But now, he moved at an incredibly slow, heartrendingly sensuous pace. Even as he kissed her, he’d pressed a palm against her pussy. As he moved down to her neck and his lips started to brush over every inch of her skin, his fingers teased her clit. Slowly. Rousing her even as he licked and suckled her nipples. He nibbled on the undersides of her breasts, her belly, avoiding burns and scrapes, then he moved down her legs and back up.

His fingers never stopped circling her, and as she arched and came so sweetly, he never stopped kissing her. Calves, thighs, belly, breasts, her face.

His fingers found her core again. Began to arouse her. To drive her steadily toward another peak.

Her hips strained upward. “Bull…” She wasn’t sure if she was protesting or—

“I love you, you know.” He kissed her gently, his fingers on the center of her. “In case you haven’t figured it out.”

Joy filled her…and then she shook her head. It couldn’t be true. “It was a scary night. You won’t feel the same tom—”

He chuckled. “Woman, I’ve felt this way for a while. I love you.”

“You…you…” How could she think? She stared at him, saw his slow smile as he shifted, pressed his cock at her entrance, and ever so slowly filled her. All the nerves inside her sparkled like the stars they’d watched earlier.

Her hands slid over his rock-hard biceps, over the striated deltoids, and to his muscled back.

His black-as-sin eyes held hers. “Tell me, Frankie.” His voice dropped, lower, the order inescapable. “What do you feel for me?”

“I love you.” The words were out, impossible to recall. And she’d spoken a truth she couldn’t deny. “I didn’t want to love you. I don’t want to.” She glared at him.

“But you do.” He laughed, the sound so impossibly compelling she had to grin.

“I do.” She ran her hands behind his neck, up over the soft skin of his scalp. “I love you so, so much.”

“Since I need to hear that some more”—he smiled, his dark eyes wicked—“keep saying it…or I’ll stop.”

He moved inside her, hard and fast, filling her full, sliding out, driving her up and up and up.

As long as she kept saying how she felt.

And when she came, when he came, when he was so deep inside her they were one, and he said it to her again, the tenderness in his voice made her weep.

Chapter Nineteen

In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips. ~ Salman Rushdie

Since Bull had lowered the blackout curtains, they’d slept late, and then he taught her to kayak. It was such a peaceful way to exercise and so beautiful with only the sounds of the oars and water and birds. New York was never quiet.