“Funny,” Zach said as he slid her hair over one shoulder, close enough now that she could feel his warm breath on her exposed neck, “he always answers to mutt. You sure his papers weren’t forged?”

She still couldn’t believe the way her dog had taken to Zach, considering his basic distrust of all men. Then again, animals had a gift for seeing beneath the surface to people’s true natures. They knew how to read a false smile for evil, a seemingly innocuous touch as a dangerous threat...or, conversely, that a man who acted like an island was capable of such warmth and enough sweetness to take her breath away again and again.

Before she realized it, he had the clasp of her bra undone and was working it off her shoulders so that it was falling to the floor to join her shirt. Even in the dark, she wanted to cover up, wanted to lift her hands over her br**sts, though she’d already consented to sleep with Zach.

“Am I making you nervous?” he asked, his lips nearly at her earlobe now as he moved closer still to her now half-naked body.

“No.” And it was true. She wasn’t scared.

She was excited.

Beyond excited.

At long last, he pressed his mouth to her skin, brushing his lips against her earlobe, his tongue barely making contact before he asked, “Then why are you trembling?”

“I have sensitive ears,” she told him.

“Good to know.” He pressed another soft kiss just below her earlobe this time, before saying, “Anywhere else I should know about that’s sensitive?”

Oh God.

Until now, she’d felt like she’d been able to pit herself against Zach Sullivan as an equal. But that was before they’d entered his bedroom...where she quite clearly didn’t stand a chance of being anything but putty in his big, strong, all-knowing hands.

Still, she had to keep trying to stay toe-to-toe with him, didn’t she? Otherwise, how would she possibly be able to respect herself in the morning?

“Maybe we should turn the lights back on and I’ll draw you a map.”

“Such a sassy mouth,” he murmured. “Makes me think I should put it to better use.”

It should have been enough warning for her to brace herself for his kiss, but when he slid one hand into her hair and turned her face so that he could reach her mouth with his, she couldn’t do anything but gasp at the extreme pleasure of having his mouth on hers again.

For how gentle his hands had been—and still were—the wildness of his kiss told her a different story.

He wanted her. Badly. And as his tongue thrust against hers, she was glad to be able to finally unleash all the passion, the desire, she’d been holding in check since the first moment she’d met him.

She tried to turn into his arms, wanted to press her bare chest up against his, wanted to know if he was as hard, as hot, as she’d dreamt he would be. But instead of letting her move against him, he slid one hand around her waist and held her against him like that, back to front. And, strangely, instead of wanting to fight his hold, instead of feeling like he was controlling her, she felt the exact opposite.

Felt the comfort, the safety of knowing he wasn’t going to let her fall. And accepted, in this one instance at least, that he knew precisely how to lead them both straight to pure pleasure.

Her shorts were falling to her feet before she even realized he’d undone the button and zipper. Shocked by how easy it was to get lost in his kisses, she pulled her mouth from his.

As if he could guess at her skittishness, rather than claiming her lips again, he ran soft kisses over her cheek and then her neck and shoulders. Her skin came alive inch by inch—a path of sensation, of pleasure.

And yet, she still couldn’t let go of that hit of fear, the worry that she was allowing herself to get lost in someone else, until Zach’s voice broke through.

“Are you sensitive here?” He brushed his thumb up at the top of her spine until it reached her hairline, and she shivered in response. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said softly as he followed that same path with his tongue. “What about this spot?” His fingers found the small of her back, and the next thing she knew, he was kneeling behind her, his mouth barely a beat behind as his tongue licked over the incredibly sensitive skin.

When she couldn’t stop the breath from whooshing from her lungs, he said, “Definitely yes.”

And then, just as she was trying to process the startling fact that he was indeed making a map of the sensitive places on her body, she felt his large hands come around either side of her rib cage, just beneath the lower swell of her br**sts.

“I’m going to take a guess that this one is going to be a yes, too,” he said against her left side as his tongue traced between two ribs and she shuddered against him, her knees nearly buckling at the sweet pleasure of being touched like this.

Like she was all that mattered.

Like he actually thought she was precious and worth the time it would take to explore her pleasure, to learn where it hid and what would make it come to life.

He mirrored his actions on the other side of her body and she tried to hold still and not beg for more, but the small, desperate sound that came from her throat gave her away.

Zach pressed his lips to the small of her back. “All in good time.”

A moment later, still kneeling behind her in the dark, he hooked one finger into each side of her panties and held there. She swallowed hard, a loud sound in the dark silence.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment?”

Each word came more ragged than the one before it. Just as his wild kiss had been, the raw statement was testament to how badly he wanted her, despite his slow, teasing seduction.

Somehow she managed to ask, “How long?”

He slid her panties down just enough to press a kiss to the top of one cheek, groaning as he gave equal measure to the soft flesh on the other side.

“Forever, Heather. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for you.”

And then, just after the most shocking words in the world had been spoken, her panties were off, lying in a puddle of cotton at her feet.

She waited, holding her breath, for Zach to touch her again, to kiss her—please, please, please don’t leave me like this—but he was as still as she was, his breath on her skin all that was touching her.

“I love the way you smell.” His words went from raw to guttural as he inhaled. “I love the way you feel.” His hands moved to her hips, and she felt small and intensely feminine as he gently caressed her. “And I love the way you taste.” He rained small nips and kisses at her backside, then down her thighs, until he finally reached the backs of her knees.