Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(57)

Boone growled low in his throat, and Maddie smiled. She wanted him crazy, too crazy to think, too far gone to be noble.

They were past the time for noble sacrifices, past the point of logic. Now was the moment, the sacred space for heart to meet body, for flesh to find flesh in naked, greedy hunger. Maddie wanted her hands on Boone, on his bare skin, on the body she’d dreamed of night after lonely night.

With a small cry of desperation, she pulled away to tear at his shirt. While Boone did wicked things to her with lips and teeth and tongue, her fingers fumbled on buttons she could not see. Finally, she wrestled his shirt open, sacrificing a button or two, but she had to touch him—now.

Then she laid her palms on the his broad, muscled chest. Both of them gasped. Boone glanced down at her pale hands spread across his golden skin.

Then he smiled, slow and wicked. “My turn.”

Maddie licked her lips and scraped her nails lightly across his flesh.

Boone’s nostrils flared as he focused on the buttons of her shirt, his fingers turning clumsy in their haste.

Maddie leaned forward and licked a slow stroke across his chest, swirling her tongue around one nipple.

He swore and gripped her shoulders, eyes scorching hot. “I said, my turn.” But he smiled as she’d never seen him, a smile so rich with seductive promise that the air vanished from Maddie’s lungs.

Boone’s own breath seized as he watched her eyes spark in challenge. Then she laughed, that sultry chuckle that had never failed to hit him right in the gut. Her smile dared him to push the edge, to test the borders. Maddie was so valiant with her heart, so unafraid of her passion.

And he was so hard he hurt.

But he was not going to rush this, no matter how his body demanded release, no matter that his insides had turned to pure fire at her touch.

That mouth of hers, that sassy, sexy mouth. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never get enough of Maddie’s mouth.

With one last jerk, he sent her buttons flying without apology. “Too many damn buttons,” he muttered.

And then fell silent.

“No bra?” he croaked.

Maddie’s smile could make a man weep. “No panties, either.”

Boone closed his eyes and implored the heavens.

Then Maddie laughed, and Boone was done with patience. He swept her into his arms and bore her away to his makeshift bed. “Better say no now, Maddie. I’ve waited for you too long.”

Maddie mimed a zipper across her lips, then grasped his head between her hands and kissed him. Flames danced from one nerve ending to the next.

“You and that kissable damn mouth,” he muttered. Then his mouth came down on hers.

When he laid her on the bedroll still scented from his body, the hay perfuming the air around them, Maddie thought there could be no more perfect place. The bedroll provided protection from stray stalks of hay, and they were far away from the house and all its memories of sorrow.

Then Maddie thought no more, as Boone’s naked chest loomed over her, acres of muscles gained not from a pricey gym but from hard work and honest labor, lightly dusted with golden hair shades darker than that on his head. His belly was hard and ridged, his waist and hips narrow. Her gaze traveled down the fine line of hair on his belly to the blatant evidence of Boone’s desire for her.

Never before had anyone wanted her this badly. Never before had anyone brought such raw power to the act of love.

Boone’s fingers unsnapped her jeans with one flick, then drew her zipper down slowly. With his tongue, he scorched a trail down her throat, flicking it lightly over the shadowed valley between her breasts, then sliding around the curve of her breast, barely missing her nipple.

Maddie arched toward him, her body pleading to feel him suckle her. She wanted his touch on her, every inch. Urgent fingers gripped his shoulders as he hovered above her breast, waiting. Taunting.

Then Boone retreated, and Maddie wanted to scream.

Until she felt his tongue inside her zipper. Inch by inch, he lowered the tab, sliding one finger beneath to protect tender flesh.

At the bottom he paused.

After agonizing, delicious seconds, he peeled her jeans open.

Then licked one slow glide to the vee.

Maddie couldn’t breathe. His tongue halted scant inches away from her aching center. His breath warm on her belly, he swirled one slow, maddening circle through fine tendrils of hair.

Maddie dug her fingernails into his back and arched against him.

And Boone chuckled.

“Boone…” she moaned. “Now.”

“Not yet, sweetheart. You’re killing me, but I’m not going to rush this.” He rose above her.

Gripping her fingers in his hair, she dragged his mouth to hers and swirled her tongue inside the dark heat of his mouth.