“I can’t hold back,” he told her, every word raw, desperate, and totally honest. “Not with you.”

God, she was sweet. And so damned addictive that as he tasted and teased the slick skin between her legs, though she definitely wasn’t trying to get away, he gripped her hips tightly to hold her right where he wanted her. From the way her eyes darkened and her skin flushed even further, he knew she liked the slightly rough play of his hands over her soft curves.

Because for all her professed early nerves, Grace had always been one hundred percent sensual woman in his arms. And the way she gave herself over to pleasure as he slid one finger into her, then another, all while flicking the center of her arousal with his tongue? It only confirmed yet again that they were not only meant for each other, but also that her innate sensual hungers matched his perfectly.

One wicked image after another flew through his brain. Binding her wrists and ankles with silk ties to drive her to the edge again and again until neither one could take it anymore. Having her wait for him on her hands and knees for just long enough that she thought she might go crazy waiting even another second, then driving into her so that she came the moment he took her. Taking her out onto his boat, both of them naked as they dove into the water and then wrapping her all around him as she held on to the ship’s ladder and he drove up into her.

Dylan had never wanted anything as much as he wanted Grace to feel good, so when she went tumbling into climax with his mouth and hands on her, he made sure to take her back up to the peak again before she’d even come all the way down.

“Dylan, I can’t—” she began in faint protest.

But he could feel how close she was to coming apart again, less than sixty seconds after her first orgasm, so he replaced his tongue with his fingers. “One more. For me.” Shifting so that he could kiss her mouth while still playing with the hot, wet flesh between her legs, he thrust his tongue against hers with the same rhythm as his fingers inside her.

Within seconds, she was riding his hand without any inhibition, and he nearly lost it, especially when he let himself think about the fact that soon it wouldn’t be just his fingers inside her. He loved the way she was gripping his shoulders so hard that her nails scored his back, loved knowing that she’d marked him in her passion.

Marked him as hers.

She was soft and boneless against him as he came up onto the couch and gathered her close. She rested her head in the crook of his neck as he stroked her back while she worked to catch her breath.

“I thought you were kidding when you said you were going to give me a handful of orgasms,” she whispered.

He whispered back, “Two isn’t a handful.”

Her eyes flew open again, and she might have tried to tell him she didn’t have another orgasm in her for the night had he not covered her mouth with his. He was about to pull her up to straddle him on the couch when she beat him to it.

They were both panting by the time she lifted her mouth from his and said, “Who said the handful has to be all mine?”

“Grace...”

But she only laughed when he growled her name in warning, and when she yanked at his dress shirt, this time he didn’t stop her from unbuttoning it partway and pulling it over his head. The sooner he was naked, the sooner he’d be inside of her. And once he was there, he already knew he’d never want to leave, never want to let her go, never want to stop loving her.

She lowered her mouth to his pecs, and again and again she kissed him, teasing and tasting him the way he’d teased and tasted her bare skin, until his head was spinning and he was gripping her hair in his hands the way she’d gripped his when he’d been loving every inch of her.

Drawing deeply from a bank of superhuman self-control, he lifted her back up over him so that they were mouth to mouth, chest to chest, hip to hip. “One more time, Grace. Come for me one more time before I make you mine.”

He said the words between kisses against her neck and breasts, and when he slid his fingers back inside of her, he didn’t let her set the pace this time, just took her up—up—up—so fast that all she could do was give both of them another climax.

She was so beautiful as she threw her head back to ride it out all the way that Dylan realized he’d never truly known just how powerful sex could be until tonight.

Until Grace, when his heart was just as bound to her as his body.

Certain that he’d finally wrung out every ounce of her pleasure, he reluctantly moved his hands from her damp skin so that he could kick off his trousers and boxers and pull a condom from the back pocket before throwing his clothes across the room. Seconds later he had the condom on and her waist between his hands as he lifted her up and over him.

But instead of driving into her the way he wanted to, he held her there, poised directly over him. He’d never wanted anyone, or anything, this badly, but he would never forgive himself for letting desire override any lingering fears she might still have.

“Grace?”

“We’re protected?”

He nodded, knowing how important this would be to her, that no matter how much she loved her son, she would instinctively be worried about lightning striking twice and ending up pregnant again by accident. “Yes. I’ll always take care of you, Grace.”

She put her hands on his face and kissed him, so softly that she took him by surprise when she began to lower herself onto him. There were no words to describe how good it felt as she slowly enveloped him, nothing he could do anymore but tangle his hands in her hair as he took their kiss deeper.

Finally, they were pelvis to pelvis, chest to chest, mouth to mouth. Together, they rocked with each other, hard heat and soft flesh coming together in a perfect dance of pleasure. From moment to moment they took each other higher and higher until he was swallowing her gasps as the tight clasp of her inner muscles climaxing drove him all the way into his own release. One that crashed through him with the strength of a tsunami.

Again and again he thrust up into her, and again and again she came down over him, moving with such obvious joy that the waves took him completely under. Deeper beneath the surface than he had ever gone before. Deeper than he’d even known he could go.

Dylan could feel Grace’s heart beating hard and fast against his as they held each other so tightly that there were no spaces left between them. Right here, with her, was where he always wanted to be.

Forever.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Grace had never known that she could completely lose herself in another person and just want to stay lost forever and ever. Was it because Dylan loved her? And, despite all the ways she’d tried to protect her heart, had she fallen in love with him right back?