Fearless in Love

  She was fumbling for his belt when he pulled back abruptly and held her hands still over his still-latched buckle. "Look at me, Ari."

  The command in his voice shot a thrill through her as she raised her eyes to his burning gaze. She'd never felt so desired. Sex had only ever been about the end game--get in, get off, get out--at least for the boys she'd known. Matt made it intimate and special, like in her dreams.

  "Promise me you want this, or we'll stop."

  She didn't have to think, didn't so much as hesitate. "I've never wanted anything more."

  His grin was slow...and utterly devastating. "In that case," he said, "keep taking off my belt."

  She didn't fumble, his eyes on her giving her bravery and grace. She pulled his buckle loose and had begun to unzip him when he laid his hand over hers again.

  "Just the belt until I tell you I'm ready for more."

  Her fingers trembled with the need to hold him in her hand. And her whole body trembled with the sensuality of his erotic commands.

  She ached to rip off his clothes and dive on him, but she loved that he made her wait. Then, finally, he said, "More," his eyes lit by fire.

  She left his jeans for the moment and slid her hands beneath his shirt, resting her palms on his stomach. "Like this?"

  When he growled his assent, she skimmed her hands slowly over his abdomen, to the chest hair beneath the pads of her fingers, to his flat nipples. His skin jumped beneath her touch, and his hard body flexed against her belly.

  Gathering his shirt, she pushed it over his head. Oh God, all that awesome flesh, all that power, was right before her eyes, his chest broad, his muscles taut.

  "You make me crazy. This is crazy." His voice rumbled against her ear. "But I want to savor it. I want to savor you. Don't rush." He slid his hands down her bare back, cupped her bottom, holding her long and hard against him, letting her feel what she did to him.

  He was the definition of sensuality, enjoying every touch, every taste, every moment of her--making her feel like no other woman had ever mattered, only her.

  He couldn't know how badly she wanted to matter to someone. And in this moment, she truly felt like she mattered to him.

  Her hands trembled as he put them on denim, helping her unzip and shove his jeans all the way down. Once they were gone, she stepped back, dying to see his erection, so hard, so big, outlined by only a thin layer of cotton.

  "For you. Only for you, Ari." When she shivered with the thought of him inside her, he soothed her. "Don't be scared."

  "I'm not." Not of whether they'd fit--he would be perfect--but of something else entirely. "I don't want to disappoint you."

  He lifted her high, and she wrapped her legs around him. The cotton between them barely a barrier, she felt the steel of him between her thighs.

  "You could never disappoint me." He knelt on the bed and laid her down in the middle. She sank into the thick comforter. "Don't you know you're special?"

  She could barely think, certainly not well enough to answer a question like that.

  He didn't wait, simply ate her alive, kissing her until her lungs were starving for breath. He pressed her down into the bed, his weight like a blanket, like heat, like the stars above.

  Slowly he kissed his way down her chin, her throat, her collarbone, until he reached the edge of her pink bra, flicking the clasp open with expert fingers. Inch by inch he eased the cups aside, caressing her with his tongue and the short whiskers along his jaw. His lips closed over her nipple and he sucked hard.

  Ari cried out, arching deeper into his mouth, her hands fisting in the comforter. Her legs fell open, and his hips slipped between them, the hard pressure of his erection turning her insides to liquid and fire.

  Now she knew that she'd only played at loving before. Because making love with Matt was beyond anything she'd ever experienced. His mouth on her, his hands all over her, his body between her legs--this was man owning woman, possessing her body, touching her soul.

  He pulled the bra straps down her arms and blew a warm breath over the wet peak of her nipple. She shivered with need.

  "Ari."

  She wanted to cry at the way he said her name, so tenderly, so gently, so reverently.

  Working his way down her stomach, he layered every inch of bare skin with kisses. Her belly jumped in anticipation...and a little fear. She'd done this before, but with those two boys, it had felt clumsy and messy and wrong, and she'd just wanted it to be over.

