Page 128 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

As though she was caught in the same haze of heat that consumed him, Cat melted in his embrace. Passion washed over him in great aching torrents, leaving him feeling shaken from the inside out.

As his fingers cradled her scalp, he plunged his tongue deeply into her mouth and wooed her into a response. Jared felt the deep trembles that racked her body. With a moan, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his knee-wilting kiss with one of her own.

They broke apart with their need to breathe. Still holding her hips against his, Jared ran his other hand through her hair. He was fighting for control, but the feel of her curves pressing into him was rapidly doing him in.

“I’m sorry,” he said, trying to get his rioting desire under control.

“Oh, no you don’t.” She narrowed her eyes at him. They were green in passion, and Jared felt himself swallow nervously under her seductive gaze.

With the slow, deliberate movement of a woman who knew what she wanted, Cat buried both of her hands in his thick, blond hair and pulled his lips down to meet hers. Had she really thought she could deny her feelings for him? Had she really thought she could just shut them down? This was Jared. She could no more deny him, or her feelings for him, than she could stop breathing. Her hurt and her anger vanished like shadows in the dark. The only thing she responded to now was the stark need in Jared’s face.

She used every tool she knew. Every tool he’d taught her. As her tongue delicately traced the outline of his lips, she pressed her hips into his in an invitation he couldn’t mistake.

“Catherine,” Jared groaned and leaned into her. Cat found herself pinned between his hot body and the dresser, but she didn’t mind. His mouth savaged hers, and she arched into it, refusing to let him take charge of the kiss.

He ripped his mouth from hers and rested his forehead in between her breasts. She could feel his breath through her cotton nightshirt, and she shivered. She felt his body stiffen, and she decided to up the scales. She lowered her mouth to his throat and nuzzled a path up to his neck to his earlobe.

“Jared?” she whispered, her voice a husky alto.

“Hmm.” His response was little more than a deep groan.

“I want you,” she whispered into the shell of his ear. “Won’t you please make love to me?”

His control, which had been teetering on the brink of submission, went careening over the cliff, pulling Jared with it. Hauling her up into his arms, Jared let the raging need that had taunted him for days take over. There wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t ache or throb to possess this woman. He gritted his teeth as he tried to stifle the lust coursing through him. He was determined not to let his greed for her consume his need to show her how much she meant to him.

With ease, he laid her on the motel bed. She was breathtakingly lovely with her pointed chin and luminous eyes. Her hair spread out on his pillow just as he’d imagined it a thousand times. He hoped to be the gentle, ardent lover her former fiancé obviously hadn’t been. But he hadn’t counted on his desire for her.

The need he felt was almost painful in its intensity. He didn’t know how long he could hang on or how good he would be able to make it for her. Especially if she kept looking at him with such tenderness and caring and...love.

It took his breath away, the realization that she did love him. He doubted she even realized it herself. But it was there, shining in her eyes as surely as the sun. He felt humbled by it.

He refused to examine his own feelings. To do so would be to shatter the beauty of the moment. He knew his feelings were deep. Deeper than they’d ever been for any woman, but love? He was afraid he was incapable of that intangible, evanescent emotion. Instead, he concentrated on the woman before him, with her arms open wide and willing.

The moment he lay between her thighs, Jared knew he was a goner. The steel control he’d always been able to maintain with the opposite sex evaporated like mist in the sun. His hands swept up her torso, his thumbs pausing to wreak havoc with her nipples, while his tongue once again claimed her mouth.

With a soft sigh, Cat surrendered as he advanced upon her. She beckoned him closer by tightening her arms about him. She arched her back, pushing her breasts into his hands while her fingers sought his flesh. She pushed at his boxers, until he let go of her long enough to shove them off himself. Cat sighed as her hands roamed and stroked and taunted at will.

Jared groaned at the feel of her questing fingers. He pulled his lips from hers and began to kiss a trail down her throat, while he unfastened the buttons to her nightshirt and yanked it over her head. He released a pent-up breath when at last his hands were able to caress the precious flesh that had been making his life hell for days.

Cat writhed beneath his touch. With callused fingers and a hot, wet tongue, he stroked her everywhere at once. As he ran his lips across one breast and then the other, she felt a liquid heat pool in her belly.

“Oh, Jared...please,” she begged, reaching for him, but he eluded her grasp.

“Oh no, honey, I’ve waited too long for this to be rushed. We’re just beginning,” he said and splayed one hand across her abdomen, holding her still, while he kissed his way down her body. He kissed the inside of her thigh, and laughed when she bucked against him. “You’re so beautiful, Cat.”

She whimpered and he lowered his head to the juncture of her thighs. He sought out her secrets with his tongue, and she thrashed against the bed.

Cat had never been loved like this before. No one had ever made her feel this brand of tormented pleasure before. Heaven help her, she wanted more.

“Jared!” she sighed.

“Come for me, Cat,” he coaxed, his mouth moving against her. “Come for me.”

She had no choice. An explosion of heat rolled through her, and she arched taut as waves of intense pleasure convulsed within her.

She was breathing through her teeth, hissing with pleasure, but Jared gave her no chance to loiter in her solitary splendor. Lifting her knees, he pressed himself against her hot, slick opening with a groan that could have been ecstasy or agony.

“Cat.” His voice was gruff with lust held in check. “Cat, look at me.”

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