But the most amazing thing that was happening had nothing to do with the pleasure he was slowly creating inside me, but everything to do with the fact I was even sitting there. I was trying, like I’d said I would, and I wasn’t letting my head get in the way or allowing all the self-doubt to pile up on me. I was just there—right there and no place else, and I wasn’t letting myself go anywhere else. And there were no outside influences. Well, other than the rather major influence Tanner was turning out to be.

His hand reached the spot where my legs were pressed together, and I swore my heart skipped a beat as I stared at where his hand rested. Slowly, I lifted my gaze. He was no longer paying attention to the movie. Our eyes locked, and even in the low light of the living room, those bedroom eyes of his were full of heat.

I caught my lower lip between my teeth as I opened my legs to his wandering hand. One side of his lips tipped up in response. He didn’t look away as he slid his hand further up, the tips of his fingers nearly reaching the sensitive crevice near the apex of my thighs.

My heart was pounding as his hand moved underneath the skirt of my dress. I could barely catch my breath as he turned his attention back to the movie. I was completely lost, though. No pretending. My eyes drifted closed and then my head fell back against the thick cushion. His touch was featherlight against the inside of my thigh, but it was still driving me crazy. With each pass of his fingers, he came dangerously close to my center. He never quite reached there, and it was the sweetest kind of torture. A tingling warmth invaded me, quickening my breaths. He touched, he explored and caressed all without touching me there, but my desire was ramped up. A fine tremor danced over my skin. I wanted him, needed him to touch me where I ached.

Unsure of how much time had passed, I opened my eyes and found him watching me. For a moment, I couldn’t move, couldn’t even drag in a deep enough breath. Then I was moving without thinking, and there was something beautiful in that, the freedom.

I shifted onto my knees, and Tanner must’ve been thinking along the same lines, because he gripped my hips and hauled me into his lap. A heartbeat passed before our mouths came together, and there was no slow seduction in that moment.

We devoured each other, and when I pressed down, I felt how affected he was. He might’ve looked like he’d been paying attention to the TV, but he’d been focused on what he was doing.

His hands slid down my hips, under my skirt. The rasp of his calloused palms over my skin was probably one of the most sensual things I’d ever felt. “I was wondering how long it would take you,” he said, his lips brushing mine. “I was starting to get disappointed over here.”

I laughed softly, but it ended in a moan when he raised his hips against mine. I clasped his cheeks, loving the way the bristle along his jaw tickled my palms. “You were driving me crazy.”

“Were?”

I kissed him. “Are.”

“That sounds better.” His hands smoothed over my bottom and squeezed, causing knots to form low in my belly.

My body rocked against his as he broke free from the kiss and blazed a path down my throat. His hands moved deftly, sliding back down my legs, and then they were at the top of my dress. Before I could take my next breath, he’d tugged the top part down, exposing me.

The dress had one of those built-in bras, so now there was nothing between me and his hungry gaze. I cried out, my head falling back as his mouth found the way to the tip of my breast. He licked and nipped as he teased and taunted me.

There was another explosion on the TV, and I was close to exploding myself. He sucked greedily once his mouth clasped down, and a riot of sensations floored me. I moved on him, riding him in a way that made me wish there were no clothes separating us.

One of his hands—I couldn’t keep track of which one—made its way under my dress again, and I really loved where it was heading. His fingers slipped under the band of my panties, toyed there for a few moments, and then slipped out. I didn’t have a chance to be disappointed, because the next thing I knew, I was on my back on the couch and his hands were on my knees.

“I want to taste you,” he said, voice rough, and I shivered.

My mouth dried, and there was no mistaking what he meant when he said that. I didn’t protest when he eased my knees apart. This was so intimate, almost too intimate. Air lodged in my throat, and I fought against the urge to close my legs.

Thick lashes lifted as his eyes met mine. “You want this?”

Nervous and excited, I could barely get the word out. “Yes.”

“Thank fucking God, because I’ve been dying to know what it’s like to have you come on my tongue.”

Goodness, the words alone almost sent me over the edge. He rucked the skirt of my dress up above my hips, and then his hands slid up the side of my leg. He reached my panties and tugged them aside.

Cool air washed over me as his lips parted. “Fuck. I want to get in there.”

I wanted him in there, wanted him everywhere. As he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me softly, my heart seemed to swell in my chest. It was such a simple kiss, a beautiful one.

Then his hand was moving again, finding me with unerringly precision. He skimmed his finger along the center, causing my hips to jerk. He made another pass as he lowered himself down my body, stopping to linger at my breasts, and then his head was between my thighs.

“Oh God,” I whispered. The image alone, of seeing him down there, was almost too much.

Then he pressed a kiss against my thigh.

The swelling in my chest increased and there was a good chance I’d float straight to the ceiling, maybe even beyond that, but he tugged me back down when his mouth brushed over me.

“Tanner,” I gasped, my hands fluttering to his head.

The intimate kiss spun my senses, and he so knew what he was doing. It was wet and hot and shattering. He kissed and he licked and he did things with his tongue I didn’t think were possible. The way he worked me told me that he enjoyed doing it. No chore for him—oh no, he couldn’t be happier.

Neither could I.

My head was kicked back and my hips arched against the steady delving of his tongue. I met his strokes, repeating his name over and over. Raw and primal sensations pounded through me. Tiny noises I didn’t recognize were making their way out of me, and then I felt his finger slipping through my wetness. My entire body clenched. He went deeper, harder.

My eyes flew open as I coiled tightly, and all I saw was him.

The release took me off-guard, pounding through me, and I was swept up in the intense pleasure. Liquid heat poured through me. Tanner pulled back, kissing my inner thigh before he rose above me, planting one hand on the arm of the couch.

He breathed heavily as he stared down. “I’ve never heard anything more beautiful than the sound of you calling out my name like that.”

Every few seconds, an aftershock traveled through me, and I was still shaken and breathless. “I never felt anything more beautiful than that,” I admitted.

The blue of his eyes seemed to have deepened. “Then I guess it was a first for both of us.”

That swelling in my chest was turning into an epidemic. “Yeah.”

He drew his hand down to my thigh and squeezed gently. There was something in the way he stared down at me that made me feel like one of the most beautiful women in the world, and there was something priceless about that. Just a look, but it was possibly more powerful than any words that could’ve been spoken.

And that’s about when the craziest words known to man tiptoed to the tip of my tongue. I love you. Oh God, those words were legitimately resting on my tongue, ready to be spoken. My heart stuttered. I loved him? Was that really what I was feeling? The swelling in my chest? Or was it just lust? No. I’d been in lust before. I knew the difference. This…this tingling feeling in my fingers and the warmth in my chest was not lust. It was hope and yearning and anticipation. It was tenderness and acceptance and a thousand other endless wants and needs. When in the world did this happen? I had no idea. Did it start all the way back during my freshman year? Or was it over the course of a handful of days?