The Way You Look Tonight (18 page)

But the way she was begging was more than enough to drive a guy crazy...and to have him losing what was left of his patience.

Needing her
now,
Rafe used his knees and thighs to push her legs open wide, and then wider still. She writhed sensuously beneath him, her eyes cloudy with desire, her pretty mouth plump from the kisses with which he’d ravaged them, her skin flushed with arousal, her breasts so full and soft and sweet that he had to close his mouth over one peak again.

He pulled back from her breast with a scrape of his teeth over her sensitive flesh that had her begging again. Her words shouldn’t have made any sense—
Need. Please. Take. Want—
but he had no trouble deciphering them at all because they were the same ones playing on repeat in his head.

He’d planned on taking her slowly. He’d warned himself to be gentle with her. But as her heat, her scent, the sweet taste of her mouth pushed him to the edge, with her wrists still tightly restrained above her head in one of his hands, Rafe used the other to shove on the condom. He pushed into her in one hard stroke, so deep that she gasped aloud.

Oh God, I’ve hurt her.

He tried to still himself inside of her, but before he could manage anything even close to it, or apologize for being too rough, she was moving beneath him, her soft curves and muscles working hard to take him even deeper. Her neck was arched back, her eyelids fluttering, her strong fingers opening, then clenching above where he was holding her wrists. A sheen of sweat gleamed on her skin, and he could have sworn she was glowing.

Just as her inner muscles began to pulse around him, her lips curved up into a smile. One so full of bliss, so pure and heartfelt, he could hardly believe he was lucky enough to be the one to see it...and to be the man who had made her that happy.

Watching her giving herself up entirely to pleasure and perfect joy beneath him, Rafe couldn’t do anything but give himself up to the unbelievable pleasure, too.

No longer holding anything back, he thrust into her hard, and then harder still. Sweat dripped from his body to hers, one drop running down between her breasts as wet skin rubbed against wet skin.

"Now, Brooke." Her eyes flew open, so dilated with arousal that the black of her pupils had pushed out nearly all of the green.
"Now."

As if she’d simply been waiting for his command, before either of them could take their next breath, she was exploding beneath him, around him, holding nothing back at all as her climax rocked them both.

Chapter Sixteen

"That
was
better than chocolate!"

Rafe lifted his head from the crook of her neck. "How much better?"

Uh-oh, she hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud. But how could she be embarrassed with him after how close they’d been? How close they still were, actually, with his wonderfully large body pressing hers into the mattress.

"
Way
better," she replied. "Especially that last part."

He looked surprised when he saw that he was still holding her arms over her head, almost as if he hadn’t realized he’d done it at all. Cool air rushed over her wrists as he quickly let her go. "Did I hurt you?"

She frowned at his question. "Of course you didn’t." But when she looked at her wrists, she could clearly see the imprints of his fingers across her skin.

"Damn it, I did."

She shook her head. "No, it’s just that I’m so pale. My skin always marks a little when something’s pressed up against it, but it disappears really fast."

When he got up to throw away the condom, she knew he was going to blame himself for something he hadn’t done, but she wouldn’t let him do it. Not to himself. And not to her, either.

She reached out for him. "Come back to bed, Rafe."

Standing in the moonlight shining through her bedroom window, she watched him fight with himself for a few seconds, that muscle jumping in his jaw again. Finally, he moved back toward her and took her hand.

She drew him back onto the bed and made him lie on his back so that she could settle into the crook of his shoulder. "I love every single thing we did together. W
hen you were holding onto my wrists like that," she whispered, "I felt freer than I ever have before." She lifted her gaze to meet his as she added,
"And I can’t wait to do even more next time."

She watched a new flash of heat jump in his eyes before he tamped it down. "Having your wrists in my hands is as kinky as we’re going to get, Brooke."

She could have argued with him, could have told him he wasn’t going to win this one. Instead, she simply smiled and said, "You finally said
kinky
."

The smile was still on her lips as she ran her fingertips lightly over his scar in the dark, then lay her palm flat over his beating heart and closed her eyes.

* * *

Rafe couldn’t believe he’d fallen asleep in Brooke’s bed. Morning light streamed in over him, and he worked to get his sluggish mind to click into gear. When Brooke had wrapped her arms around him and snuggled close, his entire body had desperately craved her softness, her warmth...and the sense that she was healing the broken parts of him one kiss at a time.

Still, he was amazed that not only had sex with Brooke been super crazy hot, but that she was just the same afterward as she’d been before. Full of smiles and the sweetness that had always been such a big part of her, rather than trying to get him to talk about feelings.

He could hear the shower running, and knew he should leave her to finish washing up alone, especially after the way he’d taken her last night—hard enough that she might be sore. But Rafe was quickly learning that he didn’t have any control where Brooke was concerned. Especially when the thought of her naked and wet and soapy in the shower had him as hard as he’d ever been, as if he hadn’t just lost himself inside her less than eight hours ago.

The bathroom door was unlocked, but he wouldn’t have thought twice about picking the lock to get to her. The room was steamy, the glass door of the shower fogged up, so that all he could see was a gorgeous outline of skin and curves and long, wet hair.

"Rafe?"

He answered by opening the shower door and stepping under the water with her, dropping the protection he’d brought with him on the tiled bench to one side.

Her happy smile was immediate, as were her hands coming around his shoulders when she drew him close to her for a kiss to start the morning. Every time they kissed, he was shocked to realize he wanted her more.

Last night should have begun to take the edge off. Instead, the opposite was true.

"I didn’t want to wake you when you were sleeping so soundly," she said against his lips, "but I’m really glad you’re up now."

"You can wake me anytime for this."

