“I don’t think you would have, but I understand you were confused back then.”

“I was a criminal back then. I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Because you loved me that much.”

“Because I loved you that much.”

Her heart did a little flip, even though he’d said “love” in the past tense. “Most guys would have taken what I was offering without hesitation or even thinking how it would affect me. You had more honor at eighteen than your stepfather will ever have. So don’t ever compare yourself to him again. You could never be him.”

He went silent then, and Teresa wondered if he was thinking about what she’d said or about his past.

“I kept the necklace you gave me.”

He arched a brow. “You did?”

“Yes.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t throw it away.”

“It meant something to me. I might have been angry and hurt, but I still kept it. I keep it in my jewelry box.”

He leaned his forehead against hers. “God, Teresa.” He inhaled, let it out. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not hating me.”

She laughed. “I couldn’t hate you, AJ. I tried. But I couldn’t.”

AJ slid his hand along her neck. Teresa leaned back against the hot tub as his mouth met hers in a soft kiss that was so different from the one Pax had given her, but one that still curled her toes. Where Pax had been all hot fire and passion and demand, AJ was slow, torturous sensation, his lips barely touching hers at first, a light brush meant to tantalize, and did it ever. She lifted up to increase the contact, felt the curl of his lips in a smile as he pressed further against hers and upped the pressure just a bit more. And when his tongue slid between her teeth, again just the tip to tease her, she moaned against his lips and reached for his shoulders to pull his body closer.

She knew he held back, felt the tension in his muscles, and appreciated that he had such infinite patience with her, but now she wanted more.

“Touch me. Put your body against mine,” she whispered against his mouth.

“You tell me when to stop,” he said, and slid his arm around her waist to tug her flush against his body, his mouth fitting full to hers, his tongue diving in completely to sweep against hers in soft velvet strokes that made her tremble all over. And yet he still held her lightly in his grasp. She could push away easily and she knew he took care with her, didn’t want her to feel pinned between him and the wall of the hot tub.

She wasn’t even thinking about that, not when she could explore his mouth and his tongue and the touch of his body against hers. The hot tub suddenly seemed too . . . hot. She wanted out where she could explore him, look at him, touch him without the added heat of the water.

She pulled her lips from his. “It’s too hot. Let’s get out of here.”

He leaned his face away, enough for her to see the heat blazing in his eyes. “I feel the need to remind you we’re both naked.”

She laughed. “I know. But I’m melting in here.”

AJ hopped out of the tub, steam rising off his skin. He grabbed a thick white robe, not at all concerned about his nudity or his erection. Teresa wanted to stay where she was and just . . . look at him. But the heat in her body was steadily growing to dangerous levels, and if she continued to gape at AJ’s body, she was going to have a meltdown. She stood and he held his hand out for her, helping her step out of the tub. Though his gaze roamed over her body, he held the robe while she slid into it.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked. She was warm in the robe. He was still naked, and it was definitely cool outside.

“Babe, I just got a look at your naked body. I’m anything but cold.”

He tugged her closer and kissed her. Heat flared and swelled her breasts as he brought one arm around her back, drawing her against him. She stepped into the embrace, needing to feel his naked flesh against her naked flesh. It had been so long since she’d had that human contact of skin to skin, coupled with the passion that swelled inside her as AJ kissed her senseless.

They’d done damn near everything ten years ago, except they’d never been fully naked together. Oh, what she’d missed. The feel of his strong body against hers, the play of his muscles as she pressed her fingertips against his chest, the solid strength of him as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom, as if she weighed nothing. And as he walked, he stared at her face, the intensity of his gaze a storm of rising passion. She shivered as he laid her on the bed and climbed on after her, pulling her against him.

“Cold?” he asked. “There’s a blanket on the end of the bed.”

“No. Not cold.” She traced his jaw with her fingertips, in awe that she was lying next to a naked man in bed. This was light-years of progress. No shattering fear, no rush of adrenaline screaming at her to flee. It helped that it was AJ, someone she knew and trusted, someone she knew she could say “stop” to at any moment and he would; it would end, and he wouldn’t be angry at her.

But she didn’t want to stop, didn’t want this to end. Not yet. She wanted AJ over her, on top of her, inside of her. She reached for his arm, pulling him toward her. He resisted, instead sliding his fingers in her hair, his fingertips moving around her scalp to the nape of her neck.

“You’re even more beautiful now than you were ten years ago.” One of his hands rested in her hair. He parted the robe and bared her body. She waited to tense up, but didn’t. Instead, she enjoyed his frank appraisal of her as his gaze swept from her feet to her face and all the places in between.

“Do you remember when we used to make out in my car?”

She smiled at the memory. It was such an innocent time. “Yes. You had that old Chevy Camaro.”

He shifted his movement, his hand sliding over her collarbone, his fingers resting on the swell of one breast. “With the too-small backseat.”

It was hard to focus on his conversation with his fingers tapping across her breast. “I don’t remember you complaining about the backseat then.”

