defuse the moment and remove the intent from his face. But words deserted her. She was reminded of the other time she had felt Cruz stretched out over her, and the memory of his muscled body against hers couldn’t come close to the pleasure flooding her right now at the feel of it.
She moistened her lips nervously, and Cruz almost groaned out loud. That soft, wide mouth looked vulnerable now, lips slightly parted and trembling just a bit. He couldn’t begin to count the number of times he’d imagined it just this way. And he wasn’t capable of resisting it. His lips lowered toward her and her eyelids grew heavy. He trailed feather-light kisses along her jawline, and her neck arched involuntarily at the exquisite sensation. “Maddy, Maddy.” His voice was raw, and he seized one earlobe in his teeth to worry it gently. “Say my name,” he ordered raspily, dropping his attention to the delicate cord of her throat.
A shiver rushed through her at the first brush of his mouth. She tried to deny his request, as if by doing so she could also deny the tidal wave of desire that threatened to engulf them. Her head shook helplessly, but her defenses, already strained, were at the breaking point. His fingers threaded through her hair, and his lips were a fraction away from her mouth. Her eyes fluttered open. The sight of him above her, his handsome face stamped with passion, was more than she could bear. “Say my name, Maddy,” he ordered again. His lips moved against hers as he formed the words, and everything inside her longed to feel them against hers more firmly.
At her silence he brushed her mouth with his once, and then again. When her head raised slightly to force a stronger pressure, he pulled away. Her hands came up to tangle in his hair. “Cruz,” she said on a sigh, a whisper. And she was promptly rewarded.
“Yes.” His breath hissed out in satisfaction before he fiercely sealed her mouth with his own. One hand cupped the back of her head, and he took possession of her mouth with an intensity that shook her. Still she welcomed it, beckoning him closer. Her mouth twisted under his, matching his hunger, challenging it. She could feel the last vestiges of control slip away as Cruz’s demand elicited her own.
His kisses were full of promise, rife with heat. They destroyed the carefully cultivated barriers she kept to protect herself, and shredded the proper image she’d worn so long that she had begun to believe in it. She’d spent a lifetime trying to tame her own nature, hiding her wildness. But his raw hunger unleashed hers, and she responded with an answering rage of need. The taste of him was pure wicked sinfulness, and she was coaxed closer to taste more.
Cruz pressed her lips apart and their tongues tangled. He became belatedly aware of the unyielding floor beneath her, but his only concession to it was to roll over, never releasing her mouth, bringing her body to lie fully atop his. One hand slipped to her bottom, pressing her firmly in contact with his aching groin.
Madeline could feel her body soften instinctively against his turgid arousal. She moved slightly against him and a groan sounded in his throat. But still he kept her lips sealed with his. With one hand he cradled the back of her head, to keep her from turning away from him if she had been so inclined, which she wasn’t. The other hand went on an intimate exploration. It swept down her thighs, and then leisurely traced its path upward again, this time delving beneath her long sweater and settling on her bare back.
Heat radiated from each of his fingers. Her skin prickled with awareness, unbearably attuned to his touch. His teeth nibbled at her lower lip, distracting her, drawing her into a carnal duel with his tongue. She responded deeply, without reservation, to his mind- drugging kisses. The back hook of her bra gave way to his questing fingers but it wasn’t until he rolled them to their sides and slid his hand to her breast that she reacted.
Electric pleasure shimmered through her at the feel of his fingers teasing her nipple. Both of them moaned at the sensation, their breaths intermingling. She opened eyelids that seemed weighted to see Cruz gazing at her through slitted eyes, watching the pleasure chase across her features. She should have been alarmed at the fierce male desire stamped on his face, but instead she reveled in it. If she’d been stripped of the vestiges of the cool image she normally exuded, well, so had he. Gone was the amiable teasing demeanor that usually marked his handsome face. Right now it reflected a primitive intensity, that of a man caught between satisfaction and frustration.
