He hadn’t realized he’d stopped eating until her movements slowed, then halted altogether. Her mouth was slightly open, as if she couldn’t pull in enough air from her nose alone. And he felt like the precious resource was at a premium in the warm room. He watched her pulse beat at the base of her throat, a droplet of moisture moving down her neck to disappear into the deep neckline of her dress. He followed the movement and unconsciously licked the corner of his mouth as if he could taste the salty droplet.

Josie’s pulse pounded so hard she couldn’t hear anything else but the hastening beat of her heart. As Drew’s gaze slid to her breasts, she felt her nipples harden into tight knots beneath the light fabric covering them. He looked devilishly handsome in that one moment. Irresistible. And so damn sexy that she felt her mouth water with the desire to kiss him again. Not on a public street. But here in the private haven of her hotel’s kitchen.

At the same time, they reached for the newspapers covering the cutting board between them, shoving them and the shells and whole crabs to the floor along with their wineglasses and the bottle of wine. They both climbed up on top, their hands seeking each other’s faces, their mouths meeting hungrily.

Josie couldn’t remember a time when she’d been so spontaneously compelled to have sex with anyone before. She wanted Drew with an urgency that almost hurt.

He touched her legs, scooting his fingers up the hem where she kneeled. When she thought he might touch her aching flesh, he rounded to her panty-covered bottom and pulled her until she was straddling him on top of the table. She snaked her arms around his neck and held tight, feeling the rigid length of him nestled in her shallow channel, nothing but fabric separating them. She restlessly tilted her head to the right, then the left, kissing him with a desperation that bordered on insanity, as he did the same with her, first holding her head still as he launched an assault on her lips, then pulling her hips tightly against his until she moaned.

“Jesus,” he ground out, nuzzling her neck almost roughly. “I’m burning up.”

She threaded her fingers through his hair, mindless that they were still damp with crab juice, and kissed him. “It’s the spices.”

He shook his head as they kissed again. “No, Josie, it’s you.”

He peeled her from him then slid off the table, pulling her hips until they were even with the edge. Josie gasped at the sudden move, helpless to stop him as he shoved her dress up. Her chest heaved as he stared at her womanhood covered by her purple satin panties. She pulled the rest of the dress off, watching with satisfaction as his gaze moved from her thighs to her breasts. Breasts that were normally constrained in a bra but she’d left free and loose while she cooked.

He leaned in as if to take one of her breasts into his mouth, but she stilled him with a hand against his chest, then pulled his shirt up and over his head. She took him in. For a car-parts salesman, he had a dark tan and a fit physique, equal to that of a male cover model. She licked her finger and drew it from his thick, well-defined collarbone down around one of his flat nipples, before tweaking the tiny pebble of flesh then drawing it into her mouth.

Drew grew taut, groaning at her unexpected attention. It seemed only natural to Josie that if a woman could get so much pleasure from having her breasts licked, then the same would apply to a man. And she took private pleasure in being proven right.

Drew’s fingers dug into the soft flesh of her thighs as she worked, laving each of his nipples then suckling them, blowing on the distended flesh while it was still wet. His hips bucked, putting his erection against her. Then his fingers found the sides of her panties and he stepped back, freeing her from her one last bit of clothing.

He stood for long moments, saying nothing as he nudged her knees farther apart with his hips and stood gazing at her bared womanhood with what she could only call awe. Then he was touching her dark, springy curls, parting her farther. Josie grasped his shoulders and shivered at his light touch.

He kissed her again. Hard and demandingly. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he pushed her back until she lay flat against the table. He rested one hand between her breasts and held her still as he leaned forward to pull one of her nipples deep into mouth.

Sensation exploded within Josie. Hot, so very hot. Realization slowly sank through her passion-clouded mind that it must be the spices. The cayenne they’d eaten and that remained on Drew’s tongue made each lick hotter than the one before, adding a sensation she’d never experienced before. She tightly grasped his shoulders, bracing herself as a blissful shudder ran through her body.

Is that how her licking had made him feel?

She didn’t have a chance to answer the question because Drew had left her breasts and was laving a path down her quivering stomach toward the V of black hair at the top of her thighs. She restlessly licked her lips, wondering if her sensitive flesh could withstand the spicy attention. Then he was parting her with his thumbs and taking her tight bud between his lips and the worry was whipped from her mind, replaced by searing pleasure.

“Oh!” Josie sought something, anything, to grab a hold of-Drew’s hair, the edge of the table-to gain a stability that she feared she’d never find again. He sucked in deeply, then one of his fingers rimmed her flesh before thrusting inside to the hilt, so that she felt the palm of his hand pressing against her burning clit.

Red, hot sensation shot over and through and around Josie again and again. She writhed on the table, bearing down against the hand bringing her so much pleasure, rubbing the spices even farther into her swollen flesh.

She was just beginning to flutter back down to earth when she blinked open her eyes to find Drew had shucked his pants with his free hand and was rolling a condom down the thick, hard length of his erection. She swallowed hard and braced her feet against the side of the table, readying herself for his first thrust.

NEVER HAD DREW VIEWED a sight as breath-stealing as Josie spilled over the cutting-board table, her X-rated body undulating in pleasure as she welcomed the climax he’d brought her to. And now as she readied herself for him, he wondered if he’d ever made love to a woman so gloriously unconscious of the way she looked. A woman not driven by shallow motivations but by a deeper need to connect with him in the way he needed to connect with her.

Drew touched her feet, caressing his way up her silky legs to her knees, his gaze caught by hers. Forgotten was the fact that they were in the kitchen of a hotel. Gone were any concerns over his role in her life. All that mattered was this one moment in time.

He positioned his hard-on between her slick, fleshy lips and rubbed himself lengthwise down then up again, purposely denying himself the pleasure of filling her as he stroked her externally. He watched her throw back her head as if the anticipation were killing her. She tried to force a breach by curving her ankles around his waist and drawing him against her. But the urgency of her movements merely increased his desire to draw this out.

He worked his head against her clit, massaging it, the catch in her breath and the shivering of her stomach revealing the effect he was having on her.

An effect that mirrored the quake beginning to shake him from the inside out.

He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so…at one with a woman. So on the same wavelength. He didn’t need to hurry. Or wonder if he was doing the right thing. Or listen to her whisper orders about how to touch her there or do this just so. Instead there existed a mutual understanding between them that all was game and that the simplest touch could be the most erotic. There was no rushing toward an end.