Which Alex seemed dead set on doing.
Straddling Mason’s lap, she kissed him with a desire that was equal measures sweet and fierce. Between licks and sucks and nips and nibbles, she managed to whip his tank top over his head as well as her own T-shirt. Through it all, she rocked her hips against his hardness in a rhythm guaran-fucking-teed to drive him wild.
One of her hands speared into his hair. The other reached between their bodies, past his waistband, and wrapped tightly around him.
He hissed at the cool, firm feel of her fingers. Every fiber of his being wanted to flip her onto her back, rip off her shorts, and plunge into her.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t!
The only time he’d been with a virgin, he’d been one himself. If memory served, it’d been quick and sweaty and awkward. Neither of them had known what they were doing, and both of them had come out the other side of the experience feeling they’d missed something important.
It would be different for Alex.
He was her first lover. Her only lover, a savagely possessive voice whispered through his head. It was incumbent upon him to do this right. To use everything he’d ever learned from every woman who’d come before to ensure this was everything Alex ever dreamed it would be.
First things first, though, he thought a little desperately. We gotta slow this way fucking down.
Her movements in his lap, not to mention her hand around his dick, were becoming frantic. She was making those tiny gasps of pleasure he remembered from the episode against the hotel door.
He knew what came next. Namely, her.
If she did, he wouldn’t be able to hold back. Seeing her find her release? Watching her rub herself to completion atop him? That would be too much.
He was too excited. Too worked up. He’d wanted her for too fucking long.
“Alex.” He ripped his mouth away. “Babe, slow down.”
She either didn’t hear him or didn’t care to heed his instructions. Her little teeth latched onto his earlobe and her pistoning hips didn’t miss a beat.
“Alex,” he managed even as he felt his balls draw up. Much more and he was done for.
She might not have any experience, but her instincts were spot-fucking-on.
Growling, he jerked her hand from his shorts and flipped her onto her back. Immediately, she reached for him, trying to pull him on top of her. But he caught her wrists in one hand and manacled them above her head.
“Alex!” This time she registered her own name. She blinked, her eyes glazed with desire. “Slow down, babe. No need to rush this. Let’s take our time.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Her chest rose and fell with harsh breaths.
He decided there was nothing in the world more captivating than her face when it was flushed with passion. “You do,” he assured her. “You just don’t know it yet.”
She pouted prettily, and he wanted very much to claim her lips and forget what he’d just said. Then her eyes snagged on the bandage on his side and her expression grew horrified. “Oh my god! I wasn’t thinking! Did I hurt you when I was—”
“Believe me when I tell you,” he quickly put in, “nothing on me hurts when I’m with you. Well”—he frowned—“not in a bad way.”
“Are you sure?” The care in her eyes hit him directly in the heart.
“Never been more sure of anything.” And that was the truth. This moment with this woman, it was…right.
He mapped out his next moves in his head, anticipating which would make her moan and which would make her purr. “You trust me?”
She nodded quickly and he removed her glasses, setting them far enough away so they would be safe from what was to come. When he turned back to her, it was to find her eyes blazing.
Her gaze burned him. Singed his soul and ignited his heart. Then she turned her attention to his mouth, her little tongue darting out to wet her lips.
He followed the movement eagerly. Wondering what it would be like to feel her tongue lapping at his nipple. Swirling around his belly button. Gliding over the head of his—
He stopped that thought in its tracks and forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. When he had himself in hand, he did something he’d wanted to do since the day they met. He traced the arches of her eyebrows.
They were soft. Softer than he’d imagined. Warmer too.
It pleased him very much to watch the skin over her cheeks pinken from little more than the brush of his fingertip. And she looked so small and perfect staring up at him, her eyes full of anticipation. Full of…faith in him.
It made him feel ten feet tall and bulletproof.
“This feel okay?” he whispered gently. He’d let his fingers stray to the butterfly bandages on her forehead.
“Nothing hurts, Mason,” she murmured. “Please don’t stop.”
“Never,” he assured her, his blood pounding through his veins in a rhythm as old as time. And yet, he’d never felt this way before. Never experienced this level of awareness. “I’m gonna show you just how good it can be,” he swore. “I’m gonna take you to places you’ve never been before. And we’re gonna hit every stop along the way.”
He wasn’t one for words. But suddenly, he couldn’t stop speaking. Vowing. Making promises.
After tucking a wayward curl behind her ear, he kissed the side of her mouth, loving how her lips automatically sought more. “And when you’re ready, I’m gonna put myself inside you. Y’okay with that?”
A smile lit up her face and his whole body contracted. It was crazy what she could do to him with just one smile. “Yes, please.”
There were certain memories so warm and wonderful that they seated themselves into a man’s brain. This was one of those memories. Until his dying day, when he closed his eyes, he would conjure Alex in his mind. How she was right now, so utterly open and honest and beautiful.
Her bra was cotton-candy pink. Simple. Sweet. But it looked sexy as hell cupped around the soft, creamy swells of her breasts. He fingered one strap, arching an eyebrow. “Should we begin?”
“Yes, please.”
He bit the inside of his cheek. “For a woman who usually has ten thousand words perched on the tip of her tongue, you’re being awfully succinct.”
She rolled in her lips—those delicious Kewpie-doll lips. “I figured that was far more expedient than telling you you’re pushing on an open door and you’re welcome to come on in.”
“Well, then.” He bent to kiss her shoulder and slide down her bra strap. “Let’s get to it.”