The carpet muffled his steps down the hallway, but he felt each one as a boom in his ears. He took a deep breath before turning into his bedroom doorway and swallowed a moan when he saw her.

She’d dimmed the lights, bathing the room in a warmth that seemed to bounce from Deja’s dark brown skin in brilliant swatches of orange that made every plane of her face and shoulders and calves seem severe and soft at the same time. Not for the first time since he’d met her, Deja’s beauty slapped him in the face. Deja was the kind of beautiful that hurt.

Alejandro’s heart pounded against his chest.

She was sitting at the foot of his bed, chewing at her bottom lip. She’d crossed her legs, and her right foot was bouncing in that familiar way he loved. Her eyes tentatively lifted to meet his gaze. “I was going to undress for you,” she said quietly. There was just the slightest hint of a Southern drawl in her voice. He’d never heard that before, and it made his dick jump with interest.

“Why didn’t you?” he rasped.

She licked her lips. “I thought that it would be more fun if you did that.”

“Shit,” he groaned.

Alejandro set the water glasses on top of his dresser and walked toward his bed, toward Deja. “I had no idea this date would end like this,” he admitted in a shaky voice. He wondered if she could hear the need in his words.

“Me neither,” she said, laughing nervously. “I-I hoped, though.”

He smiled as he sat next to her, and his bed dipped a bit. “Yeah,” he said, lifting his hand to brush a lock of her curly hair behind her ear, “I did too. This week has been…”

She smiled at him with wide eyes and dilated pupils, “The best fucking week I’ve had in a long while.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

Alejandro’s hand lingered on her skin. He caressed her earlobe and then down her neck. She sucked in a harsh breath as his fingers moved along her collarbone, and his thumb dipped into the small depression at the base of her throat. He felt her swallow, and it made his balls ache.

“We can stop or slow down,” he whispered.

“Is that what you want?” she asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

“I want what you want. I want you,” he admitted.

She exhaled at those three words, and her eyes closed briefly.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he said, his fingers ghosting over her décolletage, dipping just under the fabric of her dress to caress her cleavage.

“I don’t want to stop,” she breathed when she opened her eyes.