woman.
That last time… It hadn’t been like this. It had been nothing like this, so giving, she was so responsive to his every touch.
He wouldn’t think about that, not now. What had he been thinking? He didn’t even know her. She’d probably saved his life and this was how he thanked her?
Then she said those words. ‘Please don’t stop.’
Matt looked into her brilliant blue eyes and saw the desire, and the need. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. That wistful yearning was in her eyes, along with a deeper sorrow. A deep and abiding grief. Something in that look tore him to pieces.
The truth was he didn’t want to stop, not really, not now. He wanted to bury himself inside her, feel that searing heat cupped beneath his palm take him in and surround him.
Almost against his will, his arm tightened to draw her body against him.
The warm press of his hand against the most intimate parts of her made Ariel ache even more deeply and an involuntary twitch of his fingers sent a rush of pleasure surging through her. Muscles tightened within her deliciously that hadn’t felt a man’s touch in years.
Insane as it was, she reached out to touch his handsome, rugged face, felt the scratchy roughness of his more than five o’clock shadow. Thin morning light from the window brightened the room and gilded his jaw.
“Please.”
She needed. She wanted to be touched, held and made love to again. Within her, the ache was building. The longing was so intense her head pounded with it.
Please, she pleaded silently. If need be, she would have begged for release.
Matt raised himself up to look down into her lovely face and then he took that soft, lush mouth – gently at first.
Until she responded, her mouth avid as it moved beneath his.
Instantly he was drawn up in her need, in her, tasting her with a slip of his tongue across her lips. They parted to let him in and he was lost. Plundering, probing deeply, he lost himself in the taste of her.
She answered with equal passion. Her silky slippery tongue met his and curled around it.
Deep in her throat, he heard a sound of longing. He felt the moment when she gave herself up to him completely and he engulfed her, crushing his mouth against hers. He drove his tongue deep into the warm, moist cavern of her mouth.
That sweet mouth responded with fervor, sucking, drawing him. He could have kissed her for hours, if the heat inside him hadn’t been so urgent, if the need within her hadn’t been so great.
One by one, Matt freed the buttons on her nightshirt until her body was open to him.
Then there was nothing but his own clothing between them, her heated skin, and her firm breasts pressed against him.
His breath caught at the sight of her body.
She was beautiful, ebony and ivory, with accents of rose at cheek and breast. She was so lovely his breath caught. Her skin was as white as the finest cream and as soft as silk. Her breasts were high, firm, tipped with rosy nipples. Matt was compelled to touch them, to feel the firm, ripe weight of one in his hand, the give as he caressed and molded them. She sighed and arched her back to press them into his palm. Her breasts swelled against his hand sweetly. He brushed his thumb across a nipple and it contracted, hardened beneath his circling palm.
Nearly breathless, he trailed his fingers over her slender body.
Her stomach was flat, taut, dipping in a little to the concavity of her navel, swelling a little to the mound of midnight curls between her thighs. Those tight dark curls were such a contrast to her smooth, pure white thighs. A chiaroscuro, a contrast of light and dark that to him was just stunning, so different from what he’d known.
Sliding his hand down over her firm stomach, he sent it over and beneath her hips to curl around the firm, tight roundness of her bottom. He drew her hips against him.
Pressing his mouth against the smooth pale column of her throat, Matt buried his lips against her, sliding his