He dipped forward, and hot breaths licked behind her ear as his fingers rested on the tucked knot of towel in the center of her chest.
"May I?" he whispered.
Arousal bloomed deep inside, and wordlessly she nodded.
Noah inched back, and with both hands, unwrapped her like a gift, baring her body to him as if he needed to feast. The towel dropped, and his hands did too. He took her fingers in his.
"I have never met anyone like you before, and damn, I'm glad."
Her heart squeezed. She was falling for him. Or she had already. It was fast. But it was deep. His presence consumed her. His honesty gave her life, and she inhaled deeply for fear that she'd let everything about this man overwhelm her. "Me too."
"On the bed, beautiful." He pulled her into the center of the king-sized bed.
"I'm not the only one." She tugged on the towel, and it fell off his hips so easily that she pulled back quickly, as if she'd made a move too fast. Her quick laugh stopped short at the sight of him naked and aroused.
Noah stole her breath. She couldn't keep from sliding her hands over his thickness, reveling in the smooth heat and the searing sound of his quick inhale. She didn't know pressure points, but she wanted him to feel as she did-blissfully beautiful and seductive. Sexy.
He made her feel like the center of his world, and stroking him, rubbing her thumbs along the top of his crown, she wished to give him that too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Noah dropped his head onto a pillow when Teagan slid her hands down him, but more than that, he needed her kiss. Her eyes. Her everything.
Easing back to her, he took her mouth, and their legs tangled. The kiss heated, and her body melted to his, arching for more with every gasping kiss and frenzied claw of her fingernails.
He ached to slide inside her. Every time she moaned, he wanted to make it louder, make it more, with deep thrusts and hungry kisses.
But-ugh-he needed to hold back. He'd specifically said no sex. None. God help him.
He didn't want to do Teagan. He wanted to be with her in a way he'd never needed before. Noah pulled back, needing to take a minute. He needed a plan. The don't-be-a-jackass plan. "Are you cold?"
Her face screwed. "No."
"We should get under the covers." After all, who actually had sex with the covers on? He had no idea. But he didn't.
"Um … "
"Come on." Noah swallowed away every ounce of regret and made a to-do list. Worship her body, cuddle, cold shower. He tossed away pillows and yanked down the comforter. This was like staying in a hotel. No one ever had sex like this. Right? It was a foolproof way to keep his word.
Her cute smile and wildly drying hair made him smile as she tucked under the blanket and sheet with him. "You didn't seem cold."
"I wasn't." He moved over her, and this didn't seem like a safer idea at all. If anything, they were closer than before, wrapped together in a way that he loved.
His plan was going off the rails, with her legs splayed under him and him towering over her, and they hadn't passed the five-second mark. It might've seemed that he was trying to move things along. Why did this have to be so complicated? And why did it matter?
Because he didn't want to lose her.
Recalibrate and stick to the plan. He shifted to her side and lowered his head to her breast, flicking his tongue over the tip and forgetting his worries when her back arched. That was his motivation. Make her feel him. Make Teagan fly, and he dipped his hands between her legs to find her wet and wanting.
"Noah," she whispered as he stroked her folds.
That gave him life. Her needy cries filled with his name. Selfish, but hell, he didn't care. His fingers parted her, encircling her rosebud of nerves before stroking her open and teasing her entrance.
"Like that." Her hips writhed. "Oh … "
He repositioned, kissing her mouth deeply as his fingers sank into her heat. Her muscles clenched, and his fingers withdrew from the slick tightness and plunged again. Teagan clung to him, kissing and moaning, promising she needed him.
His eyes squeezed shut, and he memorized her every breath and reaction. How she moaned and gasped, what made her arch and cry for more, until Teagan was on the cusp of climax and begging for his gaze.
He gave her that, pushing her over the edge, needing to watch as much as she did, and his chest exploded when her face tore away and the climax ripped through her.
