But it was the moan she couldn’t keep inside that truly set everything in motion. An instant later, Will was holding her tighter and lifting her off the ground. His mouth came down hard against hers and she had to cling to his arms to steady herself. Seating her on the edge of the parapet, he cupped her face in his big hands and devoured her.
Just the same way she was devouring him.
She couldn’t get enough—the hard, strong length of him as he stood between her legs, the headiness of his kiss. In a matter of moments, he had taken control of the kiss she’d initiated, and she was stunned to realize that she loved the way he played with her, sweeping in, stealing her breath, then backing off to take her lips at another angle, before going deep again.
He wooed her passion out and out and out, until it was inextricably tangled up with his. The stone was cold beneath her, a delicious contrast to the burning heat inside and the warmth of his mouth on hers.
No one had ever kissed her like this—taking, demanding absolutely everything she had to give. Kissing had been a prelude with other men, but Will made it seem like kissing her was exactly what he’d been dying for, precisely what he’d dreamed of.
And Harper realized she’d been dreaming about it all along, too. From the moment he’d stepped out of his car beside the hangar, she’d been hurtling toward this moment without even knowing it.
He skimmed his fingers down her arms. “Hold on to me,” he murmured against her lips, bringing her hands up around his shoulders.
His mouth consumed her all over again, his hands on the move, leaving trails of heat. His thumbs grazed the sides of her breasts, setting fire to all her nerve endings. Harper couldn’t breathe. She could only want. Could only need as his mouth owned her and his hands promised pleasures beyond her wildest dreams.
Teetering on the edge, she knew she was going to fall. Not into the water, but into something far deeper. Right into Will. Into anything he wanted, right here, right now, with the water raging below them and the midnight sky burning above.
And then nothing would ever be the same again.
She suddenly pushed at him, slamming the brakes on with a squeal of her heart. “Wait, wait, wait.”
She needed to stop, needed to breathe, needed to try and think straight. This was going too fast. Way too fast.
All she’d wanted was a test drive. All she’d wanted was to see if he kissed the way he drove.
But it turned out that kissing Will Franconi was a million times better than any fast ride could ever be.
She never, ever took her eye off the ball. Never for one second forgot that her focus needed to be on taking care of her brother, with everything else coming a distant second. But tonight, for a few heady moments in Will’s arms, she’d forgotten.
Forgotten so easily that it terrified her.
“You okay?” he asked. His breathing wasn’t so steady, either, but that was no consolation.
“I need a minute, just a minute.”
But the truth was that she needed way more than that, needed to find a way to clear her head, her body, of everything Will had just done to her with only one hot kiss.
“I got carried away.” There was a raw huskiness in his voice, and the moonlight was bright enough that she could see the pulse beating hard and fast at his throat. “Forgive me, Harper.”
But Will didn’t need to be forgiven for anything. She was the one who had just lost her mind over his kiss, while making the extremely troubling discovery that nothing had ever given her as much pleasure as going fast with him just had.
Which was especially crazy given that caution was her watchword where men were concerned. Sure, she knew it was a world where people jumped into bed on first dates, but that wasn’t what she did. And not with someone like Will Franconi. Not with a fast man who owned a whole bunch of fast cars. If she were stupid enough to jump into his bed, she couldn’t also be stupid enough not to expect him to drive right on past her as soon as they were through.
“I’m the one who should be apologizing,” she told him. “I shouldn’t have kissed—”
He put a palm to her cheek and his thumb on her lips to halt the rest of her words. “Yes, you definitely should have.” Then he added, his mouth only a kiss away, “Your kiss was better than the richest caviar I’ve ever tasted. You taste better than anything I’ve ever tasted, Harper.”
She was stunned at how he simply seemed to accept that they’d gone too fast and pushed past her comfort zone, rather than being angry with her for slamming the brakes on a super hot kiss. A kiss that she had been the one to initiate.
Harper needed to make it clear to him that there wasn’t going to be another kiss between them, but the words wouldn’t come. “I should go,” was all she could manage. Although the truth was that it was probably all she needed to say, since she couldn’t imagine he’d want to see her again. Why would a gorgeous billionaire who could have anyone want a woman with whom he always had to try so hard? Even just to set up a date? “I don’t want to keep Trish out late.”