Page 56 of Heated Rivals
“I know.” He kissed her again, delvinginto her mouth and showing her all the things he’d never have the words to say. How much he appreciated her, that he loved how fierce she was, how much he never wanted to let her go.
He didn’t know what the fuck they were going to do about their current situation, but he was determined to find a way around it. He couldn’t do anything less for the woman in his arms.
* * *
Carrigan’s fury didn’t abate as she kissed James. If anything, his words only drove it higher.He loves me. She’d known there was a feeling growing inside her, getting stronger every time she saw him, but she’d refused to put a title on it. Love. It was love. And she was putting him in danger right now for even being here with him.
One night. I’ll figure everything out tomorrow.
Things would fall into place where they would. Right now there was just her and James and several hours of freedom. She tugged on his shirt, pulling it up and over his head, needing to be skin to skin. Apparently he had the same idea because he had her dress off seconds later. He lifted her, and she quickly wrapped her legs around his waist while he carried her through the house to the same bedroom they’d been in the other night. “I’m never going to get enough of you, lovely.Never.”
That’s what she was afraid of. Because she felt the same way—that this was the end all, be all, and everything after this would be like living in a shadow. She kissed him harder.There is no tomorrow. There is just right now, in this moment, with this man. The feeling of a clock counting down in the back of her head intensified.This might be her last chance to have him, to feel his hands on her body, to have him whispering filthy things in her ear.
To tell him how she felt.
She opened her mouth to do just that, but some instinct held her back. If he knew she loved him, too, he’d never let her go. He’d fight to his dying breath for her. Which was the damn problem—hisdyingbreath.I can’t let him die for me.
So she kept silent as he laid her on the bed and kissed her as if he never needed to breathe. His clever fingers did away with her bra and he sat back, pulling her panties with him. He stopped with them around her ankles, her feet resting against his chest. “What do you need from me tonight?”
She pressed her lips together to keep from confessing everything—her fear and her shitty future and all the worries crowding to the forefront of her brain now that they weren’t losing themselves in each other. She focused on his blue eyes. How had she ever thought they were cold? They weren’t. They were the hottest flame. Really, there was only one answer. “Everything.”
He nodded like she’d confessed to more than a single word. Maybe she had. “Everything and more, lovely.” He tossed her panties to the side.
She didn’t give him a chance to retreat, though. Carrigan unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down just enough to free his cock. His whole body went tense, and she looked up the long line of his chest, meeting his gaze and waiting to see if he’d stop her. He didn’t.
So she took him into her mouth, sucking him down until his curse rang to the ceiling. He fisted his hands in her hair. “I’ve been thinking about that hot, wetmouth around my cock, lovely. I’ve come more times than I can count to that fantasy.”
She hummed her approval, sucking him deeper, never taking her eyes off his face. He watched her, his jaw tight and his eyes hooded. “The fantasy doesn’t even come close. Slip that hand between your legs. Does sucking me off get you wet?”
Yes. She ran her tongue along the underside of his cock as she obeyed him. Though a part of her wanted to finish him like this, to see him lose control completely, she needed to lose herself in him more. “James, I need you.”
“And if I tell you to finish me this way?”
His control was better than hers. It had been since they started this dance around each other all those months ago. But she had an ace up her sleeve, and she didn’t hesitate to use it now. “Please, James. I want to come around your cock.Please.”
He cursed long and low. “I couldn’t deny you even if I wanted to.” He grabbed a condom from the nightstand, put it on, and crawled onto the bed, settling between her legs. He shoved against her, the angle wrong to push inside her, his cock sliding over her clit. “This is what you need, lovely.” He hitched her leg up, opening her further.
“Yes!” She grabbed his shoulders, arching up to meet his thrusts, trying to move to eliminate that last tiny distance between them.
But he was having none of it. He nipped her neck. “Not yet.”
“Damn it, stop teasing me.”
“Never.” He slid over her again, the sensation not enough to push her into oblivion. “I love the way you writhe for me, how your body goes soft and tight atthe same time, like you’ll never get enough.” He kept his free hand on her hip, pinning her in place and preventing her from changing the angle. “I love how you’ll do damn near anything to get me inside you.”
She would, too. She grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking it a little harder than she would have normally. “And you’re a goddamn tease.”
“You love it.” Another stroke.
“Maybe.”
He shifted, his cock notching in her entrance, and pushed just the tip into her. She hissed out a breath, needing so much more, but he seemed content to hold that position.“James!”
He sank another inch into her. “This is what you need. What you can’t go another second without.”
“Yes. Oh my God, yes.”
Another inch. And another. Slowly and surely, until he had sunk into her to the hilt. And then he kissed her, his tongue working hers, taking what he already knew was his. She moved against him, only able to shift the slightest bit because of his weight pinning her to the mattress. That barest amount created a delicious friction, though, so she kept doing it. Pleasure built with each breath, low and deep and more profound than anything she’d ever felt before. She clutched his shoulders, her legs sliding over his, sweat slicking her skin. “James, I—”
