“Good. I’m not hurrying.” True to his word, he didn’t devour her, tease her mercilessly with his tongue and teeth, or rasp her flesh with the hard scrape of whiskers. Instead, he kissed her gently, his tongue tracing her lips while he moved his body in and out of hers at a slow, drugging pace, each slide winding her tighter, causing her breath to snag. On a low, barely there whisper, she heard her own voice as she sighed his name.

He drew in an answering breath, and she waited to hear the quip, the joke, the dab of levity for the most intense moment they’d ever shared. But he only dropped his head into the crook of her neck and laid his mouth over her leaping pulse as they found their unhurried rhythm in the dark.

As his chest brushed against her, she trailed her fingers along his back, reading the lines of muscle and ridges of his spine like Braille, committing every inch of him to memory. If they had only these stolen moments in this pocket of time, she’d take it. She’d savor the hardness of him between her legs, his chest hair tickling her breasts, the sound of his breath, and the reverent way he stroked her temples as he moved with her.

Weight braced on one arm, he brushed a few stray strands of her hair aside and kissed her cheek. He skimmed his other palm down the side of her body, his movements unrushed, and she found the word “please” leaving her lips.

“Really, really like it when you beg.” He continued to rock into her as his fingers danced over her ribs, along the arch of her hip, and finally dove into the curls at the junction of her thighs.

Once there, he did all the right things. He knew how much pressure to place against the most sensitive part of her, knew how to coordinate his thumb with the forward thrust of his hips as he drove into her again and again. It was a delicate dance he’d mastered, and she was reaping the rewards.

“Say my name, McIntire.” She heard the smile, the dare in his voice.

“No.”

He slammed into her harder, his fingers quickening their merciless pace. “Say it.”

“Shut up, Black.” Her voice was high and tight, her body bowed. She was close. So, so, so close. And it’d been way too long since she’d felt this kind of build. Self-administered orgasms were not the same as Marcus’s thick cock and his artistic fingers painting her into oblivion.

Another thrust and she realized she had all the light she needed exploding behind her eyelids. Her body bucked. Close, so close to release. Then… he slowed.

She tipped her head up, her breath sawing out of her lungs. “Don’t stop, please.”

He languidly stroked her. “I won’t stop, but I won’t take you there unless you say it.”

Her voice locked in her throat.

He stroked into her again at the same time giving her the pressure she desired with his thumb. “I have all night.” He lowered his head and licked her nipple.

And Lily surrendered.

Head on the pillow again, she licked her lips and said, “Marcus.”

He thrust deep. “Again.”

“Marcus,” she repeated, rewarded by another thrust and his thumb teasing her clit. There was the light behind her eyes again. “Oh, God, so close.”

She couldn’t pinpoint what drove her wilder—the feel of his talented fingers playing her wet flesh or the slide of his body against hers as he slipped inside her. Or the fact that he’d made her say his name.

“Marcus, please.” It was more a whine than anything, but he responded like she wanted him to. Pounding her deep, continuing his erotic assault, he pushed her to the very edge of control… then over. And she went willingly.

Her orgasm crashed into her with the same force it would have taken to smash the phantom china plates in the kitchen. This time it was she who shattered, splintering into a thousand pieces and flooding the room with her high cries of pleasure. And yes, his name.

He moved his hand away from her center and grabbed her hip, grounding himself and using the leverage to launch into her once, twice. By the third thrust, he expelled a hot breath against her neck.

She caught him against her, threading her hands into his hair. His entire body was hard and unyielding for a handful of seconds until his release. Then she felt his muscles relax and felt a long, low, satisfied exhalation fan the hair at her temple.

She wrapped her arms around his big shoulders, pulling him as close as she could. He braced his weight to keep from crushing her, but she didn’t think she’d care if he did. She’d gladly suffocate under all of his delicious, sated weight. The thought drew another wordless sound of appreciation from her. “Mmm.”

“I concur.” He placed a kiss over her pulse, which was gradually returning to normal. He lay there for a few stolen moments, lips frozen over her neck before he uttered a muffled, “I’m trying to get up, I swear.”

Her quiet chuckle was cut off by the heater and lantern simultaneously kicking on. After so many minutes of near pitch black, it took a moment to adjust her eyes to the light. She blinked a few times, and Marcus lifted his head, locking her in his dark brown gaze. She didn’t look away. Or maybe she couldn’t. He was still inside of her, still filling her. They were linked in the most intimate way, his penetrating gaze holding far too much honesty.

She really had marginalized him, hadn’t she? Just classified him as a simple. One-dimensional. Maybe because she’d needed to in order to keep her promise to herself never to be taken advantage of again. Or maybe she’d just found it easier to pigeonhole him as a good-time guy and never bothered to get past his joking exterior. But now…she couldn’t doubt the vulnerability so clearly reflected in his eyes. He liked her…as in really, really liked her.

That might be enough to blow her mind if the sex hadn’t. And it had.

He closed his eyes and held his lips on hers for a long, soft kiss while he slid out of her for the final time and groaned into her mouth.

“You won. I screamed your name.”

He blew out a laugh. “I think we can safely call that a tie.”

“That’s fair.” The air shifted between them, a sudden awkwardness settling in. Gone were the easy teasing and jokes. Not after that intimate pairing. Not after the way he’d so totally controlled her and she’d so gladly given up that control.

Wordlessly, he climbed off her and rummaged on their shared bed. She rolled to her side and found her discarded pants, sitting on the edge of the mattress, her back to him to give him privacy while he disposed of the condom.

She was so uncomfortable. Not nervous exactly, but definitely not calm. They dressed silently, her unknotting her panties from the legs of her pants as he turned his shirt right side out, every so often sparing a smile for each other.

Despite the slight post-sex awkwardness, she decided she liked him like this. Open, but quiet. Sexy as sin on a stick. He stood over her, propping his hands on his narrow hips, his wide chest mouthwatering even hidden beneath his T-shirt.

“You know what?” he asked, his voice tipping into that lust-soaked tone that made her damp in all the right places.

“What?”

“I’m starving.” His eyebrows pinched as if his comment surprised him, then he let loose a grin that squeezed her heart.

Chapter Ten

“I knew those weren’t safe,” Lily said, mourning the loss of her Corn Nuts. “I only ate a handful of them.”

Marcus continued chewing, mumbled something that sounded like “a shame,” then upended the bag and drained the bits at the bottom into his mouth. He crumbled the bag into a ball, crunching merrily.

She shook her head and made do with the rest of the cheesecake. “Where did the wine go, anyway?”

“How do you lose things when we don’t go anywhere?”