And it was frightening. And redemptive.
Commanding her muscles to solidify, she drew in a breath of the cool autumn air into her lungs. Her hand was still next to his beautifully flawed mouth, and the smooth tip of his tongue flitted across the same patch of skin his lips had just caressed. “Just say the word.” He breathed against her skin as his lips traveled to the cushion of her palm, securing a warm, wet kiss. “Just tell me yes, gorgeous, and I’ll steal your thoughts from you and give you nothing but complete, numbing pleasure.”
She trembled against him. He leaned back slightly and her body followed as if tethered to him. “Yes,” she whispered, unable to find strength in her voice the same way her body was unable to resist his touch.
And he smiled.
• • •
The restraint he maintained while walking through her house and into her bedroom to not shred her dress from her body brought Rafe to an all new record of willpower exertion.
He kicked out of his shoes and socks, then grabbed the neck of his shirt and peeled it off, leaving a trail of clothes behind him. His lips remained sealed onto some part of her body: the back of her neck, the curve of her shoulder, the dip of her spine—anywhere his mouth could reach as they stumbled through her house and to her room.
Soft goose bumps chilled across her arms as his fingers tenderly descended a path from her shoulders to her wrists. Tilting his head down, his lips tentatively brushed over the smooth, sensitive spot near her collarbone he knew would make her shudder—and she did. Her hands flew to his biceps as her head rolled back onto her shoulders, allowing his mouth the opportunity to raid her neck.
Coiling the hem of her dress in his hands, he lifted it from her thighs and pulled it up over her head, discarding it somewhere behind him on the floor; then, gliding his fingers down her spine, he skillfully unhooked her bra. She dropped her hands from his biceps and the lace fell to the floor at their feet. His vigilant eyes raked over every part of her nearly naked body, learning and committing to memory every smooth line of her slender thighs, every slight curve of her hips, each heavy swell of her flawless breasts.
He’d seen her body stripped of virtually all its clothing while she was up onstage at Velour. But seeing her respond to his close proximity as he praised her body with palpable desire in his eyes was like nothing he’d seen before. The power she wielded while she was on that stage was sexy. Confidence was a seductive quality in a woman. It was an unspoken challenge, and he loved her ability to push him with her body, claiming the control as her own. But watching her submit that control over to him as her gaze coyly lowered from his stare, feeling her body softly tremble beneath his fingertips as he pressed them against the small of her back, as she leaned her weight against him for support—it was fucking beautiful.
“Lay down,” he urged, stepping into her, forcing her body to retreat onto the bed behind her.
His fingers slid beneath the threadlike lace strap that covered each side of her hips, pulling them down enough so he could bend over her and pepper the flare of her hip with moist kisses. She writhed beneath him and he continued to kiss her, moving his lips over the flat, velvety skin below her belly button.
He felt her chest expand as she sucked air between her teeth when his hands effortlessly tore the lace from her body in one swift tug.
He enjoyed that little breath she took; he enjoyed feeling and hearing her attentive response to him. So without stopping, his mouth fell to the supple folds of her slick pussy. She was silken and wet.
“You need this?” he taunted, barely flicking his tongue over her swollen bud. It was everything he had in him not to plunge his tongue into the depths of her pussy and lap at her warm arousal that was coating her, preparing her body for him to fill her with his own.
She moaned her response, but he wanted more from her. He wanted her to tell him, he wanted to hear her composed voice quake with her request. “Tell me,” he coaxed, watching as he pushed his thumb into her, her pussy drawing him in tightly as she clenched around his finger. Fuck.
“I need it,” she murmured almost incoherently.
He grinned.
“What is it that you need from me, babe?” he replied, again taunting the response he wanted from her body as he pushed his other thumb inside her.
She bowed off the bed and her hips grinded against his hand, trying desperately to find the release she was searching for.
“Your mouth. I need your mouth on me,” she pleaded.
Fuck yeah, she did.
His mouth feverishly descended to her, swirling rapid, hot thrashes of his tongue over her clit as he palmed the flesh below her ass, raising her slightly from the bed to allow him easier access.