He growls softly when he’s got my mouth under his and I don’t move away, instead letting him mold his lips to mine.

He holds my face, his hand open, and uses his thumb to pull my chin down so that my lips part and he can dip his tongue into my mouth…right where I want him, where his taste brands itself in me, and bubbles of pleasure race down my nervous system. His hot, soothing taste fills every tiny nook and corner inside me.

Sensations crackle through my bloodstream. I am liquid and warm. “Tahoe,” I whisper.

“God, say my name like that, just like that,” he murmurs as he trails his lips up my jaw.

He nibbles my earlobe, unleashing shivers down my spine. He groans and squeezes me tighter to him, as if he’s waited for this for too long.

He grabs my waist and shifts me so that he has access to my entire backside and I’m flat against him, kissing him as hard and fast as he’s kissing me.

“Tahoe, Tahoe…” I moan.

“I know,” he groans huskily into my mouth, “I know.”

His tongue smooths over mine as I tip my head back and open my lips farther. I want him to taste me all over, to take everything.

The heat of his chest against mine is burning me to ash. His hand trails over my abdomen, my heart aches when I see the raw lust on his face as he watches his fingers steal under my pajama top.

Fingertips stroke all over my belly. He leans closer. His mouth brushes over mine and he gives me one light peck on the lips, like the ones he used to give me.

I tremble.

Another kiss—this one he punctuates with a small, delicious bite on my bottom lip. I clench all over with need. He nibbles me so tenderly, seizing my lip, gently biting, gently tugging, gently releasing, heatedly licking.

I slip my fingers under his shirt, wanting to touch him.

He seems to want my touch too because he shrugs off his shirt and tosses it aside. His hair ends up all mussed and I love it; I run my fingers over it and kiss his mouth again. Lick my tongue across the soft scrape of his beard and up to his glorious, minty, hot mouth.

Breathless at the sight of his magnificent body in its semi-nude state, I toss my top and send it flying across the room. I’m wearing no bra, and the next instant we’re pressing up against each other, pressing our lips together.

He scoops me up and carries me upstairs, stalking the house with quick steps.

He turns into a room, leaves the light off, the door kicked shut. Sunlight streams through the window. And I am grateful because I want to see.

And I think he does too because as he sets me on the bed, he is doing nothing—nothing—but laying a thousand pounds of heat on me with his eyes.

Before I can beg him and ask for it now now, now, he’s crawling over me, his lips settling possessively back on mine, tongue sliding inside. I claw him closer, flesh to flesh, the thickness of his erection pressing against his jeans and settling perfectly between my thighs.

He’s so big and so hard, and I’m so ready I’m quaking. He tugs my shorts down my legs and leaves me only in my panties. Green striped ones. He takes them in as he takes in all of me, naked and so very bare for him.

And he could not look more pleased as his eyes roam my every curve, my every inch.

He makes love to me with just his gaze. After a long, sinuous path, his eyes stop and smolder on my face. “So gorgeous, nothing has ever been this gorgeous,” he huskily declares.

He slides his warm palms over my rib cage and covers my breasts—my aching, heavy breasts—in his gentle palms.

No one has ever held my breasts with more reverence.

His thumbs caress the peaks at the same time, and Tahoe watches my expression as he does. I gasp in surprise; waves of white-hot lightning roll through me. His eyes darken as he takes in my reaction, flashing as if the white-hot lightning lives and breathes inside him, and he does it again, curling the hardened little tips. Caressing me with the utmost care.

“Tahoe,” I purr, and I arch and grab the back of his head, fill my hands with fistfuls of his hair, and I press my lips to his. “God, you feel amazing. You are amazing,” I groan against his mouth.

This kiss is a bit wilder now, more out of control. We’re both getting breathless. I can feel him getting restless, getting hungry. His stare is hungry, the feel of his hands wandering my body is hungry, the way he’s gently biting my lips, earlobe, and throat is hungry.

He unfastens his jeans, tosses them aside. His muscles ripple with his movements as he crawls back over me, and deep inside me, in the parts of me I’ve tucked away for too long, I feel a ripple too. A ripple of longing and desire and love, I almost don’t know what to do with this mix of feelings, but I lie on my back and look at Tahoe and I know that this man needs to be physically loved, and often. He has jumped from bed to bed never really knowing what it is he needed. I’ve held back, afraid that I’d never find what I need. Now this man is here and he is all I need. And I want him to find everything that he has ever wanted in me.

I sit up in bed and kiss his lips, and he kisses mine, smiling down at me with my favorite smile, one that is very male, a little cocky, a little arrogant, and a lot tender. “Do you want me?” He cups my face with both hands, his look wild and demanding. “Do you?”

I nod without hesitation. I feel him tug my ponytail free. My hair tumbles to my shoulders. He looks at the wild curls with appreciation and then runs his fingers through them as he fists a handful of hair, leans down and entwines his tongue with mine. “Then you’ll have me.”

He slips his free hand into my panties, his fingers sliding over my damp folds. “Are you ready for me? Say you’re ready for me, ’cause I cannot possibly be more ready for you,” he growls. His drawl is evident. I’ve never seen him so turned on.