I’d never been so sure of it until he began to drive into me, slow drags out of my body that sent me reeling with shivers of pleasure, hard thrusts that took me so deep that a cry left me on each one.
Those fierce eyes pinned me just as fiercely as the thrust of his hips.
Measured. Hard. Possessive.
The air and his fucks and the intensity that swam and billowed and blew.
The man owning me where he held me in the power of his hands.
Those eyes flicked all over my face, searching, knowing, this feeling coming over me that I’d never been so close to someone before.
That we were both broken open wide.
Giving and taking. Giving and taking.
Oh, did Ian take as his hips began to snap. Deeper and faster, working both of us into a frenzy.
Heat blazed and flames lapped.
Rising up at our feet.
Emotion thick, my heart threatening to batter right out of my chest.
“Grace,” he gritted, his fingers sinking deeper into my thighs as if he couldn’t get deep enough, his cock surging into my pussy at a punishing pace, those mesmerizing eyes on my mouth as if he wanted to lose himself there, too.
“What are you doing to me?” he whispered in some kind of awe. In fear and confusion and need.
It only drove him to take me harder. Demanding more. As if he didn’t understand that I would willingly offer everything.
I wanted to touch his face.
Kiss his mouth.
Taste his tongue.
But I let him have me the only way he would let me.
The man fucked me as if we had no time left. An uncaged animal who was taking his one chance.
Making his claim.
Marking me.
Every inch.
Body and heart and soul.
I was right.
I was right.
I was never going to be the same.
Our grunts filled the air, our bodies slapping as he drove deeper and harder and seared himself to my flesh.
“Fuck . . . so sweet . . . this body. It’s mine, Grace.”
Big hands grabbed me by the knees and pushed me open wide where I was splayed across his wall as he banged me into oblivion.
That’s what it was.
Oblivion.
And I was screaming out again, an orgasm splitting me in two.
Riding a river. Burning in his flames.
“Ian.” His name had become a prayer. A shout of my heart.
He only fucked me harder, faster and deeper and madder before the man was growling, hands everywhere, searching, as if he were trying to find a place to latch onto me forever.
He cinched down tight, body going rigid as he fully seated himself inside my body.
Ian’s grunts became a roar, and the man shuddered and shook, shouting my name with his release.
His cock was so full and thick as he throbbed inside me that I was slammed with a rebound of pleasure.
Streaking ribbons and binding bows.
Shot somewhere into heaven or hell or purgatory, I didn’t know.
The only thing I knew was I wanted to ride on it for all of eternity.
So, it was me grasping for him, hands sinking into his skin as I clamored for a breath. For a way to slow my body down, my heart down, when it was already racing for him.
He buried his face in my neck, gasping, his chest heaving as he struggled for a breath. “You are a goddamned miracle.”
My mouth went to his shoulder, kissing at the flesh, tasting his sweat-drenched skin. “Ian,” I whispered through shallow rasps, “Ian.”
My mind whirred as I tried to catch up to what I’d just done. Waiting for guilt to come flooding, this selfish act that I’d taken for myself.
But there was none to be found.
Only this feeling that I needed more.
His rock-hard abdomen rippled with aftershocks, and he stayed inside me while he caught his breath, before he slowly eased out and helped me onto my unsteady feet.
I wanted to weep at the sudden emptiness.
Eyes moving softly over my face, he brushed back my matted hair, his breaths short and heaving as he stared at me, brow pinching as if he were struggling with what to say.
“That was . . . incredible. You’re incredible. I knew I wanted you. Finally understand why.”
I was silently begging him to give in to me.
Kiss me. Why won’t you kiss me? What are you afraid of?
I wondered if he knew it, where my mind had gone, because his eyes dropped to my parched, dried lips.
A sorrow so old flashed through his expression that I got the creeping feeling that I might be chasing down a ghost.
He sucked in another breath, and he wound a hand gently into my hair. “I knew you would blow my mind. I just had no idea you were going to rock my world.”
I had to swallow down the emotions that were making a play at climbing up my throat. Words I wanted to release but knew neither of us were ready to hear. “I’m pretty sure it was you who just blew mine. Three times.”
“I promised you I’d make a good memory.”
I tried not to let those words cut through me like a blade, the horrible, empty feeling with the thought of him walking away after what we’d just shared.
The connection between us so tangible I felt like I could hold it in my hands.
I forced my mouth into the semblance of a smile. “I like your brand of promises.”
He nipped my chin. “There are plenty more of those kinds of promises where that came from.”
Surprise had me squealing when he suddenly dipped down and swept me off my feet. He cradled me like a bride against the strength of his naked body, those tattooed arms wrapping me tight.
He might have been holding me, but I was only falling farther.
Faster and deeper.
Still, I latched onto the playfulness that had taken over his mood as he began to rush with me through the massive room. “Oh my God . . . don’t you dare drop me, Ian Jacobs. The last thing I need is to be explaining away how I ended up with a broken leg.”
Ask me who I’d be explaining it to, I wanted to beg.
I didn’t know until right then how desperately I needed to tell him. To let him hold it. Wondering if he’d run or stand at my side.
That raspy voice came low at my ear. “Drop you? Never.”
If only that were the truth.
I looped both arms around his neck. I realized in that moment I didn’t care where he was taking me.
He carried me down a short hall, passing by two doors on either side. He continued to the end of the hall toward another set of double doors.
He edged around so he could turn the knob, trying to balance me at the same time.
Another ripple of giggles rolled up my throat. “So strong.” I let the words play from my tongue when I meant them one hundred percent.
He cocked me one of those arrogant smirks, the man so damned pretty it made my heart hurt. “You’re really just a skinny little thing.”
I rolled my eyes because that wasn’t even close to being the truth. “Hardly. I rock my curves. Don’t pretend like you haven’t noticed.”
“Who me, ogling you.”
I swatted playfully at his chest, the man bringing out a side of me that I’d almost forgotten. “Pssh. All you do is ogle me. Don’t act like you haven’t.”
“Fine. You want the truth? I’ve been eye-fucking this fine-ass body since the second I saw you.” He nuzzled his face into my hair. “Guilty as charged. I want to get lost in every lush curve. Get lost in all of you.”
Do it.
Let go.
Love me.
Oh, but that was just stupidity, just asking for the worst kind of trouble. I couldn’t even believe I’d let the thought enter my mind.
One side of the double doors swung open, and he carried me through the shadows that played along the walls of the darkened bedroom.
It was the only room that appeared to be halfway lived in, a pair of shoes at the foot of an enormous bed and a tee shirt tossed on a fabric chair over near the floor to ceiling windows that were covered in wispy, sheer drapes.
I was expecting him to carry me to his bed, but he bypassed it, going straight for the en suite bathroom through an open archway to the right.
He flipped on the overhead lights, and I blinked against the harshness.
I was taken aback again by just how strikingly beautiful he was up close beneath the glow.
A bronzed, tattooed statue.
It only made me hold on to that strength more tightly, clinging to the erratic beat of his thrumming heart, wishing that he might let me hold it.