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  How ridiculous. She’d only known this man for a few days. Yet, she had the notion if she let him get away, she would lose the very thing that had been missing in her life.

  Carrie invited Matthew in for coffee just like he knew she would. The unspoken, silent invitation was the one he struggled with. All the signals were there, and he was a fool for not taking her up on her obvious seduction. He’d be a bigger fool if he let his lust-filled body overrule his prudent conscious and fall into bed with her. Neither of them were celibate or strangers to sex. But he didn’t want her to think he expected goodbye sex.

  I’ll never see you again, so let’s do it.

  His eyes slid down to her firm round breasts. They would feel damn good against his chest. His palms began to prickle as he imagined his hands caressing and lifting the perfect globes to his mouth. He had to be insane to think he could resist touching the most desirable woman known to man. He wanted to trust his instincts. Maybe there was a chance at something special with this woman.

  A hopeful fantasy.

  He had to get the hell out of here. Now.

  Carrie placed her purse on the counter and turned. The look on her face conveyed pure need.

  Oh, hell.

  Matthew swallowed with difficulty and tried to breathe. He watched, spellbound, as she lifted one hand to the back of her head and released the clip holding her hair. A mass of blonde waves tumbled around her shoulders and fell to her breasts. Her eyes blazed into his.

  An invitation to sin if he ever saw one.

  She glided toward him with a sensuous sweep of her hips. Her voluptuous breasts shifted, attracting his gaze to the creamy swell above her cleavage. His tongue crowded his throat. A thickness settled in his chest. He had to touch her.

  With one unsteady finger, he traced a path from her collarbone down the tempting V of her dress. A rush of breath escaped her lips as his finger moved to the fullness of her breast. His eyes burned a path, lifting slowly to meet her gaze. Raw desire greeted him, making his already racing pulse pound in his ears. Seeking hands lifted with a will of their own and he pulled her into his arms. His eyes narrowed as her eager lips parted for him.

  Mmmmm. Sweet. Hot as hell.

  Blood rushed to his groin. Carrie had a mouth made for kissing. He delved with long leisurely strokes that turned to a twirling dance of mating tongues. A groan came from deep in her throat sending his already heightened senses on overload. She crushed her breasts against him. Her sweet, hungry sounds urged him on. His hand slid down, molded her bottom, and pressed her full against his erection. His mind nearly shattered. Nothing in his life had felt so good. He had to pull her closer. Her arms tightened around his neck causing his crazed body to heave against her, taking all she had to offer. The kiss flourished hotter, deeper. Her aroused body rotated and pushed against him without restraint.

  Finally, they broke apart, each gasping for air.

  Too fast. Too fast.

  Blood coursed through his veins like high-octane fuel in a powerful engine.

  Her eyes on his, Carrie lifted his hand to her mouth. Her hair flowed around her face in sexy abandon. Dazed, he watched as she slowly and deliberately placed the tip of his finger to her lips, and held the flesh between her teeth. His cock swelled rock hard. She took tiny steps backward enticing him to follow. With each step she slid her tongue over the sensitive flesh, made sensitive by her sensual display of making love to his fingers. Taking each one into her mouth with a gentle nip, and then a lick and . . . the sucking part disoriented him.

  He wouldn’t last.

  Unable to wait a moment longer, he grabbed her and captured her mouth again. Sweet. So unbearably sweet. He thrust his hands in her hair, angled her head, and kissed her until he thought his lungs would explode. He couldn’t taste enough, feel enough. Lightening sparked between them.

  Uncontrollable desire drove his hands over her curves. Impatient fingers quickly worked magic, removing her clothes as he followed her—one agonizing step, and then another—into the bedroom. He somehow managed to slip the impeding fabric over her shoulders, allowing the silk to slither down her body. The soft light from a bedside lamp outlined her form. Standing in only her camisole, she ensnared his gaze, toying with his control. She purposefully hooked her thumbs under the spaghetti-thin straps, and taunted, eyes daring. Then, with a sensuous wiggle, her breasts bounced. Silk slid over voluptuous curves to pool at her feet.

