She bounced, then smiled up at him. It was all the encouragement he needed. Tearing off his clothes, he watched her as she did the same. In seconds, they were both na**d and he was leaning over her. Rafe had been thinking about this moment for days. Dreaming about it every damn night.
She was haunting him, this woman who so hated the King family. She had somehow reached him in a way no other woman had and though that admission bothered him, it wasn’t enough to keep him from enjoying what she was offering.
Reaching up to him, she plunged her fingers through his hair and drew his mouth down to hers. Their mouths melded and her taste was as intoxicating as ever. Her kiss sizzled inside him, making the ache in his body almost overpowering. Everything in him urged him to hurry. To take. To ease the need clamoring within him.
But the urge to savor was just as strong. His tongue entwined with hers, he slid one hand down the length of her body, relishing the glide of her skin beneath his palm. So soft, so curvy. So just right.
Reluctantly, he broke their kiss, shifted position slightly and took one of her hard, pink ni**les into his mouth. She gasped and arched against him as he suckled her, using his teeth and tongue to lovingly torture her. He felt every breath she took, heard every sigh and wanted more. Rafe inhaled her scent and lost himself in the glory of her.
She held his head to her breast as if afraid he might stop. But Rafe was just getting started. He moved to give the same attention to her other breast, feeling her heartbeat quicken, as anticipation rolled through her. He smiled against her skin, then lifted his head and looked up into her passion glazed eyes. “I’ve wanted this since the first moment I saw you.”
“Me, too,” she admitted, licking her bottom lip in an action that caused everything inside him to clench.
His fingers and thumb continued to tug and pull at her nipple, making her squirm and her breath catch in her throat. When he touched her, he saw exactly what she was feeling on her face. He loved watching her expression shift and change as she gave herself over to him and Rafe knew there was something more here than want. Something dangerous.
Yet he couldn’t have pulled away and left if it had meant his life.
That thought stark in his mind, he leaned over her again, stared down into her green eyes and asked, “What are you doing to me?”
She laughed a little and cupped his cheek in her palm. “At the moment, it’s you doing something to me.”
Staring into her eyes, he felt that kick of something he didn’t quite recognize and after a long second or two, he let it go. Now was not the time to be thinking.
“So it is,” he agreed, dipping his head for one brief, hard kiss. He felt it again. That something more between them. That extra jolt he’d never known before. A part of Rafe worried that he might be getting in deeper here than he had planned. But there was no way out now. No other answer but to have her. To feel her body welcoming his. To delve into her heat and take them both where they had been heading from the first.
He’d worry about consequences later. Wonder if this had been a good idea another time. For right now, there was nowhere he’d rather be.
Sliding one hand down the length of her body, he stroked her core with the tips of his fingers until she lifted her h*ps into his touch. Her gaze never left his. He watched passion flare and sparkle in her eyes and pushed her higher, faster. Her breath came in quick gasps. Her body trembled in his arms and he felt her pleasure as if it were his own.
Rafe couldn’t get enough of looking at her face. Every emotion so openly displayed. Nothing hidden. Nothing held back. He’d never been with a woman so honestly enthusiastic. Always before, the women in his life had been controlled. As if playing the role they thought he wanted from them.
Even his ex-wife Leslie had held something back from him, as if she couldn’t quite trust him enough to confide her deepest feelings and reactions. But there was no artifice with Katie.
She threw herself into the moment and in so doing, drew him with her.
“Come for me,” he whispered, dipping his head to taste her mouth. He caught her breath as it passed between her parted lips. She tasted as sweet as the cookies she was known for. “Let go, Katie. Fly.”
She choked off a half laugh and held on to him, one arm draped around his shoulder. Her h*ps rocked into his hand and when he dipped his fingers in and out of her heat, she groaned and arched high off the bed. “Rafe…”
“Shatter, Katie. Let me watch you shatter.”
Her gaze locked on his, she expelled a breath, took another and did as he asked. Her body shook as she cried out his name, her gaze never leaving his. She allowed him to see exactly what he was doing to her. What he was making her feel. And his own passion exploded in response. She bit down hard on her bottom lip and rode the wave of completion he gave her and all Rafe could think was, it wasn’t enough. He had to see her face etched in pleasure again and again.
The last of her tremors had barely faded away when he pushed off the bed, grabbed his jeans off the floor and dug into the pocket.
“What’re you…” She stopped and smiled when she saw him pull out a foil-wrapped condom. Stretching her arms back over her head, she sighed and said, “Pretty sure of yourself tonight then, weren’t you? You came prepared.”
He ripped open the foil, sheathed himself and turned back to her. “Not sure of myself. Just hopeful.”
He leaned over her and Katie’s arms encircled his neck. “I think, Rafe Cole, that you’re always sure of yourself and tonight was no different.”
Couldn’t really argue with that, he thought. But the truth was, he had just wanted to be prepared. Unlike his father, Rafe didn’t run around the world leaving illegitimate children in his wake. In fact, he had no intention of ever having children and he for damn sure wouldn’t create a life because he was too lazy or too selfish to wear a condom.
None of which Katie needed to know.
Bending his head to claim another hard, fast kiss, Rafe looked into her eyes and said, “I’m not so sure of myself around you, Katie. And that’s the truth.”
She smiled, a slow curve of her mouth, then reached up to stroke her fingertips along his jawline. “I like hearing that.”
Wryly, he said, “Thought you would. Women love to know when they’ve got a man dazed and confused.”
“Are you dazed?” she asked, moving against him.
“With any luck,” he told her, “I’m about to be.”
He parted her thighs and settled himself between them. He looked his fill of her then, stroking her center with long, leisurely caresses until she was writhing with the tension.