The Way You Look Tonight (16 page)

"How many times do I have to tell you that I’m
dying
to be with you, Brooke? How many different ways do I have to show you?" His words were hard-edged with frustration, his hands flexing on the upper curves of her hips as he pulled her closer. "Hell, I wanted you so damned bad last night that I locked you in a closet and took exactly what I wanted. I told you it was for you, that I was there to soothe your ache, but it was for me, Brooke.
Me.
Because I couldn’t wait one more goddamned second to feel you, to taste you."

"I couldn’t wait, either," she told him, but even as she tried to absolve him of his guilt, he knew he had plenty to make up to her.

"Our first time together shouldn’t have been that fast, that rushed. Let me make it up to you."

Her breath was coming faster now, her breasts pressing sensuously against his chest as she gazed up at him. He was surprised when her mouth curved into a small smile a moment later.

"We’re both being silly, aren’t we, arguing over which one of us has been more selfish? Maybe," she said with a slow smile that transformed her face into a beauty that took his breath away, "we could argue, instead, over who can give the other person more pleasure tonight?"

The weight that had been pressing on his chest all day finally began to lift as he smiled down at her.

"We’re not going to argue about anything at all," he said as he slid his hands down her hips to cup her soft curves. "Because tonight is going to be all about you. All about your pleasure. All about your needs."

He could feel her heartbeat speed up against his chest as she said huskily, "I like that idea. A lot. Only, last night I never did get to—"

He covered her mouth with his before she could remind him of what she’d been about to do in the linen closet. The problem was, that vision of her starting to drop to her knees in front of him had burned into his retinas, and he’d been hard as a rock thinking about it nearly every minute since last night.

He moved his hands from her hips and up over her gorgeous hourglass figure so that he could slide his fingers into her hair and tilt her head at exactly the right angle to plunder her mouth with his tongue. And then neither of them was wary anymore as their hot kiss pushed away any concerns they had about hurting each other.

Pleasure.

That was what they’d focus on tonight—the only thing that mattered.

* * *

Yesterday, there’d been plenty of time to get nervous, to plan and anticipate. But the past twenty-four hours had been so full of unexpected guests and emotions that Brooke was almost surprised to finally find herself in Rafe’s arms.

But, oh, as he kissed her and she melted into his arms the way she did every time his lips touched hers, she knew there had never been any reason for nerves or worries. Nothing had ever been as natural as the passion between them—two friends who had been destined to become so much more.

And it was their past—all the little connections that had been forged over summer barbecues and sand-castle contests between a young girl and a beautifully wild teenage boy—that made it so easy for her to dive headfirst into whatever their future held.

He took her hand and tugged her down the hall. "I’ve needed you in bed, naked beneath me, for forty-eight hours. I can’t wait another second for you, Brooke."

No one had ever talked to her this way before, with such frank desire, drawing pictures with words that had her shuddering with pleasure as much as any caress. Seconds later, Rafe had closed her bedroom door behind them and locked it. Already she knew that the sound of a lock clicking into place would forever be a sensual cue, a promise Rafe would make to her of the pleasure he was going to give her with his hands, his lips, his—

Brooke’s thoughts were stolen away as his mouth closed down over hers. God, just to kiss him like this—his tongue slicking against hers, his teeth gently nipping at her lower lip—was more pleasure than she’d ever thought to experience.

Every time until now, their kisses had been cut short, either by Rafe’s conscience kicking in, or by his siblings’ arrival. Tonight she would finally have enough time to truly learn not only the taste, the feel of him, but also all the ways the two of them could take their individual pleasures and multiply them together.

She flicked her tongue against the corner where his lips met, and the way his strong pectoral muscles jumped beneath her hands told her just how much he enjoyed it. Taking a slow, wet slide over his lower lip, she found the other corner and licked out against it. Delight strummed through her system at the way he responded to nothing more than the damp press of her tongue. She wanted to taste more of him, so much more, but she wasn’t anywhere near close to done with his lips yet.

He could easily have led their kiss, and she could feel his innate dominance even in the way he let her explore him. Sliding her hands up from his hard chest to brush over the strong lines of his neck and jaw, while the prickle of his dark five o’clock shadow against her fingertips sent sharp bursts of pleasure down through every inch of her, she slipped her tongue between his lips on a soft moan.

Soon, the heat of their kiss took over and drew away any control either of them had been holding. Brooke couldn’t get close enough, not even with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, her breasts and stomach and hips pressed against the front of his hard body.

Rafe tore his mouth from hers. "Time to get you naked."

She wanted him naked, too, but she couldn’t find the oxygen to put the words together to tell him, not when he was already teasing the patch of bare skin beneath the hem of her tank top with his fingertips as he slowly pulled up the blue cotton. He’d stripped her clothes from her before, in the locked linen closet, but tonight it all felt brand new, as if last night had only been a dress rehearsal for the real thing.

He surprised her by leaning down to press a kiss to each new inch of skin that he bared. It was glorious to be appreciated so much…but how was she possibly going to make it through to morning in one piece?

"Rafe," she whispered, and would have begged him to go faster if he hadn’t responded by smiling against her stomach.

"I made a promise to you last night that the next time we did this, I’d go so slow that you’d be begging me," he murmured against her skin, his warm breath sending as many shivers through her as his words did. He lifted his dark gaze to hers. "I never break my promises."

A moment later he slid cotton up over silk so that he could press hot kisses to the undersides of her breasts through her bra. His shoulders were strong and corded with taut tendons as she gripped him. Soon he was going to be moving up another couple of inches and his mouth would find—

Oh, God.

The whispered prayer left her lips as Rafe’s lips closed over her nipple, the silk instantly wet beneath the sweet stroke of his tongue over her tightly aroused flesh. Her heartbeat raced fast and hard as he kissed his way across silk and then the bare skin between her breasts and then more silk to find her other nipple with his lips and tongue.

