Page 25

“I’m real.”

There was a rawness to his voice I didn’t understand, but it was sexy as hell.

“Lena.”

I looked up at him.

“I know you said we didn’t need to take it slow, but I wanted it to be. So I can learn every inch of you. But—”

“I don’t need slow,” I interrupted, repeating the sentiment. “This isn’t going to be the last time, and there’s a place for slow. Right now, I need you. Fast or slow, I don’t care.”

A smile bloomed on his face before he kissed me again. He’d smiled more in the last half hour than I could remember. Jude’s smiles were rare, and when you earned one, you believed it. That he was smiling so much—

It was me.

The realization stole my breath.

I made him smile. Us being together.

Jude lifted himself out of my arms and stood. He quickly removed a condom from his wallet before reaching for his belt, and I found myself transfixed, watching. I’d seen him like this, in summer moments when they worked the ranch. But everything else?

He pushed his jeans and underwear off his hips, and I stared.

My mouth went dry.

Another smile, this one tipping to one side. “Did I kill you?”

Jude was proportional. Meaning, he was huge, and I wasn’t totally sure how we were going to fit. Other than that, he was long and straight, and I never thought I’d encounter a cock I thought was beautiful.

Clearly, I was wrong.

“No.”

“Good.” He rolled the condom on and joined me on the bed, settling over me and tilting my face to his for a kiss so deep it made me ache. “Killing you is the last thing I want.”

I grinned. “I don’t know. You might still kill me with that thing.”

“If I do, I’ll make sure it’s from pleasure.”

The word pleasure returned my focus solely to him. He was holding something back—I could feel it. Maybe he was worried about hurting me. Right now, I didn’t think anything in the world could hurt.

He was right there. I felt him brushing against my entrance, and twin flames of nerves and excitement sprang to life. Taking his face in my hands, I guided his gaze to mine. “If you have any doubt—”

Jude silenced me with a kiss. It was all the answer I needed. There was no doubt in this kiss, only pure lust and longing. He didn’t stop kissing me, moving his lips across my jaw and down to my neck as he pressed in.

The moan that left me was completely unintentional. He was so big, it was hard to breathe. But he didn’t stop. Pressing in and in and in until every delicious inch was somehow inside.

We were connected, and it didn’t feel real. Every time I’d imagined it was nothing compared to the real feeling of him. Emotion rose in me, and I fought it back as best I could.

It didn’t work.

When I looked up at him, my eyes were wet, and I tried to speak, unable to do so.

But Jude didn’t look at me with horror or concern; he just pressed his forehead against mine and breathed with me.

“I know,” he said. “I know.”

Then he began to move.