“Not Chuck.”
Nope. Not even close. But she remained excited as her heart executed a slow summersault at the sight of Cam standing there on her doorstep. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, looking unsettled, frustrated, and sexy as hell. He’d changed out of his weather gear and into baggy cargoes and a sweatshirt, hood up, smelling like soap, shampoo, and sexy guy. “Change your mind about that drink?”
“Yeah. No. Christ.” He shoved off his hood, tunneling his fingers into his hair.
“I don’t mean to be bossy or demanding,” she teased gently, “but that glower is really putting a damper on my lingering sexual high from the mountain. So if you could at least try to look like you had a nice time until you’re out of my sight again, that would help my ego. A lot.”
He looked at her a moment, then behind him as if to make sure they were alone. Clearly not trusting even that, he nudged her inside, followed her, then shut the door.
And looked at her some more, which worked for her. “Hot chocolate?” she asked.
“What are you wearing beneath that T-shirt?”
“Not much,” she admitted, wishing he wore the same. Though his sweatshirt looked damn good on that torso. He had his hands on his lean hips, his legs looking longer than the legal limit in those cargo pants. His boots were as scarred as his poor heart, the one she wanted to hold in her hands and keep warm and safe.
Which was a little like wishing she could pet a wild mountain cat, really, because no one touched Cam’s heart.
He was doing his damnedest to see to that.
His eyes were stark green and filled to the brim with intelligence and heat, though minus his usual wry amusement. His mouth was a little grim and firm, and she had the sudden urge to kiss all that grimness away. “Okay, while you’re very pretty all sexy and brooding,” she said, “I’m going to have to insist that you loosen up-”
Which was all she got out before he backed her to the door. “I can’t loosen up. I can’t do anything with you thinking that what happened up there tonight was the best I’ve got to give you. It wasn’t, by the way.”
It was hard to concentrate with his rock-hard thighs pressing into her bared ones. The thick cotton of his pants felt soft against her skin, the muscles beneath those cargoes not even close to soft. Nope, they were rock hard.
And that wasn’t all that was hard. She had to touch, had to, so she glided her hands down his chest-
“Oh no, you don’t.” Taking her hands in his, he lifted them up to either side of her head, pressing in so that she could feel his erection. “I’m not going off early again. This time it’s about you.” Dipping his head, he ran his hot gaze over her.
She knew what he saw. Her shirt had risen up on her thighs, most likely revealing at least some of her sunny yellow bikini panties. The knowledge that she was so exposed made thinking all but impossible. “I told you, I got plenty out of tonight.”
He touched his forehead to hers. “I need another chance here.”
“So this is an ego visit? To prove your sexual prowess?”
He paused at that, and she waited for a line from him, a charming, arousing line that would melt her panties right off, as if they needed any more melting. He could have done it too. He was the master of charm when he wanted to be, and she already knew she was helpless against it.
But in a move that startled her to the bone, he went with complete and bare honesty. “Yeah.”
She stared at him, moved in spite of herself. “You don’t have to prove anything to me. You should know that by now.”
“I don’t want to prove anything at all, I want to show you.” He nudged a thigh between hers, gliding along the bare flesh of her inner thighs, brushing her panties.
Her breath caught audibly.
“I want to make you feel some of what I feel when I’m with you,” he told her.
He meant it. “Again, then,” she murmured.
“And then afterward, maybe I’ll be able to breathe around you.”
“You can’t breathe around me?”
“No, and I need to be able to breathe, Katie.”
“So you think afterward, it’ll all go away? This attraction? Is that how it works for you?”
“Yes.” Then he kissed her. Completely. Thoroughly. And good God, the man could kiss. He kissed all her thoughts right out of her head; then he kissed the bones right out of her body. He kissed her until she couldn’t have even said her name to save her own life.
It went on, long and hot, deep and wet, his tongue stroking hers, his hands letting go of hers to stroke her body as well, for how long she didn’t know. And when they came up for air, she could only stare at him.
Not breathing any too steadily himself, he offered a self-deprecating smile that went straight to her heart. His hair was messed up from her fingers. She’d gotten his sweatshirt off, his shirt unbuttoned. Her hand was over his heart. The hair on his chest was soft compared to the hard, hot flesh beneath. His pants were half undone, and the sight of his ripped abs upped her heat several million degrees.
Closing her eyes, she set her cheek to his chest and felt the beat of his heart thumping in tune to hers. “I’m awfully worked up here, Cam.”
His hand came up to her head, the other stroking down her back, slipping into her panties. “That makes two of us.” He squeezed her butt, then dipped lower, his fingers unerringly finding her and ripping a hungry sound from her throat as she spread her legs for him.
“God, you’re sweet.” He bent a little, seeking her mouth with his again as he touched her. “So damn sweet.”
“Not that sweet,” she managed, pushing his shirt the rest of the way off his shoulders. He bunched hers up to her waist to take in her skimpy panties. “Ah, man. First pink, now yellow-” His hands were shaky as he continued to lift her shirt up, letting out another of those sexy raw groans when he revealed her bare breasts. “Look at you,” he murmured.
“Listen, I know we already rushed-Ohmigod,” she choked out when he rasped a tongue over a nipple, then drew it into his mouth. “Rushed things, before, on the mountain-”
He made his way to her other breast and her eyes rolled back in her head. “Cam-Please. Oh, please-”
Her rushed, breathless words seemed to unleash him.
Them.
In less time than it took to draw in her next breath, he had the shirt off over her head, sailing across the room behind him, and his fingers hooked in her panties, tugging them down.
No slouch, she got his pants to his thighs, freeing his essentials.
And, oh God, his essentials…He was big and hard and hot, and her being so naked while he was still relatively clothed was a shocking turn-on. But before she could take the time to fully admire what she held in both her hands, he’d crouched down and gently spread her legs farther; then he leaned in and put his mouth on her, stroking her with his tongue.
Her bones liquefied. She dug her fingers into his shoulders for an anchor in her spinning world while he added his fingers to the mix, sliding one inside her as he flicked his tongue over the current center of her universe. Her hips pushed at him in slow, rocking circles that she couldn’t control. “Cam,” she gasped, on the edge, the very edge, and when he responded by sucking her gently into his mouth, she took a flying leap.
She was anchored upright by his hands on her hips, which turned out to be all that kept her from sinking to the floor. When the blood pumping through her veins dulled to a low roar, she blinked her vision clear. His eyes were blazing with male satisfaction, while his entire body practically vibrated with tension as he straightened, a condom in his fingers. Her hands bumped into his as she tried to help roll it over the length of him, but all she really accomplished was making herself hotter. Him, too, if his heavy breathing and the sheen of sweat on his brow meant anything. He lifted her up, thunked her against the door, and then with one thrust was inside her.
Filling her nearly to bursting.
