Yes! That was what she wanted. What she needed.

Only, instead of doing any of those things, he stilled his hips against hers and lifted his face from that spot beside her ear where he was filling her head with naughty visions. His blue eyes seared her with heat.

“But that’s not how we’re going to do this tonight, Megan.”

Her eyes widened at the confident statement. “But what if that’s what I want?” came from between her lips, barely above a whisper.

“You’ll want this more,” he said, and then he was bending his head to lick into the hollow of her shoulder.

She arched her neck into his sweetly sensual kiss, her skin trembling beneath the tender onslaught.

No man had ever talked to her like this, told her what to anticipate, promised her ecstasy if only she’d follow where he led. She was just pragmatic enough, had taken care of herself for long enough, to think that she shouldn’t like whispered promises from a man who clearly knew exactly how to drive a woman wild with wanting. And yet as his mouth traveled up her neck, alternating soft little bites with the warm press of his tongue over the small hurt, she knew the truth for what it was.

She loved it.

He pulled back and slid his hands from her hair, down her arms to take her hands, and that slow glide of the calloused skin on his palms across the inside of her elbow, her wrist, was just about as good as any orgasm any other man had given her.

Gabe threaded his fingers intimately through hers and even though she was already naked, even though she’d all but been begging him to take her up against the wall moments before, the feel of being held like that—like more than just a lover for the night—rocked all the way past her skin and bones, heading straight to the core of her heart. And, amazingly, even though he’d shifted away enough to easily take in her nudity, he never looked away from her eyes for a single second.

It was crazy for tears of emotion to rush at her and she tried to blink them away before he noticed, but maybe it was the hitch in her breathing that gave her away.

“You and me, we’re going to talk to each other tonight. You’re going to tell me when I make you feel good...or if I don’t.”

She licked her lips, knew he was right. They weren’t kids taking a tumble together. “It’s good so far,” she said in a soft voice. “Really good.”

“But?”

Any other man would have pushed past her obvious emotions, but Gabe was doing just the opposite.

“I expected hot.” She slid her thumbs against his palms. “I was ready for hot.”

His eyebrow quirked up at that. “Really?”

She shook her head slightly. “Well,” she admitted, “maybe not exactly ready for it, but I’m not surprised.”

“Me either,” he said, and then, “Tell me what’s surprising.”

She didn’t know how to put words to it, other than to say, “Everything else.”

His eyes darkened, his fingers tightening on hers. “I wish I were surprised,” he said in a low voice, raw with need and something else she was afraid to dissect. He lifted her hands to his mouth and managed to kiss them both at the same time.

Oh God, what this man was going to do to her...how would she ever recover from this night? she wondered helplessly as he slowly brought her hands back down and began to move them apart. If it were just hot sex, that would be one thing. But what if he were looking to seduce more than just her body?

What if he was going for her heart, too?

His eyes moved slowly from her face down to her br**sts, and held. The seconds ticked by, one after the other, as he took in every inch of her skin. She couldn’t stop herself from following his hot gaze to her br**sts, and both of them watched as her ni**les puckered up hard, pulling her full br**sts up higher on her chest.

“Touch me,” she begged, desperate to feel his hands, his mouth on her. “I need you to touch me.”

Gabe gave no indication of having heard her, nothing but the way he took their joined hands and placed hers on either side of his jean-clad hips. He didn’t rush as he slid his fingers from hers, and those painfully drawn out moments of waiting only added to her need.

And then—finally!—he was reaching for her, his fingertips feathering out across her stomach and then up her rib cage. She sucked in a hard breath at the intense pleasure of Gabe’s touch. He hadn’t even come close to her br**sts yet, but already she felt insanely good.

She bit her lip as he continued his sinfully slow path of sensual destruction up her body.

“So soft,” he murmured, just at the lower swell of her br**sts. “So pretty.” His palms shifted that final inch to cup the full flesh. “So perfect.”

There was no holding back another moan as his thumbs both moved across her ni**les at the same time, not a chance of keeping her back from arching her chest further into his big hands.

But when he lowered his head and blew across one of her ni**les, she nearly came right then and there. His eyes met hers, full of approval and unabashed pleasure at her reaction. “You’re sensitive, aren’t you?”

He rubbed his thumb over both ni**les again, which completely forestalled her being able to answer him, as it was taking every ounce of her concentration just to keep breathing.

“Megan?”

His low voice urged her to answer him, just as he bent slightly to blow a hot patch of air against her other breast.

“Yes,” she gasped out as he followed up the breath with the sweet pinch of his thumb and forefinger over her tightly aroused flesh.