Julian shook his head at her. "Why are you wearing that?"
"Look, I'm not an idiot. I don't have the kind of body that makes men drool."
"What are you trying to tell me? You're a man?"
She frowned at his logic. "No."
"Then how do you know what men want to ogle?"
"Because they never do. Okay? Men don't drool over me the way women drool over you. Heck, I'm lucky if they even realize I'm female."
"Grace," he breathed, moving from the bed. He went to stand at the foot of it.
"Come here," he commanded.
She obeyed.
He stood her directly in front of her full-length mirror. "Tell me what you see?" he asked.
"You."
He smiled at her reflection.
Leaning down, he rested his chin on her shoulder. "What do you see when you look at you?"
"Someone who needs to lose fifteen to twenty pounds and buy stock in Porcelana fade cream for my freckles."
He didn't look amused.
He reached his hands around her waist, to the front of the robe where her belt tied it closed.
"Let me tell you what I see." He all but purred in her ear as he placed his hands on the belt without opening it. "I see beautiful hair as dark as night. Soft and thick. You have the kind of hair that a man loves to feel cascading over his bare stomach. Hair a man wants to bury his face in so that he can smell you."
She shivered.
"You have the heart-shaped face of a mischievous imp with full, sensuous lips that beg for kisses. As for your freckles, they are beguiling. They add a youthful charm to your body that is uniquely you, and utterly irresistible."
It didn't sound so bad when he put it that way.
He tugged open her robe and grimaced at the sight of her pink dorm shirt.
He parted the robe wider.
"What have we here?" he breathed, his eyes devouring her.
Before she could think to protest, he pulled the robe from her shoulders and let it fall in a pool at her feet. He returned to rest his chin on her shoulder as his gaze captured hers in the mirror.
He lifted the hem of her dorm shirt.
"Julian," she said, catching his hand.
They locked gazes in the mirror. Grace froze, unable to move as his hot, tender look held her enthralled.
"I want to see you, Grace," he said in a tone that let her know he would not be denied.
Before she could gather her thoughts, he removed her shirt from her, then skimmed his hand over the bare skin of her stomach.
"Your breasts are not small," he whispered, straightening to tower over her. "They're the perfect size for a man's hand." To prove his point, he reached up and cupped them in both his hands.
"Julian," she half moaned, her body on fire. "Remember your promise."
"I'm behaving myself," he said, his voice hoarse.
Leaning her head back against his hard pecs, Grace breathlessly watched him in the mirror as he released her breasts and ran his hands over her ribs, down to her hips, then under the waistband of her panties.
"You have a beautiful body, Grace," he said as he brushed his hand over her mound.
For the first time in her life, she actually believed it. He nuzzled her neck as his hand played in the short, dark curls.
"Julian," she cried, knowing if she didn't stop him now, she would never be able to stop him later.
"Sh," he breathed in her ear. "I've got you."
And then he separated the tender folds of her body and touched her core.
Grace moaned as heat tore through her. Julian captured her lips with his own and kissed her deeply and fully.
Instinctively, she turned in his arms to taste him better.
He picked her up then, never leaving her lips as he carried her to the bed. Somehow, he even managed to lay her back and join her on the mattress, all the while maintaining his kiss.
The man was seriously talented.
And oh, her body was hot. Afire from his touch. His wickedly erotic smell. With the feeling of his body lying against hers. Grace trembled all over as he separated her thighs with his knees and placed his fully clothed body against her.
His weight was wonderful. His body hard and virile as he ground his lean hips against hers. Even through his jeans, she could feel his erection pressing against the center of her body. As if magnetized, her hips rose to meet his.
"That's it, Grace," he whispered against her lips as he continued to grind his swollen groin against her in a masterful way that told her she would already be climaxing if he were inside her. "Feel me touching you. Feel my desire for you and you alone. Don't fight it."
She moaned again as he left her lips and trailed hot, searing kisses down her throat, to her breasts which he suckled gently.
She was delirious from pleasure as she buried her hands in his soft, tawny locks.