He’d practically lost control earlier when he’d been kneeling behind her. It was even worse now, this desire to take her, to make her his.

And to keep her.

Zach barely managed to remind himself that he didn’t keep women. He didn’t even consider it. Sex was for pleasure. Only pleasure.

Sweet Lord, what pleasure it was to be with Heather.

Loving the way she instinctively opened her legs for him as he came closer to her core, he swept over her with a broad stroke of his tongue. He had planned to tease, to taste her slowly, but the way she arched up into his mouth, those sweet little sounds she made as he drove her higher and higher, made him lose hold of his control.

Next time he’d make her wait, next time he’d tease her mercilessly until she was begging and pleading for release.

Zach needed to claim her as his right this very second. He needed to know that she was as out of control as he was, that he wasn’t the only one out on the edge of passion.

Like a man possessed, he licked and sucked at her aroused flesh. Already, he knew he’d never get enough. He was already addicted to the taste of her.

And then, a moment later, her hands clamped down so hard on his that her nails bit into his skin as she shattered against his mouth.

Chapter Seventeen

None of her other lovers had ever noticed the scars on her arms, not even with the lights on.

Heather knew why, knew that it was because none of the men she’d been with before Zach had cared enough about her to take the time to learn her secrets.

Sex had never been all about her before.

But, as she was surprised to realize yet again, Zach was different. He noticed everything, things that other men would never have paid any attention to. He’d lingered over her scarred skin with his mouth, and he’d given her such soft healing kisses she’d hardly be surprised if the scars were completely gone in the morning.

Heather had never felt anything like this, such all-encompassing pleasure. She’d always been the one to know her body best, usually having more success with battery-operated devices than any of the men she’d been with.

But none of them had been Zach Sullivan.

The things he could do with his lips. With his tongue. She’d never come that hard, that long, that good before. Even now that she was starting to come down from the incredibly high peak, Zach didn’t seem to be done, wasn’t climbing over her to finish what he’d started and get what was coming to him.

Instead, he licked over her slowly, soothing the sensitive area after the riotous explosion of pleasure he’d just put it through, while seeming to savor her at the same time.

Finally, he lifted his head and said, “I love the way you taste when you come,” before lowering his mouth back between her thighs and pressing a kiss to her. “You know how greedy I am,” he murmured against her incredibly sensitive flesh. “I want more of your sweetness, Heather. Right now.”

She shouldn’t have been so easily aroused again, not by a couple of bossy sentences, but even before he treated her to more focused attention from his brilliant tongue, just knowing how much he was enjoying being with her had Heather going from zero to a hundred again in a matter of seconds.

Gently, he slid one of his hands from hers and ran it down over her hips. She shivered at his touch, and then she was losing control of her body again, needing that beautiful release that only Zach could give her. Again and again she bucked into his hand, his mouth, wanting, begging, needing, gasping.

And then, there it was, a kaleidoscope of colors, as she burst apart again, this time crying out his name, needing to feel it on her tongue as she rose to impossible heights, then fell down, down, down into the darkness.

Heather had never known that she could be pure sensation. Every inch of her skin felt hyper-aware. Every cell inside her was ready, waiting, for more.

She should have been exhausted, shouldn’t have been able to crave anything more, but when Zach began the long, slow climb up her body, his mouth pressing kisses to the insides of her thighs, her hip bones, her rib cage, she couldn’t wait another second.

He had never let go of his grip on her right hand and as he slid the fingers of his left over hers, connecting them again, she used all her might to pull him toward her, over her. She couldn’t see his face in the dark, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t need to see him anymore.

Just knowing he was there with her was enough.

“Zach.”

“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he took her lips with his, her hands back up on either side of her head.

He might act as though life was just for fun, but here, in bed, she sensed who he truly was. A man to whom everything mattered deeply.

She didn’t want to feel anything for him beyond annoyance and laughter and arousal. But she knew why she had started to fall for him. Not just because of his ridiculously good looks...but because she sensed what he tried to keep so deeply hidden from them all.

A surprisingly big, beautiful heart.

Still blurry after her orgasms, and from the emotions she couldn’t seem to fight back in this one perfect moment, she reached out to put her hands on his chest, on his breastbone, beneath which his heart beat hard. Steady.

She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the hairs that dusted over his skin.

He stilled after her kiss landed on his chest. She wanted to make a joke, wanted to say something to lighten the mood, to make it clear to him that what they were doing was just sex.

Instead, she found herself whispering, “You are, too.” So incredibly beautiful.