  But...ohhhh...Matt's mouth on her skin felt so right. So incredible.

  "I'm dying to taste you." He tugged off her panties. "Dying to touch you. Inside and out."

  She panted, rolling her hips as he slid one finger, then two inside, finding a spot so sensitive that a rush of heat bolted straight through her. Then he loved her with his mouth, his fingers, taking her to a sweeter place than even heaven could be.

  Riding the storm of his mouth, his touch, his heat--it was almost too much. So good it hurt. Her body bowed with pleasure, her hands wrapped around his head, holding him to her. Until the moment she thought she couldn't take any more.

  And he pushed her over the edge into madness.

  *

  Matt didn't want to let Ari come down off the high, because the moment she did, he would too. And he couldn't stand returning to the last dark hours he'd been trapped in. Nor did he want to have to face that being with her like this was wrong. More than anything, he wanted to stay right here, steeped in soul-deep pleasure. So he roughly pushed aside the voices in his head calling him a bastard for taking her.

  He licked her sweetness softly, stoking her fire higher, then hotter still, even as the first climax rolled through her. She gasped and moaned as she went straight through one release to the next, her legs quivering as she squirmed on the bed, fisting her hands in the comforter.

  "MattOhGodPleaseAgain"

  Her words bled into each other in the sexiest of songs as she came hard against his lips and tongue and fingers. Matt had never seen anything, or anyone, as beautiful as Ari in his bed, naked and trusting him to give her pleasure.

  Every night she'd slept in his house, Matt had dreamed of this. Loving Ari, kissing every inch of her perfect skin, roaming his hands over her curves, the slope of her hip. But the reality so far eclipsed the dream that he couldn't trust himself not to push her too far or too fast on this one stolen night.

  After he slid up her body to taste her mouth and feel her in his arms, she finally found her breath again. "Now I know what it means to say you've 'died and gone to heaven.'"

  Damned if he didn't feel power swell inside him at the sure knowledge of how much he'd pleased her. Since he was a teenager, he'd studied the female body the way he studied the schematics for a new robotic. He'd noted what women liked and kept the techniques that elicited the best reactions.

  But being with Ari was so natural. He saw, he wanted, he kissed...and he lost himself in the tasting. When he was with her, he forgot everything but her scent, her skin, her breathless voice begging him to make her feel good.

  "It's not always like that." He played his fingers through her hair, nipped at the smooth skin on her shoulder, letting her feel him, right there, throbbing against her. "Not always that good."

  Touching her didn't merely banish the terror of the afternoon--her arms around him actually made him feel whole. She was sweetly sexy, unconsciously seductive. And she was kind as well as caring.

  "I know it's not always good." Her eyes were still closed as she laughed, a little sound she seemed to choke off. "It's never been this way for me."

  She'd obviously been with inexperienced men who didn't care, didn't learn, only took and never gave. But Matt wanted to give her so much more. All night long. Because in the morning...

  No. He wouldn't think about the morning.

  There was only now. A handful of stolen hours to show Ari how much he wanted her.

  But he didn't want to simply do things to her. He wanted her totally engaged, so he
rolled to his back and brushed the damp hair from her face. "I want to feel your hands on me."

  He relished her low intake of breath at his sensual command, loved the way her pupils dilated with heavy arousal, not only at his request, but at the sight of him as her gaze flitted down his naked torso to the aching hardness beneath his boxers. She swallowed, then put out her hand, her fingertips brushing him.

  He hissed a breath between his teeth at the sexy yet tentative touch. He wanted to press her hand to him, stroke himself with her palm. But she had to come to him on her own.

  "Earlier, you said how much you wanted me," he began in a low voice.

  "Every second." He reveled in the fire leaping to life in her eyes as she added, "Every day."

  "Then take what you want, Ari."

  Shifting sinuously closer, she wrapped her fingers around him, navy blue cotton and all.

