Ivy’s stomach did a slow dip and roll and the dampness at her core increased. He was bigger there than David had been. She wasn’t a virgin, but she wasn’t exactly the most experienced woman on the planet, either. She’d only had one lover and that had been the man she had planned to marry.
Well, there was no marriage in sight here, she told herself as she looked from Tanner’s hard, all-too-eager flesh up to his eyes again. But she wasn’t looking for that anymore, either. What she needed from him was more basic. More primal.
She was here and she wasn’t going to second-guess herself. She and Tanner had been heading toward this moment since the first day she’d stepped inside this house. She knew that without a doubt. There was an attraction between them. A fundamental link that pulled them toward each other even when reason should have kept them apart.
And she wouldn’t argue with it. Not today.
Reaching for him, she closed her hand around the thickness of him and watched as he closed his eyes and drew in one long, deep breath. She was more than ready for this. More than impatient to feel him inside her. When she stroked him and slid her fingertips across the sensitive tip of him, he stopped her, and shook his head. “Just a minute.”
He reached into his pocket, grabbed a condom and tore it open. She smiled. In her hunger and hurry, she’d tossed caution out the window along with good sense. Thank heaven Tanner was still conscious enough to do the right thing.
When he’d sheathed himself, he looked into her eyes, gave her a slow grin and then set both hands at her waist. Lifting her off her feet, he ordered, “Hook your legs behind my back.”
She locked her gaze with his and did just as he’d ordered.
His big hands cupped her bottom and kneaded her soft flesh with an urgent tenderness that sent ripples of expectation rolling through her. “Tanner…”
“Right there with you, baby,” he murmured, his eyes staring directly into hers.
She read the same wild, raw desire in his eyes that she knew was written in her own. She struggled for air as an invisible iron band tightened around her chest. She held on to his shoulders and gasped as he pushed himself into her body in one sure thrust. She gasped at the intimate invasion. It had been a long time for her and her body had to adjust to his presence. She settled herself more firmly over him and quickly felt tingles of appreciation light up inside her.
Ivy moved on him then, and her eyes slid shut on a groan as she twisted her hips, reveling in the thick fullness within her. Impaled on his body, she opened her eyes again to meet his. As he moved her up and down on his length, their gazes remained fixed, as if neither of them could bear to break the intimate connections binding them together.
She felt him shudder and watched a muscle in his jaw twitch as he fought for control. She smiled to herself as she silently admitted that she didn’t want him controlled. She wanted him wild, abandoned. So she took his mouth with hers, tangling her tongue with his, giving him her breath and greedily taking his for her own. She lowered one hand to stroke his flat nipple with the edge of her thumb and when he groaned into her mouth, she knew she’d won.
He spun around abruptly, braced her back against the door and with his mouth still fused to hers, took her in just the way she wanted. Over and over again, he plunged in and out of her body with a soul shaking rhythm. Each thrust was harder, deeper, than the one before, until all that mattered was the next one and the next. Her mind splintered of thoughts beyond the all-consuming need to reach the pinnacle she was racing toward.
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him hungrily as his body lay siege to hers. Tension coiled and tightened inside her as she strained for the release she knew was just out of reach. At last, when she thought she might die from the pleasure, a blinding orgasm crashed down on top of her.
Ivy tore her mouth from his and shouted his name as a flood of incredible sensations raced through her with the force of an explosion. And moments later, as the last of the ripples wound through her, Tanner buried his face in the curve of her neck, groaned her name aloud and emptied himself, shuddering in her arms until they were both trembling and clinging to each other for support.
Seconds, then minutes ticked past and still they stood there, braced against a door, each of them too shaken by what had happened to try to move.
Heart hammering in her chest, Ivy absently listened to the mingled sounds of their harsh breathing. When she thought she could speak without her voice breaking, she whispered on a strained chuckle, “Tanner King, you’re a man of many talents.”
“Ivy Holloway,” he managed to say before he lifted his head to meet her eyes, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Eight
He carried her upstairs to the bedroom.
Ivy smiled up at him and Tanner felt like a damn superhero for carrying her. The truth was, he didn’t want to let go of her long enough for her to climb the stairs on her own.
He’d had her once, hard and fast and it had only fed the quickening fires inside him. Now he wanted to see his fantasy in the flesh, so to speak. He wanted to stretch her out, naked, across his bed. Then he wanted to take his time and lick his way up and down her amazing body.
Instantly, he was hard again and wishing he’d just peeled his jeans off downstairs. The walk down the long, dimly lit hallways seemed to take forever. But soon enough, he was kicking his bedroom door open and stalking across the room.
The heavy, bloodred quilt was pulled back already, displaying fresh white sheets. A dozen pillows were mounded against the headboard and the last glow of the sunset painted the sky outside the window a deep orange. One bedside lamp was turned on, creating a golden puddle of light and when Tanner laid her down on the bed, her bare skin seemed to glow in its radiance.
She stretched her arms up over her head and sighed as she wriggled against the mattress. “I feel wonderful,” she told him.
“You’re about to feel even better,” he said.
“Promises, promises,” she teased and held her arms out for him.
Tanner shook his head slowly, tore off his jeans and grabbed a fresh condom from the bedside table. He sheathed himself again and noticed that her gaze was locked on the motion. Instantly, he went even harder and he wouldn’t have thought that possible. It seemed though, that where Ivy was concerned, his body couldn’t get enough.
“Tanner, come to me,” she coaxed.
“In time,” he said and went down on his knees beside the bed. Grabbing hold of her, he pulled her to the edge of the mattress and draped her legs over his shoulders.