She knew what he meant, but she couldn’t get up the courage to acknowledge that she knew. “Make what easier?”
He set his glass on the coffee table and stood. He held his hand out to help her up. She took it, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to touch him. She loved the feel of his skin on hers. Something inside her was saying that she should touch him, kiss him, make love to him, bite him.
Bite him? What the hell was in that wine?
Keeping a grip on her hand, he took her toward the stairs. She expected him to take her up to a bedroom, but he bypassed the stairs and went down a short hallway toward the bathroom she’d used while they were making dinner.
He led her into a spartan bedroom across the hall from the bathroom. She hadn’t expected there to be a bedroom on the first floor.
Once they were in the room, he closed the door. Then he was standing there, so close she could feel the heat radiating off his well-muscled body. She looked down and he lifted her chin with a touch of his finger until she was looking at him.
“I’m going to kiss you,” Wrath said, his eyes full of dragonfire. “I like what they call enthusiastic consent. If you’d rather not go farther, just walk away. Deal?”
Jess nodded.
“Say it,” he said.
“Deal,” she responded in a voice higher in pitch than she expected.
As he leaned down, her arms went up around his shoulders of their own accord. By the time his lips touched hers, his arms were around her waist pulling her close, and her lips were parted to grant him entry.
She had no self-control, apparently, but she was struggling to remember why she needed it.
His lips were warm and softer than she expected. His beard lightly scratched her cheek. His tongue darted deftly into her mouth. He tasted like scotch and something sweeter. It might as well have been ambrosia. Her tongue moved with his as he pulled her against him. She felt the proof of his genuine desire in his touch and in the way his rigid shaft pressed against her belly through their clothes.
The heat between her legs increased to an inferno. The man was magic in every way and she craved him.
Lost in the kiss, primal urges welled within her. Gone was the stubborn reasoning mind and in its place was a woman who wanted a man.
He pulled back from the kiss as though prepared to let her make her decision, but she pulled him back down to meet her lips again. Her hands left his powerful shoulders and moved down to the hem of his sweater. She let her hands glide up underneath it. He wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath, thank all that’s holy.
She felt the ridges of his flexed abs and then the velvet covered hardness of his pecs. Her fingertips swirled around his nipples, eliciting a growl.
In one movement, his sweater was off, and then he was removing her shirt.
Clothing was an annoyance now, getting in the way of their mutual atavistic needs. Wrath lifted her up and set her on the bed, pushing her gently in a silent plea for her to lay down. She obliged him and he removed her shoes while she unfastened her jeans.
He stood, letting her see the full glory of his ripped torso, and then rested with his palms on either side of her head. Her hands went to his chest again as though drawn by some magical magnetism.
“Tell me you want this,” he said.
“Fuck me,” she said. It wasn’t the most eloquent turn of phrase, but it was enough. Wrath lowered his body, and her legs parted for him. She felt the friction of his rigid shaft against her most sensitive flesh through the layers of unwanted fabric. His lips pressed to hers again and she let her hand roam the contours of his back and then down to the waistband of his jeans in the most unsubtle hint imaginable.
He pushed off the bed and stood, unfastening his jeans. She’d seen him naked earlier that day, but she found her heart pounding in anticipation as he unzipped his fly and then pulled his jeans and boxer briefs down.
Jess was transfixed by his cock. It was large when it was flaccid earlier, but now that it was hard it was massive.
Before she could even try to imagine how it would fit inside her he was pulling down her jeans and panties. She sat up and undid her bra as he watched and appreciated what he’d uncovered. On display, Jess had to force herself not to try to cover herself.
“Gods, you’re sexy,” he said.
Then he was on her, his narrow hips between her thighs, his weight supported on his forearms as he nibbled at her neck, his erection pressed against her mound. She was near sensory overload.
Despite all the incredible sensations, anxiety began to creep in. He was ancient and certainly not celibate. He’d probably been with thousands of women. What if she was too boring? She’d been with men before, of course, but she knew she didn’t have as much experience as he did.
The nibbling stopped and Wrath was looking down into her eyes.
“You’re nervous,” Wrath accused.
“A little,” Jess said. “Maybe a little more wine…”
“No,” he said with the most wicked grin. “I don’t want you tired, I want you begging me to fuck you.”
Jess gasped and felt a flush of heat in her cheeks. He really said that.
He rolled off her and reached into the nightstand. She expected to see a condom, so she said, “I have an IUD.”
“Good to know, but we aren’t there yet,” he said as he retrieved a pair of handcuffs. In a slow husky voice he added, “Being nervous means you were thinking too much. I don’t allow that in my bed so now you have to be punished.”
Punished? She wasn’t
