“Hannah.” His voice was thick as his eyes began to burn again.

My breathing grew shallow. “We’ve always been honest with each other, right?”

He gave a slight shake of his head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I can’t… I can’t tell you I don’t want you.” His eyes studied my face before moving slowly down my body, and everywhere his gaze touched I came alive.

I’d never done much more than kiss a boy, not because I wasn’t ready to explore sex, but because I didn’t want to explore sex with anyone but Marco. I’d heard Ellie, Joss, Jo, and Liv’s crappy losing-their-virginity stories and I’d promised myself that the moment I let someone truly inside me, I’d make sure that someone was someone I loved.

And I loved Marco.

I’d been in love with him since the day he rescued me when I was fourteen years old.

Excited, thrilled, I forced bravery upon myself and reached for the hem of my dress. I pulled it up slowly, revealing my body to him bit by bit until it was up over my head. I shook my hair out and dropped the dress on his floor.

I stood there in front of him in nothing but cute turquoise underwear and a pair of heels. I’d never felt more vulnerable in my whole life.

And then he touched me. His fingers skimmed my belly and I felt a bolt of desire hit me between the legs as he caressed my skin. Suddenly he gripped my hips in both his large hands and I tottered toward him on my heels.

Our eyes met and the expression on his face made me feel more beautiful and desired than I’d ever known I could feel.

“Look at you,” he whispered hoarsely, almost reverently. “Look at you.”

“Marco…” I reached out, cupping his face in my hand.

His eyes closed at my touch, his expression so tender I wanted to melt all over again. I sighed as he pulled me closer to press sweet kisses against my stomach. His kisses went lower, following the waistband of my underwear, and I shivered at the touch of his fingertips coasting along my lower back.

I braced my hands on his shoulders to steady myself.

Seconds later I felt a tug on my bra and it parted, falling down my arms. Heat suffused me. No one had seen me naked before.

One look into Marco’s eyes, though, and all embarrassment fled.

Marco groaned, his eyes ravishing me, and I found myself guided toward him until I had to put my knees on the bed on either side of him to straddle him. Lowering my bottom to his lap, I felt his large erection through his jeans and a rush of overwhelming sexual awareness crashed over me. My br**sts swelled, my ni**les tightened, and Marco took it as an invitation.

His mouth wrapped around my nipple and the feeling… the tingles, the sudden urgency that made me rock my hips against his… I wanted more. I wanted so much more…

I whimpered his name as I burned.

Marco pulled back, his heavy-lidded gaze on my face, his strong arms holding me tight. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”

I took his face in my hands and looked deep in his eyes. “Would you rather some other guy was?”

And that was when I saw it. The dark flicker of anger, of possessiveness that had made him kiss me in the first place. Triumphant, I pressed my lips to his, moaning in pleasure as he kissed me back. Hard. Our tongues touched, sending sparks of growing arousal through me. The kiss turned searching – months, years even, of longing in it. We broke apart briefly so I could yank his T-shirt over his head, my hands roaming and memorizing every hard contour of his beautiful torso.

Suddenly I was flipped, my back on the bed, and Marco pulled away.

I stared up at him, panting, praying he wasn’t going to stop this.

My prayers were answered.

He towered over me, a fantasy come to life. His beautiful caramel-toned skin, the powerful shoulders, the abs that made my mouth water. I felt a flush of heat at the sight of the sexy definition in his hips and the way his hard-on strained against the zipper on his jeans.

There was an intensity in his blue-green eyes that made me shiver all over.

He reached for my foot, gently pulling my shoe off. And then the other one. His eyes followed the length of my legs as he stroked my calf. “I’ve thought about this,” he admitted quietly. “A million times more than I ever should have.”

Before I could respond, he put a hand on the mattress by my knee and leaned over me, his other hand hooking into my underwear. His eyes asked the question and I nodded, lifting my hips to help him.

He tugged my underwear down my legs and then took a minute to gaze at me.

I felt my cheeks flush under his hot gaze.

“Marco…?”

He pressed a kiss to my ankle and then nudged my legs apart. My lower belly fluttered wildly, but I moved my legs, anticipation making me slick.

His breath fanned warmly over my skin as he crawled between my legs. He lifted one over his shoulder and kissed the inside of my thigh. Then he kissed me there.

I arched my back, groaning at the sensation of his mouth on my sex, his tongue circling my clit for a time before moving south and licking inside me. I pushed up against him for more, my cries of pleasure drowned out by the party outside the little bubble of private heaven we’d created in his room.

Marco tormented me with his tongue, his own growl of pleasure vibrating through me in the most delicious way.

I felt it build, my body stiffening as the tension grew and grew and grew… and then shattered.

My first orgasm.

Delight and a weird sense of liberation flowed through my limbs as they melted in relaxation against Marco’s mattress. I opened my eyes on a soft smile to watch Marco divest himself of his jeans.

I froze at the sight of his erection.

It was huge.

How would that…?

“Ssh.” He hushed me reassuringly, urgently, as he caressed my hip. He kissed me as his body came down over mine and I wrapped my arms around his back, pulling him closer.

Nothing had ever felt more perfect than feeling his hard body against my soft one. I wanted to be inside him and I wanted him inside of me. In every way two people could be.

He touched me, two fingers sliding into me.

His breath hitched. “So ready. So tight.” He groaned and buried his head against my neck, kissing me there.

I jerked my hips up toward his, suddenly feeling very impatient. “Marco, please.”

He lifted his head and our eyes met.

There it was. That tether. That connection.