His breath was warm on her sensitive skin, but she shivered at the beautiful things he was saying to her.
Beautiful, but so incredibly overwhelming.
Could she trust that what she felt really was love this time? Or was it just a deeper physical hunger than she’d ever thought to feel? And when would she stop being so frightened of making another mistake?
Grace had never been more grateful for anything in her life than she was for her son, but at the same time, she’d never withstand the kind of heartbreak she’d been through with his father again.
“I didn’t tell you I’m in love with you so that you’d feel you had to say it back. I know I’ve pushed you to date me since the moment we met, and I can’t regret doing that when I really do believe that you and I and Mason belong together. But I would never push you to give me your heart before you’re ready, just as I would never push you to make love with me if you’re not ready.”
She wanted to tell him that he had her heart, wished she could just leap without being afraid of crashing and breaking into so many pieces this time that she’d never be whole again. But for tonight, there was only one thing she was one hundred percent sure about.
“I want to make love with you, Dylan. More than I can remember ever wanting anything else.”
The final word had barely fallen from her lips when his mouth came down on hers, hot and borderline desperate.
“You can’t want it more than I do.” His lips rained a sizzling and heated path from her mouth to her jaw. “When does Mason wake up in the morning?”
She couldn’t get her head around his question for a few seconds, not in the wake of the sensual pleasure of having his mouth and hands roving hungrily over her. Finally, she managed, “Six.”
“How am I going to fit everything I want to do with you into nine hours?”
A rush of need hit her then, so potent that she went a little crazy. Crazier, even, than she’d already been for Dylan. Now that she’d decided to make love with him, to finally give in to the soul-deep craving that she’d been working so hard to fight these past weeks, need clawed at her. And she couldn’t wait another second.
Grace reached for his shirt, her fingers fumbling and desperate as she tried to get it off him. “I need you to take me. Now. Right now.”
She barely had his shirt halfway up when he put a hand over hers. “We may only have nine hours, but a little foreplay and a handful of orgasms aren’t going to kill you.”
A handful of orgasms before he finally took her? She’d never survive it.
“You know I haven’t had sex in forever, that I haven’t ever had it with a man who makes me feel the way you always do. Don’t make me wait. We can just do it once to take the edge off and then—”
His mouth on hers cut her off, and though his hand fisted in her hair, the slow, sweet way his tongue stroked over hers until she had no choice but to match his rhythm told her more clearly than any words would have that he was most definitely going to make her wait.
And that she was going to love every single second of it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Dylan wanted to rip off the pretty dress that had been giving him little glimpses of cleavage and leg all night as she moved. He wanted to devour her in one big greedy gulp. He wanted to claim her and make her his own and never let her go. But even as desire raced through his veins so hot and fast that it nearly stole away his sense of right and wrong, he knew he couldn’t let himself do any of that tonight.
Tonight wasn’t about speed. It wasn’t about taking.
It was about giving Grace endless pleasure.
Pleasure that would make her head spin so fast, she’d have no choice but to hold on tight to him…and never let go.
He slid his hand down to cup the nape of her neck. “Do you have any idea how much I want you? How many times I’ve dreamed about being inside of you in the past week?”
“Please,” she begged again, “stop talking to me like that. You’re only making it worse.”
“Better,” he promised. “I’m going to make tonight better than anything you’ve ever imagined.”
He moved his hands so that he could slowly brush both thumbs over the slim straps of her dress on each shoulder, touching both fabric and skin. Though she was so hot to the touch that he felt scalded by her, she shivered.
“Your skin,” he said as he lowered his mouth to press a kiss to one shoulder, “it’s so soft. So sensitive. And so damned sweet.”
He brushed aside the pretty braided fabric so that he could close his mouth over her collarbone. He loved the way she arched into him to give even more of herself than he was already taking. He’d meant it when he said he was going to kiss every inch of her that he uncovered. And as he made his way to her other shoulder and had to stop to lick into the hollow of her throat, her taste was so intoxicating that it was going to take everything in him to hold on to his self-control tonight.
“Dylan.” He could feel her nipples beading hard against his chest through her dress as she pressed herself tightly against him while working to take in a ragged breath.
He gave her more of what she clearly wanted by tasting the upper swell of her breast on the way to her other collarbone. She didn’t say his name again, just made sexy little sounds of need and desire as she arched into him and silently begged him to take more of her.
All of her. That was what he wanted. Every perfect curve. Every beautiful, shuddering breath. Every sweet moan of desire. And even after they were temporarily sated from their lovemaking, he knew he’d want even more. Everything.
But for tonight, he’d have to be happy to take only what she offered. A few perfect hours with her naked and soft in his arms. A night he’d yearned for since the first moment he’d set eyes on her.
He lifted his mouth from her skin and made himself shift back. Just enough for her dress to slide even lower down her chest. “This picture,” he said in a voice that was already raw with need, “of you standing here in front of me with your dress coming away, knowing you’re going to be all mine soon—I’m going to replay it inside my head forever and ever.”
She inhaled a shaky breath, one that shook her rib cage so that her dress slid even lower. “I will, too. The way you’re looking at me, as though I’m...”
He lifted his gaze to her face. “Beautiful. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
He slid his hands back into her hair and pulled her flush against him so that he could devour her. She matched his passion with her own, quickly taking them closer to the edge than he’d meant to go.