“For a moment,” he says as his gaze travels the length of my body to my feet, and then moves back up to my face, leaving heat and desire in its wake. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

He finally reaches out and tugs my shirt from my jeans, slowly pulling it over my head. He doesn’t toss it onto the floor, though. He lays it nicely over the back of a chair in the corner.

“Is this going to take a long time?”

“What?”

“Getting naked. Because you’re moving rather slow, and I’m impatient.”

He laughs and unfastens the button of my jeans. “It’s like unwrapping a present. You can go fast and tear the paper to get to the goods—and sometimes, that’s appropriate. But you can also unwrap it carefully, making sure not to damage what’s underneath. It’s a tease, isn’t it? Wondering what you’re about to uncover but enjoying the anticipation at the same time.”

“Definitely a tease,” I whisper as he guides my jeans over my hips and down my legs. He urges me to step out of them, then lays them carefully with my shirt. I’m standing before him in just my underwear. I move to cross my arms over my chest, but he takes my hand and kisses my knuckles.

“There’s never a need to cover yourself in front of me, love. You’re absolutely breathtaking.”

“And you’re overdressed.”

I dip my hands under his T-shirt and feel the warm skin with my fingertips. His muscles ripple at my touch, making me smile.

When I get the fabric over his head, I let my eyes roam over his toned body, appreciating the lines of muscles on his torso and shoulders.

I smell his shirt, enjoying the musky scent of him before folding it and placing it on the seat of the chair.

“I’ll be taking that with me,” I inform him when I turn back and slide my fingers into the waistband of his jeans.

I’ve never done this before. In the past, sex has always been fast and frantic, in the dark. Not slow and fun.

He’s already hard. He can’t hide that fact, even behind the denim, and when my finger slips down just a bit farther, I can feel the tip of him.

He sucks in a breath, air hissing between his teeth.

I pop the button free and slide the zipper down. With my eyes on his, I let the jeans pool around his feet.

“Shall I fold those for you?”

Without answering, he lifts me easily onto the mattress and covers me. He takes my wrist then slips down to link our fingers and pin the back of my hand to the bed over my head as his lips travel from my ear to my collarbone, making me moan and writhe beneath him.

I’m lost, drowning in sensation.