‘Dare, I don’t think we should do this again.’ She shoved her hands in his hair as he flicked her nipple with his tongue but instead of pushing him away she held him closer, making sweet little female sounds that had that primal part of him wanting to ditch the foreplay and move right on to the mating.
But he wasn’t going to do that this time because he was enjoying himself too much. It was as if no man had ever taken the time to give her pleasure and those sweet little keening sounds were turning him inside out.
God, she was hot. So hot. ‘Open your legs for me,’ he murmured, nuzzling the undersides of her breasts and working his way south over the smooth skin of her belly.
‘Dare.’
He shifted so he lay flat between her soft thighs, his chin resting on the golden red curls hiding her moist heat. ‘You know that ex of yours was the biggest loser letting you go, don’t you?’
She arched her head back as he parted her with his tongue.
‘He never... I didn’t...’
‘Go down on you? Love you with his mouth? Taste your sweet, womanly essence?’
He punctuated each sentence with light, playful flicks of his skilful tongue, honing her senses to the point where nothing else existed but him. And her. And this.
‘Oh, God, I never thought I’d find talking in bed such a turn-on.’ She gripped his head in her hands. ‘Please, don’t stop,’ she begged.
Dare chuckled and blew a breath over her femininity. ‘Don’t stop what?’ he teased. ‘Talking? Or don’t stop this.’ He licked her again, more firmly this time.
‘That.’ She twisted against him. ‘Don’t stop that. Don’t stop anything. It’s so sexy.’
‘You’re the sexy one, Red. Sweet and sexy. Like your scent.’
‘Oh! God, I’m going to come.’ She made to pull away from him as sensation overwhelmed her but Dare held her hips tight until they shuddered with pleasure as she came against his mouth.
‘Dare... Dare...’ She chanted his name, reaching for him blindly, her fingernails digging into his shoulders, his hair. ‘I need you. Please, take me.’
Not forgetting a condom this time, Dare rolled a rubber down his rigid length and rolled on top of her. This time when he entered her he did so slowly, savouring the exquisite warmth of her body closing around his.
He groaned, determined to make it last, thrusting into her with firm, measured strokes until he couldn’t take any more. Until he felt the soft pulsing of her body and that little hitch in her voice that told him she was on the edge. Then, only then, did he completely let himself fall over the cliff with her and down the other side.
What could have been hours, or only minutes, later Dare woke to find Carly sleeping beside him. He gently moved a strand of her hair to the side, gathered her against him and fell back to sleep with a satisfied smile on his face.
CHAPTER NINE
CARLY WOKE SLOWLY to the sound of a ringing phone. She moaned softly as her body ached in places it hadn’t before and then she blushed as memory returned full force.
At the sound of Dare’s deep voice she scrambled for the sheet and pulled it up over herself. Seconds later Dare walked out of the bathroom with a towel slung low around his lean hips, his chest and arms rippling with lean, hard muscle.
Oh, my God, she thought, he is a demigod. A bronzed demigod who belongs in the V&A.
‘Benson is awake,’ he said, tossing the phone onto the side table.
Okay, so they were going to play this completely normal. Good to know. ‘What did the surgeon say?’
‘It was my mother and she sounded very optimistic.’ Which told Carly nothing at all. Family of critically ill patients always veered towards the bright side in these situations.
‘Your clothes are dry,’ Dare continued. ‘I was planning to visit him. Do you want to come?’
‘Of course.’ Benson was still her patient—sort of—and even though she wouldn’t be his attending physician post-op, she would have hung around to make sure he was all right, regardless.
They were both quiet on the drive to the hospital. On Carly’s part she was still sorting through what had happened the previous night. It still stunned her that she had opened up about Liv the way that she had. Not so much that she’d told him, but more that she’d expressed her anger. Her bitter disappointment with herself. And Dare was right: Liv wouldn’t want her to give up medicine. Nor would she want her to run and cut everyone off the way that she had. It had all seemed so hopeless a year ago. But in Dare’s arms...when he’d held her and soothed her...