Elena’s breathing quickened. Heat flared along with keen awareness of that sensual touch. His finger shifted slowly, back and forth, along her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she relished the feel of him there. Anticipating what was to come.

“In that case, let me share something with you,” she whispered against the blunt fingertip before nipping it between her teeth.

She opened her eyes to see his pupils widening.

That was all the response she needed. Standing, she reached for the side zipper under one arm of her dress. Lowering it, she let the heavy sequined tulle fall away from her body. The gown pooled at her feet and she stepped out of it along with her metallic leather sandals.

Desire flared in his eyes, the heat of one look burning its way up her legs and over her belly and breasts.

Clad only in her panties and a strapless silk bra the same tan shade as her skin, Elena stepped between his knees.

“I don’t know about you...” She skimmed her hands along his broad shoulders, wanting to make him forget everything else but this. Her. “But I’ve been dreaming about this moment all day.”

Eleven

Stepping into his arms felt like coming home.

For a woman who’d never lived in the same place for more than eleven months until after she’d turned eighteen, that sense of homecoming was all the more potent to Elena. She tried not to think about that, not trusting the emotions as Gage’s hands wrapped around her hips.

Instead, she lost herself in the warmth of his lips as he brushed a kiss along her ribs. In the huff of his breath along the scalloped lace of her bra. She began unbuttoning his white dress shirt, slipping open one fastening after the next while he skimmed touches up her sides. In the end, he had to help her with his cuff links, but she wrestled the shirt free, baring all that golden muscle to her hungry gaze. Standing, he spun her in his arms so her back was to him before he pulled the pins from her hair, letting the waves fall down her back briefly before he swept it to one side and kissed her neck.

For a moment, their reflection in a wall mirror captivated her. The sight of Gage wrapped around her, his muscles shifting as he caressed her, seemed pulled straight from her fantasies.

She traced a finger through the maze of tattoos on his arms where they banded around her waist, desire heating her from the inside out. His tongue darted beneath her ear, igniting a fresh wave of tingling sensations down her spine.

“Take me,” she demanded, reaching up to comb her fingers through his hair. “Please.”