Her fingers had barely slicked over her clitoris when Ian could no longer hold back from touching her, too. On a deep groan of need, he got up from the chair, moved to the bed, and slid one finger, then two, into her. She lifted her hips into his hand, but when she began to slide her own fingers away, he said, “No, I want you to keep touching yourself.”

“But you’re—”

“Needing to be closer to you.”

The words that should have come out simply as sexy, ended up being about so much more. Because as much as he wished he could hide from her just how deeply and strongly she affected him, in moments like this when she gave herself entirely up to him, he couldn’t find a way not to give her at least part of himself, too.

“I need it, too,” she said, and then just as he’d told her, she continued sliding her fingers over herself in a circular pattern that matched perfectly the deliberately slow pace he’d set between her thighs. She watched through heavy-lidded eyes the way their hands worked in unison over and into her, to bring her higher and higher with every stroke, with every swirl.

“Did you ever dream of this? Of both of us touching you this way?”

“No.” The short word was little more than a gasp as he pushed just a little deeper, a little harder. “In my fantasies it was always just you touching me. Never both of us.” She shook her head, admitted, “I didn’t know we could do this together.”

“So much,” he said in a low voice, “there’s so much we can do together. Like this.” He took one of her ni**les into his mouth. And as he suckled it, both of their hands naturally picked up the pace between her legs.

Now that he knew just how sweet, how soft, how hungry she was, every time he had her only made him wild with craving more of her. “I want all of your orgasms to be mine.” He’d already taken too much from her, but he couldn’t control the urge to want more.

“They are yours. Only yours, Ian.”

He loved the way his name fell from her lips again and again, growing more and more ragged as they both took her closer to her climax. On a light scrape of his teeth over the tip of her breast, he growled, “Come for me. Only for me, sweetheart.”

A sob tore from her throat as she went completely taut at his command, then broke apart, inch by gorgeous inch, beneath his mouth and hand and her own, as well. Nothing in the world but Tatiana would ever be this beautiful, this precious.

Between Thursday night and today, she’d come apart again and again for him. But his utter lack of control meant that he needed to see more, needed to feel more, needed to take her up even higher, needed to be right there as she experienced greater and greater pleasure, until he was absolutely certain that she had nothing left to give to him. And maybe then, he told himself, he would finally be able to sate his desperate need for her.

He wouldn’t let her recover, not wanting to let her catch her breath or think or do anything but feel. She was still trembling as he moved to kneel on the rug beside the bed. Putting her legs over his shoulders, he found her core to be deliciously hot and wet against his lips and tongue. With his fingers still moving hard, fast, and deep into her, he nudged her own hand away from her sex.

This time, there was no slow buildup to her climax, no need to coax—or demand—that she come apart for him. And as one orgasm spiraled into another, though she’d already given him so much more than he deserved, when he moved again to his feet and gripped her hips in his hands to pull her to the edge of the mattress, he couldn’t catch his own breath.

All he could do was feel.

A heartbeat later he was completely inside her and he couldn’t look away from her beautiful eyes, so green and so full of love for him.

She’d done exactly what he told her to do from the moment he’d pulled the chair up to the foot of the bed, but now she surprised him by reaching up to wind her hands around his neck and kiss him so sweetly that before he knew what had happened, she’d rolled them over so that he was flat on his back and she was on top.

They’d moved straight from lesson one to lesson two, but this time he wasn’t the teacher.

She was.

And, Lord, the things she taught him as she kissed him hungrily while rubbing her br**sts over his chest and grinding her hips into his.

He’d never known desire could be this sharp, this sweet, this overwhelming.

He’d never known a woman could be this soft and this strong, this innocent and yet so beautifully sensual all at the same time.

And he’d never known, until they drove each other higher before reaching the pinnacle of the storm together, just how high it was possible for a man to reach...or how far it was possible for a man to fall.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ian couldn’t remember the last time he’d awakened with a woman in his arms and wanted to keep her there. Even when he’d been married, he’d gotten out of bed as soon as his eyes were open to work. And with the women he’d had casual flings with, both before and after his marriage, he’d never been tempted to stay overnight or to have them at his place.

But with Tatiana breathing softly and steadily in his arms, her chest rising and falling against his, with her hair tickling his chin and her warm curves pressing against him as he lay with her spooned against him, he now knew exactly what he’d miss if he got up to go use Tim’s house phone to check in at the office.

So damned much.

Loving the feeling of waking up with Tatiana in his arms was just one more thing that set her apart from every other woman he’d been with. Lord knew making love with her was on a whole different plane, as well. It would, he thought, be easiest to chalk it all up to their break from real life, but even back in Seattle when they’d been going from meeting to meeting, he’d been attuned to her in a way he’d never been with anyone else.

Ian had never known a woman’s body so well. Before they’d landed on the island, before they’d been caught in this storm, he would have tried to tell himself that it was because they were discovering her pleasure together, kiss by kiss, caress by caress, climax by climax. But by now, there was no point trying to convince himself to believe such a blatant lie...not when he knew that what had grown between them was so much more than just pleasure.

Ian had never wanted to understand a woman’s reactions this much. He’d never been so compelled to give a woman pleasure. He’d never worked so hard for a gasp, for a moan, for a smile. And yet, what stood out most for him wasn’t their phenomenal lovemaking, but the way she reacted when she’d walked into their room above the barn: Like it was heaven.