Something he couldn't name but knew was within his reach. Something that he'd never thought to find.
Fin had long teased him about the right woman being there under his nose for four years, but he'd never really considered that she might be correct. His twin had hinted that Rachel Adler could, with a little effort on his part, be much more to him than a fabulous assistant.
But he hadn't listened. Hadn't really believed that Rachel and he would be able
to … connect so completely. So amazingly.
Her hands slid up his back and he wished to heaven he'd taken his suit jacket off when he arrived. He wanted to feel her small, capable hands with their short, neat nails on his skin.
That thought jolted through him with the impact of a crashing meteor.
Then a ball of fire settled in the pit of his stomach and stretched out tentacles to every corner of his body. Heat radiated from him and fed the raw, raging hunger clawing at his insides.
He tore his mouth from hers and ran his lips down the length of her neck.
"Sweet. So sweet."
"Shane." His name, on a sigh of sound that rushed through him with the force of a category 5 hurricane.
Her hands tangled at the back of his neck, fingers twining through his hair, nails scraping his skin. Sensation boiled within and Shane had to fight for air.
He'd never known such an overwhelming desire. Such a demand from his body.
Such all consuming need.
He slipped his hands beneath the tail of her silk shirt and smoothed his palms over her back. Her skin was more tantalizing than the silk. Smoother, softer. He sucked in air like a dying man and licked the pulse point at the base of her throat.
She gasped and tipped her head to one side, silently inviting more of his attention. He gave it to her. As his hands stroked her back, he nibbled at her throat and covered that pounding pulse point until he could taste her need for him throbbing with every beat of her heart.
"Rachel," he murmured against her skin. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but I want you."
"Oh good," she said, sighing again and leaning into him more completely. "That's very good. I want you, too. Now, okay? Does now work for you?"
He smiled and lifted his head to look down into her passion-glazed eyes. His smile faded in a new burst of hunger. "Yeah, now works for me in a big way."
He looked around the room, as if expecting a bed to magically appear. If it didn't, he was thinking the couch would do. Plenty long enough. And if she didn't like the couch, then the floor. Or standing up against a wall.
Something.
Soon.
He had to have her.
Had to bury himself inside her and feel her heat taking him in. Had to watch her eyes blur and feel her breath catch. Had to see a climax shatter the cool green of her eyes.
"Bedroom," she said, lifting one hand to point. "Through there."
"Right." He didn't waste time. Couldn't. Sweeping her up into his arms, he crossed the room in a few long strides and kicked the partially ajar door
wide-open.
A double bed with four heavy posts sat against one wall, its mattress covered by a floral quilt. The curtains were open and through the lacy sheers, a streetlight shone from outside, illuminating the softly falling snowflakes drifting past the glass.
They were three stories up. No one was going to be peeking in at them, so Shane left the curtains open to the pale wash of light. He wanted to see her.
Wanted to watch her.
He carried her across the room and set her on her feet. She staggered slightly and Shane smiled. He knew how she felt.
Everything was just a little off center.
"You're not changing your mind, are you?" she asked.
"Not a chance," he whispered and reached for the top button of her blouse. In less than a few seconds he had them all undone and was pushing the silk down her arms to let it fall onto the floor.
"That's good," she said, swallowing hard and nodding. "Really good."
Shane nodded back at her. "How about you? We can still stop."
"Are you kidding?" she asked and stepped into the circle of his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck and hanging on. She looked up into his eyes and said, "No one leaves this room until we're absolutely through with each other."
He gave her a quick grin. This was the Rachel he knew and admired. Sure of herself. Confident. "I learned a long time ago that it pays to listen to my assistant."
Then he kissed her again and quickly worked the hooks at the back of her bra.
The fragile lace parted and she twisted in his arms, freeing herself while simultaneously pushing his jacket off his shoulders.
Shane felt the same urgency pounding inside him and worked with her. In a couple of minutes, they were both naked and tumbling onto the mattress. The quilt was cold against his skin and the fabric felt old and soft. The antique bed creaked and groaned under their combined weight, but neither of them noticed.
In the wash of light streaming through the windows, Shane looked his fill of her. Full breasts, narrow waist and rounded hips-she was built with curves in all the right places, as, in his opinion, all women should be. He ran his hands over those curves, tracing every line with his fingertips until she was writhing beneath him, her breath coming fast and furious.
As her need peaked, so did his. He felt every one of her thundering heartbeats as if it were his own. He touched her and she shivered. He stroked her and she sighed. She lifted one hand to drag her nails across his chest and he felt each gentle scrape as if it were a flaming arrow.
"Yes, yes," she whispered, "you feel so good, Shane." She turned into him, parting her legs for his questing fingers.
His heartbeat jumped, his breath caught. He slid one hand down, down across her rib cage, over her abdomen and past the juncture of her thighs. She jerked in his arms and tried to close her legs.
"Rachel?"
"I'm too on the edge. It's coming. And I don't want it to," she breathed shakily. "I want this to last. I don't want it over so fast."
"It's not over," he assured her, his voice tight, scratching past the knot of need lodged in his throat. "We have all night. Now let me take you."
She clutched at his shoulders as his fingers dipped lower to find her depths.
She was hot, damp, ready for his touch. He watched her as he slid his hand lower, caressing her intimate folds.
She gasped and stiffened in his arms at that first molten contact. "Shane!"
Her climax hit her hard, shaking her from head to toe. She tipped her head back into the mattress, bit her bottom lip and, keeping a death grip on his shoulders, shuddered as her body erupted from within.
More aroused than he'd ever been in his life, Shane watched her as she rode the crest of pleasure, shaking, trembling in his grasp, her fingers clutching at him. Mouth dry, pulse hammering, he bent his head and took her mouth as she gasped for air. He wanted to feel that again. Feel her body exploding for him, because of him. He wanted to hear her gasp and scream his name.
Her body still shuddering, he took her up again, pushing her high and fast.
Sliding first one then two fingers inside her as his thumb stroked the very core of her, he stroked her inside and out.
Rachel dragged in air, knowing it wasn't enough. She might never get enough air again. Her brain was melting, but that was probably because her body was on fire.
The first orgasm had hardly finished shimmering through her when Shane had her on the climb toward number two. And now that she knew how good it was, she couldn't wait for it to happen again. Her body hummed and sizzled. Her blood felt as if it were boiling. Her limbs were weak and energized all at once.
She twisted up closer to him, loving the feel of his skin against hers. The soft curls of dark hair on his chest felt like silk, and the muscles beneath his skin felt like steel. His body was hard and strong and, right at the moment, as necessary to her as the breathing that just wasn't working quite right.
Her mind numbed out, short-circuited from the onslaught of sensations rocketing through it. She couldn't think, could barely see, and it didn't seem to matter.
All that mattered was that he not stop touching her.
His hands moved on her and she opened her legs wider, loving the feel of him on her, in her.
He took her mouth again in another kiss and she knew that breathing was no longer an option. But who needed air when she had Shane? His tongue mated with hers in an erotic dance that sent shock waves of need and desire sliding through her system.
His breath brushed her cheek and she moved toward him, somehow trying to burrow into him. She hooked her left leg over his hip and groaned when his fingers dipped deeper inside her.