As if he could guess at her skittishness, rather than claiming her lips again, he ran soft kisses over her cheek and then her neck and shoulders. Her skin came alive inch by inch—a path of sensation, of pleasure.
And yet, she still couldn’t let go of that hit of fear, the worry that she was allowing herself to get lost in someone else, until Zach’s voice broke through.
“Are you sensitive here?” He brushed his thumb up at the top of her spine until it reached her hairline, and she shivered in response. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said softly as he followed that same path with his tongue. “What about this spot?” His fingers found the small of her back, and the next thing she knew, he was kneeling behind her, his mouth barely a beat behind as his tongue licked over the incredibly sensitive skin.
When she couldn’t stop the breath from whooshing from her lungs, he said, “Definitely yes.”
And then, just as she was trying to process the startling fact that he was indeed making a map of the sensitive places on her body, she felt his large hands come around either side of her rib cage, just beneath the lower swell of her br**sts.
“I’m going to take a guess that this one is going to be a yes, too,” he said against her left side as his tongue traced between two ribs and she shuddered against him, her knees nearly buckling at the sweet pleasure of being touched like this.
Like she was all that mattered.
Like he actually thought she was precious and worth the time it would take to explore her pleasure, to learn where it hid and what would make it come to life.
He mirrored his actions on the other side of her body and she tried to hold still and not beg for more, but the small, desperate sound that came from her throat gave her away.
Zach pressed his lips to the small of her back. “All in good time.”
A moment later, still kneeling behind her in the dark, he hooked one finger into each side of her panties and held there. She swallowed hard, a loud sound in the dark silence.
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment?”
Each word came more ragged than the one before it. Just as his wild kiss had been, the raw statement was testament to how badly he wanted her, despite his slow, teasing seduction.
Somehow she managed to ask, “How long?”
He slid her panties down just enough to press a kiss to the top of one cheek, groaning as he gave equal measure to the soft flesh on the other side.
“Forever, Heather. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for you.”
And then, just after the most shocking words in the world had been spoken, her panties were off, lying in a puddle of cotton at her feet.
She waited, holding her breath, for Zach to touch her again, to kiss her—please, please, please don’t leave me like this—but he was as still as she was, his breath on her skin all that was touching her.
“I love the way you smell.” His words went from raw to guttural as he inhaled. “I love the way you feel.” His hands moved to her hips, and she felt small and intensely feminine as he gently caressed her. “And I love the way you taste.” He rained small nips and kisses at her backside, then down her thighs, until he finally reached the backs of her knees.
It shouldn’t have been an erogenous zone. She should have been laughing, not softly moaning as his tongue moved across the skin at the back of her legs.
“I think we’ve found a whole set of other sensitive spots,” he confirmed for her as she trembled so hard that his hands on her hips were actually holding her up. “But I bet there’s more.” He paused and her breath caught as he said, “A whole lot more.”
The next thing she knew, he was back on his feet and lifting her in his arms.
“Zach, what are you doing?”
No man had ever picked her up like this before and carried her over to a bed. It felt too romantic for what they were to each other, for what they’d agreed on.
“Heather, I’m carrying you over to the bed!” he teased, mimicking her shocked tone.
How could she do anything but laugh, even though she was more aroused than she’d ever been in her life? Laughter and sex had never been connected for her before.
Then again, she’d never been with a lover like Zach before, had she?
Chapter Sixteen
Zach Sullivan should have been in his element. Giving women pleasure was what he did best.
It didn’t make sense, then, that he felt so far off his game, so totally lost in Heather that every other sexual experience had fallen away—leaving him to have to figure it all out one kiss, one touch at a time.
He’d turned off the lights to make sure that he stayed in control of the evening. Only, the darkness was doing a number on him, too.
Her scent was everywhere, sweet and aroused. Her skin was impossibly soft. And when she trembled as he kissed her, when she gasped with pleasure as sensation took her over, his chest clenched tight.
“Your arms are going to get tired soon if you don’t put me down.”
He lowered his mouth to hers again, but stopped just short of making contact. “Questioning my stamina, are you?” Without waiting for her sure-to-be-sassy reply, he covered her lips with his own and kissed the breath from her lungs.
Both of them were panting by the time he finally laid her down in the center of his bed and then quickly took off his clothes.
He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her he had great night vision. My God, she was beautiful. He just wanted to look at her, wanted to memorize every soft curve, every hollow laid out before him.