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When he swung her into his arms, she opened her eyes dazedly, her wits completely dulled by the passion-induced fog. Ethan moved to the door, flicked off the light and then turned to cross to the bed. He laid her on the mattress and followed her down quickly as if to stem a protest. He wasn’t going to getone.
Alexa trailed the nail of her index finger over his shoulder and down his defined bicep over to his pec to trace a teasing circle around one flat nipple. His eyes narrowed in response and a small smile curled her lips. She leaned forward to nip his collarbone as he swiftly stripped off her clothes. Pressing her down on the bed, his arms framed her body, his mouth demanding on hers. The room was draped in shadows except for the jeweled glow from the city lights through the window. They spilled a soft rainbow of color over the bed, a contrast to the shroud of shadows envelopingthem.
She savored the tactile onslaught. The stroking of Ethan’s heated palms over her skin, hot and demanding on her curves. He trailed a finger up her leg, circling teasingly around the heat centered between her thighs and leaned in for a kiss. Deep. Wet. Rawly carnal. He sent his tongue in search of hers at the same time he parted her slick folds and entered her with one exploringfinger.
Her hips arched, twisting beneath him at the dual assault. Her blood was churning in her veins, frothing and crashing like whitewater. There was primitive demand in his kiss. In his touch. It was a demand shereciprocated.
Alexa’s hands streaked over his body, tempting, teasing; reveling in the feel of sleek skin covering unyielding muscle. He moved his leg over one of hers as if to hold her in place and she was reminded that he was still half-dressed.
The realization had her eyelids fluttering open. There was something intimately vulnerable lying naked beneath a man who was still partially clothed. Her fingers trailed along the flesh above his waistline; she felt his stomach quiver beneath her touch and smiled, slow and knowing. It was heady to realize he was as susceptible to the barrage of sensation as shewas.
He pressed against her clit with his thumb, rubbing rhythmically even as he continued exploring her with his finger. Her vision grayed, sensation arrowing to the pit of her belly. It took effort to gather her scattered senses and work his zipper down, with more than a hint ofdesperation.
His touch grew urgent. He lowered his head, took a beaded nipple between his teeth and worried it gently. But there was nothing gentle about her response. Her back arched off the mattress in an involuntaryreaction.
She felt him smile against her breast and the gesture of male satisfaction steeled her resolve. Pushing his fly open, she freed him from his boxer briefs and took him in her hand, squeezing firmly. His body jerked against her. She had time for one heated glide down the length of him and up again before he lifted his head from her breast and caught her hand with his free one, even as his knowing dancing fingers continued exploringher.
“You…don’t…play fair,” she gasped. Her muscles tightened as she struggled against giving into the vortex of desire that threatened to draw her toward the inevitablefinish.
“Baby…” His kiss was possessive. Primitive. “I’m notplaying.”
She couldn’t summon a response. Sensation slammed against sensation. There was an urgency in his touch. An unvarnished command. And while she could fight the sensual onslaught, the conclusion wouldn’t bedenied.
He was saying something else, his voice a ragged whisper. but the sound slipped away, as evasive as wisps of fog. Nerve endings formed in a tight waiting ball of urgency. Her control grewtenuous.
And then it snapped, eliciting a cry from her lips as she shattered, falling headlong into a pleasure too longdenied.
Her breath panting and uneven, she was aware of his movements on the bed beside her, swift and jerky. She heard a slight sound, realizing he was donning protection, and the realization had reasonreturning.
But then he was beside her again, the feel of his smooth naked flesh a sensation she couldn’t resist. And the longing, recently satisfied, began to climbagain.
She leaned over him, intent on exploring his body with her lips one inch at a time. But now he was the eager one. His muscles shuddering with tension, he urged her astride him, his eyes glittering withpassion.
Alexa rose above him, and hesitated for a moment, her senses filled with him. There was a sheen of perspiration on his forehead. The skin was drawn tightly across his cheekbones. And the signs of his desire reignited her own. She guided him inside her and the tether on his restraintsnapped.
He clutched her hips in hard desperate fingers as he urged her to a faster pace. She braced her hands on his shoulders and met every upward lunge, her movements as urgent ashis.
Her blood began to pulse again, scorching rivers under her skin. Need coiled in herbelly.
The rhythm quickened. Breath shortened. The climax shook her first, startling in its intensity. Her release triggered his own, and he gave one last violent thrust upward before coming, his fingers hard on her hips. And a sound that might have been her name on hislips.
* * *
The lightsoutside the window were keeping Ethan awake. He should get out of bed. Shut theblinds.
But once he was up, he’d have no reason not to keep moving. To grab his clothes. Go back to his room. The idea was curiously unappealing. So, in the end, he did none of thosethings.
He stroked Alexa’s hip, one arm looped around her to keep her close. The position felt foreign. He hadn’t slept—actually slept—with a woman since his last marriage. Keeping things casual meant no obligation to spend the night, no awkward morning-afters. He’d gotten used to his ownspace.
Which didn’t explain why he was reluctant to move away from Alexanow.
There would be time enough in the morning to examine the sneaky little doubts that were circling. The ones that said he’d screwed up big time in a big way tonight. But on the heels of that thought came another; he and Alexa were adults, far removed from the two reckless kids they’d been a lifetime ago. They’d both remarried. Had fulfilling careers. And they were both experienced enough to know that great sex didn’t have to come withstrings.
But that thought was oddly disturbing, so he pushed it away. Instead, he thought of every snippet she’d revealed about her past since joining the team. And it was far more, he was coming to realize, than he’d known even while they’d beenmarried.
There’d been hints of course. The “homeschooling” that required her to educate herself alone in the library. The fact that she’d never let him drop her off in front of her house. That she’d purposefully preempted his intention to accompany her to tell her mother about thepregnancy.
She startled a little in her sleep, and he stroked her delicate spine until her muscles went laxagain.