‘Carly? Carly, baby, don’t...just keep still.’
Dare loosened his grip a little when she squirmed again. He half expected her to pull back and when she didn’t he looked down into her upturned face.
The lighting wasn’t overly bright in the room but it was bright enough that he saw the flush on her cheeks and the darkened pupils, the way her eyes were fixed on his mouth. He felt her muscles tense and his body read the meaning even before his brain had fully engaged with the idea.
Oh, who was he kidding? His brain, his body, his very being was invested in this and he was done trying to pretend that it wasn’t.
‘Carly.’ His voice was deep and gravelly and he felt her tremble in response.
Dare set his hands to her hips. He wanted to take this slow and easy. He’d dreamt of having her beneath him ever since he’d met her and—
‘Dare?’
Her gaze rose from his lips to his eyes and that was all it took to cement their destiny. His mouth swooped to hers, devouring her without any regard for finesse or seduction. He was hungry, ravenous, and she was exactly what he wanted to eat.
She opened wide to him and Dare groaned, one hand buried in her hair to hold her exactly where he wanted her and the other pressing her against his erection.
She made a soft, kittenish sound that drove him wild, and her hands kneaded his shirt, her teeth biting at his lower lip as if she was as hungry as he was.
‘If you don’t want this, Carly,’ he rasped against the delicate shell of her ear, ‘then stop me now.’
She gave him one of those exquisite little shivers, her body arching almost involuntarily towards his. ‘I want it.’ She forked her own hand into his hair and dragged his mouth back to hers. ‘I want you to make love to me. I need you to make love to me.’
Dare understood exactly what she meant. This feeling between them was a celebration of life and loss and for some reason he needed it just as much as he sensed she did.
Her heartbeat thundered against his, although it could have just been his own, and Dare lifted her up as if she weighed little more than a feather.
‘Legs, around my waist,’ he croaked, already moving in the direction of his bedroom. His blood was storming through his veins and his mind was consumed with the smell and feel of her, his body throbbing to just throw her down on the floor right now.
‘Damn.’ He groaned as she squeezed her ankles over his backside. He could feel her hot core through their layers of soft cotton and he gripped the staircase to steady himself.
He’d never had to navigate his spiral stairs with an armload of woman before and he laughed softly as she clung on like a spider monkey, attacking his neck with her sharp little teeth and lathing him with her tongue.
Dare very nearly disgraced himself and then, thank God, the bed was in front of him and he dropped her onto it and yanked the sweats down her long legs.
Slow down, buddy, his mind warned, but Dare was caught in a fever trap of desire he’d never experienced before and the need to make her his beat out his conscience.
He pulled his own clothes off and grabbed her ankles, spreading her wide.
‘Condom,’ she breathed, bringing him back from the hazy edge of insanity.
‘Damn.’ He dragged his gaze from the heart of her body to her face and tried to rein himself in. This was too much. Way too much...
He gazed into her eyes that were overbright with a lust that matched his own and he knew he wasn’t strong enough to heed the distant warning bell in his head.
Swearing as he hadn’t since he was a teenager, he stormed into his bathroom and grabbed condoms. Since he didn’t ever bring women back to his sanctuary he didn’t have any by the bed. He would now.
Rolling one on, he returned moments later to find Carly leaning up on her elbows, her vivid hair falling to the pale bedclothes behind her. There was a sense of wariness in her eyes and she looked as if she was trying to regulate her breathing.
‘Second thoughts?’ he asked gruffly, praying to God she said no.
Her eyes flared wide as she took him in, her gaze hot as it skated down his chest and lingered on his shaft. He knew what she saw. He wasn’t a small man by any means and he was so hard the tip was resting against his belly.