He heard a ripping sound as he undressed her. He cursed. Laila didn’t seem to notice he’d torn her shirt, though, as she frantically assisted him. When he’d pulled off her jeans and underwear and she was finally naked, he didn’t stop there. He reached and slid her hair band off her long, smooth hair. He greedily grabbed handfuls of it and spread it around her shoulders. The perfume from the long, smooth strands permeated the air. He inhaled a lungful of it before he forced himself to stand.
She looked up at him with glistening green eyes, her cheeks and lips flushed, her hair spilling around her shoulders and chest, an erect nipple poking out from the soft tendrils. Her thighs were parted. Harsh arousal tore through him at the vision of her soft-looking pubic hair and tender, flushed labia.
“Laila,” he said, his voice sounding thick and grim with lust. He reached out and swept her hair behind her shoulders in a deliberate, slow movement despite his anticipation, baring her entirely to his gaze. He contained a shudder of emotion. God, he could probably come just from staring at her.
“Asher.” She lifted her beautiful arms, the gesture going straight to the heart of him.
He couldn’t stop it anymore. The frenzy. If he’d had to think about the mechanics of getting his clothes off his body so rapidly, or finding a condom, it would have taken twice as long. But that primal part of him had taken over, and it knew exactly what it wanted.
A moment later, he put his hands on the back of the couch and looked down at her while she spread her smooth thighs, lifted her feet and bent knees and rolled her hips back, positioning herself at the edge of the couch to take him. He braced himself, leaning down over her with his thighs spread, his toes digging into the carpet for traction.
He watched his cock sink into her inch by inch, listening to her soft moans, feeling her sweet heat encapsulating him, squeezing him mercilessly. His throat hurt. He met her stare.
“I love you,” he said.
Her face tightened with disbelief.
“You do?” she whispered.
“I’ve never stopped. I knew that for certain, watching you on that stage today. That’s what I was thinking about, Laila,” he said, because nothing else would come out of him in that moment but painful honesty.
“I love you too. I’ve never stopped.” The words tumbled past her lips, like she’d been storing them in her throat, wanting to release them. Afraid to do it.
He understood that feeling all too well.
A tear skipped down her cheek. The truth was so sweet. Why did it ache so badly? He wanted to howl like a savage.
He pressed his balls tight against her damp outer sex, grimacing in pleasure. Her soft whimpers cut right through him. His eyes rolled back in his head. God, he wasn’t going to survive this torture for long. He began to thrust, mindless pleasure pummeling him in every direction.
He lunged with his legs, pushing with his planted feet, powering himself into the sheer heaven of her. Yes, he was greedy. Yes, he was forceful. It was an orgy of sensation—of feeling—and he reveled in her to the fullest.
Her voice and the brisk slap of their bodies crashing together entered his lust-dazed awareness. She chanted his name again and again, the single word rife with lust and longing and love. Her hands gripped his ass, and she was pushing him to her, adding her strength to his thrusts. They groaned in unison, pleasure spiking as he slammed into her to the hilt. His body screamed at him for release, but he couldn’t heed the call. Not when he wanted this to last forever.
He pulled out of her, his entire body shuddering at the absence. He knelt before her and pushed her legs wider.
“Asher,” she moaned when he pressed his face to her belly. She was warm silk against his lips and nose. He smelled her arousal.
“I had to have you,” he mumbled against her fragrant skin. “From the very first, I had to have you. Sometimes I wish it had changed, but it hasn’t. It can’t. It’ll only grow stronger. Sweet, beautiful girl.”
He lowered over her, dipping his tongue into the creamy cleft between her labia. The essence of her in its purest form filled him. Fed him. For a moment, he lost himself as his tongue played in her sweetness and he absorbed her delicate shudders. Her shaking mounted, and she was clutching at his hair and repeating his name.
Her release went through him like a shearing wave. He braced himself and absorbed it, eating up her pleasure. Craving more.
He rose to ravish her mouth. She’d slumped against the back of the couch following her climax. He pressed down on her in his need, her body dipping between the two cushions. His cock found her unerringly. He carved into her, the walls of her vagina hugging him tightly even as she seemed to melt around him. A scream began to vibrate in her throat. He silenced it with his mouth, absorbing it . . . wanting to shout in crazy abandon right back.
He took her harder now, faster, the sound of their bodies smacking together outpacing even his charging heart. But his desperation only mounted. He’d never get enough. He wanted deeper.
More. Always more.
He encircled her with his arms and hugged her to him, lifting her upper body and thrusting her up on his raging cock.
Climax ripped through him. Brutal. Electric. He seized and shuddered, vibrating like a hammered gong. Her name scraped at his throat.
“Love,” he heard her mutter against his throat. “Love you so much.”
Dazedly, as the moments passed, he recognized that another barrier had been at least partially hurdled—that of their own caution and fear. They’d entered more dangerous territory. The words had been said. Their hearts fully exposed. He knew what path that led to last time.
All he could do was pray this time would be different.