Release burned through her like wildfire as Gray rasped encouragement against her ear and stroked her skin. When it was over she slumped against him, lips parted against his shoulder, panting for breath. Her head swam and the world spun around her in lazy Technicolor, but nothing hurt. Nothing could.
The crash might be coming, but oh. She wanted to see how high she could go first.
Lifting her head, drunk on sensation, she met his oh-so-smug gaze. “More.”
“Careful what you ask for.” He laid her back on the bed and stripped away her cotton shorts and her underwear at the same time, leaving her completely naked before him. “You might get it. And then what?”
Distantly, she thought she should be self-conscious. It wasn’t like she’d gotten naked in front of very many people. But she loved the way he looked at her, hungry and barely restrained, as if that formidable self-control was the only thing keeping him in check. He was breathing hard too, his gaze drifting down her curves before sliding back up to lock on hers.
“I’m done being careful.” She reached out to him, an entreaty. A demand. “Now.”
Gray stretched out beside her, catching both of her hands in his. He guided them to the bed above her head and held them there as his gaze met hers once again. “Okay?”
She curled her fingers around his hand, grounding herself in the steady touch. Maybe he could keep her from floating away on the fresh wave of anticipation sparked by the heat of his body all along hers. “I trust you.”
“I know.” He trailed his free hand from her jaw down between her breasts, his fingertips barely grazing her skin. “So open.”
The approving whisper tickled her ear and sounded utterly filthy. She arched her body into his touch, eager for it, but his fingers stayed tauntingly gentle. Twisting didn’t help, either; he just chuckled against her ear as his knuckles grazed the side of her breast, her collarbone, the soft, sensitive skin over her ribs—anywhere but where she needed him.
Now she knew why he’d pinned her hands down. If she’d had one free she would have tangled her fingers in his hair and dragged his mouth straight to her aching nipple. But she’d asked for endless, and that was what he gave her. Slow strokes, relentlessly patient, until her skin was so sensitized she wondered if she could come again, just like this, just from a low whisper against her ear and his finger tracing an idle path down the center of her chest.
His parted lips brushed her ear, her shoulder, then nothing. Just as she was about to open her eyes, his tongue flicked wet heat over her nipple.
The sudden shock of it drove a cry from her. “Gray!”
Her breath—and the rest of her cries—cut off as he closed his mouth around her nipple and sucked gently. It was exactly what she’d wanted, what she’d needed, but it only stoked the craving hollowing her out. She whimpered, lifting her hips in restless entreaty, but the warm hand on her hip pressed her back to the bed.
There was nothing to do but feel it. His lips, his tongue—then his teeth, gentle as they scraped sharp sensation over her skin. Her hips jerked again, but he was relentless as he murmured something she couldn’t understand against her skin.
The tone of his voice was enough. Liquid smoke, shivering over her, and she’d barely regained control of her breathing when his mouth closed around the other nipple and started again.
“Please,” she rasped, squirming in his grasp. Squeezing her thighs together offered scant relief from the throbbing need. “Gray.”
He lifted his head. “Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open, only to find him hovering above her. Those beautiful Gothic eyes, his always-serious face, the hair that had gotten a little too long and was now wild from her fingers.
That focus. The focus of a sniper who would spend an hour setting up the perfect shot—and all of it was currently centered on her. On her responses.
On her pleasure.
“Watch me.” He held her gaze as his fingers slid down, over her stomach.
Oh God, oh God, oh—
“Fuck.” His fingers brushed her clit, and pleasure so sharp and bright it almost hurt jolted through her. Her body jerked in response, and he froze, watching her face with that gentle, careful patience. The second graze of his fingers was softer, barely there. Sweeter warmth shuddered through her, and her eyelids drooped.
“Maya.”
She forced her eyes back open as he stroked her again. She felt naked for the first time, utterly exposed as he slicked his fingers deeper and watched her every response like he was committing her to memory. It should have been a vulnerable feeling. The fingers locked around her hands were unmovable steel. He had the strength in him to bend metal and shatter stone.
All of that power … All of it focused on giving her anything she wanted.
Breathing unsteadily, she let her thighs fall apart. There was no shame left in her. No hesitation. Just want. She stared up into his intense blue eyes and did her best to shake that perfect control. “I want to feel you inside me.”
“Getting there.” His stare intensified, as if he was refocusing some bottomless well of attention on her. “Patience, sweetheart.”
Patience was a distant memory. She was burning up from the inside and parted her lips to tell him so. But his fingers returned—and instead of stroking, they thrust deep. Her words vanished in a satisfied moan. Two thick fingers filled her completely, and the slick sound of him working them into her again was so illicit, she had the wild thought she’d never be able to see his hands again without blushing.
But relief was short-lived. Her body twisted in dizzy knots as he fucked those fingers into her, but it wasn’t enough and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes, in the hot anticipation there.
He bent and nipped at her earlobe. Then the rasping sound of his voice filled her. “If you want more, tell me. Say the words, Maya.”
Gladly. Eagerly. She turned her head and whispered them against his lips. “Make me come.”
He kissed her hard, then scraped his teeth over her cheek in a rough caress. “It’s going to be so good.” His thumb began to circle her clit in slow, steady strokes. “When I finally take you, it’s going to be so good.”
It was already too good. By the second stroke she was trembling on a knife’s edge. By the third she was gasping, straining, so close, so close—
“I’ll never forget one single goddamn second.”
The tension shattered. Orgasm ripped through her, the intensity of it stealing her breath. She couldn’t make a sound as the first bright wave of bliss washed over her. Heat raced down her spine and out. Her toes curled. The second wave crashed down harder, and she gasped out his name as the undertow swept her away.
For an eternity, that was all there was. Pleasure, and the echoes of it, and she couldn’t tell if she was still coming, or if the memory of it was so bright and real that the physical reaction shivered through her every time it replayed. She whimpered, clutching for something solid.
Gray’s hand was there. Warm, strong. She clung to it, following that one contact with reality down her arms. She felt the quilt beneath her back, the heat of Gray’s body along one side of her. His free hand was stroking gently over her hip, as soothing as the soft murmurs against her ear.
He peppered her brow with kisses. “You with me?”