The man in him only cared about getting inside her sooner than now.
“Yeah,” he growled, stalking closer and toeing off his loafers. “One I
will
deliver on.”
His tight black T-shirt came off in a second. His jeans in about two.
He leapt on the bed, insinuating his body between her legs. His tongue thrust deep at the same moment his cock did. He thanked every god he could think of that she was wet enough to take him in one plunge.
Lauren gasped. “Noah!”
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Home. Perfect. Mine
.
He moaned, the sound tortured, guttural. Had anything ever felt this good?
Ravenous for her taste, her smell, her touch, he dove into her, submerging himself. Hard strokes of his cock, punishing lashes of his tongue. He sank deep, deeper. It wasn’t enough. It never would be.
Her one free hand plowed through his hair, clutching at him as she tilted her hips, mewled, and invited him even farther inside her.
“Yes.” The sound tore from his chest as pleasure shot through his body.
The intense penetration aroused him, but it was being inside Lauren, knowing she’d come to him, would soon come with him, that was boiling his blood, scalding the need building up inside him.
But he needed something…
Without missing a beat, he jerked the mask from Lauren’s face. She blinked, those long lashes fluttering at him, even as her pussy did the same around his cock. Her brown eyes melted as she looked up at him, focused, not looking away. Her gaze lay bare. Vulnerable. No anger, no fear, no reticence. Only acceptance, giving. Total surrender. That look reached inside him, ratcheting up his desire to feral levels, tugging on his heart until he thought it might burst.
Lauren was destroying him. Not little by little, but in great, big gnawing hunks. And still he needed more.
The scarf. The one tied around her left wrist. It had to go.
With a mighty tug, he ripped the offending black wisp away. He didn’t know where it had come from and he didn’t care. He only knew both her hands were free.
“Touch me,” he pleaded, voice harsh against her mouth. “Hold me.”
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“Yes!” she shouted, folding both arms around him, holding him tightly against her as he propelled his way into her tight, clinging sheath again. Again. Again. Until he wanted nothing else. Could think of nothing else.
“Noah.” His name fell from her lips in a pant.
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Instead, he gripped her hips, tilted her up even more and fucked her wildly.
God, she was killing him. The head of his cock dragged across her sweet spot. She clamped down on him, gripping, sucking him back in, even as her arms held him tight, as if she’d never let him go.
Lauren fisted his hair in her hands. “Noah!”
“Why…did…you…come…here?” he demanded, one word between each thrust.
She cried out and pressed her lips to his.
As much as he wanted to lose himself in the dizzying flavor of her mouth and that intoxicating kiss of hers, he wrenched away.
“Why?” he growled.
She was panting now. Every breath a harsh exhalation that ripped through the thick summer air each time he shoved his way into her broiling depths. Her pussy squeezed him hard now. Harder. Jesus, he was going to lose his mind. The ecstasy was building up, heavy, an irresistible ache. He sucked a harsh breath between his teeth, trying to hold off his orgasm long enough to make her come.
But first, he wanted a goddamn answer. He’d seen it on her face, but he had to hear her say it.
“Why?”
“I need you,” she sobbed.
“For a fuck?”
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She shook her head. When she trembled against him, body taut with need, Noah looked down into her dilated, expressive eyes. She was on the edge, nearly ready to explode. But everything she felt was still shining at him, and he thought he might explode even before she said the words.
“For always. I love you.”
That was all it took. The head of his dick dragged against her sweet spot one more time, and she convulsed, thrashing, crying out, his name a chant.
No way he could resist that. He wasn’t even going to try.
Pleasure slithered down his spine, gathering into a boiling pool of need in his balls. With a last thrust, the ache burst, shooting through his entire body as he stiffened, plunged, shouted, and clutched Lauren like a lifeline as he drowned in a sea of ecstasy.
Moments passed. They drifted into minutes, broken only by slowly regulating breaths and heartbeats. Still, Noah didn’t move, remained lodged inside her sweet body, his arms around her. She’d come back—
and he would find some way to keep her if she thought for even a second about leaving.
