuddering breaths, the way she trembled with need. Unable to resist, he drew down the cups of the bra with rougher hands than he would have if he’d been less desperate for her, if he hadn’t spent the last week wishing for this moment.
Just looking at her like this had Noah forgetting every other woman he’d ever been with. Colbie’s skin was lightly flushed, and her full, rose-tipped breasts beckoned him. He cupped them in his large hands, stroking the soft flesh reverently...until his greed and boundless hunger for her took him over again.
With a harsh yank on delicate fabric, he pulled the bra completely off and let it fall. He lowered his mouth to her again, only this time there was no silk, no lace between them while he teased her, and himself, with long strokes of his tongue and the gentle slide of his teeth over sensitive flesh.
Noah wanted her so damn much, a wanting that went so far beyond desire that it could only mean one thing.
He was falling head over heels for her, had started falling the second she’d lifted her head from the snow in Lake Tahoe and looked into his eyes. One look was all it had taken for him to see not only how beautiful she was, but also how sweet.
With his hands, he cupped her exquisite breasts and when she arched into his hands and mouth, he couldn’t stifle a groan of pleasure. He moved his mouth away so that her nipples beaded against his palm. He couldn’t wait for other nights when he’d spend hours on her breasts, where he’d taste and tease her with his lips and tongue and teeth, when he could let the greed rest for long enough to play. But as she whispered, "I love the way you touch me," he knew savoring her, teasing and tempting her until she was begging for release, would have to come later.
Her lush curves had driven him crazy even on the ski slopes when he’d caught her as they fell and he’d held her against him to keep her safe. Noah wasn’t an ass man. He wasn’t a breast man. He wasn’t a leg man.
He was an everything man.
With lips and hands, he caressed every inch of her skin as he continued to undress her, sliding the zipper of her skirt down so that it, too, could drop onto his bedroom floor with her blouse.
"You look like an angel," he said when she stood before him in nothing but the sexiest lingerie he’d ever seen. "A naughty angel."
"I was wearing the same thing when we were making snow angels," she told him, "underneath my ski clothes."
"If I had known that—" He took her all the way to the bed and laid her on it, her hair spread out across the pillow, her body lush, her skin soft, his every dream come true. "—I wouldn’t have let you go."
* * *
Colbie knew her body wasn’t perfect. Her hips were a little too big. Her legs would never be long and lean like a model’s. But she also knew how responsive she was to touch.
And she knew how much desire there was in Noah’s eyes whenever he looked at her. Lust flared so powerfully from him that heat flowed all across her skin.
From that first moment up on the snowy mountain, he’d looked at her like that. Whether she was covered in a down jacket or was naked except for her panties and heels, he desired her.
And for the first time in her life, she felt absolutely perfect. As beautiful as he’d—repeatedly—told her she was.
She didn’t know how long he simply stared before he finally put his hands on her. All she knew was that it was too long. But whatever she’d expected from him, it wasn’t this slow movement of his hands over her face, his fingertips caressing the curve of her eyebrows, the arch of her cheekbones, the thrust of her chin. And then down her neck to the curve of her shoulders, the soft edges of her breasts, the bones of her rib cage, until he reached the soft swell of her stomach and hips.
She tried to keep her eyes open, tried to hold onto rational thought, but oh, it felt so good, and ultimately she had no choice but to sink into the pleasure of his touch, her eyes fluttering closed as she drank in the shocking sweetness of his hands on her. Slowly, he ran his hands down her thighs, skirting past the extremely sensitive skin at the backs of her knees, to press his fingertips into her calves so perfectly that she groaned aloud at the pleasure of his touch. He slipped off her heels and when her feet were bare, he stroked them, too, with the pads of his thumbs, as if he wanted to give every part of her pleasure, leaving nothing out. And then, finally, he drew her panties from her body, too.
"Beautiful." The one word from Noah’s lips was more of a caress than any other’s man’s touch. "So beautiful."
She opened her eyes just in time to see him lick his lips at the sight of her sex, slick and wet and completely bared to his gaze...and she finally realized he still had all of his clothes on. Immediately, she reached for his jacket and slid it from his broad shoulders.
She could feel the heat of him, the barely leashed strength beneath the pressed dress shirt, as her hand moved to the buttons that ran down his chest. She wanted him naked, wanted to see all that power without anything covering it up. He could take off his clothes much faster than she could do it for him, but there was something so sensually satisfying about her being the one to uncover him, about being able to run her fingertips over his skin, his bones, his muscles, the dark hairs on his chest that curled against her knuckles as she undid one button and then another.
