He opened his eyes and stared into her beautiful face. Dark eyes stared back at him. She was smiling.
“You feel great,” he told her.
“You, too.”
He pulled out, then pushed in again. Back and forth, moving a little faster each time. Her eyes widened. She clutched at him.
“It’s happening again,” she said, sounding shocked.
“It’s supposed to.”
“I don’t—”
Her fingers dug into his back. She raised her legs and wrapped them around him. “Arizona, please!”
He knew what she wanted…what they both wanted. Fast and hard.
He plunged in and withdrew, pumping his hips, taking her with him. She whimpered. Her breathing came in little gasps. He could feel her collecting herself. He swore silently, willing himself to hold back, to give her what she craved.
Suddenly, she dropped her feet to the ground and pushed up against him. He buried himself inside of her. She grabbed his hips and held him in deep.
Her gaze still locked with his, she climaxed around him. Her body rippled, massaging him, drawing him in more, forcing him to give in to the incredible passion surging through him. She milked him until he exploded.
When they had both recovered, he stretched out next to her and pulled her close. He wanted to tell her it had never been like that for him before, but wondered if she would believe him. Even to his mind, it sounded like a line.
The problem was, he meant it. He hadn’t felt anything like this before. There had been a connection, a oneness. The words of the old shaman came back to him. “When you mate with a woman, you give away a piece of your soul.”
That’s what had happened, he realized. He and Chloe had exchanged parts of their innermost selves. He’d never wanted that before—mostly because the thought scared him. But with Chloe, he didn’t mind. He liked the thought of having a part of her soul to carry with him, and for reasons he couldn’t explain, he trusted her with a piece of himself.
* * *
THEY WERE QUIET for a long time. Chloe enjoyed the silence. She needed to catch her breath, both physically and emotionally. She wasn’t sure of everything that had happened between them. It had definitely been better than the dream, which was a little terrifying. The good news was, she reminded herself, at least the best it had ever been was now a real-life experience and not something she’d thought up in her head.
“What are you thinking about?” Arizona asked.
Chloe’s head rested on his shoulder and her hand stroked his chest. Somehow they’d found their way inside her sleeping bag. “That it’s never been like this before.”
“For me, too. Pretty spectacular. And that was just our first time out. Imagine what we could do with a little practice.”
There was something to think about, she thought. “No, you don’t understand. After Billy, there were two young men in college. I’m not a virgin, but I’ve never climaxed before.”
She instantly regretted her confession, but he didn’t get all weird on her. The hand stroking her hair never slowed and his breathing remained even.
“I wouldn’t have guessed,” he told her, “but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad. I wanted to make it perfect for you.”
“Oh, it was, and then some.”
“Good.”
She was on her side, facing him. Her right leg rested on top of his. She bent her knee and rubbed her foot up and down along his shin. Her thigh brushed against a raised ridge in his skin.
“You have a scar.” She made a statement rather than asking a question.
“I was cut with a knife when I was about fifteen. We were in India. A man got sick and had a high fever. He was delirious and thought we were trying to take him away. Several of us grabbed him to hold him down, but he got in a couple of good thrusts. I was in the way of one of them.”
He spoke so matter-of-factly, she thought. As if that sort of thing happened every day. “I don’t have any scars,” she told him. “We’ll have to bond over something else.”
He kissed her forehead. “I think we’ve done more than our share of bonding tonight.”
They had, she thought, realizing he was right. They’d bonded in the most intimate way possible. “I knew it was going to be like this,” she said without thinking.
The words hung in the silence of the night. She stiffened, waiting for the inevitable questions, but Arizona never asked. He only held her tighter against him.
I knew it was going to be like this.
The statement filled his head until it was all he could think about. She’d thought about them being together. She’d assumed it was going to be amazing. He didn’t know why that should matter so much to him, but it did.