Miranda’s breath exploded out. “God, yes.”
He traced slow circles, making her writhe, drawing out the tension until she almost couldn’t stand it. Miranda whimpered. When, at last, he slipped two fingers inside her, she nearly wept with relief.
He moved closer, curling those fingers as he bent to her ear. “Miranda, move.”
She dropped her arms, wrapping them around his shoulders and hanging on as she pistoned her hips. He watched her as she rode his fingers, and that was almost more intimate than his touch, as he seemed to drink in the sight and sound of her taking her pleasure. As the orgasm whipped through her, he kissed her again. His tongue thrust against hers in the same rhythm as his fingers as he wrung out every last pulse, until she collapsed like a rag doll against him.
Ethan switched off the water.
Miranda gasped against his shoulder. “That was…that was…”
“What?”
“A really good start.”
Ethan laughed and pulled her with him as he stepped out of the shower. “I like the way you think, Legs. Can you stand?”
“I’ll manage.”
He reached for the towel, wrapping it around her beautiful body and using it to pull her in close for a kiss. Her sigh had him going impossibly harder, but he held himself in check as he slowly, thoroughly dried her off, steeping himself in the taste of her. At least until her hand closed around him and squeezed.
Her thumb stroked up the underside of his cock. “Ethan.”
“What?” he gritted out.
“I really, really need you inside me.”
He jumped in her hand. “Condom in my pants.”
“IUD. So unless you have some other objection—”
“I haven’t been with anyone since my divorce.”
She brushed her lips over his again. “Then make love with me, Cowboy.”
Ethan dropped the towel and boosted her up. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She complied, tightening those long, glorious legs around his waist and shimmying until his erection was nestled in the drenched folds between her thighs. He gave fleeting thought to just turning to set her on the counter, so he could plunge inside all that waiting heat, but he had control enough to get her the extra ten or fifteen steps to the bed. Probably.
He all but sprinted the distance, turning at the last second so that he fell on his back and didn’t crush her. Before he could get another grip on her and reverse their positions, she rose above him and sank down, taking him in in one long, slow stroke.
“Oh God, you feel good.”
“Christ.” It was all Ethan could manage as her body closed around him like a wet fist.
Miranda leaned forward, pressing his arms above his head and holding him there by the wrists. “My turn.”
He could break the hold with little effort, but she kissed him and began to rock, and he forgot why he’d want to. She shoved up, bracing herself against his chest as she quickened her pace. Her breasts swayed with every roll of her hips. He wanted them in his mouth, in his hands. Even as he had the thought, she skimmed her own hands up her torso and covered them, dropping her head back on a moan.
“Damn, you’re beautiful.” Ethan reached to grip her thighs and surged into her, grinding the base of his cock against her clit.
“Yes, yes. Exactly like that,” she gasped.
He did it again, thrusting, rubbing, until her body began to pulse around him. As her climax ripped through her, she bowed back on a cry. Her sex clamped around him, obliterating the last of his control. He rolled, still feeling the ripples of her orgasm as he plunged deep. She locked her legs around his hips, digging her feet into his ass to pull him even closer, and he lost himself, spilling into her on a shout of triumph.
By the time he had more than a single brain cell firing, he noticed the faint vibration of her chest beneath his. “Are you laughing?”
“Not at you. I swear. It’s just…a few years ago Norah gave me this t-shirt that I’ve never worn. It says ‘Save a horse. Ride a cowboy.’ I was just thinking now I finally could wear it.”
Ethan propped himself up on his elbows so he could look into her face. She was flushed and gorgeous, obviously sated, with her eyes sparkling, even in the ambient candlelight flickering from the bathroom.
“I can’t decide whether to be offended by that or not.”
Still chuckling, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his throat. “Be very, very flattered.”
He bent his head, nuzzling along the ridge of her collarbone. “I’ll think of a creative means of payback for that when I have blood in my brain again.” As the scent of him was on her skin, he didn’t think that’d be any time soon.
“If there were a few more hours left in the night, I’d gladly spend them keeping you too occupied to actually think.”
“You have deep appetites.”
“Two. Years. A little more than, actually. I told you I had no intention of letting you out of my bed quickly once I got you in it.”
Feeling more than a little smug and pleased that he’d been the one to end her long dry spell, Ethan pressed a kiss between her breasts. “I’m pretty sure I could happily stay right here for the rest of my life.”
The hand she’d been stroking along his back froze, mid-motion.
Ethan played his own words over again and cursed his lack of functional brain cells. Lifting his head, he offered a rueful smile. “Not part of the Fun and Simple Plan. Sorry.”
“No.” Miranda framed his face in her hands. “No, don’t apologize for that. I’m all about fun and simple. But this was more than that, and I think we both know it. How could it not be after what we went through tonight?”
It wasn’t just tonight. It was her. It had been her from the beginning. And despite his best intentions, he hadn’t been able to fight his own nature.
“I have a confession to make.”
Her face shuttered, and she dropped her hands to his shoulders, her body tensing beneath him. “Okay.”
“I said I just wanted simple and fun. The truth is, I wanted to want just simple and fun. I wanted to be able to be that guy who didn’t look for more because I didn’t think I had more to give. I gave it a damned good try. But that’s not who I am. It’s not how I’m built. I wanted more the first moment I kissed you. So much more I scared myself and almost screwed everything up. The fact is, Miranda, after tonight, I don’t think I can keep holding myself back from that.”
It really wasn’t fair of him to dump all this on her while they were both naked and he was still buried inside her. Especially not as his cock was ambitiously beginning to campaign for a round two. But to his mind, true intimacy demanded honesty.
“What are you saying? What is it you want?”
She hadn’t pushed him away, so he took the leap, admitting what had been circling around his brain. “I want you. A serious relationship. To see where things go for the long term. I know it’s not easy looking at long-term with a career cop. It’s long hours, interruptions, and it’s dangerous. I know that kind of relationship comes with a lot of risk, but—”
Miranda pressed a finger to his mouth. “Stop.”
Ethan felt his heart drop into his gut. He’d pushed too far, too fast. He’d screwed up this good thing between them. He’d—