do with her hand. When she let it relax, it fell across his big, warm one.
“Your fingers are so cold,” he said.
She jerked her hand back. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Let me have them.” He felt along her arm until he located her hand and enveloped it in his. “Tuck it beneath your shirt, like this.” He slipped his hand with hers under the hems of her sweater and thermal shirt, placing them against the heat of her skin. “You’re as stiff as a board. Are you still cold?” He moved his body closer.
“Yes,” she lied. Inside she was on fire, her nerve synapses firing off each time he bumped against her.
His fingers curled around hers, his knuckles brushing against her belly. “You really haven’t ever snuggled with a man?”
Not trusting her voice, she shook her head.
“Then you haven’t found the right one.” Dante’s lips brushed the curl of her ear.
She lay for a while basking in the closeness, letting her senses get used to the idea of him being so near, so intimate.
Without the heat from the stove top, the trailer’s interior became steadily colder and Dante’s hand holding hers inched upward beneath her shirt. “Just tell me if you want me to stop.”
Oh, heck no. If anything, she wanted him to move faster and cup her breasts with that big, warm hand. A shiver of excitement shook her.
“Still cold?”
“Yes.” So it was a half truth. The parts of her body against his were warm, the others were cold and getting colder.
“Sharing body heat works better when you’re skin to skin.” His knuckles nudged the swells of her breasts.
Her breath caught in her throat when she said, “I know.” Emma bit her bottom lip, wondering if Dante would take her words as an invitation to initiate the next move.
“I don’t know about you, but it’s getting pretty damn cold in here. If we want to keep warm all night, we’d better do what it takes.” He removed his hand from her belly and rolled onto his back.
The cold enveloped her immediately and she scooted over to lie on her back as well, tugging the blanket up to her nose.
Dante sat up next to her, tugging the blanket aside, letting even colder air beneath.
“What are you doing?” she said through chattering teeth.
“Getting naked.” His movements indicated he was removing his thermal shirt and stuffing it beneath the covers down near his feet. He slid his long underwear over his hips, his hands bumping into her thigh as he pushed them all the way down to his feet.
“Now your turn.” He reached for the hem of her sweater and dragged it over her head.
“Are you crazy? It’s f-freezing in here.” She tried to keep her turtleneck shirt on, but he was as determined to remove that as he’d been with the sweater.
“Again, we’re adults. If it helps, just think of me as a big electric blanket to wrap around you.” He stuffed her shirt and sweater into the space around her feet and went to work on the long thermal underwear, dragging them down over her legs.
By the time he had her stripped to her bra and panties, she was shaking uncontrollably. “I was w-warmer b-before you s-started,” she said through chattering teeth.
“You’ll be warm again. Come here.” He dragged the blanket over them and pulled her close, crushing her breasts against his chest, his big arms wrapping around her back, tucking the blanket in as close as he could get it.
Their breath mingled, the heat of their skin, touching everywhere but her bra and panties, helped to chase away the chills. But Emma still couldn’t stop shaking. She’d never lain nearly naked with a man. She had trouble breathing and couldn’t figure out where her hands were supposed to be. Planting them against his chest was putting too much space between them and allowing cold air to keep her front chilled. She tried moving them down to her side, but her fingers were cold and she wanted them warm. When she slipped them around to her belly, they bumped against a hot, stiff shaft.
As soon as she touched it, she realized it was his member and before she could think, her hands wrapped around it.
“Baby, only go there if you mean it,” he warned her. “As close and naked as we are, it wouldn’t take much to set me off.”
“I thought you were just an electric blanket,” she whispered, reveling in a surge of power rolling through her. She had caused him to be this way. Her body against his was making him desire her in a way she’d only dreamed about.
For a moment, all her awkward insecurities disappeared. Her fingers tightened around him and slid downward to the base of his shaft.
His arms squeezed around her and his hips rocked, pressing himself into her grip.
Blood hummed through her veins. For that moment, she forgot the chill in the air and the fact they could freeze to death. Her focus centered on what she had in her hands and, in connection, what it could lead to.
Dante moaned. “Do you know what you’re doing to me?”
“I think so,” she responded. Her hand glided up his shaft to the velvety tip, her core heating, liquid fire swirling at her center, readying her to take him.
“I didn’t get us naked in order to take advantage of you.”
Her hands froze. “Am I taking advantage of you?”
“Oh, hell no.”
Her finger swirled across the tip, memorizing him by touch. “Just say so and I’ll stop,” she repeated his words.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” He ran his hands over her back and down to smooth over her bottom.
She laughed, emboldened by the complete darkness. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” Something about the anonymity of the dark gave her the confidence to continue. Then she hesitated. “Unless you don’t want to. You’re the injured party.”
“I’ve wanted this since I stole that kiss.” He hooked the elastic of her panties and slid them down her legs.
She kicked them off, loving the way his member pressed into her curly mound. Just a little lower and he’d be there.
“I don’t have protection,” he said.
“I’m clean of STDs if that’s what you’re saying.” How could she not be when she’d never made love to a man?
“So am I.” He nuzzled her neck, his lips pressing against her pounding pulse. “But we shouldn’t do this without protection.”
“Can’t you withdraw at the last minute?”
“Withdrawal isn’t one-hundred percent safe.”
“You can’t stop now.” Surely she couldn’t get pregnant on her first time. Her first time. Wow. With a man as gorgeous and gentle as Dante, maybe she’d finally overcome her awkward shyness. She trembled, her body shaking like an engine when it first starts.
“Are we going to do it?” she asked, her hand tugging on him, guiding him to her center.
He chuckled softly. “Say the word.”
She inhaled and let out the single word on a breath of air, “Please.”
Dante hesitated for less than a second, and then he rolled on top of her, nudged her legs apart with his knees and settled between her thighs, his member pressing to her opening.
But he didn’t enter, not immediately. He started with a kiss. One similar to the one he’d stolen at the stove. This time, Emma kissed him back, finding his tongue and sliding hers along the length of his. She curled her fingers around the back of his neck and dragged