He slid his hand around to the nape of her neck, then fisted his hands in her hair and roughly tilted back her head so that he could scrape his stubble across the sensitive skin of her neck. “If you don’t leave right now,” he warned her in a voice made harsh with the inner conflict that rode him, “there’s no going back.”

“I don’t want to go back. Not now.” She shivered against him. “Not ever.”

“I won’t be gentle.” He had one last chance to try to do whatever he could to get her to run, because he sure as hell couldn’t figure out a way to let her go. “If you stay, I’m going to take what I want from you, Tatiana. Everything I want. Everything you’ve been offering to me since the moment we met.”

But instead of running, all she said was, “Yes.” And then again, even more emphatically, “Yes. I don’t want gentle. I just want you.”

And then she lifted her mouth to his again...and he was lost.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

As Ian kissed her, for the first time in her life Tatiana knew—really knew—what passion was.

This was the kind of passion that people wrote songs and books and movies about.

This was the kind of moment that people waited an entire lifetime for.

She’d acted out passion a dozen times on screen to the best of her professional ability, but she’d never truly felt it before. No one but Ian had ever kissed her like this, touched her like this. Touching not just her body, but her heart and soul, too.

She hadn’t meant to leap into his arms to kiss him like that, but she’d been so excited about being an Oscar nominee that it had been pure instinct to share her joy with him any way she could. They’d hugged, they’d danced, and then, before she knew it, she was kissing him.

Just a few moments of her lips against his—and yet it had been unlike any kiss she’d ever had, with warmth and arousal instantly swamping her system.

Feeling as if she’d just been struck by lightning, she’d drawn back, but before she could do more than exclaim her surprise at what she’d done, Ian was crushing her against him, his mouth devouring hers. And as he kissed her breathless, she forgot all about the nomination, forgot about everything except how badly, how desperately, she wanted him.

She heard it first—the sound of fabric ripping—before she realized he’d torn open the bodice of her silk dress with one tug of his hand on the fabric at her neck, leaving her standing before him in her bra, also in blue silk.

“You’re even more beautiful than I dreamed you’d be.”

The raw timbre of his words, and the fierce need in his eyes, sent shivers through her, along with a ravenous hunger for more of his dangerous passion. She didn’t want him in his clothes any more than he seemed to want her in hers, so in yet another impulsive move, she shoved his jacket open and onto to the floor, then reached for the buttons on his shirt and yanked them open.

His tie still held the top of his shirt in place, but she’d pulled it open enough to bare a patch of his chest. Oh, how she wanted to feel his heat, his strength! She was just putting her hands on his chest when he tugged her hair back, his mouth diving for the pulse point in her neck. With his free hand, he cupped one breast through the silk of her bra, and she both heard and felt his aroused groan against her neck.

Being with him without any walls anymore, without any rules about what was and wasn’t allowed to happen, felt so good. So shockingly good that the only way she could keep herself steady on her shaking legs was to hold on to him, and to arch closer, to offer more of herself—all of herself—to him.

Sliding his hand from her hair so that he was cupping both of her br**sts through silk, he stroked over her ni**les with his thumbs. As a new flood of heat and arousal rushed over her, she couldn’t stop herself from bucking her hips into him.

He gave one more hard rip and her dress was gone, nothing more than a small pile of shredded silk on the rug in his office. Her panties were blue like her bra and as he just stood there and stared at her, a hint of fear at knowing she was about to do something she’d never done, go to a place she’d never gone, nearly made its way in past her excitement, past her joy.

But then, he was sliding a hand between her legs, and all thoughts of fear fell away as he found her hot and aroused.

“I knew you’d be like this,” he murmured against her mouth as he tugged her close with one hand between her thighs, the other on her breast, for another heated kiss. “So responsive.” He kissed his way down her neck, over the swell of her br**sts, before pulling one bra cup down and covering her nipple with his mouth. “So sweet.” She couldn’t keep up with all of the sensations, with the heat of his tongue on her, with the thrill of his hand over her shockingly aroused flesh, especially when his teeth scraped so deliciously over her nipple.

Against her breast, he whispered, “You’re just so goddamned sweet,” and then he was pulling down her other bra cup to suckle on the taut tip of her other breast.

Overwhelmed with heat and arousal and emotion, when he slid his fingers beneath the elastic of her silk underwear and found her bare skin, she couldn’t stop from crying out from the shock of pleasure at having his hands and mouth on her like this. Absolutely everywhere she’d wanted him.

He moved his lips from her br**sts back to her mouth to give her another searing kiss, and to drink in more of her cries, but his hand stayed right where it was, slipping, sliding against her slick, heated flesh. “All week I needed this. Needed to feel you, naked, hungry, ready for me to take you over the edge.”

His words were broken up by the kisses he gave her, but even if she hadn’t heard them, she would have known what he wanted.

Because she needed it just as badly.

“Now, baby.” He lifted his mouth from hers to stare down at her with eyes that had gone nearly black with desire. “I need you to come for me. Now.”

But she was already there as with one of his hands between her legs, the other on the nape of her neck to hold her steady, she shattered into a million beautiful pieces in his arms in a climax so much more powerful than any she’d ever experienced before.

He stroked her all the way through her release, murmuring how beautiful, how breathtaking she was. Still, when he lifted her up with his hands on her hips and wrapped her legs around his waist, she was still trying to catch her breath.

“Now. I need to get you into my bed right now.”

“Anywhere,” she said as she put her arms around his neck. “You can have me anywhere.”