His fuzzy eyes were warmer now than they’d been before. And as they stared at each other, they grew hotter.
The heat she sensed in him affected her. Her skin flushed. Her body tightened. A pulsing began between her legs.
There were any number of things Ria could have done right now. She could have said something harmless to break the tension. She could have gotten up to leave. She could have cuddled up against him and turned the embrace back into comfort and safety.
She wasn’t trapped in this moment. There were things she could do to escape.
But she didn’t do any of those things.
She was throbbing now with feeling, with the desire to touch his hard muscles, warm skin, familiar face, mussed hair. The depth of the need overwhelmed her, swallowing up everything else.
It wasn’t lust as she’d always understood it—nothing nearly as simple as pure desire. And it compelled her far more completely than raw lust ever could.
She reached up to touch his face, feeling the scratchy bristles on his jaw, the texture of his scar. “Jacob,” she murmured.
Evidently that was enough. He gave a rough groan, took her head in both hands, and kissed her hard.
Six
JACOB HADN’T EXPECTED Ria to show up in their spot, so he wasn’t emotionally prepared for her sudden appearance. He’d drunk too much. He’d been buffeted with too many hard feelings from the talk with his grandfather.
He’d already felt like he was barely holding on to the strings of his control, and Ria’s presence had snapped the final threads.
It had been years—long, empty years—since he’d been so vulnerable. Open. Completely unprotected.
Which was probably why he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her, even though he knew it was a mistake.
As soon as her hand touched his face, he was gone.
When he claimed her mouth with his, she wrapped one arm around his neck. Pleasure and excitement rose up in a hot rush as his lips moved against hers, his tongue teasing until she opened fully to him. Without conscious volition, he was pushing her down until she was reclining on her back, the blanket protecting her from the damp grass. In this position, he was able to move on top of her so he could feel her soft, slender body beneath his as they kissed.
She was just as hungry and needy as he was. She rocked eagerly beneath him, the motion generating urgent throbs at his hardening groin. She made little whimpers into the kiss, matching the nakedly greedy sounds that were coming from his own throat. She gripped handfuls of his hair, sometimes pulling it so hard it hurt.
He didn’t mind. The slight pain only intensified his rising need and pleasure. His hands were moving now—as if they were disconnected from the rest of him—sliding under her top, under her skirt, feeling every part of her body he could reach. She was soft and warm and nearly writhing beneath him, her back arching up when he found her nipples or the inside of her thighs.
The pressure behind his eyes and in his ears and his throat was as much emotion as desire. Because this was Ria. He’d been crazy about her since he was twelve years old, and nothing in the past fifteen years had come close to changing that.
Wanting to give her as much pleasure as he was experiencing, he tried to lower his mouth to her breasts. Her top kept getting in the way, so he yanked it off over her head in one quick move. She wore a little white lacy bra, so he fumbled behind her until he found the hooks to undo. Then he could finally pull the fabric away from her skin and stare down at her bare breasts.
She was slim all over, so she wasn’t large. But the soft curves and rose-brown nipples and so much tan skin made him want to howl.
Some kind of primitive impulse he’d forgotten was part of his nature.
“Jacob,” Ria gasped, arching her spine again as she stared up at him with heated dark eyes. “Jacob, please.”
With a groan, he lowered his mouth to take one nipple in his mouth. He teased it with his tongue until she was making delicious little mewing sounds. Then he sucked hard, and she clawed at his back, her nails scratching almost painfully even through the fabric of his shirt.
When he switched to her other breast, she wrapped one long leg around him, hiking it higher every time he applied new suction.
“Jacob!” Her voice was loud and thready.
He let her nipple slip from his mouth and moved groggy eyes to her face.
“Haven’t we waited long enough?”
“Yes,” he replied gruffly. “We’ve waited forever.”
“I’m ready. I’m more than ready. And I can’t wait anymore.”
With a helpless moan that wasn’t at all like the man he thought he’d become, he kissed her mouth. Deep and wet and ravenous.
As they kissed, they both fumbled with his jeans until they’d undone him and pulled out his erection. He nearly choked when her little fingers stroked him up and down, and for a moment he was convinced he would lose it completely.
He managed to control the impulse by focusing on pulling off the little underwear she wore. Her skirt was bunched up around her hips, so it wasn’t in the way.
Nothing was in the way.
He parted her legs, and she pulled him eagerly into position, and then he could feel the soft, wet warmth of her intimate flesh at his tip.
“Jacob, please. Please, now!”
He pushed in, moaning uninhibitedly as the wet heat of her sheathed him slowly.
They gasped together, unmoving for a minute as he could feel her muscles relaxing, adjusting to the penetration. He used the time to breathe. Restrain his impulse to let go.
When she bent her legs up on either side of his hips and started to rock up into him, he began to thrust, holding himself
