Roark kissed his way up my stomach, his mouth swollen and glistening when he found my lips. He hooked my legs around his waist and carried me to his bed. My skin felt overheated, my head a fog. He made quick work of peeling my dress off my hips and tossing it aside.

Next, Roark fumbled with his belt until he shucked off his trousers. His cock sprang free, thick and strained.

I couldn’t breathe. The blaze of desire in his eyes left me wanting to bare everything, to never leave this bed until he’d claimed every piece of me. Roark reared over me, palms beside my head. Our noses grazed, lips parted, and for a moment we hovered close to each other, sharing breath.

“I-I’ve never…” Words ran dry, and I looked away.

Roark tilted my chin, nudging my gaze back to his. He shook his head, brow arched in a question.

I dragged my knuckles down his cheek. “But there is nowhere I want to be other than right here.”

I don’t want to hurt you.

“You won’t.”

One of his palms slid between the cleft of my breasts. Roark held my gaze and tapped his palm three times, then with care took my hand and placed it over his own chest.

Emotion knotted in my throat. His. Mine. He was claiming my heart and giving me his.

I stroked my fingers down his cheek. “I want you.”

He swallowed, and I followed the motion of it down his throat. He held a hand over my face. All of me?

Vulnerability lined his face. For a moment the stoic Sentry was a man who’d cracked open his chest for acceptance or ruin.

I clasped his face and nodded. “All of you.”

I drew his mouth to mine and kissed him, deeper, firmer. As though to prove how he’d somehow come to consume every piece of my heart.

Roark palmed one breast. I moaned into his mouth and arched against his touch. He pinched the hardened nipple, tugging and twisting. I clawed at his shoulders and let my knees part when he settled his hips between my legs.

Roark’s tongue circled the peak. His teeth, his lips, his mouth dragged breathless pants from my throat and he’d yet to fill me. I slid my palms down the muscles of his back, down every divot of bone along his spine. I dug into the curves of his ass, yanking his hips against the throbbing heat between my legs.

His voice came in soft, breathy sounds, but there was a roughness to the grunt he breathed against my skin.

He lifted his head, eyes dark with desire. You are making it hard to be gentle.

I nipped at his bottom lip. “Then don’t be.”