She rose and reached for his pants. He helped her by shrugging them down his hips. The unveiling was like watching a work of art. Tan skin, then white, a few scars here and there, but the mars only highlighted his beauty.

His nose was a little crooked, and he had a scar across his chin. Another scar ran the length of his forearm and there was a jagged one on his thigh, too. Perfection was overrated. She much preferred a man who wasn’t so perfect that she’d feel inadequate. After all, she was hardly a fashion model. She was full bodied, and he was all muscle, yet lean, and oh so thick in one place. He made her mouth water.

He raised up so she could remove his shirt and continue her worship of his sculpted shoulders. She loved a man’s arms. There was something absolutely delicious about the deltoid muscles and biceps. She’d felt his strength when he’d held her up in the hallway. She was certainly no light-as-a-feather woman, yet he hadn’t strained holding her.

She ran the tips of her fingers over his arms, then across his chest, snaking them down his stomach to where his c**k jutted up, proud and hard and tempting. She wound her fingers around him, lifting her gaze to his face.

He was watching her hand, his gaze focused on her stroking his shaft. She squeezed harder at the base, lightening her touch when she got to the soft crest, where she circled her thumb over the silky top.

Nestling onto her stomach, she shouldered her way between his legs and traced her thumb over the thick vein that ran along the underside of his cock.

“Your c**k is beautiful,” she said.

“It’s not beautiful. It’s tough and manly.”

She laughed. “Okay. It’s tough and manly. And beautiful.” She licked the tip, then rose up to put her lips over the wide crest. When her mouth slid over him, she heard his harsh breath.

He slid his hand in her hair, grabbing a handful of it to hold on to as she wound her tongue around his shaft, licking her way from base to tip, then going down on him again, taking him deep until he let out a strangled groan as she felt his cockhead bump the back of her throat.

Sucking him was magical, turning her on almost as much as it had when he’d had his mouth on her pussy. There was something about giving pleasure to him that she found incredibly arousing. She wanted him to come, to feel that burst of pleasure like he’d given her. And when he tightened his hold on her hair and began to pump with short, quick bursts between her lips, she knew he was close.

“Savannah. Goddamn. I’m gonna come in your mouth if you don’t let go.” His voice was gravelly and hoarse, telling her all she needed to know. She gripped the base of his c**k and stroked him, tightening her lips around his shaft.

He let out a groan as he came, shoving his c**k deep into her throat. He held her, pumping his c**k deep. Savannah swallowed as he jerked against her until he was completely empty. She loved that she could give him that kind of pleasure.

He went lax and stroked her head as he panted in recovery. She climbed up his body, learning every muscle and plane as she mapped her way to his mouth, where she planted a hot kiss on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled her over, kissing her so deeply she lost all sense of time and place. Their legs were tangled, his feet playing with hers. She would never suspect him of being so playful, so willing to make a kiss so long and thorough or of taking his time in the lovemaking process. While she’d wanted him inside her, she certainly didn’t object to some extended foreplay.

And oh, what foreplay it had been. But for some reason she’d pegged Cole as a guy who’d want to strip her down, slide inside, and get right to the action.

She’d been so wrong about him—about everything. At least, so far. Because his hand was lazily fondling her breast, his mouth was devastating hers with a deep, passionate kiss, and his foot was teasing her calf. He acted like he could go all night at this, and there was his cock, slowly growing harder against her thigh, while she was primed and ready to go off like a rocket if he so much as got within an inch of her pussy.

And when he slid his hand from her breast to her rib cage to her belly, she wasn’t about to object. In fact, she rolled onto her back and spread her legs, hoping he’d get the message.

He lifted his lips and gazed down at her. “Something you want?”

“Yes. Well, I have a list, actually.”

His lips lifted in a devastatingly wicked half smile that made her cl*tquiver. “Care to share that list with me?”

“Your hand on my pu**y would be a good start.”

He glided his hand down, cupping her sex, using his fingers to rub over her sensitive flesh. She arched against him, reaching for his wrist to hold him where she needed him the most.

“Feel good?” he asked.

She turned to look at him as he brought her right to the edge. “Yes.”

“Ready to come?”

She was. It was so fast, but it had been a long, dry spell without a man, and she needed this. She wasn’t about to hold back, not knowing when she’d have sex again. “Yes.”

He tucked two fingers inside her and pumped, rolling his thumb over her clit, then using his magnificent hand to cup her, tease her, and take her right to the edge.

She exploded, this second cl**ax even more intense than the first had been. She tightened around his moving fingers as her orgasm peaked.

When Cole removed his fingers, he slid them into his mouth and licked them. “I like the way you taste, Peaches.”

She shuddered, still throbbing from the aftereffects. Her ni**les were tight, aching peaks, her entire body taut with expectation. And when Cole reached for a condom on his nightstand, she licked her lips, so ready to feel his c**k inside her that she almost whimpered with the need for him.

She took the condom from his hands and rolled it on, her gaze locked on his. Intimacy like this wasn’t something she had all that often, so she wanted every part of the experience. She wanted to touch him, to taste him, as much as she could tonight.

He rolled her over onto her back and used his knees to spread her legs, pressing his body on top of hers. His c**k wedged at the entrance to her pussy, his h*ps against hers.

He looked down at her and their gazes met. He reached for her hair, brushing it away from her face, the action so brutally intimate it made her heart clench.

“You are beautiful, Savannah,” he said, then slid inside her, his eyes shuttering closed just as he drove home.

Oh, god. The intimacy was more than she could bear. Feeling him inside her, the way he’d spoken to her, shattered her.

