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He just shook his head. “Don’t romanticize me, Lise. You’ll end up getting hurt.”

He was probably right, at least about her ending up hurt, but she didn’t think she was romanticizing him. He was the material modern-day heroes were made of, even if he never wanted to admit it.

He pressed the lower part of his body against her hip and she felt his morning erection…or was it from waking next to her? She chose to believe the latter.

She teased him, “I thought you said no sex on the job.”

“That doesn’t apply.”

“Because I’m not paying you?” Was Bella’s take on their relationship the reason Joshua had let his sexual hunger slip its leash?

“Because it’s more than sex, and living with you and not making love to you ceased to be an option when you responded to my kiss last night.” Then he kissed her again.

Her heart constricted in her chest and she tried not to read more into that statement than he’d meant, but it went clear to her toes, making them curl. He wasn’t promising her a future, but he was giving her more than his body. Which she had a hunch was a lot more than he’d given another woman in a very long time.

It was enough.

She reached down and touched his thigh, wondering if she were bold enough to touch his penis. The she-wolf of the night before was lurking below her happy, morning-after exterior. But they couldn’t make love and she didn’t know if he would let her do what she wanted to do.

Heck, she didn’t know if she could do it well enough for him to get anything out of it. She’d never tried it before, had never wanted to, but she’d read things.

Joshua stopped kissing her when she touched him and he seemed to be holding his breath. She explored the muscular contours of his thighs, venturing very close to his masculine arousal, but not quite touching it.

“Put your hand on it.
Please
.”

Her head came up at the guttural sound of his voice.

He looked like he was in pain. “Touch it, Lise.”

She obeyed the need in his voice, letting her fingers trespass onto his swollen flesh. It bobbed in her hand, a pulsing beat pounding against her fingers.

She squeezed experimentally.

He groaned, loud. “You’re killing me.”

“No, I’m not. I’m pleasuring you,” she said, using his answer of the night before when she’d complained about him teasing her.

“Yes, you are.” His pelvis tilted up, to push more of him against her hand. “Your touch is pure pleasure.”

The velvety hardness slid against her fingers, growing more steel-like with each caress. Panting, he put his hand over hers, increasing the pressure and the pace. She was happy to oblige his silent demand for more, and there was something very sensual about letting him show her what he needed.

It was so honest. So real. No hidden fumbling in the dark.

But the rest of his body beckoned and she hoped he would indulge her. “I want to make you come, but first I want to touch all of you.”

His erection throbbed in response to her words.

“Will you let me?”

“Yes,” he ground out from between teeth in a face clenched with desire.

Dropping his hand away, he settled on his back, leaving himself completely open to her desire. His eyes invited her with dark warmth and she liked it. Unlike the night before, when making love had been a battle between a wolf and his mate, one in which they were both ultimate winners, this morning he was removing boundaries and letting her lay claim to whatever territory she wanted.

She got up on her knees and pulled the sheet back so she could just look.

And what a body to stare at.

Every single one of his muscles was perfectly sculpted and defined. He had scars, too, and the lurking she-wolf, or maybe it was just the primal woman in her…liked the marks that showed he was a warrior. Although she wished he’d never had to experience the pain that would have accompanied each mark on his gorgeous body, they were infinitely exciting to her.

She slid down to his feet, intent on truly touching him everywhere. Pleasure coursed from her fingertips to all sorts of interesting places in her own body as she explored each nook and crevice of bronzed skin over sculpted muscle.

He moaned and moved and encouraged her with a litany of praise that excited her as much as touching him did.

She purposefully left his hard length for last because she didn’t want just to touch…she wanted to taste like he had.

When she reached his face, she traced it with her eyes closed, memorizing his features with her fingertips, and then she kissed him.

He growled something low in his throat when her lips touched his, and suddenly she found herself flat on her back with almost two hundred pounds of vibrating male animal above her.

