it seems when it comes to the two of us, we can’t count on later. Something always comes up.”
That was true. Look how long it had taken for their first date, she thought.
“Then there’s that kiss we never finished,” he added. He leaned his head closer to hers, and she felt his unspoken question like a warm whisper against her lips.
Her mind suddenly conjured up images of how it had felt to wrap her arms around his muscled back while his mouth totally devoured hers. She couldn’t give him a yes or a no. At that moment, with his mouth so close to hers, all she could do was give him a “Hmm.” And when he leaned even closer and his tongue did a tantalizing sweep across her lips, a rush of sensations bombarded her.
“I’m tempted to do that every time I look at your lips, you know,” he said before doing it again.
No, she didn’t know. At the moment all she knew was that she was nearly overcome by a degree of want and need she hadn’t experienced in a long time, if ever.
But before things went any further they needed to establish some grounds rules. She refused to make the same mistake with him that she’d made with Omar Elwood. “Stonewall?”
He swept his tongue over her lips again, and she couldn’t hold back the moan. “Umm?”
“We need to talk.”
He reached out, cupped her face with his hands and whispered, “Later,” before leaning in and devouring her mouth.
In his lifetime Stonewall had kissed plenty of women, but at that moment he knew none of those kisses had affected him as much as this one did. Joy was pushing him to the limits of his sanity and with every stroke of his tongue to hers, liquid heat was shooting straight toward his groin.
This was their third kiss, and it seemed each and every time their mouths connected things got crazier and crazier. Their needs became all-consuming. Their desire for each other was so perfectly aligned that he could feel every single pore in his body open up to sensations he’d never felt before.
Joy moaned and he released his hold on her face to plunge his hands into her hair, loving the feel of his fingers running through the strands. Angling his head, he deepened the kiss to get a more intimate contact with her mouth.
Pressing his body closer to hers, he wanted her to feel every inch of him, just like he wanted to discover every inch of her. Her dress was sexy as hell and had pushed his libido to the limit. The result was this. Needs and desires overtaking common sense. She moaned again as their tongues continued to mesh and mate with a ferociousness that had a burst of fire hitting him low in the gut. She pressed closer and he could feel the hardened tips of her nipples against his chest. She was driving him insane and he wanted her to be affected by the same madness.
He suddenly broke the kiss and stared down at her, his breathing hard and labored as if he’d run a marathon. Her lips were wet, proof of just how hungry his mouth had been for hers. Her eyes were filled with a need that mirrored his and her breathing was just as irregular. Even now he could feel the deep, hard thud of her heartbeat against his chest.
She’d said she would be calling the shots and he intended to let her. “No pun intended, baby, but the balls are in your court. How do you intend to play them?” he whispered huskily on a breath surging with desire so intense it was almost painful. So intense he felt a spike of desire in those same balls he was alluding to.
“I intend to play in a way that’s never been played before, Stonewall. At least, not by me. Are you game?”
Anticipation rushed through his entire body. “Hell yeah, I’m game.”
A smile touched her lips and without saying a word, she took hold of his hand and led him toward the back of her house.
IT WAS STONEWALL’S intent to let her lead; after all, she did have a firm grip on his hand. But after taking no more than two steps, he suddenly resisted. Some primitive force within him demanded that they make love here. Now. At no time had he ever felt this tight with a need to appease a sexual hunger, this filled with intense desire.
“Is something wrong, Stonewall?”
As far as he was concerned, a lot was wrong. Topping the list was this buildup of need and desire he had for her. Six months’ worth. “I want you now, Joy. Here.”
“But my bedroom is right down the hall.”
“Doesn’t matter. I doubt I can make it that far.” To admit something like that was crazy but at the moment he didn’t care. He wanted her now and that’s all that mattered. He would call himself all kinds of fool later.
But at present...
He lifted her and pressed her against the wall. She wrapped her legs around his waist the minute he lowered his head and hungrily crushed his mouth to hers, taking her mouth for all it was worth. She returned the kiss, fueling his desire even more. It seemed that they were both unleashing pent-up need and longing with a powerful voraciousness.
Never had he wanted a woman as much as he wanted her tonight. Everything about her sent him over the edge and there was no way to save himself, other than this way. To devour her mouth...at least for starters. This kiss alone was igniting a degree of bone-melting fire that was quickly escalating through his entire body.
Growling deep in his throat, he dragged his mouth away to breathe in a gust of air that included her lush scent. He used the tip of his tongue to lick the side of her face, needing her taste. Drawing in more breath, he met her gaze. “I want you, Joy.” He figured there was no way she couldn’t know that with his hard erection poking into her.
“And I want you, too, Stonewall.”
Sensations ripped through him with her words. Knowing all this desire was being shared made him lower his head and claim her lips again. He enjoyed kissing her, applying his strong, hard lips to her soft ones. A part of him knew the purpose of making love to her mouth this way. He was setting the tone of just how intense he planned to make love to her body. Continuing with that strategy, he kissed her with a relentless hunger that wouldn’t let up. Their tongues were mating as if today was all they had and tomorrow was a dream they couldn’t bank on. They would take all they could now, and the memories would be savored later during those days when he was off somewhere protecting Dak and she was back here solving her criminal cases. He intended this to be a night they would not only remember, but one that would keep the flame burning until the next time...and he was determined to make sure there was a next time.
* * *
WHEN STONEWALL SUDDENLY broke off their kiss, he gathered her into his arms, took the couple of steps toward the sofa and laid her on it. He then began practically tearing off his clothes. First he tossed the tux jacket aside, followed by the bow tie and shirt. Cuff links were placed on the table as he kicked off his shoes.
Joy watched him through desired-glazed eyes. Never had any man kissed her with such intensity and hunger. She had actually felt his need and his desire for her with every stroke of his tongue.
Tonight he’d put to rest the myth that if you’d had one kiss you’d had them all. Mainly because the ones Stonewall had delivered were in a class all by themselves. He could take your mouth and gobble it up with toe-curling greed one minute and ply it with a tenderness that made you feel as if your mouth was a treasure to be cherished the next.
He lowered his pants down in his legs and his briefs quickly followed. She moaned when he stood before her totally naked, giving her a full-frontal view of the most magnificent male body she’d ever seen. His physique was the kind that would make a woman drool ten times over.
Her gaze took him in, moving down his too-handsome face to a pair of wide shoulders, a broad, hairy chest, a tight stomach and perfect abs. He had a tattoo of a bald eagle in flight on his chest. However, it was the area below his waist that had her leaning up to get