she didn’t feel the warmth of his hot, wet tongue against her soon, she was going to lose her mind.
Tanner slipped her panties over her hips, slid them down her thighs, past her knees. She kicked them off.
“You smell so sweet.” He inhaled and then placed a smattering of kisses down the area below her navel.
She felt every quiver of her body, every ragged breath.
With excruciating slowness, Tanner moved his hand to cover the triangle of hair between her legs.
Vanessa moaned her pleasure as his hand cupped her gently.
She allowed her legs to drop open, giving him full access to her body. He lay on his belly between her knees and lightly brushed his lips over her feminine folds.
He hissed in air. “You are so wet.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of wonder in his voice. Desire for him seared her nerve endings as she surrendered to him completely.
It wasn’t easy for her. Vanessa wasn’t used to exposing herself like this, neither out of bed nor in it. Ever since she’d escaped Carlo Vega, she’d been in control of her own life. But now passion was forcing her to relinquish the reins to Tanner’s tender tongue. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
The air was thick, weighted with tension. The sheets smelled slightly scorched, as if they’d spent too many minutes in a commercial drier. Her breath crawled sluggishly through her lungs, filling her with lazy heat. Her limbs were made of marble, heavy and smooth.
Then everything vanished from her mind except the erotic moisture of his lips against her throbbing sex. And when his mouth formed a gentle suction over her clit, she came completely unraveled.
Gently he inserted one thick finger inside her tender folds. She lost all sense of herself, all sense of time. The world tumbled, creating an easy glide into ecstasy.
The pressure mounting inside her womb was sublime torment. At that point, nothing else mattered to her except Tanner making love to her with his mouth and his fingers.
He teased her clit, nipping lightly with his teeth.
All the air left her body and she felt reborn. Her pulse pounded like drums in her ears, rushing blood through her veins, pushing her toward an inevitable conclusion.
Tanner was desperately fighting off completion, but it was almost impossible. She knew the soft sounds of her sexy cries, and the way she threaded her fingers through his hair were getting to him.
She wanted him to be inside her. He had to get inside her now. “Please,” she whispered. “Please take me.”
“Not yet.”
Cruel, sweet torment. He kept at her. Licking and teasing until she was shaking from head to toe and oh, so wet.
He paused long enough to retrieve a condom from his wallet and slip it on and with the intermission she felt oddly bereft. He spent a few moments working her up again and then finally, finally he slowly entered her.
Vanessa whimpered gratefully.
Her body enveloped him. She provided him with her heavenly, moist cocoon. She met each of his thrusts with corresponding movement of her hips, arching her back up to meet him. Urging him to quicken his pace.
Instinct took over. She could no longer think, could only feel. Her focus was attuned to one thing and one thing only—the merging of their bodies. His energy swirled up through her until her whole universe spun dizzily. His stark reaction was such a powerful thing to behold. Vanessa felt both awed and blown away by his responsiveness.
His hands trembled as he held her. He thrust into her again and again. Her entire being seemed to pull him deeper and deeper into her until she simply could not differentiate where his body stopped and hers began.
He cried out one last time and shoved himself as deep as he would go into her warmth. The walls of her sucked at him, gripping, kneading, pulling him into the very core of her.
Then Tanner’s body shuddered as he poured into her.
They clung to each other, helpless, as wave after wave of the orgasm rippled through them. Binding them together in one blazing, crazy light before expelling them into the infinite beyond.
Gasping, Tanner rolled over, sinking onto his back and taking her with him.
He held her close as her chest heaved. He held her and they listened to the rain and Vanessa thought, What in the hell have I done?
Chapter 3
AS DAWN CREPT IN through the window, Vanessa crept out of bed.
She pulled her dress down over her head and poked her arms through the sleeves, then realized she’d forgotten her bra.
Where was her bra?
Frantically her gaze fell on the bed where the blond Viking she’d picked up at Emilio’s lay on his belly, a pillow thrown over his head. What had seemed like a splendid idea in the heat of last night’s passion was looking more and more like a very big mistake by the cold gray light of morning. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed herself. They’d spent hours exploring each other’s bodies, giving and receiving pleasure after pleasure.
Her cheeks warmed just thinking about it.
It had been great actually. Maybe even the best sex she’d ever had. And he’d stirred something deep inside her. Something she couldn’t identify because it wasn’t like anything she’d ever felt before.
That was most unnerving of all.
Please let me get out of here without him waking up, she pleaded to the heavens. Dropping to the floor, she raised the bed skirt and searched underneath.
No bra.
It was probably in the bed with him.
She did find her panties on the floor and wriggled into them as quietly as she could. A quick trip to the other side of the room retrieved her high heels. She wondered how she had come to be the kind of woman who picked up men in bars for one-night stands. Wondered how she was supposed to handle this casual new way of being. She didn’t know if it was freedom or rock bottom.
Forget the bra. Get out of here. And go jiggling out of the hotel, dressed in last night’s now very rumpled dress? It would be a true walk of shame.
Embarrassing as that might be, she simply had to get away from the smell of their lovemaking and that weird sensation knotting her stomach.
She plunked down in the chair parked at the desk long enough to slip on her stilettos. Bra be damned, she was almost out of here. Once her shoes were on, she stood up, only to be confronted by the sight of the gorgeous Viking sitting up in bed stark naked.
His hair was sexily tousled and his eyes were half-closed, but he was awake and eyeing her as if she was his favorite dish of ice cream. She could almost feel his gaze reach across the room and stroke her.
Gulp.
“Running out on me?”
Inwardly she groaned and dipped her head, unable to look at him. She reached for her purse that had somehow ended up slung across the back of the desk chair. “Hmm, no, not at all,” she lied. “I’ve got a really busy day planned.”
A grin curled the corner of his mouth upward. “Uh-huh, sure you do.”
“I do. I have to get the oil changed in my car, swing by the ATM and take some movies back to Blockbuster.” That was the truth.
“Yeah, your day sounds jam-packed.”
“It is.” She could hear the defensiveness in her own voice. “Well, see ya.” She headed for the door.
“Wait.”
She stifled a sigh and turned