She thought he’d toss her onto the bed and jump in, but instead he set her gently on the edge, pulled her braid around to the front and began to loosen it.
“I’ve wanted to do this from the first day I saw it beneath your hat,” he said, his voice husky with reverence.
She couldn’t say anything past the wonder that felt like a little knot in her throat. And then he combed his fingers through the long waves of curls and brought them around her shoulders to hide and reveal her breasts.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he murmured.
She tried to tell herself that any guy getting laid was going to say that, but . . . she believed he meant it. Then he reached into a drawer and pulled out a condom.
“A soldier’s always prepared?” she asked, smiling.
“Especially when he’s been out of the country a long time. He’s always hoping.”
She drew him back onto the bed, and for the first time, he lay full on top of her. She loved the feeling of being pressed into the mattress, aware of strong bone and hard muscle beneath fiery skin. They kissed again, over and over, rolling about with abandon. She licked his nipples as he’d done hers, explored his body until he couldn’t take it anymore.
“Do you want to ride, cowgirl?” he asked as he lay tense beneath her questing fingers.
“Oh, yes.” She took him inside her from above, undulating on top of him, feeling the upward thrust of his lean, strong hips.
And she was lost.
Chapter Ten
Adam looked up at the incredible view of Brooke Thalberg, her lean, supple body in charge, guiding him as she wanted. Her breasts were high and full on her rib cage, bouncing with each thrust. Her hair was a chocolate waterfall all around her body, and her face was intense as she sought her pleasure.
The sight alone could have driven him over the edge, but he held off, waiting for her. And when she came, he rolled her onto her back and drove into her, meeting her orgasm with his own before she was even finished.
Shuddering, panting, he braced himself on his elbows and buried his face in her hair, smelling coconut and pineapple, a far cry from a Colorado winter.
At last, he lifted his head and looked down at her. She was staring up at him a bit wide-eyed, and he knew how she felt. What the hell had just swept over them both?
“Are you all right?” he asked, kissing her cheeks and her chin and her fluttering eyelids.
“Oh, believe me, I feel incredible.”
“And I agree you do.”
They were still joined, and he felt as well as heard the rumble of her laughter. He slid to the side, gathering her into his arms and resting among the pillows.
“Adam,” she began tentatively, “I know we shouldn’t have done that, but I don’t regret one bit of it.”
“Me neither.”
“And I don’t want you to think I planned this, plying you with pumpkin pie and whipped cream.”
He kissed her again. “The taste of it on your lips drove me wild.”
She seemed so natural about the whole thing, unembarrassed, uninhibited. He wanted to take her all over again.
“And I don’t think you took advantage of me,” she continued. “I’m a big girl, and there are two of us in this bed.” She looked up at him, her expression sobering. “We can’t have any kind of relationship, Adam. It will look so bad to my family—you’re my employee, and I’m your boss.”
“I know. Your father trusted me to work for him, not to seduce you.”
She groaned. “Can we not bring up my father? And can we not pretend that I’m a delicate flower you had to persuade to ‘give myself’ to you?”
“Okay. You said you wanted no one to know what we’ve done.”
“No one,” she said, her expression serious, even as she brought up a hand to cup his whiskered face. “This is—I don’t know what you call this between us—”
“Lust?”
“God, yes, but otherwise . . . Adam, it can’t be any more.”
“You’re saying this one time will be all I ever have of you?”
“No, I’m not saying that,” she said too quickly, her gaze lingering on his chest.
The more distracted and unfocused her expression became, the more Adam could feel satisfaction seep through him. “We’re going to do this again.”
“I—I don’t think I could stop myself,” she admitted breathlessly. “This will be our secret, something just for us.”
Relieved, he started kissing her. When he slid his hand down between her thighs, she stopped him.
“No, I’ve got to go. It’s not like I can spend the night when my parents are right in the next building.” She sighed. “I still have to worry about this when I’m twenty-eight years old.”