Out of breath and intoxicated, he brought her to his body and wrapped her close as the last of her convulsions rolled through the limp woman in his arms. He kissed the top of her head and wondered if she would fall asleep. His heartbeat had dulled to a roar now, so maybe hers had too.
Noah shifted, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling close. Like a spark to gasoline, his heartbeat galloped again.
"I thought you were asleep." He kissed her temple.
She sighed languidly. "I think that might've been a coma. But not asleep. At all."
Even her voice made his skin hot. It was time to bail. He stifled a groan and forced words out of his mouth. "You want me to wake you in the morning?"
She jerked, twisting from her sated position, and narrowed her gaze. "What?"
"Or not," he teased awkwardly. "I was going to let you sleep."
Teagan tensed, and her lips thinned into a smile he couldn't explain. "No, that's fine."
Fine. Lainey had warned him about the perils of fine years ago. Fine was a serious warning flag, and Noah had never given it a second thought. Until this second.
"You okay?"
"Sure."
He didn't recall sure being on the he-had-problems list, but he didn't know. Life on a SEAL team wasn't conducive to successful relationships, or so he'd heard. He hadn't had much interest in trying.
"As long as you're sure," he said.
Her eyes blinked more than he'd noticed before-did they look watery? In that moment, he knew. Sure could be classified the same as fine when a woman was upset, and he was about to be up shit creek, if he wasn't already there. Hadn't he just done a good thing?
"Hey." He dropped a kiss to her shoulder. "Teagan, look at me."
She glanced over for a moment.
"I hate to break it to you, beautiful."
Again she looked, but this time she didn't turn away. "What?"
"I have no idea what I'm doing."
Her eyebrows lifted as she scoffed, somewhat laughing. "I'll agree to disagree."
Noah laughed too and tucked her closer to his side. "Oh, that, I know."
She blushed, and he loved it, everything about her and them, how she reacted and how it made him feel, how she could react on such a base level and it would cause a seismic reaction within him.
"But not screwing up this?" He squeezed her side. "Because this is awesome? I don't know what the hell I'm doing."
"Seems okay to me," she said quietly.
"I invited you over for a nonsex slumber party, and here you are, naked, in bed with me."
Teagan shifted to her hip. "Because I want to be."
He worked that over for a second, staring at the ceiling. "Yeah, well, true."
"You're assuming." She sighed theatrically. "That I'm impervious to your charms? That I just can't help myself and need you to decide for me?"
He squinted an eye closed, chuckling at himself. "When you say it like that … "
"Oh, Casanova." Her shoulder-poking finger tapped with each syllable.
"I'm not going to live this down." He groaned.
"Hmm." Teagan leaned across his chest and planted a kiss on his lips. "We should keep a tally board."
He rolled her over and caged his forearms on the sides of her head. "Jokes aside, I said something, and I meant it. I invited you over because I would do about anything to spend time with you, and screwing that up was a concern of yours."
"Yours too," she added.
He shook his head. "Was. Everything was. I was in over my head, and there you were on the first day. Beautiful. A beacon of freaking knowledge, and maybe there was the off chance some primal instinct urged me to you because I needed you to survive. I'm trained to excel. But this isn't that. We're more."
"We are?"
"I know that. I just need you to also."
"I'm there." She hugged him, and the cold distance that had frozen her lips evaporated.
"Hang on a moment." Noah rolled out of bed, retrieved his wallet to remove a condom, and tossed the wallet on a nightstand. He was through with his plan and would let whatever happened between them happen.
Teagan had the covers pulled up to her chin then straddled him with the covers draped around her. Her wavy hair fell around his face when she kissed him. Their tongues slow danced.
Every deep kiss and velvety hot lick roared their smoldering fire to a blaze until her hips swayed and his arousal was a painstaking tease.
With few words shared, Noah removed the condom and covered himself. His hands gripped Teagan's hips. He sucked in a deep breath as she held him firmly against her tightness, inching down-and hovering-down-and waiting, until she took his length.