But when she finally had his shirt pulled out of his pants and all the way open, she had to stop...and stare.
Only, looking wasn’t enough. Touching wasn’t enough, either.
She needed to taste him, too.
She leaned up and put her mouth over his collarbone. It was natural—so perfectly instinctive—to slide her tongue into the hollow just behind the bone.
"Mmmm." He tasted clean, but a little spicy, too. She needed to taste him again, needed to memorize not only his scent, but also his taste, so she moved her mouth lower, down over one of his pectoral muscles. She found his nipple with the tip of her tongue and as his hands threaded through her hair, she put her teeth on him, the light scrape against his hardened flesh causing him to groan with pleasure.
Or maybe it was her own groans she was hearing, because Colbie had never done anything more pleasurable than taste—and tease—Noah.
She pushed his shirt off and together they worked to strip him of the rest of his clothes until he was wonderfully, beautifully naked…and she couldn’t wait to get her hands, her mouth, on every new hard, tanned inch of skin that she’d uncovered. His muscles jumped beneath the stroke of her fingertips, the lash of her tongue as she explored him with a greed that rivaled his for her. She wasn’t even close to getting enough of him as, on a groan, he pulled her back up his body and took her mouth again with his. She didn’t know when he’d pulled a condom out, but when her fingers brushed against the package, she immediately picked it up, ripped it open and reached for him. She felt him stiffen and was surprised to realize that he was holding his breath as she rolled it down his thick length.
She knew she’d never stop thanking her girlfriends for insisting on that ski trip. She wanted to send a truckload of chocolate-chip cookies to the little girl who’d whipped past on her pint-sized skis and sent Colbie falling face-first into the snow—just in time for Noah to come by with his strong hands, his warm arms, and his beautiful smile.
She’d never felt sexier, never felt more adored, in her whole life than she did as his eyes ran over her, pleasure lighting his gorgeous features as he moved fully between her legs and gazed down at her with wonder in his eyes.
"No one has ever looked at me the way you do," she whispered.
"I never believed in love at first sight." He reached out to stroke his hand across her cheek. "Not until I saw you."
"Noah."
His name was still on her lips when she took him inside her. And even as he gave her his heart with words, while she gave hers back to him without needing any words at all, passion took them both over. What had begun in patience, in gentleness, now transcended any control either of them had been able to hold on to.
Oh, but she loved it, loved the juxtaposition of dirty and sweet, the rough with the gentle, the fast and the breathtakingly slow. It was what she was doing with her store, after all, by stocking the finest silks and laces, the headiest perfumes, all meant to recklessly seduce in the heat of the night. All intended to shatter control...and to seduce with irresistible pleasure. As their tongues danced together, their bodies were doing a dance of their own, slipping and thrusting and sliding and craving.
Loving.
He was rough, his kisses were desperate and greedy, but she was all of those things, too. There were no rules anymore, no wariness, nothing but passion and hunger, woman and man. Slick with sweat, breathless with desire, Noah slipped one hand between them and took her up higher than she’d ever been...before he sent her spiraling out over the edge, crying out his name.
She couldn’t have imagined even this, let alone more.
But, oh, there was so much more as his name was on her lips and hers was on his when their mouths crashed together again. She could feel every beat of his heart against her chest, the fast pounding that matched her own racing, out-of-control rhythm. She caught a flash of his eyes—dark, beautiful, and so incredibly full of emotion—and then his hands were gripping her hips and she was wrapping her legs even tighter around him and arching her breasts into his waiting mouth as they both fell together this time.
Chapter Eight
The next morning…
Colbie had been drifting in and out of sleep for a while as the rare Seattle sun tried to break through the clouds outside Noah’s bedroom window, but she hadn’t wanted to wake all the way up and end what had been the most incredible hours of her life.
But then, Noah shifted against her, and she knew the moment of truth had come.
Their one night was over.
One perfect night, when all of her dreams had become reality.
Last night, she’d felt as though she belonged in Noah’s arms in a way that she’d never belonged in anyone else’s. He’d told her, "We belong together," and he’d said it to her again and again with every kiss, every caress.
The truth was that she’d been as afraid to believe it as she was not to.
But, oh, how she wanted to believe. And to trust that she’d been right to take the biggest risk of her life with him last night. Because deep in her heart, Colbie knew that last night had been more than just incredible, mind-blowing sex.
So when he slid her even closer to him, and asked, "Did I prove it to you?" in that low, rough voice that made every nerve in her body fire with anticipated pleasure, joy exploded inside her, starting at her heart and radiating out from there to fill every cell, every pore, every last corner of her soul.