Flame closed her eyes, pushing back against his hand, feeling damp liquid heat pooling low in response. “Not exactly.” It was the only response she could manage to get out. Her brain was melting right along with her body.

His hand spread the massaging circle wider, moving up her back until he suddenly stopped. A flare of excitement arced between them. “Femme sexy. You’re wearing a knife.”

“I always wear a knife.”

He pushed her shirt up until he found the small leather sheath snuggled along her back. Gator bent forward and pressed a kiss against her bare spine. “You know how much that turns me on.”

“Everything turns you on.”

“Baby, I’m so turned on I’m about to burst out of my jeans.” He bent forward, right over the top of her, his hardened groin pressed tightly against her bu**ocks as he pulled the knife out of the sheath and laid it on the table. I want to see the outfit.”

His voice was so damned sexy, his soft drawling whisper. Flame thought her legs might turn to rubber. She could feel the blush starting somewhere at her toes and consuming her entire body. He moved away from her and she straightened, almost afraid to turn around, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Gator pulled open the shopping bag and dragged out the tiny scrap of mesh and leather. “This is it? This is what Grand-mere sent you to sleep in?”

She nodded wordlessly, her hand on her throat.

He glanced down into the bag. “What else is in here?”

“Don’t look. Whatever you do, don’t look in there.” Her voice was strangled.

He pulled the shopping bag wider and withdrew a small paddle covered in fake leopard skin. Flame groaned, her color deepening. He pulled a wireless strand of three small vibrating eggs with a little remote and some furred handcuffs. She covered her face. “My, my. Looks like we’re in for a long night of fun and games, cher.”

“What was your grandmother thinking?”

“She was thinking she needed to move us along in our relationship. She wants action obviously.” He held out the garment. “Put it on.”

“Look at it. I can’t put that on, it’s crotchless.”

He smirked at her. “I know. She chose it because it has no straps and you can easily get into it.”

“You’re such a perv.”

“Put it on for me, cher.” One hand went to the front of his jeans. Her gaze followed as he stroked unselfconsciously, a soft groan of excitement escaping.

Flame stood motionless looking at the impossible scrap of leather and mesh and the man holding it out to her. Stark desire was so intense, so raw, it deepened the color of his dark eyes to almost midnight black. She shook her head, knowing she was going to give in to him, knowing all that mattered to her in that moment was pleasing him.

She took the outfit and retired to the bathroom, refusing to struggle into it one-handed in front of him. If he looked into the bag he was going to find the whipped cream and the oils and the scented candles. And she knew he was going to look into the bag. Why that excited her, she had no idea, but maybe being a pervert was contagious. She mulled it over while she dressed, or rather undressed. There was no doubt that she was getting even more turned on at the idea of his reaction to seeing her in the very revealing and risqué outfit.

“You coming out anytime soon, or do I have to come in and get you?”

Flame looked at the little pile of clothing, the over sized plaid shirt, the black thong, the leather sheath and harness for her knife and she took a deep breath. Once she stepped out that door there was no turning back.

“Cher.” He sounded impatient, sexy, hoarse with need. “The suspense is killing me. You want me to come to you?”

Flame opened the door and sauntered out, pretending be confident and casual and that a million men had seen her with nothing on but leather and mesh. The leather part of the bustier pushed up under her br**sts into the black mesh that ended just under her ni**les, so at she was completely exposed. The mesh was open around her belly button and crotch and bu**ocks, but clung to her waist and ribs.

The room was dark other than the glow of several candles. She was grateful for that, particularly when she saw that Raoul was completely naked. He was very well endowed. She couldn’t help staring. There were a couple of things she should have mentioned to him before she ever put on leather and mesh, but now, when she had his undivided attention, she was afraid it was too late. He stood beside the bed, the silly sex toys laid out on the end table as if he intended using every one. Her heart accelerated at the sight and she knew he could hear it because he held out his hand to her.

Gator moistened suddenly dry lips. “Mon Dieu. You have a beautiful body.” He made a small circle with his fingers.

She forced herself to turn around slowly for him, showing off the outfit and the bare body beneath it. With him watching, her ni**les hardened into tight peaks and her br**sts ached for attention. She watched as he circled the rigid length of his shaft with his fist as he said some thing in French she wished she understood.

“Come here.” His body shook with wanting her. He had been with other women, but he had never felt like this. He’d never needed like this. In that moment, when she’d emerged from the bathroom looking so damned sexy in her outfit, the realization that he’d been isolated for so long came to him. She was sunshine. Laughter. Fine wine and silk sheets or beer in the bayou with the setting sun. She was secrets and sex and his very own warrior. She was his equal. She was everything he could want standing right in front of him.

She could hardly breathe, but Flame wasn’t a woman to back down once she’d made up her mind. He was looking at her, his face etched with desire and his body as starkly aroused as it could be, holding out his hand to her and she took it, allowing him to draw her close.

Careful of her broken arm, Gator bunched her hair in his hand and, tilting her head, caught her soft sigh in his mouth. The hard peaks of her ni**les pressed tightly into his chest as her body melted into his. His tongue tangled with hers, hot and moist until a river of need burst free in him. He wanted her so much he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight. Her skin was incredibly soft against his and her throaty little moans nearly drove him mad.

