Shock rippled through her. At his explicit words and that he’d wanted her as far back as when she’d charged into his office. A tenderness that had no place between them tried to infiltrate the lust, but she battled it back. Self-preservation. She had to keep this about the sex.
Joshua didn’t give her an opportunity to respond—if she’d been able to anyway—because he knelt between her legs. After whisking off her shoes, he stroked his hands up her calves, over her knees and palmed her inner thighs. Her breath, loud in her own ears, soughed in and out of her chest as she waited for him to graze the swollen, damp flesh covered by black lace. Air whispered over her but did nothing to cool the heat building inside her, stoked by his words and caresses.
His fingertips danced over her, and with a mewl that would probably embarrass her later, she rocked into the too-light but too-much touch. Sensitive and so deprived, her sex clenched hard, sending a spasm through her. She was ready to beg, to write a freaking formal entreaty, if he would only give her what her body literally wept for when he tugged aside the soaked panel of her panties and plunged a thick, long finger inside her.
She screamed.
And shattered. The release swept through her, over her, the pinched quality of it bordering on pain. It was good. So good. But still not enough. Even as the final waves of orgasm ebbed, the need returned, brewing underneath the blissed-out lethargy.
With a snarl curling his lips, Joshua yanked her panties down her useless legs and spread her wide for him. He dived into her, his mouth covering her still-quivering flesh, his tongue curling around the pulsing button of nerves cresting her mound. He growled against her, the sound vibrating against her, shoving her closer to sensory overload. He lapped at her, sucked, feasted on her in a way that should’ve been lewd, but instead was hot as hell.
“Josh.” His name burst from her, a half shout, half whimper. Pleasure ratcheted from simmering to full-out conflagration. Her fingers drove into his hair, gripping his head, holding him to her. Pushing him away.
Too much.
Oh God, not enough.
He had to stop.
She’d kill him if he dared to stop.
If her mind was conflicted, her body knew what it wanted. What it craved. Her hips bucked and rolled under his mouth, urging him on. Demanding he give her everything he had. And as her lower back tightened and tingled in that telltale sign of impending orgasm, she gasped. Never, as in never, had she come more than once. She didn’t think it possible for her. But the jerking of her hips, the shaking of her limbs, belied that belief, proving that she just needed the right partner to bring her to the brink of pleasure—and surpass it.
No. Not the right partner.
Joshua.
Another scream built in her throat, scratching its way up when he pulled away. Leaving her aching, throbbing, hurting on the edge of release.
“What?” she rasped. “Please.” The two words were all she could manage, lust and an aborted orgasm confusing her.
Above her, Joshua surged to his feet. He snatched his wallet from his pants and tossed it on the floor next to her shoulder. In seconds, he wrenched his pants, shoes and socks from his big body, leaving him standing extraordinarily, unbearably beautiful before her. Joshua clothed in suits and tuxedos was gorgeous. Naked, stripped of all signs of civility, was...devastating.
As if drawn to him by an invisible thread, she sat up, rising to her knees, settling her palms on lean, powerfully muscled thighs that flexed under her palms. She sighed, sliding them up the defined columns...reaching for the thick, heavy, long length of him.
“No.” His long fingers caught her hand before she could touch him. He knelt between her legs again, pressing her palm to his mouth and placing a searing openmouthed kiss there. “If I let you get your hand on me, this would be over quick. And, sweetheart, when I come, I plan to do it buried balls deep inside you, not on these pretty fingers.”
He leaned over her, grabbing his wallet and removing a square foil packet. Quickly, he ripped it open and sheathed himself, then, thank God, he was over her, his erection nudging her entrance. Slowly pressing into her. Stretching her. Burning her.
Branding her.
Pain and pleasure mixed in a wicked, confusing blend that sent quakes rippling through her.
“Shh,” Joshua crooned, brushing a kiss over her cheekbone, temple and, finally, lips. “Easy, sweetheart. You can take me. All of me.” Until his reassurances, she hadn’t been aware of the whimpers spilling from her or the restless shifting to get closer, to back away... She didn’t know. The pressure of his possession... It filled her almost to overflowing. It overwhelmed her.
For a stark second, panic seized her. In this moment, she felt owned. Not just herself anymore. With him planted so deep inside her, she didn’t belong to herself—she belonged to him. To them.
“Look at me, Sophie,” he murmured, the soft tone carrying an underlying vein of steel. She couldn’t help but obey and opened her eyes to meet his. Golden flames burned in a nearly dark brown field, scorching her. “Do you have any idea how you