H
is mouth devoured hers as his body caressed her from chest to ankle. Her breasts rubbed against the hair on his chest, and nipples tenderized from a night of lovemaking sat up and took notice. It felt so good she squirmed against him to increase the stimulation. Their legs tangled, his hairy thighs rubbing against smooth flesh that prickled with sensation.

Then he started his own exploration and it felt so good, she almost forgot what she’d wanted to do.

Almost, but not quite.

This morning, she was determined to give, not just take.

Not that he’d complained last night, but he’d given her more pleasure than any body should be able to handle and she was determined to give it back. In spades.

“Joshua…”

He looked up from kissing her, his eyes wild. “What?”

“You said
I
could taste
you
.”

The feral quality that came over his expression shook her even as it provoked an untamed hunger for him deep inside her.

“You did taste me.”

“I meant here.” She pushed up with her pelvis to caress the hardness against her.

“Are you sure you want to?” he asked in a rasping voice while his body vibrated above her.

“Yes.”

“Not all women like it.”

“I will.” With him. “Are you afraid I won’t do it right?” She wasn’t too sure herself. “I can’t do that thing I’ve read about where women take men all the way into their mouths. Even if I could, I don’t think it would be possible with you.”

He laughed, the sound harsh and amused at the same time. “The mere idea of your tongue even touching my cock has me ready to come.
I guarantee you do not need to deep throat me to satisfy me
.”

Deep throat
. It sounded like some kind of porn term, but it described exactly what she was talking about, what she’d heard men liked. “Mike—”

“Is not in this bed with us and never will be,” Joshua said fiercely. “I don’t care what good old Dudley liked—we’re talking about me, and I get turned on by anything my little she-wolf is willing to do.”

She had been going to say that Mike had never asked for it and she’d never offered, so it would be her first time, but she realized Joshua really didn’t want to hear about her sexual past. He was wholly consumed with the present.

“I want to taste you.”

He shuddered, the well-defined muscles of his body going rigid. “I would kill to feel your mouth on me.”

He did that flip thing he’d done the night before, only this time she ended up on top. She landed against him with a thud and air rushed out of both of them with an
oomph
.

“You don’t have to do any killing. Just lay back and let me touch you,” she said when she got her breath back.

“Yes.”

She crawled off of him and knelt beside him again, her own body throbbing at the prospect of what she was going to do.

His erection jerked as she looked at it, a small drop of pearly moisture forming on the tip.

He really did want her to taste him.

She smiled, reached out, and ran her hand up and down the satin-like hardness. “Your skin is smooth here, soft to the touch, but about as yielding as a tire iron.”

Lambent sensuality looked back at her. “Whereas you’re soft all over.”

The peaks of her breasts were puckered and tight in her excitement. “Maybe not
everywhere
.”

His gaze slid down the column of her throat to her chest with tactile intensity and her skin goose-bumped just as if he’d touched her.

An expression of satisfaction crossed his features. “Maybe not those beautiful little raspberries, but even they’re softer than my dick right now.”

Her gaze settled on his hard-on. Veins visibly throbbed beneath skin that had gone dark plum from the blood pulsing through it.
Good night!
She figured even her bones were softer than that particular part of his anatomy at the moment.

Her nipples throbbed in response to his arousal and an image formed in her head worthy of a wolf’s mate, but would he like it? She’d bet her overdue advance check he
would
.

Her wolf had no inhibitions she could discern.

Licking suddenly dry lips, she tried to swallow moisture into a parched throat. “I’m going to touch you.”

“I thought you wanted to taste me.”

“I do, but first I want to touch you.”

“You already have.”

“I mean with my breasts.” Her voice choked off and she nodded toward his erection. “There,” she whispered past an excitement-clenched throat.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he asked in an all-too-serious tone. “Because I’m in mortal danger of exploding from excitement.”

“Is it too much for the big, bad wolf?” Cryin’ out loud. She’d never been the taunting, teasing type, but she couldn’t seem to help herself with him. “You’re going to explode, all right, but I promise you’ll like it.”

