He unclasped her bra and tossed it over his shoulder. His tongue swept over one nipple, then the other. She arched up to meet him, tangling her fingers in his thick hair, but he was already on the move, kissing his way down her belly.

“God in heaven, Faith. You smell so damn good.”

His fingers dipped into her panties. Tugged them off.

She pried her eyes open and looked down at the top of his head. Her only other lover had never engaged in oral, so she didn’t know what to expect, how to react. Nerves pinged. She reached for him to draw him back up, but he pressed his mouth over the pulsing, aching heat of her core and her body bowed in bliss.

He licked, nipped, and moaned, never allowing her to fall over the edge, but pushing her so, so close. In the throes of the most spectacular frustration, praying for release, she threw her arms over her head and pressed her palms against the headboard. Surely this couldn’t kill her, could it? Death by ecstasy.

“You ready to come, darlin’?”

Was he kidding? All she could do was nod.

Without warning, he climbed up her body and reached for the condom. Foil ripped. His breaths became pants and his weight settled between her thighs. Then his arms were between her and the mattress, cradling her back, lifting her to straddle his hips as he sat back.

His blue-gray eyes bore into hers, heavy with want and desperation. “I want you to come with me. I’ve wanted you for weeks, so we’ll come together.”

With hands secure on her hips, fingers digging into her flesh, he raised her enough to align himself and brought her down around his shaft.

She gasped, holding his shoulders at the full feeling of him deep inside.

Oh. Oh God, yes.

He stilled, breathing heavily into her hair a moment before claiming her mouth and kissing her with long, strong strokes of his tongue. Tension and restraint bunched the muscles under her hands, until he was quivering with need. Or was that her?

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she rolled her hips. The slide of him against her sensitive flesh made her tremble, lose whatever she’d been grasping on to.

His arms came around her back, one around her middle, the other sliding up into her hair. “Let me see your eyes.”

She opened them and met his gaze, so close to the edge of control and yet achingly tender. He drew his hips back as much as the position would allow, keeping her banded in his arms, his eyes never leaving hers. After holding out long enough to make her beg, he finally drove up while urging her down, her body taking him deeper than she thought possible.

Air whooshed from her lungs. Every nerve inside her came alive. Sparked. Inflamed. The friction of him hitting her nub and the pressure of him filling her so fully had her teetering near oblivion. He pumped inside her in earnest, emitting a groan with every thrust. He chanted her name against the skin below her ear, over and over.

The surprise of her orgasm barely had time to register before it hit full force. Her inner muscles tightened, squeezing him. She arched, cried out, vibrated with the intensity of satisfaction.

He caught her before she tumbled backward, tensing against her as he sought his own release. He pumped twice more and stilled. Panted. His fevered brow burrowed deeper into the crook of her neck, his breath hot against her jaw as he relaxed. He fell back against the mattress, bringing her with him to splay over him like a contented cat.

Content wasn’t even close to the term she’d use to describe what they’d just done, what she felt, but her body was too relaxed and sated to think of something more appropriate.

*   *   *

When they got their breathing under control, Alec lifted his head and pushed the hair away from Faith’s face. Her amber eyes were more honey-colored in the dim lamplight and mischief hinted at the corners.

Would he ever stop being surprised by her? Moreover, had sex ever been like that before? That good, that satisfying, that . . . complete? Not for him, it hadn’t.

A lazy smile lifted her mouth. “This might sound like a terrible cliché, and you might put me in writer jail for saying it, but that was amazing. I’d heard sex could be mind-blowing, but I figured that was just hype. My experience never brought me close to that.”

She used the term experience in its singular form and he had to wonder if that was a slip of the tongue or if she’d only had one lover before him. “My ego says thank you.”

Her smile turned into a grin. “Welcome.” Sighing, she rested her chin on his chest and stared at him. Drew lazy circles in his chest hair. After a beat, the grin slipped and her back tensed beneath his hand. “Do you regret it?”

“No regret.” Not in the way she was figuring. He was just starting to get a tangible thread of what was so . . . unique about the two of them together, and it made his heart pound.

“I don’t believe you,” she said.

“No regret,” he repeated, this time more firmly.

She must’ve read something in his expression, because she shook her head. Shame washed over her face, so quickly he had no time to react. She scooted off the foot of the bed and covered her breasts, searching for her clothes.

Damn her. Damn him.

He pressed his palms to his eyes, hating how she could fucking see right through him. This time she had it all wrong, though, and he didn’t know how to voice the feelings filling his chest. “It’s not . . . Please come back to bed.”

Slipping into her panties—and hell, yellow was his new favorite color—she hopped on one foot before catching her balance. If not for the hurt radiating in her eyes, he’d call her beautiful. Hair wild, skin flushed. She didn’t bother with the bra, but she did fetch a pair of pajamas out of her suitcase by the closet.

He gave her a minute to dress, thinking she needed the barrier, before he got up and slid into a pair of black running shorts. “Are you hungry?”

Hungry? Really, man?

“No, thank you.”

“No, thank you,” he repeated, at a loss. He didn’t know how to do this, the morning-after thing. And he had the sinking suspicion he’d not only hurt her feelings, but insulted her somehow. “Faith . . .”

“It’s late. I’m gonna go sleep on the couch. I’ll see you in the morning.” She looked down at herself and released a sigh of resignation.

He looked at her pajamas for the first time and blinked. The top was a sheer black number and the bottoms a silk boy brief. Very hot, but not her. “I like them.”

“Yeah, well . . . thank Lacey. For all the good they did.”

“What does that mean?”

She turned on her heel and strode out.

He followed and gripped her arm. Soft, soft skin. Focus, Winston. “Answer me.”

Her face turned a shade of adorable red. “Lacey took me shopping before we left.” She waved her hands at herself. “This is the result.”

“If you didn’t like them, why did you buy them?”

She glanced at the ceiling, the wall, the floor. “I thought maybe you’d . . . notice me in them. Lacey picked them, and when she and Mia gang up, they can be pretty persuasive.”

Hold the phone. “What do you mean, you thought I’d notice you?” He’d been doing nothing but noticing her since the day they met. For the life of him, he still couldn’t figure out what it was about her that made her so damn special compared to the rest. Why she made him . . . want. Feel.

Jerking her arm out of his hand, she marched down the hall. “This is humiliating enough, Alec.”

Humiliating? “Swear to God, Faith, one of these days you need to stop walking away from me or you’re going to find yourself handcuffed to me.” He stopped. Huh. Nice thought.

He strode after her. She’d laid down on the couch and was pulling a throw blanket over her head. He yanked it off, leaned down, and picked her up. God, she weighed nothing.