Thirty seconds was as long as it would have taken for him to have her pressed up against the tiles, her legs wrapped around his waist. But that would have meant missing out on the chance to run the bar of soap over every inch of her skin.

Her eyes went wide and her breath came faster as he moved around her body so that he was standing behind her. The water had plastered her long hair to her neck and back, and Rafe thoroughly enjoyed lifting the soaked strands up and over one shoulder. Beneath the spray of the shower, the ends of her dirty-blond hair had darkened to the color of her flushed nipples.

Aroused by the sweet curve of her neck, he dropped his mouth to her delicate skin. She shivered as he pressed his lips against her, and then his tongue.

Her hands reached out as if she needed to hold onto something and ended up pressed flat against the cool lake-blue tiles. "Stay just like that," he encouraged her, loving the way she sucked in a shaky breath at his words.

Slowly, he began to run the bar of soap across her shoulders, her upper back, then down to the perfect indentation of her waist, just above the sweet flare of her gorgeous hips. Her body was a miracle, soft where a woman should be soft, full where a woman should be full, and strong in a way he hadn’t known many women to be strong.

Not to mention her innate sensuality, powerful enough to nearly break a man who had never let himself come anywhere close to being broken by a woman before.

Her skin was smooth and perfect beneath his fingertips, and he was mesmerized by the way the bubbles slid across her curves. Temporarily putting down the soap, he cupped his hands to gather water and pour it over her.

When her soft moan reverberated off the tiled walls and floor, he did it again, only this time he spilled the water over the front of her shoulders, so that it trickled hot and lucky between her breasts. She began to move away from the wall with the clear intention of wrapping herself around him, but he laid his hands flat over hers on the tiles to still her.

"Not yet, sweetheart. I’m not even close to getting you clean."

Enjoying her soft sound of frustration just as much as he had her moan of pleasure, he picked up the soap again and moved to press his erection against her hips, his chest to her back. Of course, she knew exactly how to get her revenge on him for making her be patient. She wiggled her sweet, round ass into him, making him throb so hard against her that he nearly lost it.

"Are you sure you want to play with me like that?" His low words held a clear, yet sensual, warning that she should be careful how far she pushed a man like him.

"God, yes."

It was what she’d said to him last night when he was teasing her, and as she wiggled herself against him again, Rafe lowered his cheek to the top of her wet hair and breathed in her fresh, clean scent, letting it fill him up.

A moment later, he was sliding both hands around to make soapy circles around her belly button. Only, how could he keep teasing her like this when it was just as much torture for him not to touch the rest of her?

Giving himself over to pleasure was so much easier. And better, too, as he began to soap up the heavy undersides of her breasts.

"Please," she begged, even though he’d already dropped the soap so that he could pinch her erect nipples between each thumb and forefinger.

"Shhh," he soothed against her earlobe before he nipped at it.

A hard shudder worked through her as he slid one hand back down to her belly, and then down lower still, until the damp curls between her legs were tickling his fingertips. They moved together in perfect sync, her legs opening wider just as his hand found her flesh slick and so damned hot that he didn’t have a prayer of holding back one more second.

He quickly spun her around and pressed her against the tiles with the weight of his body as he ripped open the condom, only stepping back enough from her luscious curves to shove the latex down over himself. And then he was lifting her up so that she was wrapping her arms and legs around him, and he was thrusting into her in one hard stroke that stole the breath from both their lungs.

She was small but strong as she pulled him closer. Every time they were together, he vowed to be more careful with her the next time. But need had him spiraling out of control again, and apart from protecting her soft curves and the back of her head with his hands against the tile, he couldn’t do a damned thing to stop himself from pounding into her, or from kissing her hard enough to bruise her lips.

Yet again, she surprised him not only by taking everything he gave her, but also by encouraging him to go further. Because instead of crying out at the rough way he was taking her with absolutely no finesse or gentleness at all, her soft laughter ricocheted through the shower. Even as her inner muscles tightened down around him and she used her strong thigh and arm muscles to work herself over him, the beautifully wild woman in his arms was not only smiling...she was actually laughing out loud with clear joy.

Every time she laughed, Rafe felt it in the center of his chest. But never more than now, when what should have been fast, furious lovemaking had turned into something else entirely. Something that eased the tightening in his chest even more than loving her had last night.

Before Brooke, sex had only been about momentary pleasure.

With Brooke, he finally realized how much joy there could be in it, too.

"I love the sound of your laughter," he told her, and he was smiling, too, as he covered her mouth with his. He was amazed that even as laughter turned back to moans and gasps, the joy that she’d wrapped all around him never let go, not for one second.

When her body exploded in climax, Rafe didn’t have a prayer of holding back his own release. And why would he, when nothing had ever felt better than jumping off the edge with her?

They clung to each other for several minutes afterward as they both worked to catch their breath, and when he finally put her back down on her feet, she was grinning up at him.

"That was
awesome!
" She sounded just the way she had when they’d ridden his motorcycle into town, utterly exhilarated and thrilled by her discovery of what a rush speed could be.

Rafe agreed wholeheartedly—making love to her in the shower had easily been the most awesome
moment of his life—but at the same time, he couldn’t push away another chorus of self-condemnation over the way he kept losing control with her.

"What are you doing to me?"

She reached for his jaw with one hand and stroked it. His wet stubble rasped under her fingertips. "Well, right now, I’m going to shave you." She went on her tippy-toes to move her mouth closer to his. "We can figure out the rest later."

He didn’t know how she did it—how she took something that could have been so complicated and made it simple. Easy.

Right.

She had him sit on the tiled seat at the back of the shower and filled her palm with shaving cream. All it took was the soft brush of her fingers over his neck and jaw for him to grow hard again. Damn it, he couldn’t let himself take her again.