But Lauren’s arms remained around him, fingers stroking through his hair, gliding down his sweat-slicked back. She pressed a kiss to his shoulder, his jaw, the corner of his mouth.
His cock stirred with interest again, like he was nineteen, not thirty-nine. Only Lauren could do this to him, damn her. She’d better not think of leaving again.
The string of kisses she continued to gift him with said she was in no hurry to go anywhere. Her mouth fell softly on the blade of his cheekbone, the damp skin at his temple. Her teeth tugged on his lobe.
“Noah?”
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He closed his eyes. What did she want? Hell, he’d given her the power in this situation. Given her exactly what she wanted. What if he’d imagined the tenderness in her eyes? What if her declaration of love was nothing more than heated passion talking?
“Why did you come here?” Noah barely recognized his own voice.
Scratchy. Rough. Ragged.
“Not just for sex. The last few weeks have been miserable without you.”
“You kicked me to the curb and told me I was a scheming bastard.”
She kissed his cheek. “When you let me finish the expansion presentations without help…I knew you understood that I didn’t want you planning my life.”
“I got it. But you didn’t believe that I love you. I don’t know how to convince you not to be afraid. What I want…it hasn’t changed, sugar.”
“Thank God.” She smiled up at him. “You have my sister to thank for making me realize that I was leaving you because I was afraid of being without you. Which, as she pointed out, makes no sense.”
“But now you’re willing to take a chance with me?” His heart started to chug, beating faster with hope so desperate he could taste it.
“If you’re going to get bored and leave me the way you have Misty and every other woman—”
“It won’t happen,” he swore.
Solemn-faced, he stared down at her, forcefully penetrating her gaze, willing her to understand. “Tonight, I could have had a woman named Jessica.”
Instantly, she struggled beneath him, doing her best to dislodge him.
All that wiggling with his cock in her sweet heat only served to stir his cock to full length. With a slow glide, he pushed back into the depths of her body, all the way to the hilt.
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“Damn it,” she hissed. “Get the hell off—”
“I said I
could
have had her. I didn’t say I did.” He thrust again slowly, his erection sliding through her like a hot knife through soft butter. “Truth is…” he withdrew unhurriedly, then pushed his cock back in at the same pace, maximizing friction, “…I wasn’t even remotely interested in a woman tonight until you came here.”
Again, he treated her to a lazy thrust.
Damn, this better be arousing
her.
The slow burn of her flesh over his was searing him.
“I wasn’t interested in sex without you,” he clarified. “Seeing her boobs half exposed in a low-cut shirt all night did nothing for me. A mere thought of you…and I was so hard I couldn’t think straight.”
He thrust again, at that agonizingly measured pace.
Beneath him, Lauren moaned, “Noah.” Her stiff body lost some of its starch.
“That’s it, sugar,” he chanted on another smooth glide. “Get it through your head; there isn’t going to be anyone else. I’ve wanted you for ten years. You told me the last time we made love that substitutes weren’t enough for you. They’re definitely not enough for me. They never will be again.”
“Noah.” As she called to him, tears welled, spilled, ran silver down her cheeks.
“I want to marry you,” he whispered, stroking into the wet heaven of her wet slit again. “Have babies with you. Hell, I bought this house for us.”
“You—you did?” To say she looked shocked was like saying the Yankees had a few fans. “But that was…a year ago. More than that.”
“That’s when I started to hope that maybe we could work this out. If you don’t like the house, we can sell it and move—”
“I love the house.” She hesitated, bit her lip shyly. “I love you.”
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He had to have her now, wrapped around him, all his. Scooping her up, Noah came up on his knees so she straddled his lap. Then he reached back and tugged away the bonds around her ankles. Lauren wrapped her legs around him immediately.
Clutching her in return, he maneuvered his way to his back and settled her astride him, right over his cock. He sank deep through her slick folds, right against her cervix. She gasped.
Oh, this was one of his favorite positions. Not only did it feel damn fine, it was easy to get a woman off over and over…and watch the whole show. And he’d never made love to Lauren in this way.