His laughter sounded more strangled than amused. “It damn well might be too much. If you make me come before you get me in your mouth, don’t blame me.”

Feminine power thrummed through her. “You’re a big boy. You can handle it.” She arranged herself in a straddle position over his legs.

“Don’t be so sure about that, honey. What you want to do plays heavily in one of my favorite wet dreams about you.”

“You don’t have wet dreams about me.” Okay, so he’d said he dreamt about her, but she couldn’t believe he came in his sleep like a horny teenager.

His dark brows rose and he reached around her to caress her bottom with his callused hands. “I don’t?”

She stilled above him, holding onto his upper thighs to keep her balance. “You’re thirty-six years old and sexually active. You don’t have wet dreams.”

“I’ll admit they come few and far between for me anymore.” He grimaced. “At least they did until this past year.”

“But…”

“I haven’t had a woman since we kissed at the baby’s christening, and I’d been on a job for several months before that. Those dreams and my fist have given me my only sexual relief for longer than I care to think about.”

For a man like Joshua, that was a lifetime. “I don’t believe you.”

His eyes challenged her to change her mind and she did.

“Why?” she demanded.

“I didn’t want anyone else.”

“But I told you I wasn’t interested in a relationship.”

“A man’s libido is not controlled by logic, honey, or haven’t you figured that out yet? Besides, I had hopes I could convince you that mind-blowing sex isn’t exactly a relationship and get around that particular issue.”

He was right—sex wasn’t a relationship, and she’d be a smart woman to remember that. But all she wanted to remember right now was the smell, the taste, and the texture of his skin.

His thighs flexed and she clamped hers against them. “I wish I could ride you right now.”

His eyes shot sensual sparks at her. “I do, too, but as combustible as we are…” He paused while one hand curved around to settle over her womb, his thumb brushing the sensitive hair at the top of her mound. “I’d make you pregnant for sure.”

She wondered if he had any idea how profound it felt, not to mention sexy, to have his hand against the part of her created to cradle life.

His eyes were touching her as intimately as his hand. “Too bad mercs make such poor fathers.”

She didn’t say anything to that—she couldn’t.

Was he saying he was tempted by the prospect?

She didn’t want to read too much into casually uttered words during loveplay, but she had a blindingly sweet image of herself holding Joshua’s baby. It shouldn’t fit with the wild feelings of sexual excitement coursing through her, but it did. And it made her entire body tighten with another level of stimulation.

Unable to wait any longer, she leaned forward and rubbed one taut peak up and down the length of his turgid and pulsing flesh.

It felt so good, she moaned.

So did he, only his sounded more like a growl.

Then she did the same thing with her other puckered nipple, feeling the contact sting through her in a direct line from the tip of her breast to the inner core of her.

“I like this,” she said on a heavy sigh.

“I love it.”

She smiled and did it again. It felt even better than the first time, but she wanted more control. She wanted to surround him. She pressed her breasts together on either side of his stiff and throbbing shaft.

He surged upward, saying something that both shocked and excited her unbearably.

“Is it really called that?” she asked, just before opening her mouth to kiss the tip of his broad head on her next downward stroke.

“Yessss…” he hissed. “Oh, hell, baby, do it again!”

She did, this time letting her tongue swirl around his tip. His taste was unlike any other taste she’d known. Salty like tears, but sweet, too. His fingers clamped onto her nipples, fondling them as she stroked him with the tunnel she’d made with her breasts; she couldn’t help rubbing herself against his thighs where she straddled him.

Each time his head came into contact with her mouth, she increased the length of time she spent licking him and he moaned, moving his body with increasing urgency.

She wanted to satisfy that need.

She kissed him, her slightly parted lips lingering on the blunt tip of his manhood before she released her breasts and gently brushed his hands away so she could sit up. His fingers were reluctant to release her and made the letting-go another rousing caress.