Moving his hips to the side so she wouldn’t feel his straining cock trying to strangle itself to get out of his jeans, he gritted his teeth to prevent himself from pushing her too far too fast. He wanted to make love to her slowly, to create a special memory that would replace the terror-filled ones that haunted her.

Raising her sweater over her bra-covered breasts, he held her eyes as he pulled it over her head and arms. Sliding his tongue between her parted lips, he slowly melded their lips together. At the same time, he caressed the sensitive skin on the side of her breast, using the pads of his thumbs. Matthew wanted her mind on the sensations he was creating within her, to find beauty in the memory he wanted to gift them both with.

His chest constricted when her body became pliant under his, as she wound her arms around his neck to hold him tighter.

“I love you, Alanna. I don’t need months and years to decide what my feelings are for you.”

Matthew left her moist lips to trail along the valley between her breasts. “These are the only two breasts I want to touch.” He placed a tiny kiss on the side of each mound. “That I’ve ever touched or will touch.”

Matthew felt her hand move to the back of his head to pull it up so she could search his eyes. “Are you saying …?”

Mathew stared back at her forthrightly. “Most men don’t want to admit they’re virgins, but I am.” He smiled down at her shocked expression. “How could I make love to the woman I loved when she wasn’t here?”

Tenderly, she rubbed her cheek against his. “I would have never guessed,” she said against his cheek.

“I want to be completely honest with you. There is something else I need to tell you about me, about my family, that I should have told you before.”

Alanna wiggled underneath him. “Can it wait? I’m still preoccupied with you being a virgin.”

His lips twitched in amusement. “Is it such a big shocker?”

She slid her silky hands over his shoulders. “Oh yeah … My hands have gone where no woman has before.”

“Or will,” he promised her.

“Even better.”

Her mouth curved into a smile he couldn’t resist kissing. The passion he had been holding back burst from him as he stroked the roof of her mouth with his tongue. Sliding her bra straps down, he unfastened the bra between her breasts. It was Alanna who pulled it off and tossed it aside to bury her nipples into his chest.

A hiss of a sigh escaped him as her cool flesh touched his heated warmth. She was wreaking havoc on his control over his temperature. He had to remember that she could be hurt if he wasn’t careful.