And then he was right there, his deliciously hard weight on top of her. She kissed him with ravenous desire, wound her limbs around his to pull him even closer, bucked her hips up into the hard press of his erection.

"Slowly, baby," he said against her lips when he finally pulled free. His tongue slid teasingly along the seam of both lips and she had to lick against him. "That's how we're going to go this time. Nice and easy. So slow. So good."

She didn't know who he was trying to convince, her or himself. But she knew how close she was to losing it already, with nothing more than his kiss--and his soft, sweet words whispering straight into her heart.

"Tomorrow," she said, begging, bargaining. "We'll go slow tomorrow." She reached for his shaft, pressed her hand hard over his erection, felt an answering twitch as he grew even harder, even thicker beneath her grasping fingers.

Pure lust filled his eyes, the lines of his face a picture of a man barely holding onto his control. "Tomorrow I'll f**k you rough. Raw. Tomorrow I'll take you so fast, be so deep inside you, make you come so many times that you won't know where one orgasm ends and the next begins. But right now--" He pulled her hands away from his belt. "--I'm going to love you right."

He nuzzled her neck, causing ripples of pleasure to move all across her sensitive skin.

"Promise you'll help me love you right."

"You've always loved me right," she gasped as his mouth found the swell of her br**sts over the neckline of her dress. But then, instead of moving lower, instead of lowering his sinful lips over her aching, swollen ni**les, he shifted his weight off her.

"No," she moaned, missing his heat, wanting him closer, not farther away.

"Shh, baby," he crooned. "I'm right here. Loving you. No bondage. No toys. Just me.

And you. That's all we need."

Something inside her chest came undone at his soft words, a cold wall she'd built around her heart cracking in two. His fingers undid the top button on her dress. He stopped at the second.

"I can feel your heart beating, baby, so hard it's almost lifting my hands off you."

"I didn't know," she whispered, the adoration in his eyes making her braver than she'd ever thought she could be. "I didn't know I could ever love anyone this mu--"

He kissed her before she could finish her sentence, stealing not just her words, not just her breath, but her very soul. Her dress was open to her waist when he finally lifted his head.

"Let me look at you, baby. So beautiful." He reached out, his hand trembling as he brushed his knuckles over the swell of one breast and then the other. "So damn beautiful."

"You make me feel beautiful." No one ever had before, not until Cole.

"You make me lose my mind, my control." He tried to undo the clasp at the front of her bra. "My hands are shaking." He looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I've been having sex since I was fourteen, but I've never been nervous before. Not until you."

She covered his hands with hers, smiling as she helped him undo the clasp. But then her smile fell away as she arched her back to force her br**sts closer to the heat of his mouth.

"I could just stop here," he said, between decadent slurps against the swelling flesh, the hard tips growing even tighter beneath his sultry tongue, "could just spend the rest of the night doing nothing but licking and sucking your tits."

Waves of pleasure shuddered through her pu**y, her clit throbbing as if he was sucking there instead.

"I could just keep loving you like this until you come for me."

His sensual threat--or was it a promise?--sent another rush of arousal through her. His mouth burned hot across her br**sts, laving her with his tongue, making her cry out with pleasure as his teeth scraped across her swollen flesh.

"That's it, sweet girl. That's how I want you to feel when I touch you. Now. Always."

His large hand flattened against her belly and she pressed her hips up into his fingers. He suckled her again, causing uncontrollable tremors to take over her muscles, her limbs. And then his hand was moving lower, beneath the lower part of her dress that was still covering her and she opened her thighs wide in a silent plea for him to touch her. Instead of sliding into her panties, he cupped her between her legs.

"I can feel how wet, how swollen you are for me even through the silk."

She was only just managing to take in his low words as he spoke against the curve of her br**sts, when he nipped at her breast. Maybe it was the sweet flash of pain that cut the final thread that was holding her to reality. Or maybe it was the way he licked over the tiny abrasion so gently, so lovingly that had her crying out his name as the lowest part of her belly tightened, threatening to shatter. Or maybe it was looking down and seeing his dark head bent over her chest, that sent her orgasm slamming through her, from the apex of her thighs all the way down to her toes and fingertips and everywhere in between.

"Anna. Sweet Anna. I love hearing you come. Watching you come. Feeling you come."

Just the sound of his voice was enough to keep her orgasm spiraling on and on, until she was fighting for breath, praying for oxygen to fill her empty lungs.

"I thought you were joking," she admitted when she was finally able to speak again. "I didn't know I could come like that."

"It will happen again. I can promise you that. Only next time we'll get there with just these." He pressed soft kisses to her br**sts, first one and then the other, and her low moan sounded in the room. "Let's get this all the way off you."

His words were steady, his face focused, but his hands gave him away, the slight tremble that she'd never thought to see in the incredibly strong man she'd married.

It shouldn't make sense that having him undress her was such a big deal. Not when he'd had her naked so many times before, not when he'd had her tied up, not when he'd played with sex toys with her, not when she'd taken him down her throat and swallowed his come. But he'd never looked at her like this. Even when lust was tearing them both apart, there'd always been a barrier. Not just his, she realized with surprise, but hers, too.

Because even as she'd been falling in love with him, she'd been scared. Holding back if not her heart, then the last piece of her soul.

Tonight, he was claiming every part of her, inside and out.