CORD WATCHED Lexi as she gave him the bum’s rush home. No easy task, given he had seven inches and at least fifty pounds on her. “In a hurry?”
She took a page out of his book and didn’t answer. Instead, she helped him up to his front door, putting both hands on his ass and shoving him up the last step.
He grinned. “If you wanted to cop a feel, you could have just said so.”
“Did you mean it?”
He didn’t even try to pretend not to know what she was asking. “Did I mean it when I said I could think of a better way to make you scream?” His fingers brushed her temple, his thumb gliding over her jaw. “Hell, yes.”
Her eyes flashed heat and hunger and desire, and he went instantly hard. A chronic condition around her.
She grabbed his hand and tugged him inside, then pushed him back against the door and gestured to his basketball shorts. “Lose ’em.”
He choked out a laugh. “Aren’t you going to buy me dinner first?”
She shot him an amused glance. “Do you need the bells and whistles? The romance? I thought we were just friends.”
His smile faded, and he slowly tugged her in, smoothing back her wild hair from her face. “Lexi.”
She shook her head, and put a finger across his lips. “No. You promised to make me scream. Please don’t change your mind. I know what this is, and what it isn’t.”
Oh, Christ, she killed him. “I want to—”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, looking suddenly unsure and vulnerable, as if maybe she expected him to turn her down.
As if he could.
“Please,” she whispered, making his heart ache. “Just love me…”
I already do, he thought with no little amount of shock, but even with the unexpected epiphany, he managed to take her hand, leading her away from the foyer.
“Where are we—”
“My bed,” he said firmly. “I’m too old for this against-the-door shit, and my leg is killing me.”
“Oh, Cord. We don’t have to—”
“We’re doing this.” Knowing she needed him to keep this light—which was ironic given that this had started out with him being the skittish one—he flashed her a grin over his shoulder. “But you’ll have to promise to be gentle with me.”
LEXI PROPELLED Cord onto his bed and followed him down. “Hurry,” she said, mouth busy against his throat. God, he was big and warm and solid against her, and she scraped her teeth over him. “I want you in me.”
He groaned and gripped her hips hard. “Is there a fire?”
She laughed breathlessly, trying to get his shorts off, but he surprised her by rolling, tucking her beneath him. He gathered both her hands in one of his, raising them over her head as he pressed her into the mattress. “Lexi.”
God, she loved the feel of him on top of her. “What?”
“I want to go slow.”
“But I like fast. Like last time.”
He winced. “Okay, that didn’t count. It’d been a really long time for me and—”
“Cord, it was perfect.” She wrapped her legs around him. “Now do it again.”
“I’m going to. But I want to touch you, Lexi. Taste you—”
“So get to it!”
He dropped his forehead to hers and let out a sound that was a cross between a groan and a laugh. She slid her hands into his shorts, wrapped her fingers around his length and ran her thumb over the tip of him, humming in approval at finding him so satisfyingly hard.
He let out another rough sound, this one completely void of amusement. “You really want fast?”
“And hard.”
“Everything off, then,” he demanded, and then lent his hands to the cause, ripping off their pj’s. Before she drew another breath, he’d nudged her legs apart and slid home.
She opened her lips to gasp in shocked pleasure, but he thrust his tongue into her mouth for a long, searching kiss as he began to move within her, slow smooth strokes that had her heart pounding, her desire for him consuming her from the inside out.
“God, you feel good.” Dipping down so he could see into her face, he balanced up on one forearm to stroke her damp hair back. “So damn good.”
So did he, and she nodded, closing her eyes. She wanted the big bang, the explosion, the mindless pleasure, needed it. Wrapping her thighs around his waist, she dug her fingers into his perfect butt and met him thrust for thrust.
He groaned, running hot, wet, open-mouthed kisses down her throat and back up, covering her mouth with his, making her toes curl. When he murmured her name again in a voice that told her he was close, she finally let go of the nameless tension that had her in its tight-fisted grip and burst as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her, carrying him right along with her.
FROM THE BED, they staggered into Cord’s kitchen for water. Lexi’s throat was parched, and she was downing a glass when she realized Cord was watching her with hot eyes. They were both still naked, their bodies barely cool, but God, the way he was looking at her made her knees wobble.
He held the eye contact as he limped toward her. Lifting her to the countertop, he stroked his hands down her already quivering body.
“Again?” she murmured, breath catching.
“Oh, yeah,” he murmured back, voice low and sexy as hell. “Again.”
AFTER THE KITCHEN, where they managed to incorporate several cooking utensils and a quart of ice cream into their lovemaking, they made their way to Cord’s shower, where, as it turned out, the magical showerhead was even more fun with two.
She currently had Cord flat on his back on the bathroom floor, and she was riding him like a wild bronco. She couldn’t help herself, she couldn’t get enough of him….
His eyes dark on hers, he let loose his grip on her hip to stroke his thumb over her center, which was all it took for her to go flying again, his name on her lips.
It might even have been that scream he’d promised her, and when she let go, he arched, burying himself even deeper inside her as her muscles clenched tightly around him. He came with her, emptying himself into her in powerful thrusts that drove all the breath from her lungs. Falling over him, she trembled from head to toe…completely, one hundred percent in love with him. God.
Cord gathered her up in his arms, and she burrowed in, hiding her face, not ready for him to see. Not now. It would kill her if he saw it and said goodbye. So she lay against him for long moments, hiding, and when she could breathe again, she pressed her mouth to his throat.
He made a sound like a contented purr and stretched, lifting his head and meeting her eyes with his own warm ones. Reaching up, she touched his face, she couldn’t help herself. And then it was her turn to practically purr when he rubbed his stubbled jaw against her palm. “Sleep with me,” he murmured.
She went still. She’d love nothing more, but she couldn’t. Not without giving herself away. “Gotta get up early, I have work—”
“We can do early.”
Oh, God. The knot in her belly tightened. “Not this early. In fact, it’s really late…” She made a show of lifting her head to find the time. “Yeah, it’s three. Gotta get to bed, big guy.”
“Lexi.”
She absorbed the terrifying gentleness of his tone and let it galvanize her into action. She jumped up and started gathering clothes. Then she turned and bumped right into Cord, nearly knocking him to his ass. “God! I’m sorry!”
He dropped his cane to catch her, and leaned back against the bathroom sink, holding her to him. “Lexi.”
“You’re naked.”
“So are you.” He gave her a small smile, something new in his eyes to go with the usual affection and heat. “I think we should talk.” Great. Now he wanted to talk. “It’s three,” she repeated, struggling a little to get free, but the guy was like a brick wall when he wanted to be. “I have to—”
“Barrel out of here, yeah, I know. Just like you barreled into my life when I got back, assuming we were still friends. And goddamn if you haven’t barreled your way into the heart I’d forgotten was still whole and beating.”
Oh, God. “I didn’t mean to—”
“You refused to let me wallow, you refused to let me settle.” He smiled. “You took me bodysurfing, Lexi. You took me to scream therapy. Hell, you opened me up to living again, refusing to let me hide behind my secrets. So—” He cupped her face and made her look at him. “What’s your secret?”
“Cord.” She closed her eyes, then opened them again, shaking her head against the inexplicable panic clogging her throat. She was afraid, afraid of letting her heart open to him any more than it already had. She couldn’t lose anyone else, and to make sure she didn’t, she couldn’t let him all the way in. “I really can’t do this now. I have to leave.” And this time when she twisted free, he let her do just that.