“Almost,” he murmured and she groaned again, frustrated. Until he knelt on the floor and dragged her body toward him. When she was close enough, he covered her heat with his mouth and felt the crash of the climax that slammed into her. She reached down, held him to her as her body convulsed. His tongue flicked over her, into her and he tasted her as she exploded, crying out his name over and over like a mantra designed to prolong the pleasure rocking her.
When she was limp and her gasping breaths were shuddering in and out of her lungs, he joined her on the bed and she rolled into his arms. One leg tossed across his hip, she brushed the tip of him against her heat and Mike almost lost it. Then she slid her hand down and her fingers wrapped around his hard length, working his flesh as expertly as he had hers.
He hissed in a breath, squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and then opened them again to look down into hers. “Tell me you’ve got condoms.”
“Yeah, oh, yeah. Bedside drawer.” She wiggled her hips, grinding her body against his. “Hurry.”
“Right.” Mike didn’t think about why she had condoms. About the other men she must have invited into her bed. None of that mattered now. All that was important was this moment. He grabbed a condom, tore it open and sheathed himself, then looked back to the woman waiting for him.
She was like a damned nymph, straight out of one of the fantasy games his company designed. Like one of her drawings—blond curls rumpled, blue eyes heated and languid all at once, curvy body lush and waiting for him.
“Now, Mike. I need you inside me, now.”
“Yes, now.” He pushed deep into her heat with one long stroke. Her body bowed beneath him, her legs hooked around his waist, pulling him tighter, deeper. He stared into her eyes, eyes that held what seemed to him the mysteries of the universe, and watching her, took what she offered. He rocked his body into hers, over and over, setting a breathtaking rhythm that she raced to meet.
Again and again, they parted and came together, each of them driving the other higher, faster. He heard her ragged breathing, felt the frantic slide and scratch of her nails at his back. The race for completion was all. They looked into each other’s eyes, fierce now, impatient for what they knew was coming.
“Mike,” she cried, gasping. “Oh, Mike!”
She grabbed his shoulders and held on as wave after wave of sensation crashed through her body, making her tremble and shudder violently in his arms.
He watched her eyes flash with satisfaction only seconds before his own body splintered and jolted into a wild pleasure that left him feeling jagged and shaken. Locked together, the two of them slid over the edge, riding the thunder and crash of completion. And willingly, Mike tumbled into the dark, locked in the arms of the one woman he couldn’t have.
Three
Dawn crept into the room and stretched out long, golden fingers across the bed where Jenny lay beside Mike. For more than a year, she’d thought about him, wished things had been different, wanted him. And now he was here, sleeping in her bed, and she knew that as the sun rose, their time together was running out.
Nothing had changed between them. Not fundamentally. They hadn’t settled the issues that had separated them for so long before falling into bed—they’d simply ignored them in favor of the desire arcing in the room like summer lightning. Basically, they’d taken a long time-out. She smiled to herself at the thought.
Turning her head on the pillow, she studied Mike, using the moment to really look at him while he was completely unaware. He didn’t look young and innocent in his sleep, she thought. He looked sexy. Dangerous. Like the hard man he was. And yet... She curled her fingers into her palm to keep from reaching out, stroking his beard-shadowed jaw.
Jenny’s heart took a slow tumble. Pitiful, she told herself with a heavy, inward sigh. How could she feel so much for a man who thought of her as a thief and worse? And why did she care what he thought about her?
“You’re thinking too loud.” He opened his eyes and stared at her.
“A lot to think about,” she said just as quietly.
“I suppose,” he agreed, one corner of his mouth lifting into a seductive smile. “But we don’t have to think about it right this minute, do we?”
Under the blanket, Mike reached for her and slid one hand along her curves. Jenny held her breath as his hand glided up from her hip, along her ribs to cup her breast. She sighed when his thumb brushed across her nipple. No, they didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to let this night end just yet. The sun was coming up and soon enough, they’d have to face the real world again. The world where the two of them stood on opposite sides of a wall Jenny had believed would never be breached.