Captured at Nightfall (Capture My Heart Love Story) (11 page)

“Me?”

He nodded, mouth pinched and angry.

Boy, did he know how to make a girl feel good about
herself.

“You’re
everywhere for me. In my head.” He paused. “I can’t work. I can’t sleep. I can’t think strait anymore.” He glowered at her.

Oh
.

She collapsed onto her bed in shock, while inside she was doing the
Cha
Cha
. She straightened and pulled the sheets tighter, trying to clear her thoughts.

Mouth a thin line, anxiety rolled off him in waves. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Allie whispered, “Say something, please?”

He blew out a breath and stood again. “You’re so frustrating. I don’t know why I can’t leave you alone.” His voice softened as he stepped closer, “Sorry I scared you.”

He was right in front of her, his long legs only a few inches from her knees. The tension in the room was suddenly through the roof, lust pouring off
Allie in waves and crackling over her skin. Her fingers curled at her sides with the need to reach out to him.

“I came here to apologize for being an asshole the other day.”
Oh, man. That voice was a velvet caress over her body.

She
swallowed.

His eyes were liquid pools of emerald green, wide and pleading for understanding.
A single lock of messy, bronze hair brushed the dark arch of one eyebrow. Allie’s stomach fluttered; she’d bet his frustration hair and his post-sex hair would look the same way. The image had a fire stoking beneath her skin.

“What do you want from me,
Matthew?”

His
hand tightened around hers, cool and steady. “I can’t stay away from you, Allie. I tried to warn you off. I know I’m no good for you, but I still want you, damn selfish bastard that I am. I’ve never had a real relationship before. But, I want to try with you”—his fingers restricted more—“I
have
to try.”

Oh, boy.

How could a girl refuse an admission like that? He’d been wrong before, when he’d told her he didn’t have romantic ideals. Matthew was Allie’s very own Victorian suitor.

Buoying up her courage,
Allie pulled his hand to her mouth and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Okay.”

His eyes darkened a moment before he pulled her up to him, wrapped his body around hers, and devoured her with a kiss.
Allie melted into his embrace, letting her sheet fall to the floor in a forgotten puddle. She pulled his shoulders down to her, needing to feel all of him against all of her. Hands slipped through his already messy hair and her fingers knotted at the roots.

Oh
, his hair was soft. It slipped like silk between her fingers. She traced over the base of his neck, the curve of his ears, the line of his hard jaw, feeling his flesh warm beneath her fingers as she committed every detail to memory.

“Bed, please,” she pleaded through the haze of kisses.

Matthew scooped her up and stretched her out over her mattress. His face burned with hunger as he looked down at her. She fought the self-conscious urge to cover up beneath his gaze, and instead held her arms crossed above her head, her knee slightly bent in invitation. His pupils were dilated with arousal, roamed over her like she was a forbidden fruit smorgasbord in the Garden of Eden and he was trying to decide where to start.

And f
or the first time in her life Allie felt sexy.

She
was doing this to him. Her body a beacon that drew him in and stripped him of any thought but his craving for her. What a rush.

Slowly, he ran his hands down the sensitive flesh of her arms. His hot, wet mouth s
uckled and nipped at her wrists and inside her elbows, his nose and chin rubbed a smooth line over her arms.

Fingers trembling with anticipation, she reached out to his belly and urged his shirt over his head. The view of his chest was enough to make her come apart on the spot, a perfect sculpture
of male anatomy. She traced the SEAL tattoo over his heart as he looked down at her, his eyes fathomless pools of desire.

She had to have him.
Now
.

Allie
pulled him down to her, desperate to feel his flesh against hers. His knee moved between her legs.

Those damn pants needed to be torn off before she died of desire!

Her hands moved to the zipper on his jeans, his mouth stayed busy, latching onto the side of her throat.

When her fingers pried the button of his jeans open he stilled. “I don’t have any condoms,
Allie,” his voice rough.

“
It’s fine,” she panted. “I’m on the pill.”

He pulled back enough to look into her face. “You are?”

“Mmm, hmm. Have been for years. It helps regulate my . . .
err
. . . womanly weeks.”

His head burrowed into the side of her neck and laughter vibrated across her skin. “
Damn it
, Allie. You’re a dream come true. I love it.”

She finished unbuttoning his pants and then they both worked together to pull them down his legs.
Allie’s mouth watered as she took in the tight boxer briefs that stretched over his sculpted ass. Unable to help herself, she greedily took his butt into her hands and squeezed. When Matthew laughed again she watched some of the darkness that always clung to his eyes seep away. He looked younger, almost carefree. It made Allie’s heart soar to see it.

Thumbs running over the hard body beneath the
elastic waist band, she bravely tugged . .

And then she
just stared.

Matthew
caught her look and his eyebrows pinched together. “You okay?”

She tore her gaze away and forced
herself to look up at him, fire filling her cheeks. “I’m just working out the mechanics, is all.”

“The mechanics . . . ?” His face drained of color. “Haven’t you had sex before?”

She bit her lip and dropped her eyes. “Not exactly.”

He shrugged back into his boxer briefs
, then cupped each side of her face and tipped it up so she was forced to look at him.

“Not
exactly, or not at all?”

“Not at all,” she muttered.

“Oh. . .
shit
!” He fell back on the bed like he’d just been run over by a semi.

Allie
scrambled up straight and tucked her legs beneath her.

