Kim Bowman damned herself a thousand times.
It was just supposed to be dinner. They’d both been picking through the food choices at the reception following Clara Bell Sawyer’s funeral, and there’d been nothing that didn’t involve cheese or bread crumbs or cream of mushroom soup.
She’d needed a healthy dinner.
Dinner, not dessert.
But she’d been trying to avoid the whole chemistry connection for so long that she’d forgotten how powerful it could be. How one thing could lead to another.
How a simple dinner could go straight to a rich, decadent dessert.
Boy, had she ever.
She closed her eyes, relishing the strong, callused hands that slid over her, tugging at her buttons, pushing at her undies, scraping across her flesh.
Goose bumps danced over her skin and she shivered despite the warm night air.
“Hold up,” Carter Walls said, pulling away. “We’re both wearing way too many clothes.”
He fixed the situation in less than a minute, tugging off his shirt, pitching his jeans and boxer briefs.
She didn’t mean to look. She wanted to refuse to give herself a moment to regret or lose her nerve, but she couldn’t help herself.
Her gaze drank him in, his broad chest and flat brown nipples surrounded by dark hair. His legs were long and thick with muscles. His arousal was huge and hard, and her heart paused for a long breathless moment.
If she’d thought for even five seconds that he was more of an intellectual with his IT background, she’d been wrong. This guy was pure cowboy, from his ripped biceps to the hard planes of his abdomen, to his corded thighs.
But then the looking was over and the speed picked up again. He reached for her. Flesh met hot flesh and she stopped thinking altogether.
She felt the moist heat of his breath on her breast and then his lips closed over her nipple.
He licked and suckled and nibbled. Sensation skittered along her nerve endings and she forgot all about wanting to feel his lips on her own. Heat pooled low in her belly, making her thighs tremble and her hands quiver. Then his mouth opened and he drew her deeper, sucking hard. Sensation flooded through her, crashing over her in huge waves.
Hands skimmed down her back, around her waist, her rib cage. He moved lower until strong fingers slid between her legs, into her slick flesh. He stroked and coaxed until a shameless moan burst from her lips.
He touched her just so and desire pounded through her as fiercely as a summer storm. Fierce and drenching all at once, yet oddly rejuvenating.
When he slipped a finger into her and pushed deep, she cried out. Her trembling turned to shaking as her entire body reacted to the invasion, her nerves humming from the incredible need swamping her senses.
Her hands stroked up and down his back, grasping his hard, muscled buttocks before she circled his hips. She’d barely brushed his erection when she found her wrist caught in a tight grip …
“No,” he groaned. “It’s been too long and there’s no way this is going to go slow if you touch me.”
Too long?
No, she was the one who’d gone too long. She didn’t do this kind of thing. She was into nice, not wild and wicked and dangerous.
But she felt all three at the moment, and suddenly she couldn’t help herself. “Do it,” she begged. “Do it right now.” The desperation in her voice surprised her, but she was beyond caring. She trembled and throbbed and ached so badly. “Please.”
He scooped her into his arms and headed for her bedroom. The mattress met her back and then he disappeared. A few minutes later, he reappeared, condom in hand and slid the latex down his engorged length. He covered her then, spreading her legs wide and positioning himself.
The voluptuous head of his hot erection nudged her slick opening and every nerve in her body jumped to full alert. His chest heaved, crushing her tender breasts as he fought to drag air into his lungs.
“Christ, I don’t know what it is about you,” he murmured, staring at her as if she were some impossible puzzle he just couldn’t begin to solve, and then the contemplation ended. He thrust into her, stretching and filling and, ahhh …
“Wrap your legs around me,” he murmured, and she quickly complied, the motion drawing him deeper. So deliciously deep.
Carter reached under her and clasped her hips, angling her as he withdrew and thrust into her again. And again.
This was it.
She’d meant to lay back and enjoy every touch, every sound, to commit it to memory for all the so-so encounters with Gabe or Benny or whoever she ended up with.
She couldn’t.
Despite the intense pleasure he was giving her, she suddenly wanted more. She wanted him harder and deeper and faster and she couldn’t help herself. She clutched his slick shoulders, his back, his buttocks, lifted her pelvis and matched his rhythm. Her nipples rubbed against the soft hair on his chest, sending ripples of heat through her body. The pressure built as he pumped into her, pushing her higher. Like a fierce lightning flash, the pressure hit. Her back arched and she shattered. Wave after wave of luscious heat rolled over her, through her. Her muscles contracted, gripping him tight and wringing a deep groan from him.
He quickly followed her over the edge, his muscles as hard as granite as he plunged into her one last, sweet time. He collapsed on top of her, his chest heaving, his heart thundering in sync with her own.
He slid his strong arms around her, rolled over, and gathered her close, and contentment unlike anything she’d ever felt before rushed through her. She snuggled deeper into Carter’s embrace and closed her eyes.
And then she cursed the Powers That Be for sending her the wrong man. And for making him feel so right.