  He swallowed his tongue.

  Desire slammed his gut. Blood pounded through his veins.

  Take her. Now!

  He fisted his fingers, gritted his teeth, and sucked air in through his nose. Struggling for control, his eyes drank greedily while his gaze swept every delicious inch of her.

  A primitive part of him demanded he grab her and lay her on the bed and bury himself to the hilt in her sleekness. He remembered to breathe. He took a deep breath, and then another to keep from pawing her in a lust-crazed fury. She was exquisite, and deserved to be petted and savored like the treasure she was. But the delectable vision before him, with the hungry eyes, shattered his control. He reached for her.

  Twirling on her tiptoes, she spun around and danced to the side, just out of reach. “You have too many clothes on.”

  He jerked at his tie with fury and her voice halted his movements.

  “Wait. Let me.”

  She came closer. Her delicate hands slithered up his chest to the top button. She concentrated as though it were difficult to release the tiny object through the opening. He bit his jaw. His impatience made his temples throb. He was painfully aware of every second as she playfully drug out the simple action of slipping the button free. She exerted the same practice with each one, her every move designed to entice and arouse.

  Once all the fastenings escaped their hold, she pulled the fabric apart. Her fingers burned his aroused skin. Then her lips and tongue tasted his flesh. A low agonizing growl started in his belly and rumbled through his chest.

  Her head lifted. A siren’s smile curved her lips as her hands slid down to the button of his pants. He inhaled a breath that sounded unreasonably loud in his ears. The teeth of his zipper thundered louder. Excruciating need throbbed in his loins.

  “Carrie. You’re killing me.” He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head up so he could capture her lips. His mouth took hers in a hot, powerful kiss. Each slick stroke of his tongue, a desperate attack on her nerve endings. He wanted her to burn, the way he burned. He managed to kick off his pants and back her toward the bed. A ragged moan escaped just before they fell together in a pool of softness.

  Pure desire raged through his body. A craving so fierce, it shook him to his core. Nothing existed but this woman, and the intense hunger that demanded to be fed. His lungs ready to burst, he drew back. Focusing on her dazed eyes, he struggled, once again, for control. A ragged croak emerged from his throat. “Let me show you how good it can be between us.”

  “Yes, Matthew.” Carrie seized his head and pulled him down for another soul-wrenching kiss. Surrendering to the fiery inferno within his body, he ravaged her mouth. Her fierce yearning matched his, and he lost himself in the flames of her drowning fire.

  His lips roamed the silken skin of her neck finding the pulse that throbbed with every intense beat of her heart. Seeking hands explored his body with urgency, expressing her frenzy. He needed to take her soon, to put them both out of their lustful misery.

  With tantalizing slowness, he searched and found the secrets of her body. His tongue drew circles around her breasts, making love to each one thoroughly, worshiping their fullness. His hand slid lower, across her bare hip and bottom before claiming the area between her legs. When her thighs opened for his seeking fingers, Matthew wanted to shout with joy. Wet. So wet, his fingers glided across her nubbin. Her cries sent him on a quest to increase his pace. She squirmed and whimpered. He savored the moments—waiting, conquering—until finally he brought her to her peak.

  Never before had he needed
or taken such joy in a woman’s sighs. His erection tightened. His fingers increased their rhythm. Submerged in her desire, Carrie writhed upon the bed and guttural moans escaped her throat as spasms convulsed her body.

  Her teeth closed on his arm. She bit him, totally lost in her overwhelming passion. Gripped in mindless abandon, a lack of inhibition brought on by him.

  Beautiful. God, she was beautiful.

  He held her. Just held her. He made her writhe and twist and come for him. A feeling unlike anything he’d ever known came over him. A warmth he’d never experienced before. Honored, knowing he held something precious in his arms. He kissed her temple, her cheek. His hand roamed over creamy skin, relishing every silken inch of sweetness. Heat flared anew. Slow steady caresses grew stronger than before.

