He kissed her until they both had lost their breath, until moans dissolved into pants that only increased the urgency. Until the fever that had taken hold of him inflamed them both. Everything seemed heightened—intensified. The smell of her hair was more floral, the honey taste of her mouth sweeter, the velvet of her skin softer. The passion between them hotter. The ache in his chest tighter.

This meant something. It had to mean something.

He was moving too fast, but he couldn’t hold back. She wouldn’t let him. She wrapped her hands around his neck, stretched against him, crushed her breasts to his chest, and returned the frenzied kiss with something akin to desperation.

He felt her urgency as powerfully as his. Her tongue circled and sparred, egging him on with every stroke. He couldn’t get enough—couldn’t go fast enough.

He touched her body as if it belonged to him. As if he had every right to cup her breast and run his thumb over the taut tip. As if his hands were meant to span the delicate circle of her waist. As if he’d held the taut curve of her bottom in his hand a thousand times to lift against him.

But pressing wasn’t enough for either of them. He started to circle his hips in a slow, hard grind and his head nearly exploded behind his eyes. He could feel her heat through the thin layers of cloth, hear her moans of pleasure, feel her dissolving against him, and it drove him wild.

Heat and passion engulfed him, took over, and possessed him with a madness he’d never experienced before. He didn’t recognize himself. The only thing that mattered, the only thing he could think about, was making her his.

He eased her back onto the bed and came down on top of her—or rather, half on top of her as his body stretched along the length of hers.

His mouth was on her lips, her throat, her breast. He didn’t take time to open her chemise—he didn’t have time—he just sucked and circled her nipple with his tongue through the fabric until he’d drawn her as tight as a bow. Until she was arching and straining and begging for his touch.

He gave it to her. Sliding his hand under the edge of her chemise, he found the soft place between her legs warm and slick with need.

The moan of pleasure she made when his finger slid inside her nearly undid him. He had to clench his teeth against the pressure pounding at the base of his spine. Pressure that had nowhere to go and wasn’t going to be able to wait much longer.

But he would give her pleasure before he took his own release, damn it. God knew, he wasn’t going to last long once he was inside her.