"So sweet, even through silk." He pressed a kiss to the center of her throat right before he shifted back enough to draw her tank top all the way over her head.

Brooke had lingerie that was far more revealing than this bra in light blue silk. But the way Rafe was looking at her as she stood in front of him in her simple bra and shorts made her feel as though she was wearing the sexiest undergarments ever made. And when he reached out to run the tips of two fingers across the upper curves of her breasts where her flesh rose up from the silk, she wasn’t the only one shaking with need.

Badly wanting to touch him the way he was touching her, she reached for his shirt. His hands caught hers before she could lift the cotton up more than an inch.

"You’re not naked yet." His eyes ran, heated, hungry, over her partially exposed breasts and waist. "Not even close."

"It’s not fair," she pouted. "You already got to taste me last night." Instead of letting her yank his shirt away, he slid his fingers through hers and lifted them to his mouth to press a soft kiss against each of her knuckles. "When you do that, you make me forget."

"Forget what?" His eyes were still dark with desire, but as he teased her, they also danced with a hint of the light she’d been wanting so badly to see in him again.

Somehow she managed to remember. "That it should be my turn now."

He leaned down to cover the side of her neck with his mouth. "Tell me how you make truffles."

With the blood rushing thick and hot in her ears, she could barely make sense of his words, could only repeat, "Truffles?"

"How long does it take to get them right? To whip the chocolate into just the right consistency?"

She might have been able to follow his questions more easily were it not for the fact that he’d just found another sensitive spot on the other side of her neck.

"Can you rush the perfect sweetness, Brooke? Can you rush the perfect smoothness?" Each word fell hot and damp against a different patch of skin on her neck, the underside of her chin, and then her mouth as he licked her once, then twice as if he hadn’t gotten nearly enough of a taste the first time around. "Can you rush the perfect taste of pleasure on your tongue?"

"No."
She gave up her answer under sweet duress, the kind only Rafe could employ.

"You have to be patient with your truffles, don’t you?"

Again, wicked persuasion was the only thing that could have drawn the
"Yes"
from her lips that was sealing her fate.

"You and I aren’t going to rush anything, either," he told her as he slowly teased his fingertips down over her waist to the waistband of her shorts. "One slow, sweet orgasm at a time is how we’re going to do this tonight. All night long."

Thank God he at least had enough mercy to quickly unzip her shorts and let them fall to the floor. Before they kissed, she’d already been aroused, and every kiss had ratcheted up her need higher and higher. Now, Rafe’s eyes caught—and held—on her matching silk panties, no longer a light blue between her thighs.

"I got you all wet."

It was just what she’d said to him that first night when she’d hugged him in her wet bikini. But now, the words meant something else entirely. Something deliciously dirty that only made her wetter, especially when he put one arm around her waist to hold her steady while he reached out with the other hand to cup her through damp silk.

His eyes closed as he slowly moved his fingers over her. A muscle in his temple jumped. When his eyelids slid open again, the look he gave her was so full of desire he stole away what was left of her breath.

"How the hell am I supposed to survive this?" he asked her. "To survive you?"

"I could help make you feel better," she whispered against his neck, loving the brush of his stubble against her lips. She wanted to rub every inch of her body against him, and one day she vowed to take the lead and have him just the way he was having her now.

"So stubborn." He didn’t sound at all upset about it, more pleased by what he was learning about her. "So impatient."

As if to prove him right, she rocked her pelvis into his hand. Just a little harder, just a little longer, and she’d be—

But just as she was arching into the swell of pleasure, he took his hand away. She opened her mouth to protest, and he covered it with his lips. His mouth was hot and hard on hers as their tongues tangled again. She couldn’t even come close to getting enough of him as every kiss made her desperate for another, and then another. A half-dozen kisses later, she realized her bra was loose around her rib cage.

She kissed him again in a heated thank-you for stripping another piece of clothing away, and then gave a little shimmy that had the silk falling from her breasts to the floor to join her shorts and tank top.

"Better?" he asked, six little letters that liquefied her insides.

"A little, but—"

"You want more?"

"Yes."
God, yes.

He softly cupped her breasts in his large hands. "Is this what you want?"

"Yes, and—"

Both of his thumbs stroked over her nipples, and her breath came out in a hard rush at the exquisite sensations that rippled through her.

"Good?"

Somewhere in the back of her head, she knew he was using his sexy little questions in just the same way he was using his hands, to tease her even more, to take her even closer to the edge without letting her fall all the way over.

"It’s so good, but—"

"It’s not enough, is it?" The corners of his mouth curved up as she shook her head to let him know it wasn’t nearly enough. "Poor baby, you must be aching so bad by now."

No one had ever had this kind of power over her, to fill her with such need that her fists were clenching against his chest as she tried to control the urge to beg. It was what he wanted, but she already knew better, knew that he’d just eat up her desperate pleas...and then likely make her wait even longer.

"Tell me," he urged, the spark dancing even brighter in his eyes now as he reveled in her sensual torture. "Are you aching, Brooke?"

She swallowed hard and tried to corral enough brain cells to hit him back with, "Are you?"

"Like never before," he confirmed, then lowered his mouth to her breasts, cupping them together so that he could lave both nipples with his tongue. "Does that help?"

"No."
God, no.

He was so beautiful when he smiled at her that she almost forgave him for what he was doing to her, for making her
need
this much.

"What if I did this, instead?" At long last, he slid his thumbs into the sides of her panties. But instead of sliding them down, he used his leverage to pull her closer and scatter the rest of her brain cells with a kiss.

Despite her frustration at being made to wait patiently for her pleasure, how could she do anything but unclench her fists and move her hands to cup his face and kiss him back just as passionately?