13

Staring at him in wonder, Dani nodded slowly. Without breaking the lock of their gazes, she reached up and slipped the bra off her shoulders, fully baring herself to him. She reached around behind her back and unhooked the garter belt as well. She fumbled a bit to find the stocking clips and free them, but in a moment, the garter belt joined her bra on the floor.

She reached for the skimpy thong but frowned. She started to push away from Cam, to stand up to remove it, but his mouth curved into a wicked smile.

“Allow me,” he murmured. “After all, I already owe you a new dress.”

With a sharp, hard yank, he tore the thong’s side seams and pulled the scrap of lace away from her.

She reached for the tops of her black silk stockings but Cam’s hands stilled her fingers. “Leave them. It’s sexy as hell to have you naked but for those.” He stared at her long enough that she started to feel self-conscious again.

“What are you doing?” she finally asked.

“Making a memory. I never want to forget what you look like in this moment.”

“Why?” she blurted. She added hastily, “Never mind. You don’t have to ans?—”

“Because when I die, this is the one perfect moment in my life that I want to remember.”

“Let’s hope you live a very long time and something better than this to remember.”

He shook his head decisively. “I’ve slept with more women than I care to think about. None of them—not one—compare to you. You’re one of a kind, Dani.”

She couldn’t help it. Her eyes welled up with tears.

“Hey now! I didn’t mean to upset you,” Cam said in quick concern.

“They’re happy tears.”

He reached up gently with his thumbs to wipe the corners of her eyes and gently capture the moisture. Slowly, he pressed each of his thumbs to his lips, kissing her tears.

Then, his hands went around her waist, lifting her off him. He set her on her feet just long enough to stand up himself. But then he put one arm around her shoulders and swiftly bent to place his other arm behind her knees. He lifted her easily, as if he barely noticed her weight.

She looped an arm around the back of his neck and he froze, staring down at her again.

“Making another memory?” she asked shyly.

He nodded. “I have a feeling I’m going to be making a lot of them with you.”

She smiled up at him gratefully. She had a feeling she was going to remember this night for the rest of her life, too.

“Speaking of which, I can’t wait to lay you in my bed and make a memory of you tangled in the sheets holding your arms out to me in welcome.” He strode out of the living room and headed up the grand staircase in the front hall. She vaguely noted the crystal chandelier, polished walnut banister, and more paintings she would love to study in detail some other time.

But all her attention was on the face of the man who found her beautiful and desirable and sexy. He wasn’t Mr. Right. He was Mr. Perfect.

He strode down a dim hallway lit by tasteful sconces at intervals along the walls. They turned through a tall, carved set of wooden doors and stepped into a masculine bedroom with dark walls, a mix of antique and modern furnishings, and a gigantic bed that would comfortably accommodate its tall, athletic owner and about a half-dozen other people.

“If I bend down, can you grab the duvet and throw it back?” Cam murmured.

“Uhh huh.”

He dipped her at an angle that would be alarming if he were any less strong. But as it was, she felt totally secure in his powerful arms. She grabbed the edge of the white duvet, noting how soft its white cotton cover was. She didn’t even want to guess at how high the thread count was to make it that smooth and soft and airy.

His sheets were dark gray, a few shades darker than the smoky walls that lent the room such a sexy moodiness. Cam placed her down gently, leaning her back against the piled pillows whose white cotton covers matched the soft luxury of the duvet.

Cam stood back and stared down at her, his expression mirroring delight that gradually transformed into something akin to awe.

As his gaze traveled across her body, she felt it as almost a physical touch on her skin, warm and erotic. A flush blossomed on her fair skin everywhere his gaze touched her, and he seemed to delight in painting that delicate pink all over her body.

A shiver passed over her, not of cold, but of desire for this extraordinary man.

“Join me, Cam. Please? I want to feel your body on mine. In mine. I want to feel and taste and get to know all of you.”

He smiled, but it faded as he stripped off his shirt, pulled his belt from around his narrow waist, and kicked off his shoes. He stepped on the toes of each sock with the other foot and pulled his feet free, then pushed the fine wool trousers off his hips. His black spandex trunks went last, and then he stood before her as naked as the day he’d been born.

Talk about great art. The man looked just like the statues of ancient Olympians she’d seen in museums. The great masters would’ve loved using him as a model, too.

He was fully as fit and athletic as his suits led her to believe. Even what she’d seen of him that first day they met didn’t hold a candle to seeing him like this, naked and aroused. For her.

She held her arms out to him in invitation and pleading. She didn’t plan it or do it because he’d mentioned wanting to see her do it. She did it because her entire being ached for him. She wanted to hold him and lie with him more than she wanted to draw her next breath. More than she’d ever wanted anything or anyone in her whole life.

“Please, Cam,” she whispered. “Come to me, now.”

He moved swiftly around the foot of the bed and threw back the covers before lying down beside her. She rolled toward him eagerly, and he came into her arms as hot and hard and masculine as he’d looked standing there before her.

