It’s a searing heat: hands grasping, tongues tasting, bodies gorging. We’re animals freed from our cages. I’m starving and greedy and can’t be satisfied. I can barely breathe, but I won’t stop to fill my lungs. It’s like if our mouths separate, even for a second, this moment might slip away and never have happened. Through our kisses, we’re saying everything we haven’t been able to:What took you so long?andFinallyandI’m desperate for youandPlease don’t stop. Never, ever stop.
“Kate.” His voice is gravelly. “You’re... this is... we need to...”
He can’t finish a thought because I won’t surrender his lips long enough for him to speak full sentences. My brain pounds a relentless drumbeat:more-more-more. More of his mouth. More touching. MoreBen.
He pulls away slightly and brushes my hair out of my face, a smile playing on his mouth like he’s privy to a juicy secret. He cradles my cheekbone, giving me a series of gentle tasting bites on my top lip, then bottom. His other hand is gripping my ass, dangerously close to the apex of my thighs, and I tighten my legs around him, needy hips grinding against firm abs. His hard length presses up against my bottom.
“Kate,” he exhales softly, and it sounds like a prayer.
He’s still kissing me as his hand skims down my neck to my shoulder, bounding south in a leisurely exploration. His fingers trail down my side, steal across my rib cage. When he grazes the underside of my breast, my back arches and I briefly lose myself. I start to slide and his arm tightens around me, holding me up. I’m basically parked on top of his arousal now and every nerve ending between my legs is on fire.
“I need to get you... somewhere else,” he pants between broken breaths. “Somewhere that’s not here. Somewhere with walls.”
“Home?”
I’ve taken an interest in his ear now and I nibble at his lobe, kissing and sucking along the hinge of his jaw. I’ve never given a hickey before, but there’s a first time for everything. I want to mark him, stake my claim on this rugged, uncharted territory. He looks at me and if he realizes I’m considering branding him, he gives no sign. He swallows heavily and I watch the movement of his throat up close. I want to taste every inch of his skin.
“Home,” he murmurs in agreement, and the single word sends a frisson of anticipation to my core. “But to do that, we’re going to have to get in the car.”
“Not yet,” I whine and snuggle deeper into his neck. His husky laugh in my ear is nearly my undoing. Out of nowhere my brain flashes to the two of us in bed, tangled in sheets, the teasing musical notes of Ben’s laughter trapped and echoing in my sternum. The scene is so vivid I wonder if I’ve just had my first psychic vision.
“I think we’re about thirty seconds from indecent exposure. Or a lewd act. Or something.” He scrubs a hand over his face, clearly torn, and the combination of his tortured expression, mussed hair, and ravenous eyes has me nearly catatonic with lust.
I bury my face in his neck and inhale. Then inhale again. God, he smells glorious. I could get high off him. He chuckles and goose bumps scatter my skin. This husky laugh is my new happy place.
“Are you smelling me again?”
“Yep. Sorry not sorry.”
When he laughs again, I duck my head and press an ear to his chest. The deep rumbling vibrates through my body clear down to my toes, permeating every nook and cranny. I feel it in my elbow. I feel it in my spine.
He tips my chin up to kiss me again and I cannot. Get. Enough. I’m so lost in him that I barely notice he’s opened the passenger door until he’s lowering me onto the seat. I see what he did there.Sneaky Benjy.Ireluctantly release him from my octopus tentacles but when he reaches for my seatbelt, I grab his face and pull him deeper into the car. He accepts my ambush with a smile against my lips, but when I try to deepen the kiss he pulls away with a tut. The gentle tenderness in his eyes softens the blow.
“Katie.” He’s looking at me like I’m a priceless treasure. “I’ve waited a long time for this. I’m not going to have you in the back of my car.”
I sigh and let go, keeping my paws off him long enough for him to buckle me in. When he’s done he gives me a light peck as if to say,Good girl. It’s so sweetly protective that it takes all my willpower not to barrel-roll over the console and burrow into his lap.
I’m pretty sure Ben breaks land-speed records driving us home. We can’t keep our hands off each other, which is alarming considering he’s pushing eighty. His palm skims up and down my thigh, squeezing every so often in an unconscious gesture of possession.Mine.Like he’s confirming I’m real. For my part, I’m running my fingernails up and down his forearm, alternately scratching, then smoothing down the hairs. I can’t believe I finally get to touch him this way.
I start giggling. “What would you have done if I’d said I just wasn’t that into you? This would have been one awkward car ride home.”
“I’m very persuasive.” He curses under his breath and cuts around a car driving too slowly—and by too slowly, I mean they’re doing the speed limit.
“Can’t argue with you there. Your speech back there was very sweet.”
“Sweet?” He looks offended. “I assume you mean manly. Very masculine and sexy.”
“It’ll be sexy if you admit you practiced it.”
“I’ll never tell.” He winks. “How’d I do?”
“It worked, obviously. Although you probably could have just quit after you said my dating would bother you a hell of a lot.”
“I overshot it, then? Damn.”
“I’m not complaining.”
His thumb is tracing lazy circles on my thigh, and it’s so distracting I can barely focus on our conversation. I reach my hand out to massage his neck and he shifts a little closer to me, hum-growling in pleasure. “Please do not stop doing that.”
