“I won’t hurt you,” he breathed, the spark back in his sexy green eyes.
“I know, b-b-but you need to know that this is as f-f-far as he got. By then he’d cut my neck, and I was bleeding, but he never… he never…” Fudge! It was happening again. Paralyzing panic stole her breath and—
Tripp dropped his mouth over hers and breathed for her. All tongue and heat and desire, with one lick he swept the stranglehold of too many lost days and dreams away. The frightening moment in her past lost its grip, as Ashley lost herself in the giving and taking. For the first time in two years, she was a woman again, and Tripp was the man she wanted to give herself to. Right here. Right now.
Instinctively, her hips arched into him. The smart, sassy woman she wished she’d been throughout all of this wasted time took over. That black polo had to go. Hungry now, she dragged the hem of it out of his jeans. Lifting to his knees, he stiffened his arms to help her pull it over his head. It flew like batwings to who-cared-where.
This man’s chest was so much more than she’d expected. Wide and solid, coiled muscles rippled when he moved. Sparse chest hairs declared he was all male, but those shoulders… Those arms…. She licked her lips at the meal hovering over her.
Tripp’s bottom lip caught in his teeth. His eyes sparkled with passion. She’d seen that exact look somewhere else, but where? Too bad she was too busy to focus on that trivia question now. Tripp had just climbed out of bed and peeled out of his boots, jeans, and—
Oooo, black boxers, sexy long legs, and those muscular thighs…
She was in heaven. Anxious to get her hands all over him, Ashley hurried and toed her running shoes off, then kicked them to the floor. She did the same with her socks and then, wiggled out of her jeans. But the moment she lifted her butt and hooked her thumbs inside the elastic band of her violet bikini panties, Tripp put one big hand on her belly and growled, “Uh-uh. No, you don’t. Those are mine. All mine.”
Every feminine muscle in Ashley’s body clenched at that erotic declaration of male ownership. A delicious shiver rolled up her spine and danced across her shoulders, making her wiggle even more. “Okaaaaay,” she demurred, her heart kicking into a cartwheeling handstand, three backward somersaults, and ending with a perfect, ass-waving, two-point landing.
Hormones roared through her like an electrical current. They were a matched set. He was still in his underwear, too. She was down to her panties and bra. His eyes skimmed over her nakedness. The lust stamped on his face was priceless. Man, Tripp was so beautiful, she wanted to cry.
He settled between her legs, his long legs hanging off the mattress this time. He lowered his head and fervently kissed her belly button, his tongue slick and warm and swirling into that divot, his breath a gentle tease on her sensitive skin. His morning scruff tickled and scraped while he tasted her tummy. She’d turned into a quivering, needy bowl of Jell-O. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with his big male body to make him happy too, but was sure going to give it—him—her best shot.
Ashley laced her fingers over his head and into his hair, loving the lush, cool feel and thickness of it. Her body had a mind of its own. Her hips bucked into his chin, as if offering him everything. But when he dipped lower, when he smoothed his hands under her ass, lifted her hips, and nuzzled her panties—there—she froze. There? R-r-really?
Lifting his chin, Tripp looked up and across her stomach at her the second she stopped breathing. “One of these days,” he purred, his fingers slipping under the elastic waistband of those silken panties. “We’re going to get creative, you and me. But not today, Ashley. Today is all about you. Only you. When you’re ready. But until then…”
His big, warm hands slipped inside her panties and cupped her bare ass, peeling the panties off and down her legs. Instead of throwing them like she had his shirt, he stretched one arm and set them on her nightstand. Then, lifting to his knees, he climbed up her body and settled between her legs again. That beautiful erection settled hot and thick against her bare skin, her throbbing core. Almost right where she wanted it.
Ashley’s heart was pounding so hard by then, she was sure he heard it. It was happening. What if she did this wrong?
Planting his thick arms alongside her, Tripp skillfully maneuvered one hand behind Ashley’s back and unlatched the eyehooks that held her bra in place. “Tell me if you want me to stop. Just say no. One word. That’s all. I’ll stop. I promise.”
“I’ll never tell you no,” she whispered, her eyes locked to his. Ashley knew her breasts were larger than most women’s. She’d often thought they were the reason she’d attracted the attention of that man two years ago and the drug addict Friday night. But until this morning, Tripp had only seen her in frumpy man shirts. Which was why she’d worn lavender today. She wanted him to see her as a woman. But what if he didn’t like them? Or her?
Ashley lifted to her elbows. This time, she didn’t close her eyes, but watched while Tripp carefully slid the loosened bra straps over her arms, then tossed it over his head with a wicked grin.
She smiled carefully up at him.
His eyes darkened with lust. His breathing hitched as he took in an eyeful. Her breathing did, too. But when he dipped his head and put his mouth over her breast... When he suckled her entire nipple into the slick, slippery heat of his tongue and mouth…
Her head fell
