Page 29 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

“Like what you see?” She reached for the button on her jeans and undid it with a deft flick. “There’s more, you know.”

He spotted a hint of pink lace as she eased down the zipper and then he pulled his jaw off the floor. Reaching for her hips, he drew her to him, wanting the feel of her skin against him.

“You’re too much.” He hooked an arm beneath her legs. “Hold on to me.” He lifted her until her ankles locked around his waist, then he reached for the condoms he’d left on the stairs.

“With pleasure.” She rolled her hips against him and kissed him, her fingers spearing through his hair.

“I can’t see where I’m going.” He paused on his way up the steps, completely disoriented between the growing dark from the loft level and the full throttle seductive efforts of the woman in his arms.

“Me, either,” she whispered against his lips in a warm puff of air. “But we’re not worrying about that today, remember?”

Right. He charged ahead, feeling into the dark with one hand to make sure he didn’t run into anything. When one shin hit the front of his bed, he loosened his hold on her waist and fell sideways into the unmade tangle of sheets with her still half in his arms.

The scent of her skin beckoned. He gripped the silky straps of the bra and nudged them off her shoulders, just enough to loosen one lace cup. He captured one freed nipple in his mouth. She gasped and writhed beside him, her legs shifting restlessly against his.

“You smell incredible.” He inhaled the fragrance along her neck and let it go to his head. “Vanilla, right?”

“I had to find a fragrance that didn’t clash with the scent of cupcakes.” She slid her hand beneath the hem of his tee and skimmed the fabric up his chest. “I can’t see enough of you.”

He yanked the shirt over his head and tossed it. “Better?”

“No. It’s too dark to appreciate what I’ve just uncovered.” Her hands smoothed over his pecs and down his abs, slowing as they reached the waistband of his jeans.

He rose up on one knee to pull the string on the blinds over the bed. The window was high enough to let in the moonlight without exposing them to anyone who happened to be out in the field. When he looked down at Nina, she was illuminated in a white glow as she wriggled her way out of her pants.

Now nothing but pink lace covered her skin.

Her eyes followed him as he moved toward her. “You’ve been taking mighty fine care of yourself since I saw you last.”

“Sexual deprivation sends me to the gym a lot.” He unfastened his jeans and ditched them, leaving on his boxers. “It’s been a long time for me.”

“Sexual deprivation only makes me eat more cupcakes.” She reached for him, palming his waist and dragging down the waistband of the boxers. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

He wouldn’t have thought he could get any harder, but when her knuckles skimmed along the flesh beside his erection, his skin became impossibly tight. Lightheaded, he tugged off the boxers and covered her.

She was soft everywhere. Her skin, her hair, her breasts. A flash fire sizzled over his skin, the need to be inside her so strong he couldn’t think about anything else.

“Next time I’m going to take such good care of you,” he promised.

Nina was already crinkling the bag of condoms and tearing into the package with one hand. “Next time, you won’t remember your own name. That’s how good I’m going to be to you.”

He would have laughed if he hadn’t been hanging on his control by a thread. His pulse pounded so hard it was like a tidal wave surging.

“Let me.” He took the box out of her hand and tore off the plastic, partially crushing the thing in his hurry.

Nina swiped aside the discarded paper with an impatient arm. Her fingers trailed a path along his hips, driving him out of his ever-loving mind. He rolled the condom on with all the finesse of a teen, his hands uncoordinated and awkward.

Her breathy sighs were a siren’s song in his ear, a damp heat against his skin.

The past and the present merged in his brain, flashing a vivid memory of a teenage Nina stripping her clothes off in the peach orchard as she ran from him, a teasing game that had ended with their first time in the back of her truck bed.

“Everything okay?” she asked now, making him realize he’d stopped.

Emotions collided. Good and bad, he shoved them all aside, focusing on this moment. On Nina and her gray, trusting eyes staring up at him in the moonlight.

“Yeah.” He smoothed her hair off her forehead and forced himself to slow down long enough to peel off her underwear, taking his time dragging them down her legs. “Everything’s beautiful.”

“Mack. Please hurry.” She trembled beneath him, her legs quivering as he edged them apart to make room for himself there.

She was amazing. So much a part of everything he’d once dreamed about.

He dragged in a steadying breath and skimmed a hand up the inside of her thigh, her skin hotter the higher he went.