He kissed her over and over, rough with desire, until she was pressing her body against his, rubbing her soft belly against his arousal. The mesh brushed against his ultrasensitive groin until he was afraid he might explode. His mouth left hers to trail down her throat, nibbling along her neck until he found the creamy mounds spilling out of her costume. He thumbed her ni**les, watching her eyes darken with desire.

She cried out when his mouth closed over her nipple, suckling hard while his fingers tugged at her other breast through the mesh. She arched her body into his, wanting more of him. His hand slid down between her legs, to cover her dampness and she jerked in his arms, her need nearly as strong as his own. He took his time, lavishing attention on her br**sts, rubbing the mesh over her skin with his chin, teasing her belly button with his tongue, all the while, moving her backward to the bed.

When the edge of the bed hit the back of her knees, he lowered her, his mouth once more on hers, hard and insistent, refusing to allow her a moment to think. She had taken him to the very edge of his control and they’d only gotten started. She kissed him back, every bit as hungry as he was, but her eyes contained a hint of fear. She moaned in his arms, her body moving naturally against his, yet her touch was unsure.

“You want me.” His lips left hers and returned to her br**sts, his teeth and tongue teasing, mouth suckling, pulling strongly, hands tugging and massaging. He loved the animalistic sounds coming from her throat. He looked at her body, flushed with desire, br**sts swollen and ni**les hard peaks, her breathing as ragged as his. Beneath his wandering hand her stomach muscles contracted and her h*ps moved restlessly. “But I want more from you, Flame. I want you crying for me. I want you needing me the way I do you. I need more.”

Flame couldn’t imagine there being more. More might kill her. He wanted her crying? She was nearly sobbing for mercy. His mouth was so hot, blazing a trail of fire along her tummy. He paid particular attention to her tattoo, licking along the flames, kissing her scar, driving her crazy. His hand slid up her thigh, drowning her in sensations she’d never experienced.

His eyes met hers as his tongue paid lavish attention to her belly button, and then began to track lower, dropping little kisses and teasing bites all the way down to the end of the mesh. His fingers brushed her mound and she jerked beneath his hand, a moan escaping, one that brutally hardened him to the point of agony. He wanted to sink into her heat immediately, but not before she was writhing mindlessly. Flame was a warrior woman and he needed to keep her involved, because if she changed her mind, he’d have a fight on his hands. He lowered his head and inhaled her scent.

“Raoul.”

There was a catch in her voice. A tremor. He heard it as he flicked his tongue along the flowering moist seam. She nearly came apart as he widened her thighs to accommodate his shoulders. He pushed his tongue inside her with a slow deliberate stroke. Her hand twisted in his hair and she pushed forward into his mouth.

She tasted sweet, like honey and he couldn’t stop himself from diving deeper, taking his fill. He flicked and stabbed with his tongue, sucked and teased until she bucked against his mouth, sobbing for release.

Flame tried to find an anchor, something, anything at all to hold her to earth. She wasn’t prepared for his expertise and Raoul was sweeping her away before she could catch her breath, or think or analyze or do any of the things she needed to do for control. His mouth was insistent, drinking her, eating her, shattering her every erotic fantasy and replacing it with something far too real. He seemed to savor her taste, groaning with need, hot and hungry and desperate for more.

Flame couldn’t catch her breath as pleasure crashed over her, wave after wave of it, her body not her own, but his to do with as he wanted. She screamed as her entire stomach contracted, her belly, and br**sts and her thighs. “I can’t take any more.” She gasped the words, wanting more, needing more, but afraid it was going to till her.

“There’s so much more,” he whispered. “I want to be inside you, Flame. I can’t wait any longer.”

The sound of his voice, the look on his face, the harsh hunger for her nearly sent her over the edge. She widened her legs as he knelt between them. Her heart began to pound and fear edged up into her throat. She wasn’t giving herself to him. It wasn’t like that at all. She repeated it over and over to herself, waiting. Feeling the large head of his erection pressed tightly against her. He pushed slightly, but he didn’t enter her, making her wait.

“Look at me.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes meeting his. He wasn’t even in her and he felt too big. She should have started with something much smaller.

“You’ve never done this before, have you?” His voice was harsh with the struggle for control.

Flame shook her head. “Who was I going to do anything with?” Her fist tightened in the quilt. If he stopped, she had no idea what she was going to do. She knew so much in theory, but he was light-years ahead of her.

It shouldn’t have made him feel more possessive to know that no other man had had her. It was a primitive way to think, but he was beyond all reason, it seemed. when it came to Flame.

“This is us. You and me, Flame. And this is my choice. I want you because of who and what you are, not because of an experiment. You’re in my heart. You have to understand that. This is only between us.”

She could hardly think or breathe, her body not her own anymore. His features were set and determined. He was waiting for a response. She didn’t have one, didn’t know what was real when it came to her life. She’d never had a man want her the way Raoul did. His hunger was so raw, so intense she almost couldn’t believe it was for her. She managed a nod, lifting her hips, searching for more, searching for relief. She needed him inside of her now.