held up the can with a nasty smile.
'Don't you dare,' she choked, wriggling against him in a way that had his blood boiling.
'Never dare me, Zoe.' With that he deliberately and slowly shot whipped cream over her, ignoring her struggles and squeals. Or maybe using them as an excuse to shoot lower, across her front. Her outer plaid shirt, unbuttoned, had come off her shoulders in the struggle, pinning her arms to her sides. All the more perfect, he thought diabolically. It took only a couple of more squirts to have her T-shirt plastered to her breasts, the firm curves perfectly outlined for his enjoyment.
Her nipples were hard and straining against the thin cotton, and his mouth watered. His body tightened and he held her still, staring down at the sight he'd created, wondering how in the hell he was supposed to let her go now.
'I'm going to scream,' she gasped, but her eyes told him something entirely different.
'Yeah?' he whispered thickly. 'Do it.' Still holding her, he bent her back over his arm and put his mouth to her throat, sucking the gooey stuff from her skin in little love bites, waiting to see if she made good on her threat.
She didn't scream at all, but moaned and clutched at him. He trailed his tongue down, licking as he went, and Zoe went wild in his arms, leaving no doubt in his mind as to what she wanted. He dragged open-mouthed kisses down, down, then hovered over an aroused and waiting nipple.
She stopped breathing.
So did he.
He felt as though he were drowning in desire, needing her beyond all sanity. His tongue darted out and licked at her through her cotton T-shirt and she did scream then, arching up so that he could suck her breast into his mouth.
When she was without reason, Ty lifted his head, gazing down into her flushed, damp face. 'This is where you belong, Zoe. In my arms. I'm going to prove it to you.'
Her eyes cleared and flashed, her mouth opened, surely to claim otherwise, and he took full advantage, swallowing her angry words with his lips. He could taste the lingering brandy, and her own sweet breath. Could taste her desire, and the fear of that very thing. Could taste the confusion and remembered pain of her past, and that hurt he tasted touched him as nothing else could have.
Gentling the kiss, he drew her even closer, sank his fingers into her glorious, now-sticky hair and deepened their connection. She responded immediately, pressing against him with an urgency he understood all too well. This had been too long in the coming, too much tension, and he had no idea if he could slow down enough to do it right.
But then he slid his hips against hers and she stiffened in his arms, inexperienced and uncertain. There was just something about her, so wise and yet innocent, and it tugged at his soul.
And he knew in that moment that for her, he could slow down.
He could do anything.
'Zoe.'
She looked at him from beneath slumberous green eyes. Their bodies were glued together by the whipped cream, belly to belly, chest to chest. He wanted to make love with her, but he wanted so much more. And even more shocking, he wanted her to want those things, too. 'I want-'
'Kiss me again, Ty.'
'But-'
'Dammit, you started this, now kiss me!'
Taking matters into her own hands, she wriggled her hands free, grabbed his ears and pulled his head down to hers.
The kiss was wild, and he was weak, losing himself in the woman holding him as if she'd never experienced anything like it before. As if he were all she could ever want.
A nice fantasy, but he wanted it to be a reality.
'You talk too much,' she murmured against his lips. 'Make love to me instead. Please, Ty. Make love to me.'
Chapter 15
So much for him claiming this woman as his own. Zoe was doing that for him.
She reached for the hem of his sticky shirt. Pulled it over his head. Stared in wide wonder at his bared chest, letting out an appreciative breath that made him laugh shakily.
'You're so beautiful,' she whispered.
He did the same, pulled off her shirt, and was equally awed. 'Not like you.' His voice was thick with need, and he was surprised he could speak at all. 'I want you, Zoe. I want you skin to skin, beneath me. I want to hear you cry my name as I sink into you.' Her eyes darkened to a forest green, her breath quickened. 'I want you wild for me,' he whispered. 'Only me. Always only me.'
Now fear flared in her again, mixing with her need, and he didn't care because this kind of fear he could assuage. Once again he drew her close, slipping his hands down her bare sides, his thumbs flirting with the curves of her breasts. 'I want you to want me back, to give me everything you have. One hundred percent of you, the real you.'
Even in a haze of desire, she understood every word, which only increased her fear. She had hurt him by holding back and he needed to know, in this one area at least, that she would give all. But she herself was just beginning to know the real Zoe. How could she share that woman? 'Ty-'
His fingers played with the front clasp of her bra.
'Um… Ty?'
The clasp fell open.
'I…'
'What, sweetheart?' His hands found her bare breasts and every thought danced right out of her head.
She wanted skin to skin, too. She wanted to be beneath him. She wanted to go wild, right here, right now, because in Ty's arms she was everything she wanted to be. He could make her feel loving, warm, wonderful… a somebody. In his arms she was a passionate, hungry, beautiful woman, and she liked it.
She surged forward and kissed him, and it wasn't sweet or tender. It was hot, deep and full of need. She jerked him closer, then closer still, until she could feel every sticky, powerful muscle of him. She could feel his hard length behind the buttons on his jeans, and when she slid against it as he had done to her earlier, he moaned low in his throat, a sound that thrilled her.
'Be sure.' His voice was gritty, harsh.
He was barely holding on to his control, and Zoe's excitement surged. She'd never been more sure of anything in her life. '
He pressed her back against the counter. His expression was fierce, nearly violent. 'All of you,' he demanded. 'This time, all of you.' He wasn't talking about her body now, but he'd take that, too.
'Yes.'
Her simple acquiescence fueled him. Lifting her left leg up and around his waist, he pressed himself intimately against her, making her gasp. His eyes flared as he slid himself against her slowly in a mimic of what he really wanted to do. His tongue teased hers, his hands streaked over her. The rhythm of his hips drove her to the very edge, making her dizzy and overwhelmingly out of control. Consumed by heat, crazed for more of this sampling of true passion and undeniable need, she dragged him down to the floor.
'Zoe.' His voice was so rough and grainy she hardly recognized it. 'Not here,' he managed to say, pulling away. 'God. Not on the floor, not the first time. Let me-'
'No.' She couldn't let reason intrude, and it would if she let him stop now to take her to bed. She wrapped her jeans-clad legs around his waist, holding him, pressing herself against his rigid heat.
He went still, every muscle tense, his eyes glittering. And when he would have spoken again, she slid against that same spot. 'Please, Ty.'
He growled as his restraint broke. Reaching for her jeans, he nearly tore them off as he dragged them down