Savannah reached up to slide her fingers in the silky softness of his hair, watching the features of his face tighten as her pu**y gripped his cock.

She wasn’t often driven poetic over the act of sex, but there was something magical about Cole being inside her. She’d never felt such an amazing thrill about a man f**king her. Sex was perfunctory. Fun and certainly a wonderful release, but being connected to Cole like this, having his gaze touch hers in such an intimate way as he pulled back and thrust so deeply inside her, filled her with passion—and more than a sense of wonder.

This was what she’d always read about, what sex was supposed to be like—a joining that was both physical and emotional, so powerful in its intensity that she was caught up in its storm.

Cole dipped down and brushed his lips across hers, then cupped her butt and lifted her to grind against her. As the storm intensified within her, she tightened, sparks of lightning shooting through her nerve endings. Taut with impending release, she dug her nails in Cole’s skin. His answering growl only heightened her senses and rushed her along the path to orgasm.

When he sank his teeth into the soft skin of her shoulder, she cried out, her cl**ax sending her flying into the sweet darkness. She wrapped her legs around Cole’s h*ps and arched, dragging him along with her, his answering groan a blissful balm in the maelstrom.

He kissed and licked her neck and shoulder, bringing her back down from one of the wildest rides of her life. He left her for only a few seconds, then came back and pulled her against him.

There were things that needed to be said, things she knew he was likely thinking about, too. Reality-type things. Logical-type things.

She wasn’t going to talk about them now. That conversation could wait for later. For now, she was going to enjoy being held and caressed by a man who’d just rocked her world.

SAVANNAH WAS QUIET AS COLE HELD HER AND SWEPT his hand over the softness of her back.

He knew what that meant. She was thinking.

Likely regretting.

He had no regrets. Tonight had been nothing short of amazing. She was a wildcat in the bedroom. She had no reservations about sex, great communication skills, and she was as beautiful as he’d imagined.

But knowing Savannah, by morning—if not within the hour—she was going to call this all a mistake.

Cole planned to argue that point, because sex this good was never a mistake.

He was pretty good at arguing his point, especially when he knew he was right.

For now, he intended to keep this luscious woman in his arms—and his bed.

TWELVE

“NO.”

“Cole…”

“I said no. There’s no point in discussing it.”

Cole had thought they’d end up arguing about sex. But surprisingly, Savannah hadn’t said a word about it. She’d actually stayed all night, though she’d hurried out of his condo the next morning, uttering no more than a few words about him needing to get to practice and her having things to do. Though she’d been vague about what those “things” were.

Ironic, considering that was usually his behavior after sex. He normally couldn’t wait to get away. Instead, the roles had been reversed, because waking up to Savannah’s warm butt nestled against his c**k had made him hard. He’d pulled her against him, figuring they could have a nice morning replay of the night before.

Yeah, that hadn’t happened. She’d rocketed out of bed, grabbed her clothes, climbing into them while simultaneously mumbling about how great it had been the night before, and she’d call him later. Then she’d shot out the door like a lit firecracker.

It had been damned uncomfortable being on the other side of that fuck-’em-and-leave-’em treatment. Now he knew what it felt like.

It didn’t feel all that good.

He climbed out of bed, making a mental apology to all the women he’d done that to.

But he wasn’t finished with Savannah, and if she thought that all they were going to have was one night and she was going to forget it happened, she was wrong.

After practice, she’d been waiting for him. That’s when he’d expected the argument.

Instead, she dragged him upstairs to the conference room and shut the door.

“What’s up?”

“Have a seat.”

This was where she was going to tell him that last night had been fun, but it was only a one-time thing and couldn’t happen again. He knew this talk. Hell, he’d given it a hundred times before.

He was already preparing his rebuttal.

“How are you with a hammer?”

He looked up. “What?”

“I have you—well, us, actually—scheduled for a local home-building charity project.”

“Uh…why?”

“Because it’s for a worthwhile cause. Actually, several of the team members are doing it, along with coaches and staff. Saturday.”

“And we’re doing this because…”

She rolled her eyes. “Image, Cole.”

“In other words, media will be there.”

“Yes.”

“And you think this will somehow help repair my image?”

“It certainly won’t hurt your image to have you seen doing something for your community.”

“I do plenty for my community.”

She leaned back in her chair. “Really. Like what?”

“I give to a lot of charities.”

“Give…how?”

“I write checks.”

She let out an audible sigh. “That’s not visible. You need to be seen being charitable. Besides, don’t you want to get more involved and centered in your community?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

She stood. “I wonder about you sometimes, Cole.”

She headed for the door. He stood. “What the hell does that mean?”

She turned to face him, her hand on the door handle. “It means I wonder why you’re so reluctant to get involved.”

“Because I don’t want it to be bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look. I understand charity. My parents taught my sister and me that it’s important to give back. I do plenty of that. I just don’t think we need to stick our faces in cameras to show how charitable we are. It seems dishonest.”

She frowned. “So you think what the team does is dishonest? That we’re just doing this for publicity, and not actually helping?”

“I give generously to multiple charities, but I don’t make a big deal out of it. I don’t think it’s anyone’s business.”

“I think you confuse a publicity stunt with actual helping out. Not everything can be accomplished by writing a check, Cole. I’ll show you the difference on Saturday.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

He watched her walk out the door and realized that the conversation hadn’t gone at all like he’d expected. She always made him feel like he was doing it wrong.

His mother gave him that feeling, too.

Comparing Savannah to his mother was a place he refused to go.

And now he was going to have to build a house on Saturday. And no doubt deal with the media on his ass at the same time.