But it was all so easy, so right, so comfortable with Damien, that she was taking, but she was giving just as much. He made her feel sexy, she made him laugh, and they were both the better this night for it.

His answer was to stop the torturous teasing hover over her mouth and kiss her, a full open kiss that had her wrapping her arms around his neck to get closer. Mandy loved the way he kissed, as though he had nothing to lose, nothing to prove, like he just wanted her more than anything he’d tasted before.

Then his tongue found hers, with hot, wet urgency and Mandy wanted more. She pressed her breasts against his bare chest and ransacked his short hair with her fingers, pulling back to catch her breath and moan. It wasn’t enough, not when she needed, had to have all of him over her, inside her.

Her body pulsed and throbbed, ached and suffered, as he kissed her again and again, a delicious promise that felt blissfully good but was never enough to fulfill the hunger coursing through her.

“Damien.” His hands weren’t even exploring, but were just resting on her back while he kissed her, and Mandy wanted more, more, more, with an intensity that shocked her and set her hands shaking.

“Yes?” He stopped doing everything, stepping back to look at her in question.

Mandy yanked her dress down over her hips and let it drop to the floor. “For a man who threatened to unzip me outside on the pavement, you don’t seem all that interested in getting me naked now.”

“Oh, I am,” he said, his pale blue eyes darkening in the soft glow of the bedside lamp he’d left on as he looked her up and down. “You have no idea how interested I am. But I’m savoring this.”

The warm breeze from the ceiling fan fluttered over her as she stood in her bra and panties, her breasts full and tingling from his inspection, her thighs shifting together restlessly. “Don’t savor for too long.”

His head slowly went back and forth, eyes not meeting hers but still studying her body with revelry. “Forever wouldn’t be long enough to look at you. You’re beautiful.”

And Mandy’s heart squeezed and her breath caught, and at that moment, she would have given him anything he wanted, suspecting that of the two of them, he was the one who actually needed this more.

But she needed, too. Desperately. So she held her breasts with one hand, unpopped the bra hook with the other, then let it join her dress on the floor.

Damien’s jaw clenched. He swallowed hard.