“How the hell is that possible?” His eyes met hers. “You’re gorgeous,
Allie. A complete knock out. . .
How
?”

Her fingers knotted in her lap. “I
dunno. I just never wanted to with anyone before.”

“And so you decided on me?” His eyebrows were on the level of his hairline.

She frowned. “Why not?” She felt ridiculous justifying this to him. “I want to. Isn’t that all that matters?”

His hand raked though his hair. “Yeah, but . . . damn it,
Allie. I don’t know what to do here.”

“Why can’t we just keep doing what we were doing?”

“Because you’re a virgin, that’s why.” He glared down into her face.

Her insides begin to boil with frustration—and probably a lot of pent up lust. “You’re right,
Matthew, I am a virgin. A
twenty-four-year-old
virgin. I would like to remedy that tonight,
if
you’re up to it.” She shot a scorching glare at him. Was he
always
going to be this big of a pain in her ass?

He swallowed. “
Allie. I told you. I’m no good. You shouldn’t waste something as important as your virginity on me.”

The romantic was back again in full force.

Allie sighed, feeling tenderness and annoyance battle inside her. “Look, Matthew, I know a ton of girls who lost it in the back seat of cars and the basement of their parent’s houses. My roommate lost hers in a freaking movie theater bathroom. I like you . . . way more than like, actually. I really want to do this with you. Now. Tonight.”

He
looked like he was going to be sick, waging some kind of internal battle with his conscience probably. “Okay,” he finally conceded. “But we’re going to go slow this first time. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Hallelujah
!

He pulled her to him and kissed her gently, putting so much gratitude and flat out
worship
into the way he held her that Allie felt tears burn at the corners of her eyes. The tender way he cradled her face brought warmth into her soul. No matter what he may think of himself, there was goodness in him.

His head dipped
to the base of her throat, and tingles of pleasure sizzled through her. “I’m going to make you ready so it will hurt less, okay?”

She didn’t care what he did, drunk as she was on the taste of him.

His fingers began to wander and she bucked in surprise. “Easy, Allie,” he breathed.

He continued to explore her until
a cry of pure joy poured from her lips. Her fingers dug into his hard shoulders. “Oh, Matthew.
Oh
.” She burrowed her head into his chest, sunk her teeth into his collarbone while his heart pounded against her cheek. It was so much; almost
too
much. The feeling radiated up and out, distributing this hot, frantic feeling of heaven to the rest of her body. She was surging toward her first orgasm, and it was even more amazing than she’d imagined. Her hips were moving faster now, her breath wild and animalistic, while his fingers worked to keep pace. She cried out as the world suddenly shattered into a million shards of golden ecstasy around her.

When she came back down to earth,
Matthew was holding her loosely in his lap, and pressed a soft kiss to the center of her while his fingers began their lazy onslaught once more.

“No,
Matthew.” She tried to pull away. “It’s too much. Too soon.”

“
Shhh, Allie. Don’t fight it. I want you more than ready . . . begging for me by the time I have you.”

He laid her down on the bed, shucked his boxer briefs, and tossed them in a pile on the top of his other clothes before he climbed back up to her. Her panties slid down her legs, baring that most intimate part of her to him.

“Take that tank top off, Allie. I want to watch you.”

Allie
sat up, getting that deer-in-the-headlights feeling as she took in his hungry gaze. Fumbling with the bottom hem of her shirt, she slowly pulled the fabric free from her head, pretty confident she wouldn’t be winning Sex Kitten of the Universe any time soon. Her hair crackled with static and she quickly pushed it behind her ears.

Matthew’s voice dripped
choco caramel sundae supreme, “Your breasts are perfect, Allie. Shit.”

He covered her with his body and his mouth
did things to her flesh that should be criminal in all fifty states. When two fingers slid inside of her she cried out, arching high off the bed.

His hands stilled. “Is that okay?” he muttered gruffly.

“Oh, yes! Please, don’t stop,” she begged.

Holy hell;
she was going to burn up with lust.

His hands drew away, replaced by
the part of him she craved so much now.

“
Yes,”
she hissed, this was
just
what she needed. She grabbed onto his shoulders to steady herself.

“This may hurt, baby,” his words gritted between his teeth, “best to just do it.”

He thrust into her and Allie sucked in a sharp breath as pain ripped through her, the fullness overwhelming. Matthew’s breath was a cool, ragged whisper over her too-sensitive skin. He pressed his forehead into the curve of her breast, his body unmoving. “You okay?”

“Yes. I’m good,” her words sounded braver than she felt.

When he started to move again the soreness and too-full feeling was replaced with so much pleasure. She grabbed onto Matthew’s perfect ass, the hard muscles bunching and releasing as he continued to move.

“Oh,
Allie. You’re so perfect,” he rasped. “Baby, I’m almost there.”

Allie
met him thrust for thrust, loving the sounds they made; craving the rush of power it would bring to send him over the edge. She was sent spiraling into the abyss of pleasure with a surge of violence and euphoria that had her hands twisting in the sheets. With a final thrust of Matthew’s hips he followed right behind her.

Wow.

Just . . . Wow.

Allie
’s heart fluttered in her chest as she slowly floated back to earth. Hand resting loosely over her breast, her fingers curved around so the tips could trace its outline. Her eyes roamed over the white patterns on her ceiling where shadows dipped between each crevice of stucco and gave it the same texture as the moon.