One slight shift of his hips and he could be inside her. And the truth was that he’d never been so tempted to break all the rules—every last one—and take her bare, with nothing between them at all. When she rolled her hips against his in just the right way to take him inside, he nearly gave in. But she meant too much to him to ever risk her in that way.

“Ash.” He put his hands on her hips, both to still her movements and to lift her slightly. “Protection.” He could barely think straight, which made words hard to come by. “I need to put on protection.” He nodded at the small bedside table. “In there. Max, he stocks all his buses. But you’re the only one for me, Ash.”

She pulled out the new, unopened box and took one out. “I’ve never put one on before. Will you show me how?”

“Next time,” he promised her. “Right now, I’m too close.” With gritted teeth, he focused on the task at hand, trying not to notice just how avidly, how hungrily, she watched him roll down the latex over his hard flesh—and definitely trying not to think about how it would feel if she were the one doing it.

Finally, she was back where she belonged, straddling his hips. “Let me feel you, Ash, just moving over me.”

She laid her hands flat on his chest, and her tongue flicked out to lick her lips as she focused on doing just what he’d asked her to do. She was at once sweet and oh so sexy as she rocked faster and faster over him, pushing her hips harder against his with every stroke. And then, with just the slightest tilt to her pelvis, she began to take him inside.

Her breath caught as she stilled over him.

“Ash?” Every sign told him she was a virgin. And the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, or move too fast. “If you’re not ready—”

“I am. So ready.”

She’d never sounded so passionate about anything, and she backed up her words with another slow, sweet inch of slick heat over him.

He was nearly delirious by now with the need to consume her, body and soul, but he wanted her to know, “Only take what feels good. Only take as much of me as you can.”

“All of you.” She leaned forward to kiss him. “I want to take all of you.”

Didn’t she know? “You have all of me already.”

“Not yet,” she whispered as she took him into herself—slow, trembling, breathless, perfect. “But I will soon.”

“Oh God, Ash, the heat of you over me. Surrounding me...” He groaned, trying to hold still, trying to keep from thrusting up, pushing as deep as he was desperate to go. “I’ve never felt anything so good. Never known anyone so beautiful.”

He could feel how small she was, but she didn’t stop, didn’t pause to catch the breath that he could hear hitching in her throat. Instead, she continued to rock her hips over him, small, intense motions that took him inside of her little by little. He wanted more. So much more. But he couldn’t stand to hurt her. Not even the slightest bit if he could help it.

“Ash—”

“I love it,” she said now as she bent her arms to lower her face to his for a soothing kiss. “I love the feel of you inside me. You don’t have to be careful with me. I won’t break, I promise.”

He knew how strong she was, but he didn’t want her to look back on her first time and remember anything but pleasure. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“There’s only one way you could ever hurt me. By not being honest with me. By not being yourself. What do you want, Drew?”

“You.”

Her lips curved up into the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. “Then take me. All of me. Without holding any of yourself back.”

Between the feel of her wet, hot body over his and the words falling from her beautiful mouth, he was so far out on the edge that he almost couldn’t pull himself back. But he knew he needed to try.

“I’ve wanted you too much, for too long. If I don’t at least try to keep control—”

“No.” With that one word, she sank all the way down on him. Past any barriers that had been there before. Past the point of no return. “I don’t want either of us to be in control tonight.”

As if her words were the key to the final lock on his self-restraint, in the next split second, Drew had flipped them over so that she was on her back and he was looking down on such pure, sweet beauty that it was nearly impossible to take all of her in. But he already knew that he could look at Ashley for the rest of his life and never stop being stunned by what he saw. Such honesty. Such intelligence.

Such heart.