Seducme Me aka Erotic Invitation

“Absolutely.” She obviously still didn’t believe in her beauty or worth and given what he’d learned of her history he understood.

But when she was with him, dammit, she shouldn’t have to doubt. He drew back and stood, stripping quickly, divesting himself of his clothes until he could join her again on the bed. Heat arced between them, hot and powerful.

Her eyes bore into him, watching his erection. “You see what you do to me.” She was seeing him naked, yes, but she also saw inside him, deeper than any woman had before.

A wry, yet adorable smile twisted her lips. “It’s a known fact men don’t always think with their…well you know, when they’re looking to get lucky.”

He laughed at her forthright response. That was his Mallory, the honest woman who didn’t hold back what she was thinking. “I wouldn’t call it getting lucky if it was just an easy lay with someone I didn’t give a damn about.”

Her lashes fluttered, showing her uncertainty. “Well it’s also a known fact men will say many things in the heat of the moment and mean very few of them.”

“We’re not in the heat of the moment.” He eased forward until he could push her legs apart and kneel between. “Yet.” He kept his gaze on hers but bent lower, his lips inches from paradise.

She let out a slow exhale of air. “You talk a good game.” And her husky voice told him how much she liked his talk-as well as his obvious intent.

“It’s no game. If all I wanted was any woman, I wouldn’t be here now.” Because she was too damn complicated, too compelling, too everything as far as he was concerned.

If he lost himself inside her to forget the pain of the day, he risked losing himself to her forever. But he was here and too far gone. He wasn’t running away.

“And sweetheart, if all I wanted was any woman, I’d be inside you by now, taking care of my needs instead of doing this.” He dipped his head and licked her, tasting her femininity, feeling her heat and fueling the dewy dampness.

“Believe me now?” he asked.

A shuddering moan was her only response. Her hands gripped the bedding by his sides and her hips jerked upward. From her liquid heat Jack knew she was close to the edge and he couldn’t wait any longer. Good thing he didn’t have to worry about readying her for the next step.

She caught him off guard, toppling him over onto his back, straddling his waist. He barely saw her reach for the drawer or rip open the foil packet, but he most definitely felt her ease the moist plastic sheath over his penis, and pause for deliberate handling that went above and beyond merely donning protection.

The desire to drive himself inside her was strong. The need to watch her as she lowered herself onto him and accommodated his width and length even stronger. But he couldn’t stop himself from touching her, from taking his fingertips and parting her feminine flesh and from placing himself at her opening.

He grabbed for her hips at the same moment she released her restraint. He slid inside her heated core, feeling her slick and moist passage close around him.

“God.” The word erupted from him in a guttural groan. Her body’s initial resistance was his tight consummate pleasure. He’d never felt anything so hot, so right, so perfect, he thought, and their fit brought a choking sensation to his throat.

And because he’d promised himself he’d watch, he forced his heavy eyelids open and pushing himself up on his elbows, he glanced down. Big mistake, he thought as he viewed himself cushioned inside her body. If he thought he’d be a goner before, he knew he was lost now.

Or was he actually found? Shaking off the intense thoughts in favor of intense pleasure he began a steady thrusting motion that intensified every sensation rocketing through his body.

Mallory nearly screamed from the incredible heat and dizzying friction they were creating. She was wet silk surrounding hardened flesh. Though she thought she’d steeled herself against an overload of emotion, she’d been wrong.

What she felt for this man was so powerful and strong, it would remain with her long after they were no more, something she didn’t want to think about yet. She clenched her muscles tighter around his hard, straining erection, knowing her climax was in sight.

Her grinding met with his thrusting resistance and the tantalizing waves grew stronger. Jack grabbed onto her hips and she opened her eyes to meet his clouded but steady gaze. “Let yourself go, sweetheart.” He lifted his hips, bringing her so close. And he waited.

She tried to breathe and a needy cry came out instead. “Then you take me there-and come with me.” She swiveled her bottom in a slow circular motion. Her pelvis gyrated into his hips and he penetrated so deep the word joining took on a whole new meaning.

“Aah, God. Now.” He thrust and she tightened her muscles around him.

Swirling waves of unending pleasure swamped her. She looked into his incredible face and meeting her gaze, he pumped harder. She couldn’t think, let alone breathe. Their bodies moved together in unison, his thrusting movements coming faster and faster until her grinding resistance became the focal point of erotic pleasure.

“Yes, yes…” She let out a cry of pleasure in a voice she didn’t recognize as her own.

“Yes.” He echoed her words as he came, bursting inside her as he shook with the power of his orgasm.

And the world as she knew it fragmented into millions of pieces of light, blindsiding her-not by the release itself, but because this time they came together-and the beauty brought tears to her eyes.

Her breathing came in shallow gasps as she dropped her body weight onto his. “I love you.” The words escaped before she could stop them and considering what had come before, she couldn’t call them back even if she wanted to.

She didn’t. And that scared her most of all.

MALLORY LAY on top of him, breathless, sated…and expecting an answer, if Jack’s hunch was right. But he had nothing to say. Nothing she’d want to hear, anyway.

Before Mallory, Jack had always had sex. He’d had a damn good hunch as he walked into this room, that this was much more. He’d been right. She wasn’t the only one falling.

Years of preconceived notions and divorce statistics told him they didn’t stand a chance, yet for the first time he considered the other statistics. The marriages that survived. The people who stayed together for reasons that transcended convenience and security. He was willing to look the idea of a soul mate in the eye and not run for protection.

He didn’t miss the irony. The one time in his life he was willing to face the future, he didn’t have one.

Mallory exhaled and he felt the whoosh of air against his cheek. “I won’t lie and say I said it in the heat of the moment, but don’t worry, I don’t expect you to say I love you back.”

“I do care.” More than was prudent. “And I wish I could say the words.” But he couldn’t acknowledge he might feel the same because to do so would jeopardize everything she wanted out of life.

Jack was the least selfless person he knew, yet protecting Mallory and the things she held dear had become his priority. Her career most of all.

“Hey, wishing doesn’t make things happen, and we both knew the rules going in.”

Jack didn’t buy her lighthearted tone. “Rules change.”

“But outlooks don’t. And we both know yours.”

He forced a laugh he didn’t feel. “Yes, it parallels yours. Career first. Everything else second.”

“Right.”

Yet suddenly faced with the thought of returning to his empty New York City apartment didn’t feel as invigorating or liberating as it once had.

But he’d already made partner, already achieved his dream. Whatever her reasons for wanting to make partner, and regardless of whether it would alter her relationship with her parents, that was her goal. One she’d worked and strived for. One she’d suppressed her sense of self to achieve.

I love you.

He couldn’t admit he felt the same. Couldn’t confront his own demons and decide whether to take the risk and trust Mallory with his heart. He had no choice but to push the truth away.

For her sake.