“Good.” She could barely breathe. “So good.”

Her thighs were shaking and he held her steady with his free hand as he had them rub their combined fingers over her aroused flesh.

“Marcus."

She gasped out his name as jolts of pleasure zipped through her. His eyes flared with lust a split second before he leaned forward and captured one of her br**sts in his mouth again. She whimpered her pleasure as he had them pressing harder and harder circles with their fingers. She was right there, she was so close, she held her breath as—

“Just my hand now.”

She barely registered his words before he was letting her hand go.

“Come for me. I want to see it. I want to feel you explode.”

Oh God, she wanted to, and his naughty words had her clenching on him in a mini-orgasm. She was so close, but the closer she got the more her legs shook. She wanted to relax all the way, to stop being so shy, to fully give in to all the wonderful things Marcus was making her feel, but one thought kept stopping her.

If she embraced this wildness with Marcus, did that mean she really was the wild slut Kenny had painted her to be?

As if he’d felt her hesitation, Marcus moved his hand from between her legs. She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, he was lifting her from the floor so that he was lying back on the bed and she was straddling him on her knees.

His hands stroked her back and she realized that he was going to be true to his word.

Slow and easy.

And that was when she realized it didn’t matter what the world thought of her. Right now, in bed with Marcus, all that mattered was what she was feeling. All that mattered was the intense pleasure that he’d already given her.

Bending over to kiss him, her tongue met his wildly, her desperation making the kiss so intense it was on the verge of being rough.

Somewhere in their kiss, she realized he’d slid his hand back between her legs. A low, pleasured moan escaped her as she realized this position made it easier for her to rock against his hand.

“More,” she begged.

“Not yet,” he told her, but she could tell from the raw tenor of his words that he wanted to give her more just as much as she wanted to receive it.

She lifted her head up so that she could look into his eyes. “Please, Marcus.” She felt a sob of need rise up in her as she worked to drive him deeper.

She watched him war with himself, a muscle jumping in his chiseled jaw, and then he finally gave her what she wanted. And as her inner muscles tightened on him, he whispered, “Kiss me,” a breath before he tangled the fingers of his other hand in her hair and took her mouth with his.

A hundred wonderful sensations blurred, and as he moved his free hand to cup her br**sts, she felt it coming. Pleasure as big as a tidal wave. So big she didn’t think she could handle it.

No, she knew she couldn’t handle it.

She broke their kiss and was putting her hands flat on his chest to try and pull away, when his voice broke through her panic. “Nicola. Look at me. I’m right here with you.”

She somehow managed to focus on him as wave after wave of pleasure started to break over her, through her, inside of her.

And when he whispered, “Let go for me,” the way he was watching her, as if he’d never seen anything as beautiful—as mesmerizing and magical—in his entire life, was the final key the lock on her body needed to break all the way apart.

* * *

Never in his life had Marcus been with a woman this made for pleasure, who came with such wild abandon.

Sweet lord, he never wanted it to end. He never wanted to forget the way she pulled away from their kiss so that her sweat-slickened body could buck and arch over his as she continued to ride out her release. He never wanted to forget the desperate little sounds she made as she kissed him, gasps that turned into moans. He never wanted to forget the beautiful sounds of her begging for more of his touches, his kisses, for him to take her all the way over the edge.

But he already knew he would never forget those sounds, the incredible sight of the most beautiful girl in the world losing herself to pleasure in his arms.

Finally, she stilled above him, her taut muscles now loose and pliant, her head dropping to his chest. She was panting and he could feel her lungs working hard to pull in air as she lay across him. Even though he was still fully clothed—and rock hard—he loved the way she curled and nuzzled against him.

Still, he’d have to let her recover from that orgasm another time. Because he wasn’t even close to being finished worshipping her. She’d have the rest of her life to recover from tonight. They both would.

From now until the sun came up, she was his.

Giving her no warning, he flipped her onto her back and rose over her stunningly beautiful naked body.

She blinked up at him, her gaze momentarily fuzzy. But then she smiled and said, “You’re wearing too many clothes."

Her hands moved from around his neck to the buttons of his shirt as she worked to undo them. The soft touch of her fingers skimming across his chest had his heart pounding even faster. Her tongue came out to lick her upper lip as she concentrated on undressing him and he couldn’t possibly have stopped himself from bending down to taste it.

As soon as his tongue touched hers, she opened her mouth for him and that simple need to taste her tongue became another soul-destroying kiss.

He could have kissed her like that forever, had the sound of fabric ripping not surprised him into pulling back. She’d ripped his shirt apart and where the buttons hadn’t been able to come undone fast enough, the cotton had actually shredded.

The next thing he knew, she was dropping his ripped shirt from her clenched fists and running her hands over his abs. Her hands on his bare skin were good. So damn good. But he should have known it was going to get even better, because a split second later, she leaned up to nip at his chest. His muscles twitched beneath her teeth as her tongue came out to lave the small bite.

“I’ve never wanted anyone like this,” she whispered against his chest as she pressed one naughty kiss after another across his skin while her hands moved lower.

He sucked in a breath between his teeth as she closed her palm around him, first tentatively, growing bolder as she felt him thicken even further inside her warm clasp. Gritting his teeth against the intense pleasure of her caresses, he made himself remind her, “Slow and easy, so that I don’t hurt you.”

Her gaze flew to his. “You would never hurt me.”

Her trust in him landed straight in the center of his chest, in a place he’d thought was closed off for the foreseeable future. It was the same place that had reacted when she’d fallen asleep on his lap, when she’d appeared shy and fresh-faced in the kitchen, when she’d been laughing with the boy and girl who loved her music.