And that's always worked just fine for me."

He watched the emotions that swept across her expressive features. "Ah," he murmured, smiling,

"you're thinking about last night, right? I held you on the couch. I slept with you in my arms. I cuddled with you a few minutes ago and I can't stop touching you now."

Catching her hand, Connor pulled it down and thrust his erection into it. "That's sexual interest."

He pulled her hand back up and set it over his heart. "This tightening in my chest that you can't see? That's something I've never felt before.

You've got something no one else has. You don't have a shortcoming, sweetheart. You have an advantage."

Stacey's lips quivered alarmingly and his stomach knotted further.

"With you, I didn't even think about whetting my sword," he rushed forward.

She covered her mouth.

"Well, not the metal sword," he corrected gruffly, knowing he was screwing this all up but unsure of how to fix it. "I mean you're wet and my other sword…

I

mean

I

thought

about

wetting that sword—"

Her lovely face scrunched up and he begged,

"Don't cry!"

He wrapped his arms around her and patted her shaking back awkwardly. "Oh man. I suck at this.

I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I meant that as a compliment. It's my problem I'm nuts for you, not yours. I—"

Her lips pressed ardently to his nipple, then she ran her tongue over it in a slow, heated swipe.

He stiffened, staring down at her with wide eyes.

She was laughing at him.

"That was beautiful," she mock sniffled, her hands cupping his ass.

His brows rose. "Yeah?"

"Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure I have never made a man's chest tight before." Her smile was pure sunshine. "I like it."

"How about the other part?"

Stacey laughed. "You know damn well I like the other part." Her voice lowered provocatively.

"If we hurry up and get out of the shower, I will show you how much."

Connor considered that a moment, somewhat lost in the barrage of emotions he felt. Something like joy. Maybe hope. He hid how twisted up he was by teasing. "You're not just using me for my body, right?"

"Sure I am." She cupped his balls in both hands.

"But when you're gone and I'm waiting desperately by the phone, I'll be thinking about more than your swords."

Stacey followed Connor out of the bathroom at her insistence. She wanted to ogle his bare behind. Lucky for her, it was a view well worth ogling. The man had legs honed by strenuous activity. Gorgeous legs. Long and leanly muscled.

His ass was a perfect complement. Taut and firm.

Tight. Flexing with every step. With dimples on either side.

Yum.

And there, between his legs, the occasional glimpse of his heavy balls. Denuded. Delicious.

Perhaps if he weren't erect, she could see the head of his cock, too, but he was rocked and cocked. Ready. For her.

How did she get so lucky? She couldn't shake the feeling that it was all too good to be true.

There had to be something wrong with him.

Stacey Daniels did not wind up with perfect men.

There was always something screwy with them.

Something majorly whacked that prevented any possibility of a relationship. Like Tommy, who wanted to be eighteen years old forever. Or Tom Stein, who wanted to live a "green" life in the desert, surviving off solar energy and rain water.

Stacey was pretty sure that the gene that created hotness on the outside also created misfiring brain cells on the inside.

She sighed. Connor was ultra-hot. The finest looking man she'd ever met. As perfect as the rear view was, it barely kept up with the front view.

Where were his flaws? His inability to talk about his feelings? Hell, she didn't like flowery speech.

Honesty was more of a turn-on for her than pretty phrases.

Connor reached her bed, turned to face her, and caught her up in his big brawny arms.

She loved the feeling of being small. Of being protected and cherished.

"That was hot," he rumbled.

"Hmm?" Her eyes closed as she relished the feel of his hard body against hers. The light dusting of hair on his chest tickled her nipples and the smell of his skin, undiluted by her bath soap, did crazy things to her heart rate.

"Feeling you watching me."

"You're gorgeous," she breathed, raising her lids just enough to see him.

"Before today, I considered my looks a convenience to getting laid."

Stacey laughed softly, appreciating how bluntly open he was. "I'm sure it has been."

His firm lips nuzzled against her temple. "Now, I'm grateful my looks are the kind you like."

"Oh yes." She nipped at his chin with her teeth. "I like."

Connor spun abruptly and tossed her onto the coverlet. She bounced with a squeal and then he was on her, crawling over her in a cage or hard, luscious masculinity. He started with a lick between her toes, then pressed a kiss to her ankle, then lifted her leg and nibbled in the hollow behind her knee. It tickled and she laughed.

