“No.”
“No?” he asked.
“No,” I confirmed.
He placed a finger under my chin, tilting it softly and breathing. “I feel it too.”
“You do?” I asked, hushed.
He nodded silently. “Yes.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “I feel you.”
I didn’t reply, struck by the way his hands on my skin felt so...natural.
He leaned close to my ear. “You feel familiar.” His fingers linked at my wrist. “Love begins with a lump in the throat…” he recited, pressing a kiss at my wrist, turning it and dotting in a slow circle.
“You read poetry?”
“No.” His beard tickled as he spoke, dotting a few more slow kisses up the underside of my arm, eye soldering mine as he did. “There’s only been one other time I felt this feeling.”
He was so rough, so warm, so sensual.
“I like the way you smell.” His words were low and quick, like he’d been holding his breath. “I like the way you look, the way you laugh, and the way you smell,” he uttered. “You’re going to destroy me.”
I sucked in a breath, the scent of him on my tongue sending tingles like waves through my system.
“You don’t even know me.”
His lips lingered at my throat. “Don’t I?”
My heartbeat hammered, the feel of his lips against my hot skin made me dizzy with desire.
I felt his ragged breath against my chest. All of him was so virile, so barbaric, so enthralling. He laid a kiss against my neck and I tilted my head, allowing him the access. His palm splayed across my back, his fingers pressing into my flesh and stealing my breath with his dominant touch.
“Look at you, so pretty in the firelight. So pretty it haunts me.” His hands gripped my arms, pulling me to him. “You’ve caged me, Petal.”
He locked my other hand with his. I let him. I would let him do anything.
“I haven't been with anyone in two decades.” He took my other wrist in his hand, turning it gently, and then pressed another kiss there. “You make me want things I never thought I’d want again.” His words burned through me like lava. “Will you have me?”
I nodded, unable to form a thought, only aware of the feeling that I knew in the marrow of my bones. I was made to be his, he was made to find me, we were made to be here together.
“If I have you,” he kissed up my other arm, “there will never be anyone else. You, Petal, are already my obsession.”
He stirred something to life inside of me with his words, the need to feel him overpowering me as he slipped his hands under my shirt and kissed his way along my neck and around my jaw.
I felt his heartbeat under my palm, the hard marble of his muscles warm against my skin. “Being yours sounds like a dream come true, Maverick.”
He paused, as if my words had stunned him like a gun. His eyes dropped, a breath sinking his chest before he nodded and smiled. “Good.”
“Please, touch me everywhere.”
A rumble vibrated through his chest with my words. He pressed his lips on me then, sinking his tongue past the seam of my lips and hauling me to him in one swift movement. My hips arched against him, seeking his friction as his hands held my face still for his kiss.
“I need to show you what that means.” His words came out ragged as one of his hands slipped between us, sliding against the waistband of my pants before sliding beneath the fabric and using his fingers to find my wetness.
I groaned softly, pleasure rippling through my body as I rode his hand eagerly, his stubble rasping at my cheek as he brought me to a slow and quiet release was almost enough to shatter me.
“I’m not done earning my stripes yet.” His heavy hands caught my thighs, spreading me for him before his lips snaked down my torso, around my navel and then landed at the soft triangle of curls between my thighs.
“Mm, so soft and pretty.” He tugged delicately before burying his nose in my scent and inhaling. “My own private flower patch.”
His tongue darted out in a deft stroke, licking softly and lighting my nerves on fire. I arched and groaned, but his hands held me close to him as he tasted me eagerly. The tip of his tongue hit its target, singeing my flesh with pleasure and driving me deeper into Maverick's brand of bliss.
Tremors of uncontrolled release tightened and quaked my muscles as he sped his swipes and added his thumb to the assault on my body. He was amazing, a work of art and so attuned to me. His hands were in my hair, our breaths mingling, our bodies quaking with need.
I was humming. I felt alive. I felt totally owned by him. And then the stars burst behind my eyes and Maverick melded his mouth to my core as waves of sweetness rolled through me. He licked and moaned against me, forcing me to take more of his assault even though every nerve in me felt overworked.
“Love the sounds you make when I taste this pretty petal.”
And then he laid me back, slipping one hand between us and yanking his zipper quickly. A moment later, his body was on me, his torso held taut above me, rigid as steel as he clenched his jaw and watched me with a tortured gaze.
“Are you ready for us, Petal?”
I didn’t answer, my overwhelming need to convey my feelings too tightly wound in my throat.
“Petal, trust me, I need to hear it.”
“Yes, Maverick, I want you. I want you now, tomorrow, always.”
His forehead dropped to mine, a kiss claiming my lips as one palm gripped my hip and held me still, the other guiding our bodies together until the hardness of him was between my thighs, slipping past my entrance, and stealing me.
I gasped into his mouth, his hands and lips moving across my body and easing me into a slow dance of
