Page 41 of The Calendar of New Beginnings (Dare Valley #9)

“Good,” he muttered, kissing the inside of her knee, a place she’d heard was an erogenous zone.

“I had no idea someone kissing your knee could feel so sexy,” she told him.

He might have snorted, but since her ears were ringing, she couldn’t be sure. “How about here?” he asked.

Her eyes crossed. “Yep. Bull’s-eye.”

“You’re a talker,” he said, pulling her last sock off. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

Standing before him in nothing but her underwear, she put her bare foot on his bare stomach, getting his attention. “Is that a complaint?”

A slow sexy smile crossed his face as he slid his hand up her foot and then all the way to her core. She might have squeaked when he arrived at his final destination.

“Not for a second,” he said, sliding a finger inside her panties. “Talk to me.”

He caressed her slowly, gently at first, but when he increased the pressure of his touches, she decided she’d had enough.

“Take them off,” she said, shoving her panties down her hips.

“A talker and an impatient one at that,” he said, all honeyed-voice man now .

“I’ll show you impatient,” she said, toppling him over until he lay on the rug.

“There is a perfectly good bed behind you,” he said, chuckling softly. “In case you somehow missed it.”

“Shut up,” she said, kneeling beside him and reaching for the zipper on his jeans. “If you’re going to drive me nuts, I’m going to drive you nuts.”

“I think I’m going to like that,” he said as she undid his jeans and slid her hand into his briefs.

He closed his eyes, his face a mask of tension. “Yeah, I like that. God, Lucy. More.”

She managed to get his jeans and briefs down to his thighs, and he helped her the rest of the way.

Like he’d done with her, she took his socks off while kissing his muscular legs.

Then she sat back as the full view of him came into focus.

Her mind sized up the subject before her.

Andy Hale was lying naked and aroused on the bedroom floor, and he couldn’t have been more freaking sexy.

“You’re so gorgeous,” she said, putting a hand on his muscular thigh.

He sat up and cupped her face. “And you’re beautiful. Now, come here.”

She shifted onto his lap, and the jolt of lust she experienced from the naked contact of their bodies had every nerve ending tingling. This was a level of lust she’d never felt before, and she could feel the last vestiges of humor and control vanishing.

She wanted him. All of him. Now.

Pressing her mouth to his, she kissed him again, and this time every wild impulse in her broke loose.

She ran her mouth over the hard planes of his shoulders, savoring the taste of him.

Her breasts tingled against his chest, and she gasped when he shifted, rising off the floor with her wrapped around him.

“I want you in bed,” he said against her mouth before laying her in the center.

They kissed, but soon it wasn’t enough. He made his way down her body, discovering all the places that made her cry out. The crook of her elbow. The sides of her breasts. And her core. That most of all.

He lingered over her, teasing her heated flesh, urging her on with his mouth. She was too mindless to protest the intimacy of it all. And when he flicked his tongue over the center of her, she came in a rush, crying out.

She felt him shift on the bed. As she watched, he reached for a foil packet on the nightstand and rolled on the condom. It was oddly sexy and intimate in a way it had never been before.

Spreading her legs even wider to accommodate his body, he stretched out over her.

All that bare, taut skin just inches away from her pretty much made her mouth water.

She noticed the pillow in his hands before he grabbed her hips with one hand and tucked it under her.

Whoa. This was new. And a whole lot of vulnerable.

It was impossible not to gulp as he rose over her, all naked, aroused man.

“Hey,” he said softly, caressing her face. “Stay with me.”

Like there was anywhere else she could go.

He edged forward, and she felt the press of him as he slid inside her. She dug her head into the mattress at the pressure of him, the heat of him.

“All right?” he rasped out.

She nodded, feeling suddenly overwhelmed.

Her heart was changing in her chest, and then she realized why.

This was making love. How could she think otherwise as she looked into his face?

The light in his eyes seemed to reach all the way into her soul, and for the first time, she knew what it meant to feel complete with someone inside her. Totally complete.

“Andy,” she whispered.

He swallowed thickly and held his hands out to her, which she gripped tightly. “Right here, Luce.”

Then he slid deeper and retreated. The slow slide of him inside her made her reach for him, and soon he found a gentle rhythm that pleased them both. Her knees gripped his body when she needed more, and he seemed to feel it because he increased the pace of his thrusts.

And she was lost.

She rocked against him, mindless from the passion rising within her again, but this time with a hard edge that could not be softened or controlled. Urgent cries sounded from her mouth as he pounded into her, never releasing her hands.

“Lucy,” he called out, and she sought his face.

Tension radiated from him as their gazes met. He gripped her hands even harder.

“Let go,” he said, rocking into her.

She tilted her head back as he pressed deeper and felt everything gather and then flash inside her. Her body contracted around him, and she cried out, thrashing against him. He thrust wildly and then froze above her, calling out her name.

The very sound of his voice like that broke something free around her heart.

She felt the pieces shatter, and when he folded over her, this time the wave she felt was of the greatest, fiercest love she’d ever known for another human being.

Her body seemed to be falling, almost like she was plummeting from a tall cliff.

But instead of hitting the ground, she floated, because there was no body after all.

Surrendering to that weightlessness, she felt this new heart of hers expand until she was sure its energy was cocooning him as well.

And when he nestled close and pressed his sweaty head to her neck, she breathed him in.

The love she had for him continued to expand, and so she surrendered to a place where words and thoughts were no longer needed.