She shook her head. “It can’t happen, and anyway, it’s not fair of me to ask for it.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ve crossed a pretty big bridge tonight, one where we’re not going to hold back with each other even if what we’re saying isn’t easy, right?” When she nodded, he said, “So, tell me.”

“I can’t help but wish I was your first, too.”

He took her hand and put it over his heart. “You’re right, I can’t undo my past. But you have to know that you’re the first person who has ever made my heart beat this hard. I want you around all the time. I want to bring you up in every single conversation. I thought letting myself feel again would mean feeling too much, but I couldn’t resist falling in love with you. You’ve done more to open my eyes back up to the world I’ve tried to close myself off to than anyone else could have.”

“You’ve opened me up, too,” she told him. “You’ve helped me see and experience things I never would have trusted anyone else with.”

“I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you, Serena. So in every way that counts, you are my first.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Oh so slowly, Sean stripped away her crocheted sweater. He seemed surprised—in a very good way—when her tank top came off with it and he realized she didn’t have anything on beneath it.

“Beautiful.” The word pulsed with sensuality as he tossed her top onto the floor and cupped her br**sts in his large hands. “God, you’re beautiful.”

Serena loved how her curves, her height, every part of her, finally felt just right when she was in his arms. “So are you.” It had been true when she’d said it to him the first night they’d met, but now she knew how beautiful he was on the inside, too.

“I want so badly to love you right, but—”

“No more waiting.” She was panicked that he was going to pull back again, that he might think he was doing the right thing by not making love with her tonight.

“God, no,” he agreed in a fervent voice that brought her immense relief. “Tonight should be romantic and special for you…but at this point I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep from ripping the rest of your clothes off and taking you right here on the floor.”

“The floor works for me.” She began to open the buttons on the front of his shirt to show him that she meant it.

Thankfully, that was all he seemed to need to get over the hump of feeling he ought to treat her like porcelain because she was a virgin, and a short—very short—while later, her jeans and panties were off. She tried to take his clothes off just as quickly, but her inexperience worked against her, so he had to help her pull everything off.

Soon they were both naked and his erection was big and hot and hard against her stomach. She wanted so badly to touch him, but just as she began to run her hands down his chest, he picked her up in his arms and brought her over to the bed.

“The floor—and you touching me like that—are both going to have to wait.”

He kissed away any protests she would have made, his lips taking a breath-stealing path from her mouth down to her neck and shoulders and then her br**sts. She could hear his soft laughter as he teased her by kissing everywhere except her tightly peaked ni**les. She loved feeling the warmth and joy of his happiness against her skin as he made his way lower, over her rib cage to her belly, his tongue flicking out against her hip bones to tease her further still.

But when his mouth came down over her sex and she arched into his touch, she wasn’t able to think at all anymore. Wasn’t able to do anything but feel. And want more. And then more again until she needed him inside her right that second.

She gripped his hands and pulled him up her body. “Now,” she said against his lips, tasting herself on them. “I need you now.”

She was so desperate for him that she almost forgot about protection. Thankfully, he’d already taken care of it, so that the next thing she knew he was poised between her thighs. Hard. Big. Beautiful.

Hers.

Led by both her body and her heart, Serena lifted her hips up to him at the exact moment he moved inside her for the very first time.

“Serena?”

She’d stilled beneath him, but not because she was in pain. Coming together with him like this, letting go of her final barriers and her lingering fears that she’d never find anyone who truly loved her for who she really was, felt so good.

So amazingly, incredibly good, that she wanted to savor every second of it.

“I love you.”

The words fell from her lips even as she lifted her hips higher to take him deeper. And all the while, as he finally made her his in the most incredible way possible, he also told her how much he loved her. How beautiful she was. How good she felt wrapped around him. How hot, how wet she was for him. She drank in every sweet and sexy word in the same way she soaked up the delicious friction between their bodies as, inch by inch, he thrust all the way inside her.

For a few moments, as he pulsed hot and huge and perfect inside of her, they simply stared at each other in wonder. Neither of them spoke, but they didn’t need words, didn’t need anything other than the warm press of her lips on his, the sweet caress of his hands over her bottom as he cupped her to fit them together even more deeply, and the instinctive rocking of their hips in perfect unison.

“Tell me. Tell me if it’s good. Or if you need—”

“The best.” She panted the word into his neck, licking at his salty skin. “I’ve never felt this good before. Never.”

“I’ve never felt this good before, either.” His eyes were so dark and so full of heat as he moved his hands down her arms until his fingers were threaded through hers. “Hold on tight to me with your hands and your legs.” He waited until she’d crossed her calves tightly behind his back. “Close your eyes.” He waited until she’d done so to whisper against her lips. “Now let go.”

She was amazed by how a few simple words and the rub of his palms against hers as he thrust deep, and then deeper still, could take her up so high, and so quickly. Because with her eyes closed and Sean holding her hands in his on either side of their bodies as he made love to her, every one of her senses leaped to brilliant life.

The ragged sound of their breathing.

The scent of their arousal, and the clean sweat on his tanned skin.