“I was too busy trying to cop a feel to complain about anything.”

She giggled, and his palm slid over her breast. He let it rest there. “Like now?”

He arched a brow. “Like now. And just like then, I take each step slow and easy, waiting to see when you’re going to knee me in the balls and push me away.”

She laughed, her heart skipping a beat when he moved his palm over her nipple. It peaked against his hand, tightening with painful pleasure as he touched her with the barest tips of his fingers, floating over her nipples like a feather. It was maddening and wonderful to be worshipped like this, a slow and lazy dance to reintroduce her to sex.

But she wanted more, and she arched against his hand to let him know it, watching the stormy reaction in his eyes. His hand stayed steady, though, floating from her breasts to her ribs to her belly.

“I like this.” He circled the piercing at her navel. “Sexy.”

“I needed to take control over my body again after . . . after a while. That’s why I got the tattoo and the piercing.”

“I like them both.” He flicked the dangling jewel at her belly, then laid his palm flat below it, his fingers resting right above her sex.

Teresa sucked in a breath at this slow dance of seduction. She was wet and needy, and it had been far too long since any man had touched her in the sweet, passionate way she needed to be touched. The only orgasms she’d had in the past five years had been self-induced, and she was damn tired of doing it herself. Her body was in full-on awareness of having AJ next to her, and she wanted more than she was able to vocalize.

But apparently AJ knew just what to do. And when he slid his hand lower to cup her sex, taking her mouth in a deep kiss at the same time, she gasped and rolled toward him, arching her hips to drive against his hand. He hissed against her mouth and she felt the restraint in his tightened muscles, knew it cost him to take this slow ride with her when he was probably used to throwing a woman down and fucking her senseless.

She’d like to be fucked senseless. But this was just what she needed right now, and she couldn’t help but be seduced by the maddening way AJ slid his hand over her wet flesh, parting his fingers as they glided over her clit and down her pussy lips. He slipped his fingers inside her and used the heel of his hand to caress the tight nub, pumping and rubbing her until the sweet tension mounted and she lifted, rocking against his hand, arching ever closer to the hot, tingling pleasure.

She was already pathetically close to orgasm, but she wanted to wait, first because she didn’t want to embarrass herself by coming almost immediately, and second because it felt so damn good to be touched like this she didn’t want it to end too soon. She needed to soak this in, to experience every second and burn it into her memory.

If she allowed herself to think too much about it, she’d self-combust. A man was touching her again. It seemed like an eternity since that had happened. She had begun to think it never would, that she was frozen, would be unable to accept a man’s touch ever again. But she could, and oh, it was good.

AJ slid his lips from her mouth to her neck, licking her, snaking a path to her collarbone and chest and leaving a trail of goose bumps. He put his mouth over her nipple, licking around the tightened bud with his tongue and finally capturing it, sucking it, each draw sending tingles of hot pleasure to her already scorching pussy. And while he sucked and licked at her nipples, he continued to fuck his fingers in and out of her pussy in this slow, leisurely manner, as if he had all the time in the world to play with her body.

She knew his touch, his mouth. It might have been ten years and they might both be different now, but some things she never forgot—her body never forgot. All these years and despite other men in her life, she could never erase the way his hands and mouth felt on her, the way he could take her to—right there—with seemingly little effort, and then dangle her over the edge and make her wait.

He’d always loved teasing her, said he enjoyed watching her face as he took her to the brink of orgasm. They’d waited so long for sex that those teasing moments between them had meant everything. But now, now she wanted to come, needed to have an orgasm by someone’s hand other than her own—a man’s hand.

She gritted her teeth and held on, dug her heels into the mattress and spread her legs to give him even more access to her.

“That’s it,” he said as he drove his fingers in deep. “Give it to me, Teresa.”

His voice was dark pleasure that sank into her soul, winding her tight and making her spin out of control. She was selfish, she knew it; she wasn’t touching him for any reason other than to use him as a lifeline. His hard cock lay against her leg and she should touch him, bring him as much pleasure as he was bringing her. She reached between them, searching, but he nudged her hand away and lifted his head.

“No. This time it’s just you.”

“But—”

“Later.” He drove the heel of his hand against her clit and deepened his fingers inside her. A rush of heat exploded from within and she lifted.

“More.”

Her word came out in a whisper, but her lips were tucked against his cheek and she knew he heard her.

“Faster?”

“Yes.”

“Deeper?”

“Yes.”

“Harder?”

Delicious sensation poured through her nerve endings. He mastered her body and she lost herself in his touch. “Oh, yeah. Please, AJ.”

This time she couldn’t hold back. She came with a cry, shuddering against him as she rocketed through her orgasm with an intensity that hit her like a crashing wave. It knocked her senseless, unexpected in both its intensity and the shattering emotion that roller-coastered through her as a result. She held on to AJ and rode it out until there was nothing left but pulses and his fingers dipping gentle and easy inside her.