Noah wanted to change that. Now. But…
“I’ve said my piece, sugar. I hope you know I love you.” He pushed a wild tangle of tawny hair away from her flushed face and ran his thumb across her swollen lips. “But it’s up to you. Are you staying? Or going?”
“Oh, I’m staying. You can’t get rid of me.” A smile broke out across Lauren’s face as she eased up on his cock, then back down. He gasped.
“I’d never want to. I’ve never loved a woman until you. I waited for so long, wanted you for years…”
Smiling, she leaned in, brushing sweet, swollen nipples across his chest. When she wriggled her hips and writhed over him again, Noah sucked in another sharp breath.
“I have a naughty little secret,” she said, then put her mouth to his ear and whispered, “I wanted you for years, too.”
He paused. “Years?”
“Since before the divorce. I’ve been in love with you since the night you took me out for my birthday and didn’t take me to bed.”
Lauren had loved him for over two years! Thrill slid through him, tingling across his skin. The sensation spiked straight up to euphoria a moment later. Another pistoning of Lauren’s hips, and he added ecstasy
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to the mix for a sensation so exquisite, so powerful, so unlike anything he’d ever felt with any other woman, Noah had to grit his teeth and grip her hips to stop the climax rushing through him.
But when she pulsed and fluttered around him, crying his name in a high-pitched scream, he couldn’t stop the unstoppable.
Orgasm hit Noah with all the subtlety of a freight train. His arms flew around her, holding her close as he arched up, as deep inside her as he could reach. And she took him, gasping, her pussy milking him in hard clamps in an agonizing blitz that seemed to last a blissful eternity.
After a few quiet moments, his heartbeat calmed. His breathing slowed. And he couldn’t stop smiling as he angled their bodies to the side of the bed and reached into the drawer of his nightstand.
Lauren lifted her head with a sated groan, her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen, her hair wild. She’d never been more beautiful.
Through slitted eyes, she saw where his hand was reaching and frowned. “If you’re reaching for the condoms…um, it’s too late, I think.”
Noah just laughed. Grabbed what he wanted in his big palm, and shut the drawer. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
“No place else I’d rather be. No one I’d ever rather be with,” she whispered.
The words went straight to his heart.
“Make me even happier,” he murmured, staring straight into her chocolate eyes that all but melted him with her warmth. “Marry me.”
He opened his palm and produced a small box.
Lauren’s eyes widened. Her long gasp stopped his heart. Shit, was he moving too fast again? Planning too much for her?
“Sugar, don’t panic.” He closed his fist, hiding the box. “No rush. We can take it as slow as—”
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“Are you kidding? We’ve wasted too much time as it is. Yes!” she squealed, then leaned down to pepper his face with kisses.
The sound reverberated through him, echoing with joy. He sighed, relaxed. Exhaled.
Everywhere she touched him was wet, and he gripped her shoulders and sat her up so he could see her face. Happy tears doused her cheeks.
Noah brushed them away with his thumbs.
“You’re sure?” His chest tightened with an anxious ache as he waited.
She nodded happily—and cried some more. “Yes.”
“Don’t you want to see the ring first?” He opened his hand again, right under her gaze.
Lauren glanced at the little black box, then again at him. A reproachful smile crept across her face. “When did you buy this?”
Noah couldn’t hold back his sheepish expression. “The day your divorce was final.”
“Pretty sure of yourself, Mr. Reeves.”
“Pretty determined, soon-to-be Mrs. Reeves. If you don’t like it, we can find something else.”
But as she lifted the lid and was nearly blinded by the ring’s beauty, she acknowledged that Noah had fabulous taste in just about everything—clothes, wine, food…a wife, she thought with a giggle.
“Have you already picked our wedding date, location, florist, caterer—
the works?”
A laugh of pure happiness rolled out of him. “I have ideas, but if you’d like to plan it, sugar, you’re welcome to.”
“Wow, that’s very…accommodating of you.”
He grabbed the ring from the box, slid it on her finger, and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I learn. Slowly sometimes. But I learn.”