He felt her smile again, heard her say, “I don’t want slow. I just want you.”

It was all the encouragement he needed to let the animal inside loose. Seconds later he was ripping off her shirt, yanking down her pants, while she mirrored his movements with her hands on his clothes. And then he was naked and her skin was bare beneath his fingers and he lost any last shred of gentleness, of patience.

Pulling her bra down, he pressed her br**sts together with his palms and sucked her sweet flesh into his mouth. Moaning her pleasure, she arched her back and her ni**les jutted against his tongue.

Stepping back to try to keep from losing it completely, he made the mistake of looking at her. With her head thrown back in ecstasy, skin flushed with arousal, she was a goddess, and instead of getting his game back, he dropped to his knees, yanking her panties down as he ran kisses along her flat belly. She opened her legs wider for him and it was all the invitation he needed to take her heat in his mouth.

Her hands grasped his rain-wet hair and his name reverberated off the walls. Using his shoulder to shift her legs even wider, he grasped her hips with his hands to hold her steady. He ran his tongue over her in long strokes, finally settling at the hard nub of her clitoris.

She tasted so good. She’d always been so responsive when he loved her like this, her body trembling in his hands.

Lightly swirling his tongue against her arousal, he shifted her weight so that he could hold her up with only one hand. Needing to be inside her even as he made her come with his tongue, he slipped one finger into her tight canal, her inner muscles grasping and pulling him deeper inside.

He could feel how close she was, knew that she was about to explode, so he slid another finger in to join the first, and as he bucked them in, then out, he flicked his tongue fast across her clit and took her all the way over the edge.

She was still gasping with pleasure when he pulled her down, holding her hips an inch from the tip of his hard shaft.

He forced himself to say, “I don’t have any protection.”

“I don’t care,” was her instant response, and then she was sliding down onto his hard shaft and taking him in, her expression one of utter satisfaction. Complete pleasure. Riding him hard, she moved up, then down on his cock, and even though a part of him wanted to slow down and savor every moment of their lovemaking, he was too far gone to do anything but call out her name and give in to one of the most powerful orgasms of his life.

Seconds turned into minutes as they held on to each other. Many times over the course of his hotshot career, Sam had run nearly vertical slopes, but he’d never had this much trouble catching his breath.

Dianna’s long limbs still twined around him, he finally stood up, carrying her with him into the bedroom.

“I couldn’t wait another second to have you, but now I’m going to take my time. I want to relearn every inch of your body, Dianna. Every beautiful inch.”

Sam’s intense words made her shiver as he climbed beneath the clean white sheets. She reached for him and he cupped her face with his large, wonderfully talented hands as he kissed her, one muscular thigh trapping her beneath him in the most delicious way.

She’d dreamed about kissing him again, so many times, more times than she would ever admit, but lying halfway across his hard muscles, pressing her lips against his, feeling the beginnings of a beard bristling across her skin, simply blew her mind.

Sensing that he was letting her lead, she pressed soft kisses along his lips, again and again as she relearned their contours, the extrasensitive spots, the places where they both used to get lost in pleasure. But her tongue was not nearly patient enough and it slipped into the corners of his mouth, then between his lips to run along his smooth teeth.

And then, suddenly, he stopped kissing her. Not knowing why, she followed his gaze to her upper arms. She’d been a little surprised herself in the shower to see that bruises covered both of them like a tattoo.

“You should have told me you were hurt.”

Figuring she’d gotten these bruises during their white-water expedition, she said, “I’ll heal,” but she didn’t want to focus on anything but the man sharing her bed. She ran her hands over his chest, his abdominal muscles.

“My God,” she said reverently, “you’re incredible.”

His mouth moving into a smile, he teased, “You’re acting like this is the first time you’ve seen me naked.”

She pressed a series of kisses against the broad wall of his chest. “We were just kids back then. And you are definitely aging well.” She looked up at him and licked her lips. “Really, really well.”

“Not as well as you are,” he said between kisses. “I didn’t think making love to you could be better than before. But you’ve amazed me again, sweetheart.”

Her ni**les hardened against his chest and the vee between her legs grew even hotter at his words. He was right. They’d always been a good fit. Ten years after their first time, she couldn’t imagine ever making love to another man.

Sam was it: the only man she wanted to share her bed with ever again.

But their bond was too new and she didn’t want to say anything that would freak him out, so she simply put her lips back on his and pressed her br**sts and hips up into his hard heat to tell him with her body.

His response was swift, one hand curling behind her head, the other moving down to cup her bottom. His thick erection pressed between her legs, effortlessly fueling her inner fire.

“You’re mine,” he whispered against her lips, before crushing them beneath his.

She felt the truth of his words deep in her bones, before giving herself up completely to pleasure.

No one kissed as good as Sam. No one knew right where to bite or how hard. No one else had ever found the exact spot to lick or the hidden places she liked to be stroked.

Only Sam.

She didn’t know how long they kissed. A minute. An hour. All she knew was that she was drowning in desire, desperate for release, and that this time she didn’t want to go without him.

He pulled away so that he could look at her, his gaze moving everywhere, taking in her slightly fuller hips, along with the bruises and scrapes that she’d weathered thus far in Colorado.

“So beautiful,” he whispered. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

His declaration sent new blazes rippling through her, over her, as his hands cupped the undersides of her br**sts, pushing them together, and then his tongue found her ni**les again and she was moaning with pleasure.