“Jamie . . .” she started, but she couldn’t say the words out loud.

“Baby,” he said, cupping her jaw in both hands, blinking down at her. “Don’t say a word. We don’t need to tell each other anything, you and I. Not now. Now I need to be inside your body, to be a part of you. You need that too, don’t you, sweetheart?”

What was he saying? Was he as afraid as she was? Or did he mean it in the sweet way it sounded if she didn’t try to read between the lines? Because he was sweet, her Jamie. And he was right—she needed him to be a part of her, and she of him.

“Jamie, I need . . . everything.”

Need to love you. Love you, love you, Jamie.

Finally he parted her thighs and slipped into her, and desire was met with desire, emotion with emotion. There was still some play of power between them, but it was more an exchange than it had been before, because she truly gave herself to Jamie, on every level. And he gave himself to her, finally, in some way he never had before.

Pleasure was a trembling sigh as it left her lips, a shiver of need as he closed his eyes and surged deeper into her body. Every touch was new: his hands on her breasts, his lips on her neck, kissing, biting gently. His body felt like a gift, like a new discovery as she traced the hard planes, the ridges of muscle in his back, the softer curve of his buttocks as they flexed, arching into her.

Sensation built slowly, as if her body knew they both needed it to last, not to hurry. She drew in another breath, closing her eyes as she smelled the rain in his hair—or maybe it was hers. It didn’t matter. Another long, lovely breath as he filled her once more, and the scent of early morning sunshine coming in through the windows made her open her eyes to see how it lit his beautiful body. She shuddered at the pleasure swamping her senses, and as her climax approached, tears filled her eyes, spilling over onto her cheeks.

“My baby,” he murmured, kissing her tears, drinking them in.

Emotion and sensation combined, a gentle explosion that was no less intense for the soft edges that surrounded them, and she had to hold back the words she didn’t dare speak as he made love to her for the very first time. Her body shook as she came, crying his name. Then he was coming with her, his hands digging into her hair. And as always, even that felt like a caress.

He was groaning, murmuring her name, his hips jerking, then slowing. He began kissing her again, and it was like some slow-motion makeout session that went on forever, until they fell asleep with him still buried inside her. Skin to skin. Flesh to flesh. Beautiful.

CHAPTER

Ten

JAMIE SPEARED A piece of sesame chicken from the cardboard takeout container with his chopsticks and held it in front of Summer Grace’s lips, waiting for her to open her mouth. She smiled and obeyed his tacit command, groaning as she chewed.

“That sounds almost like sex, baby,” he said, leaning back against the pillows they’d propped up against the headboard of her white iron bed the way he had nearly every night since their scene at the club the previous weekend. He couldn’t get enough of her lately. And lucky for him, it was Sunday evening and neither of them had had anything else to do but be together. Other than a few breaks to shower or eat, or to feed the ever-disdainful Madame, they’d been in bed since Summer Grace got off work yesterday afternoon.

“Mmm. It’s almost as good as sex,” she said, her mouth still half full. She smoothed the hand not holding her own takeout carton over her stomach, and he couldn’t help but notice the way the peach satin of her short chemise pulled against her breasts, outlining her nipples. “Okay, so it’s nowhere near as good as sex with you, but it tastes like heaven right now. I’m starving.”

“You always work up an appetite when I let you be on top,” he said, winking at her before taking a bite himself. “You’re right—every bit as good as sex.”

“Jamie!” She swatted at him with a pale purple throw pillow.

“Hey, now. Don’t tempt me to put this food down and take you over my knee when we’re both enjoying it so much.”

She grinned impishly, and his heart caught in his throat, the way it had been doing all week.

“The food or the spanking?” she asked.

“Food now, spanking later. And earlier. And last night.”

“I like that about you an awful lot, Jamie Stewart-Greer.”

He popped another piece of chicken into her mouth simply to watch her savor it. “I know you do, sugar.”

“So,” she said when she’d swallowed, “what do you have going on this week?”

“My cousin Duff is coming in from Scotland tomorrow to get things started with the vintage motorcycle shop next door, remember?”

“Oh! Of course. And I only forgot because you keep plying me with food and sex until my brain is exploding.”

“That’s your stomach. And maybe something else.”

Summer Grace rolled her eyes. “Tell me about him again? Since my ‘something else’ is exploding and a girl just can’t think straight without it.”

He chuckled. “Duff is a few years older than me, which I guess would make him thirty-three now. He’s from Edinburgh. He’s always sort of been the bad seed in the family, but I don’t know . . . I don’t think it’s entirely his fault. He’s someone I’ve always looked up to, in more ways than one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, to begin with, my cousin is huge, a good six-foot-seven and built like a wall—like Rosie’s Dom Finn. He has been since he was maybe fifteen years old. Other guys always take it as some sort of challenge to try to fight someone his size, but his parents blamed him for it every time the school called. Then when he was old enough to get into the pubs, which is sixteen in Scotland, he got into a couple of bad fights, even went to jail twice. But I was there for one of them, and I can tell you he was taunted by those assholes, like he had been his whole life. The drinking just made it hard for him to take it. He won’t drink at all now. A sad state for a Scotsman, but it became necessary. But he’s a good guy, and he knows Harleys like no one else I’ve met to this day.”

“You know your accent just crept in there a bit while you were talking about him.”

“Did it?”

Summer Grace smiled. “It did. And I liked it.”

“Well, you’d better get used to it, because once Duff gets here it’s likely to pop up more than a bit, especially since he’s staying with me until he finds his own place. Which means we’ll have to have our liaisons here.”

“Liaisons? Is that what we’re having?” she asked, batting her lashes.

“Sassy wench. You know that’s not it. But I don’t need my cousin finding me spanking you in the kitchen, even if he’s as kinky as I am.”

“Hmm, I might have to start dropping by the shop more often. You know, to hear the Scottish accent.”

“Enamored of my big cousin already, are you?”

She set her carton of noodles on the night table and climbed onto his lap, straddling him. “I’m enamored of you, Jamie. Or haven’t you guessed that after all these years?”

“The feeling is mutual, sweetheart.”

“Is that what we’re calling the bulge in your lap? Enamored?”

He grabbed her narrow hips and ground up against her warm mound. “Mmm-hmm. Now put those chopsticks down and prepare yourself to get spanked now and eat later.”

“But I’m hungry.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh what?”

“This!”

He lifted her small body and threw her over his shoulder as he stood with her in his arms, flipping the hem of her chemise up, revealing her delectable naked bottom so he could spank her.

She squealed.