"That giggle of yours makes me hot," he rumbled, pausing to stare at her.

Rolling her eyes, Stacey pointed out, "Everything makes you hot. You're a sex machine."

"Oh yeah?" He gripped her inner thighs and spread her legs open, exposing her to his gaze. "I distinctly remember attempting to call a cab when you attacked me and demanded sex."

"After you badgered me into it!" She bit back a laugh when he arched a brow at her. She was amazed she was even capable of conversation with him poised above her pussy with a wolfish gleam in his eyes. Thing was, she'd never been silly in bed before. She liked it.

"How does your saying to me, 'You're not getting out of this now' constitute badgering?"

"The badgering came before that."

Connor snorted. "I've never badgered a woman for sex in my life."

"You also didn't fight when I gave in," she argued, sticking her tongue out playfully.

His aqua gaze darkened and heated at the sight.

"Gave in?" he scoffed. "I'm a guy, sweetheart.

Throw gorgeous pussy at us and we're not going to say no."

Her mouth fell open on a choked laugh. "I did not throw my pussy at you."

"Umm… yeah." He winked. Added in combination with his boyishly charming smile, it was devastating to a woman's equilibrium. "You did.

Nymphomaniac. Jees, can't get a break around this place. Sex last night. Sex again today. Sex right now…" He sighed dramatically.

"Oh, far be it from me to fuck you to death," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Let's just go eat pie."

Connor stuck his lower lip out in a mock pout. "I was going to eat something else."

Considering where he was, she got the idea. "Nah.

That's okay. This nymphomaniac is amazingly not in the mood for sex anymore."

A total bald-faced lie. She was slick and swollen.

When he glanced down skeptically and then grinned, she knew he could see it.

"I can put you in the mood," he purred.

"Puh-leaze." She faked a yawn.

His low growl made her laugh.

"You're going to pay for that," he threatened, tickling her.

"Ah! Stop it!" She tried to roll away from him and succeeded only in ending up on her stomach, a distinct advantage for him.

He

came

over

her

immediately,

laughing. Laughing. His lips to her ear, he said,

"I'm going to make you beg me for it."

Stacey shivered with anticipation. "I'd like to see you try." Boy, would she ever!

"No trying involved, sweetheart." He licked the shell of her ear, then dipped inside. She grew hotter, wetter. As if he knew, he pushed his big hand between her legs and stroked her. "Yum,"

he said. "Someone's horny already."

"Not me." She gasped as he found her clit and rubbed in gentle circles.

He hummed a skeptical noise and she buried her smile in her pillow. She felt him move, felt the bed dip and sway, and then his tongue, hot and rough coursing the length of her spine. She gasped and writhed, the sensation both ticklish and arousing.

Connor pinned her hips still and licked in the dimple at the small of her back. "Stop wiggling,"

he ordered.

"I was hoping you'd move so I could get up and get some pie."

Connor grumbled something and bit her butt cheek. Then he rolled her over, angled his cock down, and pushed inside her.

Stacey whimpered and arched upward. God, it felt so damn good. He was huge everywhere, even there, and the sensation of being stretched to her limits was incredible. He planted his hands on either side of her head and glared down at her. It was an intimidating picture he made, but the warm amusement in his eyes belied the tough image.

"So deliciously tiiiggghhhttt…" he said, rolling his hips into her. "I can do this all day."

She gasped when he flexed inside her. "You might be able to talk me into that."

He pulled out slowly, then returned in a long torturous glide. "I thought you wanted pie."

"Umm… I changed my mind."

Connor pumped out and then in again. As he fucked her slow and with such skill, her eyes slid closed on a low moan. He reared up and kneeled, draping her legs over his muscular thighs, rocking back and forth. The thick head of his cock rubbed inside her, stroking across a bundle of nerves that made her nipples tighten and stab into the air. He struck hard and she cried out as he found the end of her, the mixture of pleasure and pain curling her toes.

"You're so deep," she slurred, cupping her breasts to ease their swollen ache.

"I want to get deeper." His abdomen laced tight as he grabbed her hips and plunged to the root, grinding against her. He was thicker at the base, which caused her clit to tilt downward and catch added friction.