“You saved me.” She wept into his skin. “I knew you were real. I knew. Everyone said I’d imagined it, that you weren’t real.” She trailed her pointer finger across his bottom lip. “But you are.”

Carter’s bones dissolved at her words. She understood. Wherever she’d been tonight, whatever she’d done after she’d run from him, she’d realized what he’d said was true. He had saved her.

Her legs wrapped around him, pinning him to her while she cried into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry I hit you.” She smothered his cheek with kisses. “Forgive me, please?”

She continued to touch him while her words of thanks and realization tumbled from her mouth. Carter didn’t stop her. He needed to hear her say all she had to. He needed to have this moment with her. She pushed his shoulders and rolled them both over, sitting astride his waist. Carter kept his eyes closed, with his hands on her ample hips, and let his other senses take over, focusing on every other part of her: the warmth from between her legs, the sound of her breathing, the power in her touch, and the smell of her perfume.

“You held me.” Her palms explored his stomach. “I remember the way you smelled.” She pushed her nose into the crook of his neck and took a huge breath. “It was you. You whispered in my ear, telling me I was safe. I know now. I know why your voice makes me feel so protected.” She dropped her forehead to his and let her lips whisper across his mouth.

He had spoken to her—into her hair—until his voice gave out and the sirens came near. His eyes began to sting under his lids. He clenched them tight. Her hands swept over his skin, up his sides to his neck, and down again, memorizing him.

“Kat,” Carter breathed, unraveling under every movement. “Keep touching me. Touch me everywhere.” His hands gripped her sides and caressed the skin up to her ribs. “God, don’t stop.”

She shook her head, her hair falling all around him. “Never.”

Their lips met again, softly, but with a passion that wrecked him.

“Your arms,” she muttered against his neck. Her hands slid along his biceps. “I feel like I know them so well.” He could feel her nails leaving imprints in his skin when she pulled them down to his forearms, and then to his hands, where she entwined their fingers together. “Strong and protective.” She kissed the crook of each of his elbows. “I was meant to be in your arms, Carter,” she said, the ardor back in her voice. “I missed them. I missed you.” She whispered by his ear. “I’ve missed you my whole life.”

Carter nuzzled her neck, licking the delicate column up to her jaw. “I missed you, too. My Peaches.”

She smiled against his cheek. “Always.”

Carter exhaled loudly, expectantly, when her hands moved gradually down his body, outlining the grooves of his muscled stomach and the hair below his belly button. When they finally reached the buttons of his fly, Kat’s hand cupped him through the denim of his jeans and rubbed up his full length, hard and slow.

Carter’s hips lifted eagerly to meet her incredible palm. It was insanely erotic, having her rub his dick the way she was, knowing he was naked underneath; her hand could be wrapped around him in mere seconds, stroking and making him beg.

Holy shit, he would beg. He’d beg her for anything.

Kat kept up the movement of her hand: up and down, gripping and rubbing, purring and sighing and feathering his chest with kisses.

Carter’s abdomen began to tense. “You’re gonna make me come if you … if you keep that shit up.”

She smiled and grabbed him tighter. “And that’s bad?”

He took hold of her face and pulled her mouth roughly to his, hot and hungry. “I’d much rather be inside you when that happens.”

“God, yes.” She moved her delectable ass so it was resting on his thighs.

With wide, excited eyes, Kat looked down at his button fly and began to pop each one open, slowly, cautiously. Fisting the bedsheets, he waited for her hands to touch, waited for the softness of her palm against him. It would feel so damn good. He rotated his hips impatiently.

It was then that Carter looked at her, and what he saw set every nerve ending in his body aflame. Kat was gaping at his cock, which was pushing readily through his open fly, and, Jesus, she looked hungry for it.

Like, animal hungry. Like she wanted to devour him.

He wanted her to devour him, to overwhelm him, intensely, desperately. But he had to be sure.

Carter sat up, taking Kat by surprise, and wrapped his arms around her. “We don’t have to,” he murmured, rubbing her nose with his in a gesture he hoped was reassuring. He pulled his face back and pushed her still damp hair away from her face. “I want you. I’ve always wanted you. But I want it to be right. I want it to be perfect.”

Her face softened. “We’re meant to be this way. Do you not feel that?”

“Kat,” he said incredulously, kissing the tip of her shoulder, “I felt it from the moment you found me again.”

She cupped his face. “So don’t be afraid,” she insisted. “Just be with me.”

And they kissed.

And Carter lost himself to her.

Every. Single. Fucking. Part.

He lay down, bringing her with him with his hands in her hair, holding her as close as he could. She melted against him, curving into his body: a perfect fit above him. Slowly, and with his mouth still fixed to hers, Carter rolled over, covering her once again, wrapping himself around her from head to toe; their limbs aligned exactly.

Releasing her lips with a quick flick of his tongue, and with a tender kiss to her chin, Carter pushed up on his palms and moved so he was standing at the end of the bed. Keeping his eyes on hers, he removed his boots and socks. His hands were at the hips of his jeans when he saw her fingers were at the edge of her panties.

Without a word spoken, they pushed down their respective clothing and saw each other—naked—for the first time.

Carter’s gaze roamed down her body as Kat’s eyes did the same to him. She was perfect, every dip and curve of her. She was pink. Bare. And aching for his mouth all over her. Carter inhaled a shaky breath, seeing her equally captivated and enthralled by him.

Kat smiled, teasing. “You’re very sexy.”

Carter laughed, easing the nervous tension, before he kneeled on the bed between her legs, willing himself to keep his shit together. He was so hard he ached and pulsed with every breath.

Never had he been so insane for a woman.

He wanted all of her at once. Every part of her. He wanted to make her his. Mark her. Come in her. Come on her. He wanted to fuck her, to lick her, to feast on her. He wanted her panting, moaning, coming, and loud. He wanted her fast, hard, soft, and gentle. He wanted her above him, below him, in front of him, and at his side.

He ran both of his trembling hands across his scalp, terrified that they would hold her too tight if he let them. He dropped them to his sides, helpless, and held his breath.

“Kat, I—I want …”

In a move that made Carter’s head light, Kat took his hand in hers and lifted it to her lips. She placed tiny kisses across his fingertips and knuckles, nuzzling his palm and breathing in his wrist before she held it against her cheek. Her eyes met his and every ounce of air held inside him left his body in a rush, leaving his heart stammering and stuttering, and his knees so weak that, had he been standing, he would have surely fallen.

He had fallen. He’d fallen so hard.

She tilted her head up, her beauty damn near blinding him. “You and me.”

He nodded with a slack jaw and a pounding heart. “You and me,” Carter answered; his thumb traced her cheek. He watched her lie back down and settled on his knees between her thighs.

Taking her ankle in his hand, Carter lifted it to his mouth and placed soft openmouthed kisses around it, moving down to her foot, where his tongue slid along her instep. Next were her calf and the dip behind her knee. She giggled when his tongue came out to taste her there, but grunted when his palms ghosted over her skin, leaving gooseflesh in their wake.