He could feel the heat of her through smooth silk and only barely restrained himself from tearing it from her. Her nipples were hard against his palms, and though he tried to be gentle, he couldn’t control the urge to stroke, to tease.
She felt like heaven, but it wasn’t enough just to touch. He needed to see, too. “I want to touch all of you.”
She didn’t hesitate to reach for the hem of her T-shirt. But he had one hell of a fantasy that he was dying to see come true. So he moved his hands to hers again and lifted them to his mouth for a kiss before setting them above her head.
“I want you to hold still for me and let me have the pleasure of undressing you. Can you do that for me?”
Her eyes widened, and he watched her throat move before she answered. “Yes.”
It was, he found himself thinking, like unwrapping a much-longed-for gift. He was torn between tearing off her shirt or drawing it out slowly to savor the anticipation. Overpowering desire made the decision for him, and seconds later her T-shirt was on the living room rug next to his.
Lying before him wearing only a simple white silk bra, she stole his breath. “You’re beautiful, Grace.”
“I’ve always been curvy,” she said in a soft voice as she looked down to follow the path of his tanned hands up over her rib cage until he was barely stroking the undersides of her breasts through silk. “But since I had Mason I’m even curvier.”
“Yet another reason to love that kid,” he murmured as he shifted his palms to fully cup her. “Your body, your breasts, every part of you is perfect.”
“I haven’t been with anyone in a long time. Not since I found out I was pregnant.”
It meant more to Dylan than she would ever know that she was trusting him to be with her, not only since having Mason, but also since being so horribly betrayed. He felt the weight, the responsibility, of earning her trust, even as he gave silent thanks to the universe that he was being given this chance to prove that he was worthy of her.
Even if he couldn’t find the right words to persuade her to see just how beautiful she was, he could do it with a kiss. Slowly, as he loved her mouth with his own, he felt her relax again beneath him and knew right when she forgot to be shy because she twined her arms around his neck and arched up into him.
It was a crime for Grace to believe, for any reason, that she was “shut down.” All Dylan wanted tonight was to make her feel good. So good that she’d never be able to question her innate sensuality again.
Of course he wanted to protect her. Of course he would never do anything to harm her. But at the same time, he respected her too much to treat her like porcelain. Grace had already proved again and again that she wasn’t breakable.
Remembering the way her breath had gone shallow and her pupils had dilated when he’d asked her to keep her hands above her head while he undressed her, he lifted his mouth from hers. “It’s time to move your hands back over your head.”
Again, her breath quickened and her eyes darkened. He could read the thoughts that crossed her beautiful face: Did she dare trust him? Not only with being her first after such a long drought…but with this?
But then, just as he’d expected, the brave and determined expression that he’d already come to know so well returned. Slowly—and so seductively that he knew it didn’t matter who was giving the sensual commands, she would always be the one in charge—she untwined her hands from around his neck and lifted them back up to the arm of the couch.
“Whenever I touch you, your skin flushes,” he murmured as he grazed his fingertips over her, teasing both of them. “Did you know that?”
Watching the path of his hands over her, she said in a slightly breathless voice, “All you have to do is look at me and I heat up all over.”
He had to kiss her again, then, so that she’d know how much he liked hearing it. Knowing it.
“It’s the same for me,” he told her, shifting just enough so that she could feel how much he wanted her. How hot, how fast his blood was pumping, all for her. “You have no idea. No idea how much I want you.”
“Then show me, Dylan. Please, show me now.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Permission granted, Dylan didn’t let himself overthink his instincts or his fierce need for her—he simply took two handfuls of silk and tore. But in the end, she wasn’t the one left most stunned, he was...by the most perfect breasts he’d ever seen.
His hands beat his mouth to her by a split second, and then he was touching, stroking, kissing, licking. First at the sweet, soft flesh, and then the hardened tips again and again and again. He was starved for her, desperate for more, filled with a hunger that was like nothing he’d ever known.
Grace moaned his name as she arched her back so that he could have more of her. He had her jeans off within seconds and would have torn her panties in two just as he’d shredded her bra if he hadn’t needed to stop to take a mental picture of how pretty she looked. He covered the damp silk between her legs with his hand and let out a low curse as he realized how hot, how ready she was.
“Don’t stop,” she urged him. “Please don’t stop now. I need you to touch me, Dylan. I need it so badly. I’ve never needed like this. Never.”
“Neither have I.” It was the honest-to-God truth. Watching, feeling Grace come apart was going to destroy him.
Dylan was torn again between teasing and taking. But he also knew that the higher he took her before he let her go, the better she would feel, so he forced himself to shove back the animalistic urges that she stirred up in a way no one else ever had, and sway back toward building anticipation. So instead of shredding her panties, he stroked her through them instead.
“Dylan—” He loved hearing her breath hitch. “Oh God…just like that. Keep touching me just like that.”
She was gripping the arm of the couch behind her for dear life as she worked to push herself even harder against him, and it was hands-down the sexiest thing Dylan had ever seen in his life. Watching her get herself off against him, still wearing her panties, her full breasts bouncing with every breath, he grew so hard beneath the zipper of his jeans that he figured it would bust open soon.
She’d obviously loved it when he’d had her keep her hands above her head. Something told him a little dirty talk would go over just as well. “Come for me, Grace. Just like this, riding my hand. Let me see how beautiful you are when you let me help take you over the edge.”