He could deal with that. He swept the blankets back on the bed and carried her down, wiggling just enough to pull the covers back up over them before he lay atop her, cradling her face in his big hands.
“Warming up?” he asked as he watched her eyelids grow heavy and passion relax her face.
“Like a house on fire,” she murmured. Her hips pushed up against him. “Don’t dawdle. Please...”
He took her at her word. A pause to roll on a condom, a pause that he cursed because it let the cool air beneath the blankets, then he lowered himself swiftly and filled her with his entire length. She drew a deep breath, eyes widening.
“Feels so good,” she mumbled.
Then he was lost. Her hips rose again, and he plunged even more deeply. It was going to be a hurried, wild ride, but apparently that was okay with her, too.
The explosion came fast, furiously, deafening him like a thunderclap. He knew instant pleasure when he felt her peak with him, heard the moan escape her.
When he collapsed on her, her arms wound around him as if she were afraid she might fall.
* * *
It took Cade a long time to return to earth. Longer than it had taken to claim DeeJay. He lay beside her, stroking her from shoulder to hip beneath the blankets, wondering at himself. That was surely the most graceless coupling of his life. Like a bull rutting in a pasture. No foreplay, nothing. Just a taking.
How did she bring him to that point? He’d never gotten that way before.
“You okay?” he asked finally, his voice rusty. He half feared what he might hear.
“Mmm.” She rolled toward him and slipped an arm across his chest. “I liked that.”
“I’m feeling like I shortchanged you.”
A little shudder, like a silent laugh, moved through her. “Trust me, I don’t feel like it.”
He hoped not, then decided to take her word for it. Only she could know. Now he ran his hand down the silky skin of her back and rump, loving the way she felt. “I could get addicted,” he admitted.
“I think I already have.”
Their eyes met, and suddenly they were laughing and hugging like a couple of silly kids. He wondered if he’d ever felt this comfortable with a woman right after sex. He doubted it. Something about DeeJay made him more honest. Damned if he knew why.
Maybe because she lacked any pretenses. Except, he suspected, for her aura of toughness. Somewhere inside she must have been wounded by her rape and by needing to resign her commission. There had to be scars, but she carried on like a soldier.
No pun intended, he told himself. He brushed her short hair back from her face and smiled into her dark eyes. “You are one hell of a woman,” he said.
“You’re one hell of a man,” she replied.
“No, I mean it. You amaze me.”
“I meant it, too. You’re the first guy I ever worked with who has made me feel fully equal. And you don’t seem to be struggling with it.”
“I’m not. You’re at least as good as anyone I’ve ever worked with, and probably a whole lot better.”