He tossed his shirt into the corner of his bedroom before prowling toward her.
“Wow,” she breathed. “You’re amazing.”
She stared at his bare chest as if in awe, and he couldn’t help but be filled with pride that she liked what she saw. All those endless hours of push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups had been worth it, if for no other reason than to please her.
“I don’t feel the least bit sorry for the women you’ve been with and dumped before me. Not now that I know what they got to see.” She reached for him. “What they got to touch.”
He grabbed her hand before she could make contact with his abs, gently but firmly. When she’d nuzzled his neck on the way up to his bedroom, he’d nearly taken her right then and there on the stairs. But he needed tonight to be good for her. Not just good—mind-blowing. Which meant he couldn’t let her touch him, kiss him, yet. Not when he was poised to erupt at any second from the slightest provocation.
After capturing her other wrist as swiftly, he brought both of her hands to his lips. He kissed her pinkies first, then the tips of her ring fingers, then her middle fingers, then her pointer fingers. When he got to her thumbs, he swept his tongue against each pad.
“Roman.” Her voice shook as she said his name. “You’re not going to make this quick and dirty, are you?”
Dirty? Yes.
Quick? Not on her life.
In lieu of answering her with words, however, he traced the three lines inside her left palm with his tongue. Her whole body began to tremble, and the flush from her cheeks seemed to have spread everywhere.
“I never knew my hands were erogenous zones,” she whispered as he turned his attention to her right palm.
“Every part of you is capable of feeling pleasure,” he murmured before running kisses up the tender skin at the inside of her wrist. “And I’m not going to let either of us rest tonight until we’ve discovered all of them.” He punctuated his promise with a swirl of his tongue inside her right elbow.
He’d never met anyone with as unwavering a focus as Suzanne. Right now, it was gratifying to have every ounce of it on what he was doing with his mouth. Especially when the gentle scrape of his teeth over her bicep brought a gasp.
“You’ve only kissed my hands and arms, and I’m already about to do something I never thought I would do in a million years.”
He stopped his onslaught of kisses to ask, “What’s that?”
She looked as though she couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “Beg.”
He didn’t even try to hold back a wicked grin. “Oh, you’ll definitely be begging before I’m done with you.”
“I don’t like that word. Done.”
He didn’t either, regretting it the moment he said it. But he didn’t have a better word to replace it, not when he refused to be a bastard who made promises he couldn’t fulfill. The only way he could erase the reminder that this night wouldn’t last forever was with pleasure, with arousing kisses and naughty nips at parts of her body she’d never even known were sexual.
He lifted both arms above her head and wrapped her fingers around the iron bars of his headboard. “Keep your hands here until I tell you to let go.”
“What if I don’t?”
He liked her challenge more than he should. Liked everything about her more than he should, damn it. “I’ll tie you up if I have to.”
It was a million miles from the romantic things he was sure she wanted to hear, but you wouldn’t have known it from the spark that lit in her eyes. “So either way, I win?”
She’d done this from the start, made him laugh with her smart mouth. “Tonight,” he promised, “we’re both going to win.”
The sound of her breath catching in her throat at his sexy vow was unbearably erotic. And the teasing smile she gave him as she made a show of letting her fingers go slack on the iron before gripping it even tighter a few seconds later, had his blood racing so hot in his veins he was surprised there wasn’t steam coming off his skin.
With her arms lifted over her head, her T-shirt rode up so that a couple of inches of smooth skin were bared. Forcing himself to go slow, to tease and taste rather than immediately devour the way he so badly wanted to, he feathered his fingertips over her stomach. Firm muscles danced beneath his fingers as she worked for breath. But he didn’t plan on letting her get it back anytime soon as he lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her belly button.
She was still holding on to the headboard as her body arched toward his, a little pleading sound coming from her throat. “You taste so sweet,” he murmured against her belly, before reaching for the hem of her shirt and slowly sliding it up to uncover the lower edge of her rib cage. He nuzzled his bristly jaw over her. “You feel so soft.” Taking the cotton fabric between his teeth, he dragged it up even higher to reveal a delicate, yellow lace bra.