  The sensation was so glorious, he couldn't stop from bucking in her hand. Despite her inexperience, she instinctively stroked him from base to tip. And this time he wasn't the only one whose breath hitched with pleasure. She was such a gift. One he wasn't sure he'd ever done anything good enough to deserve.

  So when he thought he saw insecurity flash across her face, he tipped his fingers under her chin to raise her gaze to his. "There's nothing you could do that I won't love."

  She drew in her breath, held it, biting her lip. He wanted to bite it for her. "Feel what you to do me, Ari."

  God, the things she did to him.

  She released her breath in a sweet sigh that washed over his mouth. He wanted to taste her again with a ferocity that burned in his gut. But Ari stole the thought right out of his brain as she slipped her hand inside his boxers, hot skin to hot skin.

  Then she climbed on top of him, and he truly lost his mind.

  Chapter Nine

  Matt was like steel against her palm. Ari had never been an aggressor, yet with Matt she wanted to explore, test, savor. She wanted to do all the things she'd never even imagined until she'd met him.

  Sitting astride him, her legs spread, her hand on his erection, she leaned across his chest and kissed him. As she used her body and hand to stroke him, he thrust his fingers into her hair and held her mouth to his, kissing her so deeply she felt as if she were falling right into him.

  Before, sex had been physical, something she'd thought she wanted though it never turned out the way she dreamed. But Matt was a million times better than any dream. The hot, hard feel of his naked flesh in her hand, the taste of his mouth, his body rocking against her--it was all brand new. She'd never felt this needy before, as though her skin were on fire and her body molten. She'd never known desire like this. Only for Matt. He made her feel beautiful.

  Even more, he made her fearless.

  When they surfaced to breathe, she said, "I want to see all of you."

  His smile grew slowly, wickedly--like the devil who'd just won the temptation game. "Take what you want, Ari. Anything you want."

  She all but tore off his boxers, then stilled at the sight of so much hot, hard flesh. "You're so big." Her voice dripped with awe. "So beautiful."

  He laughed, the warm sound washing over her. "Are you sure that's the right word?"

  "It's exactly the right word." She curled her fingers around him, so thick he almost didn't fit. Maybe she should have been frightened, but her arousal climbed higher, surpassing even the long, glorious minutes he'd used his tongue and fingers to play her body like a fine instrument. "Beautiful."

  She stroked his tip, rubbing a drop of moisture over him, before sliding down, down, down to his base. She loved the hiss of his breath, telling her the pleasure was as infinite as what he'd given her, and she couldn't wait another second to feel him inside her. She needed him to take her, to own her, body and soul.

  As if he could read her mind, he rolled with her, his hips parting her legs, the muscles of his arms rippling as he held himself above her.

  "Mine." He slid his hand along her cleft, where she was slippery and hot for him. "Tonight you're all mine."

  "Yours," she echoed against his lips as their mouths found each other again.

  Even as he kissed her, turning her wild inside, he was reaching into the bedside table for protection. Pushing himself off her, he slid it on, his eyes as hot as the erection in his hand, throbbing with a fever.

  Fever for her.

  His muscles taut as he leaned forward on one hand, he stroked her sex with the blunt tip. Electricity thrummed through her, too much, and she grabbed his arm to ground herself.

  "So pretty," he murmured. "So perfect." He pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder. "Your skin." To the swell of her breasts. "Your body." Then back to her mouth where he murmured, "Your mind."

  No one she'd ever gone to bed with had wanted her mind before, let alone someone as brilliant as Matt. She wanted to tell him how much that meant to her, that tonight was so much more than hot sex. So much more than a way to take his mind off the pain he'd suffered today.

  But he was kissing her with such fire--and with the insistent friction of his shaft against her sensitive folds, he pushed her straight toward the bliss he'd given her twice already. Yet another ledge she wanted to jump from. Into ecstasy, into heaven.

  With him this time.

  "Please."

  His eyes were midnight dark with desire. "I'm going to tease myself to death." He laced his words with a smile. "But I want you so ready you beg."

  "I'm already begging." She hadn't known it was possible to need anyone this much.

