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?
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