She was only vaguely aware that he was kissing his way back up her body, his hands steady on her hips the whole time so that she didn’t have to count on her shaky legs to hold her up. His kisses were soft and lingering as he let her catch her breath, but she wasn’t so far gone that she could miss the need throbbing through him. Yet again, he was restraining himself from taking what he needed.

“You must have been so frustrated on Saturday night, after the way you left without me returning the favor.”

“Touching you, feeling you, watching you come apart is the most fulfilled I’ve ever been in my life. Anything more is just a bonus.”

“In that case,” she said in a husky voice, “it looks like it’s time for a bonus. Not just for you, but for me. Because you weren’t the only one who was frustrated. I wanted to take your clothes off. I wanted to touch you.” She paused, held his gaze. “I wanted to make you come.”

She could feel his heartbeat kick up even faster against her hand as he said, “I want you, Grace. You know how much I want you, how much I want all of those things, too. But I don’t want to make the mistake of pushing you too far, too fast. You weren’t ready for more Saturday night.”

“You’re right, I wasn’t ready then. But now, I am.”

She didn’t want to be the only one seduced. She wanted to seduce, too. So that they were equals. So that she would stop feeling so off-balance. And so she would finally know whether he tasted as good as she’d fantasized he would.

“I need more. I need you the way you’ve had me.”

Her eyes on his, she lifted his hands from her hips so that she could lower herself to her knees on the wood-planked floor.

* * *

Dylan lived only a couple of blocks from his boathouse. But he hadn’t been able to wait long enough to travel those two blocks with Grace, to take those five minutes before stripping off her clothes. Instead, he’d given in—yet again—to his inner caveman and dragged her to the back of his workshop to strip her clothes away.

She’d said she needed to take things slow, but every time fierce desire drove them into another heated kiss, he felt her revel in the thrill of being with him. He loved watching her embrace her innate sensuality, the very same sensual woman she’d believed was forever dead because some asshole she used to date had a heart and soul made out of coal.

But even after she’d let herself go in the most beautiful way he’d ever seen, with her dress and lingerie lying on the wood-planked floor where he’d dropped them, he hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t thought she’d slide down the wall, naked but for her heels and flushed from her climax, to go on her knees in front of him.

Her hands were totally steady, and determined, as she worked on his belt buckle. He’d been on the edge for so long, since the moment he’d first set eyes on her outside his boathouse, that he wouldn’t need much more to go off than this brush of her fingers over his denim-covered erection while he looked down at her beautiful naked body.

Her eyes were glittering with excitement and arousal as she smiled up at him. Just the thought of her pulling him free and wrapping her lips around him...

He had to close his eyes for a few seconds to try to get a grip, but even then he couldn’t stop his hands from threading through her soft hair as she worked his zipper open. The sound she made as she wrapped her fingers around him, a hum of deep pleasure that resonated all the way through his entire body, nearly sent him over.

He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare down at Grace in awe. But she read his mind, thank God, understood that he wasn’t going to last long this time. And when she leaned forward another couple of inches and took him into her mouth?

Jesus.

Nothing had ever felt this good. Not one damned thing in thirty-one years could compete with her soft lips, her wet tongue, the heat and pull of her mouth as she loved him the same way he’d just loved her.

His hands tightened in her hair as hers tightened on his hips. Time ceased to move forward. He wasn’t even sure he was breathing anymore, as everything came down to this moment. This pleasure. This woman.

Grace. Grace. Grace.

Everything inside of him exploded, blindingly bright and colorful. He’d never experienced a storm so wild, or one so precious.

Moments later he was on his knees with her, their kisses even more passionate for all they’d just given—and taken—from each other. Only when the sound of footsteps came and he heard someone say his name was he able to drag his mouth from hers.

He looked into her eyes, still beautifully hazy with pleasure. “Someone’s here.” He knew they needed to get their clothes back on, but he couldn’t stop himself from giving her another kiss before, and after, each word.

The second time the visitor called his name, her eyes went wide as what he’d just said finally registered. “Someone’s here,” she echoed.

Grace scrambled for her dress, but Dylan was already drawing it over her head. They were both on their feet again, her lingerie shoved into the pocket of his jeans, when his visitor poked his head around the hull of the boat and saw them in the back corner.

“Ah, there you are, Dylan. Grace, it’s good to see you again.”

His brother Adam looked far too pleased by what he saw. Dylan had walked in on his brother once when they were teens, and he had no doubt his brother saw this as payback.

Grace’s skin was flushed, both from their kisses and from obvious embarrassment at nearly being caught without their clothes on, but Dylan was impressed by the lift of her chin. Her strength had drawn him from the start, and he loved the way she calmly met his brother’s eyes.

“It’s good to see you, too, Adam,” she said smoothly, despite the fact that her underwear was stuffed into Dylan’s jeans pocket.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” his brother said, even though he knew damn well that he was.

Grace raised an eyebrow in Adam’s direction, the same look he’d seen her give Mason once when he was misbehaving at the aquarium. A warning not to mess with her. “Actually,” she said with a small smile, “your timing was perfect.” Turning back to Dylan, she said, “I need to get back to my babysitter now.”

He wanted to reach for her, wanted his brother—and the rest of the world—to know for sure that she wasn’t just a journalist doing a story on him or just a sexy fling. She was his. And yet, he knew he couldn’t force anything, knew that no matter the physical barriers they’d begun to knock down between them, she’d only resent him if he tried to push her faster than she was ready to go.