  "Not just with words." He stroked his fingers over her sex again. "With all of you."

  Her body moved, matching his rhythm. Pressure built inside her as she rocked into him, against him, wrapping her arms and legs even tighter around him so that she could get as close as possible. And then he slid the thick tip of his shaft inside, and her breath stopped.

  "Tell me, Ari." He held himself perfectly still over her, unmoving even as she was desperate for him to take her. All of her. "Tell me this is what you want."

  "Yes. Please. God. More." She hoped she made sense, but the stars exploding before her eyes were stopping her synapses from firing properly. "I want more. I need more."

  "You beg so exquisitely." Finally, he eased himself all the way in, every inch of hard heat he gave her making sensation burn hotter. More intensely. "You are exquisite."

  *

  Matt wanted to hold out, to push Ari further, to take her to places she'd never been. But she was so ready for him that he couldn't stop himself from thrusting hard and deep, over and over, until she was coming in another beautiful climax.

  He groaned her name, clenching hard inside her as everything spilled out of him, all thought, all feeling. There was just her taste on his lips, her scent ruling his head, her body gripping him tightly, owning him as much as he owned her in that moment.

  Spinning out of control with pleasure beyond anything he'd ever dreamed possible, he took her mouth as deeply as he took her body, palming her face and plundering her, staking his claim.

  Nothing had ever felt like this. Like heaven, like bliss, like beauty.

  Like Ari.

  He'd loved her wide eyes as he gave her sensual orders, their color deepening in the moonlight. There was sex, and then there was being totally engaged in the act, relishing every touch, every look, every breath. He sensed that in the past, she'd gone with the flow, acted upon rather than acting--but he'd refused to let her simply react to him.

  He nuzzled her hair, and she murmured something indistinguishable, a satiated sound. He'd have to move soon before he grew too heavy on her, but for the moment, he wanted only to match his breath to hers, feel her skin along his, savor being inside her.

  When they finally separated, it felt like losing a part of himself he'd only just found. But knowing they couldn't stay locked forever, he moved into the bathroom to dispose of the protection they'd used. By the time he returned, she'd fallen into the easy breathing of sleep.


  Moonlight washed her features as smooth as a sculpture. She looked so young that his chest clenched with renewed guilt.

  But he'd allowed himself to have her just this once, and he wouldn't give up so much as a minute of their one night together, damn it. Pulling up the covers, he gathered her close and let himself relish every single second she was in his arms.

  *

  Ari woke in the dark knowing immediately that she was in Matt's bed, in his arms. Warm and safe.

  Home.

  If he'd sent her back to her room, the writing on the wall would have followed her all the way down the hall. But she was snuggled against him like a lover, not a one-night stand.

  She'd always packed light and had gotten used to moving on, but that didn't mean she didn't love the times she got to stay. Lord knew she wanted to wake up beside Matt as the sun rose, and she fitted herself more deeply into his arms, playing light fingers over his chest, outlining his heart. He'd made her feel special, with his hands, his mouth, his body, his words. There had to be emotion or it was just sex. And what they'd done couldn't possibly be just sex.

  His hand closed over hers, over his rapidly beating heart.

  "Now you've done it," he murmured. "Woken the sleeping--"

  "--giant," she finished.

  "Are you ready for the consequences?" he asked in a teasingly sexy voice.

  Not wanting to be coy or play games with him, she said, "I'm ready for anything with you."

  That was all it took for him to pin her to the mattress with his body. God, how she loved his weight and his erection hard against her thigh, loved how his lips took hers, his tongue mimicking the way he'd taken her just hours before.

  His fingers slipped and slid over her sensitive flesh, until she writhed beneath him and he groaned his own need against her mouth. "Ari." He kissed her deeply, passionately and fiercely, before her name fell from his lips again. "Ari."

  Another condom from the bedside table in his hand, he sat back. In the moonlight through his bedroom window, the sight of him was rich, like a feast with mouthwatering scents and tastes that made your eyes roll back in your head.