“What do you want tonight, Dani?”

“I want to come apart for you…with you…around you.”

He eased her onto her back and propped himself on his elbow to gaze down at her in the deep shadows. He reached between her legs with his free hand. Her thighs fell apart as he made magic on her flesh with his fingers.

“Show me, Dani. Come apart for me now.”

Her voice broke on a cry as her entire body spasmed and then exploded with pleasure. “Ohmigod. Yes!”

“That’s it, baby. Ride the wave again. Let me hear how much you like it.”

Pleasure, pounded through her with all the power of a stormy ocean, electric, wild.

She moaned. Then keened. And somewhere in the mindless, overwhelming excess of this endless orgasm that would not stop, she shouted his name. She pleaded with him to come inside her. To join her in this miasma of delight and find his own release. But he just smiled and drove her deeper and deeper into this place of raw, primal release where her body felt things and did things she hadn’t known before were possible.

Her mind shut down and she became a creature of pure sensation, reveling in the myriad kinds of pleasure she discovered she was able to feel—tingling, throbbing, wrenching, overwhelming sensations that tore through her, ripping her apart and making her feel whole in a way she’d never imagined possible.

When her body was shuddering uncontrollably, when she wept with pleasure, when her entire being pulsed with desire to each beat of her heart, then, and only then, did he lift to position himself above her and guide himself to her.

“Please, Cam. Now. Now .”

He became one with her with just the right amount of force, impaling her with his heat and hardness and size, filling her so full that she cried out in ecstasy. Her internal muscles grasped hungrily at him as his hips rocked away from her slightly. She wrapped her legs around his hips in protest, urging him forward once more. Grinning, he drove home again and she threw her head back, moaning in an excess of pleasure that was nigh unbearable.

“Again,” she gasped.

“As the lady wishes.”

He thrust into her so deep she thought he’d become a part of her. And maybe he had. Something inside her melted and then fused to him in the forge of their lovemaking. Two bodies became one. Two pleasures mingled and become a single towering passion carrying them up and out of themselves into a place of such transcendent joy their puny bodies couldn’t contain it. Their passion broke free and soared into the star-swept night crossing the universe, free of the bounds of time or gravity.

Through it all, Cam spoke words of praise, telling her how extraordinary she was, how good she felt, how great she made him feel, how special she was, and how he couldn’t get enough of her.

Eventually, as their lovemaking built toward a blindingly bright supernova, a moment of stillness came over them both. He seemed to run out of words, then, and merely stared at down at her in awe as she stared back in equal wonder. She had no words, either, but none were necessary.

The moment stretched to infinity as their passion completed its journey across the skies and slammed back into them, overtaking their bodies, their minds, their very souls.

They tumbled from the Milky Way back into the solar system, sweeping past the heavenly bodies, streaking past the moon, and falling like twin meteors, burning each other up in a fiery, frenzied trail of limbs and mouths, the slick slide of flesh, their bodies straining together toward their mutual demise.

With an apocalyptic crash, the found their final release together, their cries mingling as they both climaxed so hard they literally blacked out together for an endless, perfect instant that was both infinite and gone before they could fully grasp it.

Dani fell back onto the pillows, and Cam collapsed on top of her. They panted in unison, even their deep, exhausted breaths were in perfect simpatico, utterly spent…and newly reborn.

She was…changed. A completely different person than she’d been when Cam carried her through those doors a little while ago. A lifetime ago.

What they’d just done wasn’t just sex. It had been something more. Something that transcended their physical joining.

Or maybe she was just losing her mind.

“Wow,” Cam breathed. “I—” He seemed at a loss for words. “—Just wow.”

That was about all she could summon to mind as well. Wow. Double wow.

At some point, Cam gathered his muscles against hers and rolled onto his back, taking her with him to sprawl across his chest. Their limbs entwined, and she felt a driving need to press as much of her skin against his as she could manage.

Cam seemed to feel the same impulse, for he wrapped her up in his arms and held her close against his body. Every time she shifted even slightly, his arms tightened convulsively as if he was loathe to let her go even an inch away from him.

It took a long time for her breathing to recover. She might’ve been embarrassed at her lack of physical stamina if it hadn’t taken him fully as long to recover and for his pulse and respiration to settle and slow beneath her ear.

She didn’t know how much time passed before he murmured, “Are you comfortable?”

“Mmm hmm. You?”

“I’m never moving again. I’m staying right here with you until I die.”

She smiled against the warmth of his chest, turning her head to kiss his skin lazily. “Same.” She laid her head back down and listened lazily to the slow, steady thud of his heart, letting it lull her toward sleep.

She must’ve dozed because some time later, she woke to him pressing a soft, sweet kiss on the top of her head and whispering, “My God. You’re perfect.”

She drifted back to sleep, a smile on her lips, as deep peace settled in her heart. She’d found home. At last.