  Beads of perspiration dotted Matthew’s brow. His tongue licked the vein in her neck and dipped in the groove of her collarbone. He nipped, then kissed the sting away. Tiny shock waves spiraled across her chest and streaked through her limbs. How could she react this way again after the shattering climax that made her toes curl?

  Easy. Each stroke of his tongue and each brush of his hand over her sensitized flesh singed her nerve endings, and intensified her own arousal. God. He was driving her wild. He looked at her with a hunger born of necessity. He knew when to linger, where to add just the right amount of pressure. In her urgent haste for satisfaction, he tantalized her body with maddening patience.

  He kissed her slowly, hungrily, and gently coaxed her legs to part. She bit her lip as he fondled the plump, moist flesh between her thighs. She cupped her breasts and arched her back, offering herself to him. He drew on one nipple then took her fully into his mouth, and slid one finger inside her wet heat. A ragged moan of pleasure escaped her mouth as she moved her hands and grasped his head tighter, imprisoning him against her naked flesh.

  He used his hands and lips and teeth and tongue. He explored her body until she could take no more.

  “Matthew. I need you. Oh God. I need you.”

  He fumbled with a foil packet, then, braced on both arms, he positioned himself. She waited impatiently.

  “Carrie. Look at me.” When she did, he slid in to the hilt.

  She gasped in total amazement.

  A growl of pleasure came from deep in his throat. “Sweet Jesus.”

  A tremor flooded her body from head to toe. So full. Of Matthew. Her mind reeled.

  He held still for a split second before their hunger forced him to move. He slowly pulled out and thrust in again. Carrie ground herself against him. One stroke was all it took before his fingers tightened on her bottom, lifted her and plunged repeatedly into her depth. Passion flared out of control. His hips moved faster and the pressure intensified. Desire beyond any she’d ever known, knifed her, compelled her to squeeze the backs of his thighs and meet him stroke for blissful stroke.

  She wrapped her legs around his sleek hard muscles. He thrust into her relentlessly. She found herself clinging to him in desperation. Not out of completion, but of permanence, as though she never wanted to let him go. Reaching for something elusive that had always been out of reach.

  Suddenly, mind-boggling shocks of sensation rasped through her.

  She cried out, lost in sensual bliss.

  Matthew reared his head back, and ground his pelvis against her mound. The stiffening of his body and his hoarse groan signaled waves of ecstasy rolled over him as well. They’d soared together, incinerating in their blazing climax.

  Carrie stretched. The smell of coffee seeped into her senses and pushed the sleepy fog from her mind. Something tickled her nose. As she reached to rub it, her arm grazed against a familiar blanket of fleece. Drifting from sleepy lethargy to a state of wakefulness, she relished the figure lying next to her generating warmth. In that moment of heightened alertness, the sensation of belonging overcame her. She inhaled deeply and smiled. Matthew.

  Snuggling, she burrowed her nose in the matt of fur and rubbed her cheek in contentment. His scent. Never before had she nestled so relaxed and so gratified the morning after. Carrie couldn’t ever remember waking up in the arms of a lover, let alone wanting to stay. Actually, she didn’t think it possible to feel this sort of peace with a man. Gratification beyond mentioning. Enraptured beyond her endurance. Surrendering to her passion, losing control, losing her identity, yet even that couldn’t cast a shadow on the glow she felt within.

  She tilted her head to look at the face of the man beside her. A fierce craving spread through the center of her chest. Dark stubble across a firm jaw added to his mysterious appeal. Absolutely sinful. And hers. Pure desire made her instinctively raise her leg and cover his thigh. The friction of springy hair coming into contact with the flesh of her inner thigh heated her blood and made her yearn to be closer. She laid her cheek back on his silky matt of fur. Her fingertips began a circular motion, playing with the curls at her chin, and then danced a path down, toward his belly button . . .

  “Keep doing that and you will awaken the beast inside me.”

