One of the things she admired about him, but right now he'd turned her inside out until she couldn't have run enough miles to burn off the frenetic energy zinging through her.
"It would be very dishonorable to leave me unsatisfied." Stretched beside him, she wrapped her fingers around the thick length of him, learning the silken steel texture of him. His groan thrilled her as much as his touch, knowing she brought him pleasure. She suspected the timeless tunes from the stereo would arouse her mercilessly from now on.
He tugged out his wallet, pulled free a tiny packet and sheathed himself with a speed that spoke of an urgency echoed inside her.
Hooking his hand behind her knee, he hitched her leg higher, over his hip until she realized what he intended. No missionary position tonight. Fair enough. She liked the idea of taking this journey side by side.
Then the thick blunt prodding stopped her thoughts altogether as she focused on this moment she knew would change things between them forever. Deeper, deeper still, she took him inside her body and more, slowly, carefully, staring into his eyes and soul in a way she never had months ago when she'd been too wrapped up in her hero worship to see the man.
She winced at the uncomfortable pinch and stretch, settled, waited for her body to adjust around him.
"Okay?" he asked, his jaw flexing from a restraint he couldn't hide.
"Totally." She rocked against him once, twice, again, his grip on her h*ps helping her find a matching rhythm of their bodies together. Moving. Rocking to increase the pleasure of his slick thrusts.
He shifted onto his back, holding her in place during the shuffle, the blanket slithering down around her waist, her sweater flapping open while he laved attention over her breasts.
His hand slid between them, touching where their bodies met, circling in time with her writhing h*ps against him. Her womb clenched tight, tighter, as tight as her legs clamping him to her as she chased the release so close... closer...
Waves of pleasure sluiced over her, pulsing like the breakers gushing against the shore, then receding slowly and stealing her muscles from her body until she slumped on top of him. Two deep thrusts later, his arms convulsed around her in time with his hoarse growl of completion.
Slowly, her senses tuned back in on things other than the residual pleasure pulsing through her.
Waves surged and crashed while the stereo piped one of her favorite songs, "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." Now she knew why.
Nikki grinned against his neck, tasting the sweat on his skin. "After all our talk about being old and mature, here we are in the back of a truck."
His hands roved up and down her spine. "I've never made love in the back of a truck."
"Me, either." Nor had she made love anywhere else for that matter.
A fact she now knew for certain.
She'd been almost sure nothing happened with Gary. The doctor in the emergency room had reassured her there were no signs of penetration, and she'd believed intellectually, but her mind had felt so violated it had been difficult to look beyond that. Now at least she had physical reassurance that she had not slept with Gary Owens—or any man for that matter. Because making love in the back of a truck had been a first for her in more ways than one.
Chapter 10
Nikki was a virgin.
Past tense now.
Carson still couldn't wrap his brain around the fact, even as they sprawled in bed—at her apartment, not the garage place at her parents. After they'd untangled themselves from the sleeping bag in the back of his truck, he'd hesitated to take her to his house because of the bad memories it might hold for her, so he'd suggested her empty apartment. Since it was now common knowledge she'd moved out, there was no reason to fear hanging out in the place for a few hours.
An arm tucked under his head, the other curved around Nikki while she slept curled against his side, he stared up at her ceiling fan clicking overhead, circulating the heat. A tiny soccer ball dangled from the chain, spinning lazy rings in the air. Her room surprised him. She was such a no frills and leanly honed person he hadn't expected something so…froufrou. From her ruffly curtains to the poufy spread, patterned with tiny pink flowers and little green leaves.
Then there was that soccer ball chain pull overhead.
The dichotomy was somehow so totally Nikki the image settled in his brain as he grew even closer to this woman he'd fought hard to resist. How many other facets to her personality had he missed because of preconceived notions?
And the biggest mistaken notion of all... Damn it, he should have figured out she'd never made love before he came up against the hint of a barrier. Which shocked the hell out of him.
Although she was a quick study.
Still, if he'd known he would have.. .what? Turned away? Probably not, but at least he could have offered her a gentler, more romantic first time. Being with her blew his mind beyond anything he'd ever experienced. He knew now there wasn't a chance he could have been with her seven months ago and forgotten.
However now he wondered what had happened between them. When he reexamined their conversations about that night, never once did she say they had sex, only that they'd gone to his place. Not that they'd discussed it much—his own damn fault.
He remembered waking up n**ed together, so they must have gotten mighty damn close before he passed out. God. He owed her an even bigger apology than he'd thought.