She nodded, and he eased the shirt up and over her head, leaving her in only the lacy bra she’d worn with this moment in mind.

His jaw pulsed with tension, and his eyes flared with desire as he took a good long look at her. “So, so beautiful, Hope.” He lowered her to the bed and came down on top of her. For a long moment, he gazed into her eyes, seeming to gauge if she wanted this as much as he did.

He’d shown her that there were still good men in this world, and all she had to do was have some faith. He made her want to put her faith in him.

She reached for him, loving the way he looked at her before his lips met hers. This kiss was unlike all the others that came before. There was a hint of desperation to it that drove all her worries and fears right out of the room. For the first time in longer than she could remember, she had no responsibilities, and she was free to fully enjoy this escape from reality with a hot, sexy man who treated her like a queen.

He broke the kiss to turn his attention to her neck, making her shiver from the sensations that zinged through her body. Her nipples tightened and chafed against the confines of her bra, and the throb between her legs intensified with every brush of his lips over her sensitive skin. He set her on fire for him.

The rough scrape of his late-day whiskers over the tops of her breasts made her moan.

“Tell me to stop if it’s too much,” he said.

“Don’t stop.” For a second, she feared that she sounded too desperate, but her words encouraged him to move things along. Her bra fell away, baring her breasts to his ravenous gaze.

“Goddamn, you’re gorgeous,” he whispered as he took her nipple into his mouth, sucking and licking and tugging on it until she was nearly delirious from wanting more of him.

She wanted to tell him to hurry, but he wouldn’t be rushed.

He moved with deliberate slowness, or so it seemed to her. If his goal was to bring her to the verge of begging, he was about to succeed. Everything he did, every touch, every kiss, every breath on her fevered skin ramped up the desire for more.

After kissing his way from her breasts to her belly, he tugged on the button to her shorts and watched her closely as he removed them, perhaps looking for signs of reluctance that didn’t exist. She helped him along by removing her panties and flinging them to the floor.

Paul’s eyes went wide with surprise when she did that, nearly making her laugh. He hadn’t seen that coming.