He cupped her sex in his palm, slid a finger inside her and then another.

Her breath caught sharply and she wrapped her arms around him.

She whispered a litany of seductive persuasions in his ear about what she wanted next, her habit of speaking her mind incredibly gratifying in the bedroom.

By the time he edged his way inside her, she was threatening sensual repercussions if he didn’t take her. But all her teasing coercion ceased when he pushed deeper. And deeper still.

Breathless, he started a slow thrust. Nina met each one, her back arching as she lifted her hips off the bed.

Her thighs flexed as she squeezed him tight.

Sensations bombarded him from the tight clench of her feminine muscles around him to the restless play of her fingers over his shoulders.

Watching her find her passion pushed him higher, the sight of her head tossing from side to side on his pillow an aphrodisiac like nothing else.

“You feel…” She gasped between words. “So. Amazing.”

Likewise. He thought the word but couldn’t edge it past his lips. His mouth was dry, his brain waves slowing down as he expended all his energy on giving Nina pleasure.

Except she wouldn’t lay still for long. She shoved at his shoulder, levering him away until he turned with her so they lay side by side on the bed. Her eyes zeroed in on his in the half-light, her expression challenging. Nina had always liked to be active in bed. Some things didn’t change.

“I want it to last,” she whispered, kissing his shoulder and dragging a touch up his thigh, her fingers flexing hard against his skin.

“The first time?” He shook his head. “You don’t want much, do you?”

“But I waited all day for you.” She bit his shoulder softly and wrapped her leg around the back of his thigh.

“I’ve been waiting for you since I watched you dance with Kaleb at Lucky’s that night.” He realized he hadn’t even taken her bra off and addressed that now, tugging one strap down her shoulder.

“Oh, really? I don’t recall doing any sexy dancing with Kaleb.” She rolled her eyes.

He hooked a finger down the front of one pink lace cup and rolled it down the curve of her breast, exposing one taut nipple. He circled the tip with his thumb, watching her expression shift, her eyelids falling to half-mast.

“You didn’t have to. Just seeing some other guy touching you brought home how damn much I needed to be with you again.” He watered down that explanation, remembering the fierce possessiveness that had rocked him that night.

Her eyes fluttered open wide again. She levered up on one elbow and he let her push him onto his back.

Looking up at her was pure pleasure. She put both hands on his chest, the move pushing her breasts together in a way that cleared his head of everything but sex.

Lifting up on her knees, she paused. Waited. Then lowered herself slowly.

Heat flared up his spine. His breath hitched and held.

Holy. Hell.

His release was inevitable, so damn close he didn’t think he could hold it back.

On instinct, or maybe some old memory, he touched her between her thighs, circling lightly.

She stilled above him, and he looked up to find her head thrown back.

He thrust hard and held her hips tight to him as wave after wave of release shuddered through him.

Nina’s shout mingled with his, her back arched hard as she rode through the sensations, her orgasm squeezing him hard and wringing every last aftershock from him until she collapsed against him.

For long minutes, he didn’t move. Couldn’t speak.

He just breathed in the scent of her skin and the feeling of rightness to have her in his arms.

Awareness returned a little at a time. First, Nina’s hair brushing over his shoulder and tickling his neck as a strand stroked up and down with her breathing.

Then a ceiling fan clicking overhead that had apparently been running all day.

A cool breeze drifted over them from a window that must be cracked open somewhere.

The sounds of the night—crickets and rustling leaves—reminded him of other fall evenings they’d lain together.

It emphasized a quiet that, in the past, they would have filled with words. Declarations of love. Devotion. All promises they’d failed to keep….

When Nina cleared her throat, he tensed. Not ready for whatever came next this time .

“It’s the craziest thing,” she started, lifting her head from where it had been resting. Her honey-blond hair made a veil down one side of her face. “But my sexual hunger just morphed into real, physical starvation. Wouldn’t it be a great time for a cupcake?”

She slid off the bed and reached for an ancient flannel shirt hanging on a hook near the bed. And, just like that time she’d done an impromptu striptease in the orchard, he was struggling to keep up with her.

Clearly, there wasn’t going to be any talk of promises or what came next.

Considering the intensity of what had just happened between them, that was probably for the best. Because no matter how much he wanted Nina back in his life, he wasn’t any better equipped to keep her than he’d been eight years ago.