He palmed her breast and swallowed her whimper at the action. Her nipple stabbed at his palm and he wanted suddenly, savagely, to put an end to this teasing. He wanted her naked, stretched out beneath him, and he wanted her hands on him, all over him, showing the same restless curiosity about his body that he felt for hers. They had ignited too fast for him to maintain control much longer, and the floor wasn’t where he wanted to take her. He wanted her in his bed, where he had imagined her the first time he’d laid eyes on her.
His thumb batted at her nipple, and he pressed a kiss to the pulse on her neck. “Ah, Maddy. This isn’t the right place for us this first time. I don’t want that delectable backside of yours covered with bruises.”
She nipped at his chin consideringly. “If you were a gentleman,
“I want you in my bed. Beneath me.” When he raised his head again, his voice was lower, more guttural. “I want to be inside you, to feel for myself the fire you hide from the world.” He pressed kiss after kiss to her throat, her jaw and cheekbones. “Come upstairs with me, Maddy. Come with me now.”
His raspy tone and earthy words rocked the tempest inside her. She didn’t question how easily he’d found the inner flame she usually kept locked firmly away. Just as she didn’t question the answering fire she’d found in him. Her neck arched under his ardent mouth and reason fled. Reason hadn’t played a part in this situation from the beginning. It didn’t explain why she longed to unbutton his shirt and touch him as intimately as he was touching her. Reason wouldn’t allow her to yield to the temptation he presented, or to ignore the defenses she’d erected to keep him at a distance.
She’d lived her life by logic for the past several years, allowing it to dictate every move she made. It hadn’t been an easy task; there was a spark deep inside her that needed careful tending, lest it flare up and mar the mapped course she’d set for herself. He was asking for too much, way too much. He was tempting her to deny the careful caution she used to keep emotions at bay. And she was afraid that he wouldn’t be satisfied until she gave to hint more than she had to any other man.
Fear spiked suddenly in her then, as much fear as it was possible to feel while white-hot tendrils of heat still curled beneath his lips on her neck. She used the fear, drew its cloak closer around herself, to help combat the incessant temptation of the man above her. Fiercely she summoned the memories of her last surrender, and how badly her emotions had failed her with Dennis Belding. She called on her fading logic for all the reminders of why Cruz Martinez was the last man on earth right now she should trust. Being wrong about Dennis had almost destroyed her. She’d almost destroyed herself for making such a colossal mistake. How could she live with herself if she made another one here, with this man?
She wedged her hands between them, sliding them to his shoulders, meaning to push him away. But her fingers clenched suddenly as his teeth took a tiny nip at her throat, and her neck arched in unconscious pleasure as his tongue swept the same area in lavish apology.
For once, rational thought seemed to vanish, swirling away in the mist of sensual desire. Instead of caution she felt emotion, strong and pure, and so intense that she gasped from it. It had been such a long time since she’d let herself feel, so long since anything or anyone had been allowed to reach this part of herself, which she guarded so zealously.
“Now, Maddy,” that dark voice whispered to her. “Come with me now.”
She was beckoned closer to the savage fire burning inside him. She was forced to deal with consequences of spending years with her own wild nature locked away. She hadn’t reckoned on meeting someone who could set it free without her conscious permission. Now it was liberated, a conflagration of emotion that spread like wildfire within her, and she reveled in the torrential outpouring.
“Yes,” she whispered, the word barely leaving her lips before they were covered with his. Then he pulled away, his breathing ragged. Slowly he rose to his feet, reaching down to take both her hands and pulling her up against him. And holding her hand, he led her silently up the stairway to his room.
Madeline was dizzy when she reached the loft, the kisses they’d shared on the way more at fault than their spiral journey. Her gaze flickered over the room nervously as she felt uncertainty intrude. The area was meticulously neat. The charcoal gray carpeting looked freshly vacuumed. The bed was made, a comforter of black, gray and maroon spread tidily over it. A huge domed window was set in the wall above the bed. Rays from the fading sun beamed through it, painting the bed with fingers of light.
Cruz’s eyes followed the path of her gaze. He wondered what she thought of the room he’d designed, but even more urgently, he wondered how she would look stretched out across his bed as he’d long imagined her, her body
