“Okay,” he breathed. “You’re not pretending.”
“Nope.” She let her head fall back against his chest. “Are you pretending?”
He seemed to shudder against her. “No. Yes. Both?”
“That sounds confusing.”
“And complicated, Rosie. So very complicated.” His teeth caught her earlobe, nipping at the tender skin. She gasped and shivered. “I want you to watch us.”
She could barely catch her breath. “I’m watching.”
“Good,” he murmured, kissing her neck as he fisted the skirt of her dress. “I don’t want you to miss a moment of this.”
Neither did she, so she watched him pull up the skirt of her dress, inch by inch. Revealing first her calf and then her knee, until her one thigh appeared in the reflection and her legs went weak. He stopped.
Devlin kissed the space behind her ear and then pressed his cheek against hers. She could see him watching in the reflection as he lifted the skirt to her waist, pulling the material to the side, baring her.
He growled out, “Fuck.”
She liked the way he said that, so her hips wiggled a little in response.
“No panties?”
“I didn’t want a panty line,” she explained, feeling her face start to heat. “And I hate thongs.”
“Mmm.” His hips pushed against her rear and she felt him straining against her. “Naughty.”
She let go of her bottom lip and grinned. “You don’t approve, Devlin?”
He squeezed her breast, eliciting a moan from her as the wicked bite of pain was immediately followed by a flood of pleasure. “I’ve never fucking approved of anything more.” He turned his head then, dragging his lips across her cheek as he still stared at her. “Beautiful. Just beautiful. Lift your leg.”
A harsh exhale left her. Resting her hand on his arm, just above where he held her dress, she balanced herself as she lifted her leg, placing her foot on the edge of the bed.
She was bare and open to his eyes, and oh God, his stare was greedy and devouring and she wanted to be devoured. Consumed. Taken.
“You are . . .” He kissed her jaw and then straightened his chin so he was looking at the reflection again. “You are exquisite. Absolutely delectable. Look at you.”
She was looking.
“You are . . . complicated.”
That word again. “Complicated.” She felt that to her core. Yes. Felt it as her thighs quivered—as her entire body quivered. She held herself very still, letting a man who filled her with equal parts irrational rage and lust look his fill, letting a man who was a stranger with the ability to cut deep with words and make her lose her mind with kisses. Complicated. And she wasn’t a shy woman. She liked to think she was quite adventurous when it came to sexy, fun times, but this was different and new to her. It left her feeling vulnerable and raw and strung too tight. She’d never felt like that, not with anyone . So, yes, this was complicated.
“Hold your dress,” he ordered softly.
Rosie did what he asked without question. She held her dress so she remained exposed to him—to them.
With his hand free now, he moved to her bare thigh. Her heart was trying to beat itself out of her chest. She noticed it right off the bat. Not how her skin was darker than his or how large his hand was against her thigh, but how his palm felt. How rough his hands were. They reminded her of Ian’s. Hands of someone who used them, and that shocked her, because she didn’t think he’d have palms and pads callused over. She’d thought his hands would be smooth and pampered. Protected.
She jerked back against his erection and he grunted out, “Wider.”
She opened up as far as she could go without losing her balance. That hand on her thigh didn’t move for the longest time. Felt like an eternity as cool air washed over her heated flesh.
“There’s something else I remembered.” He slid his palm along her inner thigh. Drawing closer and closer to where she ached and pulsed. “From the night when I died? There wasn’t a tunnel,” he said, and she trembled as his finger trailed the crease of her thigh and then out, his palm smoothing over her outer thigh. “But it was so damn cold. Never felt that kind of cold before. It was deep, unending, and beyond physical. Do you understand? It wasn’t my skin or bones that were cold. It was me. Felt that coldness ever since.”
She swallowed hard, and maybe under different circumstances she could recall if other people who’d had near-death experiences felt the same, but she couldn’t at the moment. There was just one thing she wanted to know. “Are you cold now?”
“No.” His hand slipped under her thigh and he carefully moved her foot, closing her legs until just a hint of her most vulnerable place was visible to his eyes. “I’m on fire now.”
“Good,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to be cold.”
He stilled behind her, his hand under her leg. A long, terse moment passed and then he said, “You’d let me in you, right now, wouldn’t you?”
She trembled, not ashamed to admit the truth, but a little afraid of doing so as he skated his fingers over her hip bone. “I’d let you do just about anything right now.”
“I know.” He kissed her temple, and for some reason, that caused her heart to squeeze, her chest to spasm. “That makes this dangerous.”
“Why?”
His fingers danced over the delicate sensitive skin of her mound. “Because I want to bend you over and sink so deep inside you, that you’d feel me for days.”
A bolt of pure lust jolted through her. “How’s that dangerous?”
Devlin didn’t respond to that, but he lifted his head so he could see their reflection again. Their eyes met in the mirror, and then he touched her lightly, right in the center, drawing his fingers along her folds. Her breath caught as her hips twitched. That lazy finger of his trailed up over her clit, spreading her wetness. Then it slipped in her, just the tip of his finger, and she felt it coil deep inside her, a tightening of muscles that was so sharp, so swift that she thought she might come right then.
Devlin made this ragged sound and she felt him tense behind her. She waited for him to thrust his fingers in, to fuck her that way hard and fast. She waited, her breath coming out in short, shallow pants. She waited—
Suddenly, Devlin pulled his hand away from her. “Someone’s coming.”
The man must’ve had amazing hearing, because all she could hear was blood pounding and the unspoken pleas that were about to spill out of her mouth. “What?” she gasped.
“Terrible timing.” He pulled her leg off the bed, and because she was still frozen, he pried her hand free, letting her dress fall, wrinkled, into place. “I don’t want anyone else seeing that.”
A wild giggle crawled up her throat as he pulled her away from the bed, still keeping his front pressed against her back.
“Dev?” a male voice called out from the hallway. “Are you up here? You’re needed downstairs, on the stage, and everyone who is anyone is getting antsy.”
He cursed swiftly under his breath as he curled a strong arm around her waist. “Yes,” he called out over her head. “I’ll be out in a moment.”
“All right” came the response dripping with curiosity. “I’ll be waiting. Out here.” There was a pause. “In the hallway. By myself.”
Rosie’s lips pursed.
“Of course,” Devlin muttered as his erection pressed into her.
Rosie smacked her hand over her mouth, smothering the giggle that finally broke free.
“You think this is funny?” he asked, turning her around so she faced him. There was a lightness in his eyes that she’d never seen in them before. “I can barely walk and I’m needed onstage where I’ll be standing in front of hundreds of people.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, fighting back another laugh as she placed her hands on his chest. “Do you want me to take care of it? I’m rather fast and good at it. Or so I’ve been told.”
The lightness vanished, replaced by stark hunger. “God.” He cupped her jaw. “That suggestion is not helping.”