For almost two months, he’d played her game. Done the whirlwind courtship bit. Acted like the gentleman for her. Wore a mask to hide the real way he felt. The real way he was.

Playtime was over.

Kayla had her secrets. So did he. The time for a big reveal would come later. The time for fucking—yeah, that was now.

The bathroom door squeaked open. Gage turned to face her, still clad in his jeans. His eyes went to her face first. Heart-shaped, delicate—deceptively so. Her eyes were shining, her high cheeks flushed, and she looked . . .

Excited. Gorgeous.

And naked.

His gaze swept down her body and the cock that was already up for her hardened even more against the zipper of his jeans.

Her breasts were small, but rounded perfectly with light pink nipples that he couldn’t wait to have against his tongue. Her hips curved, flaring, and the bare V of her sex had his mouth going dry.

Take her.

He’d waited long enough.

“Why are you still dressed?” Kayla wanted to know. He managed to drag his gaze away—okay, on the third attempt, he dragged it away from that V—and back up to her face. “I thought you were supposed to be stripping.”

He nearly ripped his jeans off. Then in one lunge, he was at her side. Gage lifted her up, holding her easily, and he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Her arms wrapped around him—and so did her legs. The soft flesh of her sex brushed against his cock even as her tight nipples pushed against his chest.

He was gonna go freaking insane. Gage wasn’t a man accustomed to waiting, but for her, he’d tried. Can’t wait longer. Because he could smell the lush scent of her arousal. She wanted him. He was on fire for her.

His tongue met hers. Tasted. She was always a blend of sweet and spicy on his tongue. Innocence and sin. Such a mixed combination. One that fit her too well.

He pulled his mouth from hers and began to kiss a path down her neck. He was strong. Gage doubted that she understood just how powerful he really was, and he easily kept her lifted against him.

When his tongue licked over her skin, down low where her shoulder curved into her neck, Kayla shivered.

He’d make her do more than that.

His teeth scored her flesh. Bit lightly. Marked her. That was the way of his kind.

Her nails dug into his shoulders. Her breath came in ragged pants, and Gage could feel the slick wetness of her sex against him. More.

He’d known she’d be like this. White-hot to the touch. Able to burn a man straight to the soul.

He lifted her higher and her soft gasp would have made him smile, if he hadn’t been so damn hungry for her. But there were no smiles now. No soft touches or kisses. There was only lust, blazing out of control.

He held her in the perfect position for his mouth, and he took her breast between his lips. He licked,sucked, and her breaths came even faster. His cock was so swollen it hurt, and he wanted to drive into her more than he’d ever wanted anything else.

“Gage . . . ”

No, actually, he did want something else. He wanted her to come for him.

Still holding her, he headed for the bed. He lowered her onto the covers and rose petals slid beneath her. Their light fragrance mixed with the sweet scent that was just . . . Kayla.

She was making him crazy.

Gage took his time licking and tasting her other breast. Her hands were on him. Her fingers slid over his back and urged him closer.

Not yet.

Kayla’s legs were parted, and he stood between them at the side of the bed. The perfect position to thrust deep, if he’d wanted to thrust.

Not yet.

He wanted another taste. A far more intimate one.

His gaze dipped to her sex and her legs widened even more. “Do you know . . .”—his voice was so dark he knew it sounded more like a growl than anything else—“how long I’ve wanted to put my mouth on you?”

Her lashes lifted. She stared back at him with glinting eyes and flushed cheeks. Then Kayla shook her head. He saw the flash of hesitation in her gaze, the innocence that he’d learned could appear and vanish in an instant. She tried to come off so tough and assured, but that innocence kept slipping out.

His knees brushed the carpet as he lowered his body between her splayed legs. Gage wrapped his hands around her hips and pulled her to the edge of the mattress so that her thighs brushed against either side of his shoulders. “Since the first night, you came into the bar”—his bar—“wearing that short black skirt, and I kept wondering what you were wearing underneath it.” He’d looked at her and gotten hard. Wanted. Craved. “And I wanted to shove that skirt up . . .”—he put his hands between her thighs and loved her gasp—“and find out.”

Her eyes were on him. So wide. So deep.

He’d been insane for her. The need always pulsing in his body, but Kayla hadn’t let him get close enough to fuck. Not that first night. Not all the nights since. They’d danced around each other for weeks, becoming closer and closer, but deep kisses and heavy petting had been all that he’d gotten from her.

Until tonight. Until they’d drank until one a.m. at his bar, then slipped out to find a chapel.

Now he had her. There’d be no escape for her. Or him.

His fingers slid into her. She was wet and tight. Perfect.

But he didn’t just want to touch with his fingers. He licked his lips, then Gage put his mouth on her. Her hips bucked up against him as she gasped out his name, but his left hand just rose again and locked around her hips, holding her easily in place.