  She smiled before she glanced up to find his eyes still closed. Placing a finger on his bottom lip, she traced the outline from one corner over the tempting fullness to the other. The plumpness of his lip tantalized and promised. She knew what those lips could do. But for the moment, she was content to simply stare, in awe of the contented feeling that surrounded them. She wanted to kiss those lips. Yet she received pleasure letting her finger caress and linger. Strange this mood enveloping her. She simply needed to touch him. Hold him.

  He opened his mouth and captured her finger. Immediately, her eyes locked on blue crystals. She’d been so involved, she didn’t realize he watched. As he sucked on her finger, his gaze grew darker. Such a passionate man. Closing his hand around hers, he released the tip of her finger and leaned down for a thorough kiss. Rolling her beneath him, his tongue did a mating dance setting her insides on fire again. Suddenly he broke the kiss.

  “Stay right here. Don’t go anywhere.”

  She silently sucked in a breath as he threw the covers back and got out of bed. She stared at the tight buns on his backside. Self-assured in all his naked glory, he strode out of the room. She released her breath and struggled to put her tongue back in her mouth. Damn, what a man.

  Matthew could get her motor running in no time at all. His body was every woman’s dream. After a wonderful night of mind-boggling sex, he still had some sort of magnetism that threw her off balance. Even in her college years when she’d learned about sex, she hadn’t got all sappy. When the deed was done, she went on about her business. Guys weren’t the only ones who didn’t want attachments.

  She still didn’t.

  Did she?

  She inhaled the aroma as Matthew returned with a cup of coffee in each hand. “How about a jump start?”

  How about a jump-start is right. Not coffee. You!

  He waited for her to sit up, then held the steaming mug out to her. Somewhere along the way he’d put on a pair of boxers.

  She held the cup at her lips ready to take a sip. “I wondered if you were a brief or boxer man.”

  “When I’m wearing jeans, I don’t bother with either one.”

  She nearly choked on her coffee.

  He reached for her cup and placed it on the nightstand. “Be careful. It’s hot.”

  She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “You’re hot.”

  Matthew gave her a devil’s handsome smile. “Would you like some breakfast?”

  “You,” she purred.

  His eyes sparkled and he stood. “First, you have to feed me. I need to keep up my strength.”

  She dropped the sheet exposing her breasts. “Come back to bed and I’ll feed you.”

  Matthew’s gaze fastened there. She’d swear his eyes darkened. “How can a man resist such a tantalizing offer?”

  Chapter 10

  Carrie heard the phone ring when she put her key in the lock. As she pushed the door open, the machine beeped, the caller
hung up. Must not have been anyone important. Surely Matthew would leave a message.

  She kicked off her shoes and let her toes absorb the comfort of the carpet. She walked down the hall to her bedroom tugging at her clothes. After jerking off her bra, she pulled a large T-shirt over her head. Before she could snap her jeans, the doorbell rang. She hurried to the door and peered through the peephole.

  She opened the door.

  “Hey. I just got in.” Ginger entered carrying a bottle of wine. “Thought I’d let you know I’m back. And, if you invite me to dinner, I’ll share my wine.”

  “You bet. Let’s rummage in the kitchen and see what we find.” Carrie pulled a roll of sausage and salad fixings from the refrigerator. “How are the folks?”

  “Fine. Ask me about my brothers.”

  “Why?”

  Ginger removed two wine goblets from the cabinet. “I may have let it slip you were in the market.”

  “What?” Carrie jerked around.

  Ginger dug around in the drawer. “Who knew it would create such an upheaval?”

  With one hand braced on her hip, and the other holding a knife, Carrie pointed the sharp edge at Ginger. “What did you do?”

  “I mentioned you needed a man. You should have seen them. They ended up taking their argument outside . . .”

  “Argument!”

  Ginger pulled the cork from the bottle and poured a generous amount in a glass. “Greg and Vince both have black eyes.”

  “They fought?”

  She shrugged. “They went at it like animals fighting over a piece of meat.”