But he gave, too. Oh, he knew how to inject delicious joy into her with the thrust of his tongue and the way he palmed her backside. An electric current formed between all those points of contact, making her nerve endings hum. When he scraped his teeth at her lip, she tightened her arms and rose on tiptoes. He tilted her hips into the thick presence between them, letting her feel his arousal against her mound and she nearly fainted with excitement.
An involuntary moan left her and a grunt of satisfaction left him. He abruptly broke away, leaving her dazed, but he gathered her up and brought her to the bed, setting her there with a dark look of intention in his eyes.
What had she done?
The door was open, the sun pouring through the slats of the blinds, illuminating the bed and her. And him, as he undressed, unhurried and watchful.
She eyed the fine pattern of hair across his chest as it appeared, noted how tight his dark brown nipples were, admired the sheen on his powerful shoulders and the way his taut abdomen held such a well-defined six-pack. She wanted to touch him there. Kiss his navel. Why? What a strange compulsion, but it was real and nearly impossible to resist.
“Take off your robe,” he commanded as he dropped his shirt to the floor.
She barely heard him through the rushing in her ears, but she timidly rose onto her knees and slowly unbelted, watching him watching her. It’s like a bathing suit, she tried to tell herself, but it wasn’t.
“Tease,” he chided with smoky pleasure as shyness slowed her movements and she unwound her hair before she loosened her robe and only let it fall to the point it cut across her shoulders.
He shed his pants and socks without hesitation then made an adjustment to himself inside his briefs. The thick shape of him was obvious, though. Butterflies battered in her middle as she stared at that hidden, mysterious part of him.
Leander joined her, knees splaying wide outside her own demurely closed ones. He finished brushing the silk off her arms so it pooled onto the mattress behind her.
A considering noise rumbled in his chest as he took in her pale yellow bra and matching underwear. His finger dropped one bra strap off her shoulder, then his mouth set itself there, branding the spot with heat and dampness and an electrifying sensation that shot straight into her nipples.
His mouth nuzzled and climbed up her nape, lifting goose bumps on her arms and scalp. Then he was kissing her again, gathering her in his arms as they both rose to kneel in the middle of the bed.
She could hardly breathe, could hardly hold her balance and clung to his shoulders, startlingly weak. It was the onslaught of sensations. Not just the kiss, but the hardness of his flexed muscles beneath her hands and the brush of his skin against hers. The intriguing shape of him and the way his flat hand thrust into the back of her panties and cupped her cheek.
Her stomach turned to jelly and she broke from their kiss to gasp, “This feels really good.”
“It does.” His deep, rasping voice was as much a part of this seduction as everything else.
She helplessly turned her face into the crook of his neck and her lips parted on instinct, tongue dabbing out to taste his skin.
The hand on her bottom clenched more possessively and a sound rattled in his chest that sent a heady sensation of power through her.
“You like that?”
“You can tell I do.”
His briefs were struggling to contain him. She drew back enough to run her hands over his chest and the ripples of his ribs and down to the flat stomach that had called to her a moment ago. He was firm and warm and her thumb followed the trail of flat hairs to his navel.
When her fingertips splayed to the waistband of his briefs, she glanced up at him.
He lifted a brow in laconic invitation to continue.
She swallowed and let her touch stray into his waistband, discovering more heat, velvet and steel, aggressive strength and a power to make him hiss as she explored.
She couldn’t believe she was doing this, touching any man like this, let alone Leander. He hated her, didn’t he?
Not in this moment. His gray eyes glittered like sunlight on a lake. His mouth was relaxed and each of his exhales was a near purr of enjoyment.
“Like this,” he rumbled, pushing his briefs down his thighs.
She was confronted by the sight of his erection, dark with arousal, intimidating yet compelling. She had another impulsive fantasy of taking him into her mouth, wondering what that would feel like, taste like. Wondering if he would like it.
He showed her how he liked to be stroked, guiding her, watching her, then he cupped the side of her neck and kissed her. At the same time, his hand plunged into the front of her underwear and he claimed the slick flesh he found, sending a sharp spike of pleasure through her, wiping her brain.
“Am I doing it right, glykiá mou?” he mocked against her gasping mouth. “Show me.”
She couldn’t speak. She lost her grip on him and her own control as he stroked his two fingers through her folds, returning again and again to tease the knot of nerves in the small vise of his touch.