He throbbed so hard in his pants his arousal was almost pain, rather than pleasure, but trying to keep the reins on his desire for Vicki didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered but touching her the way she’d touched him, discovering her with his hands on her skin, her sweet moans of need reverberating all the way through him.

When one hand wasn’t nearly enough, he covered her with both, splaying his hands over her skin just as she had over him. He could feel the beating of her heart, so fast, so strong, through his palms, his fingertips.

Words he hadn’t planned on saying, full of emotions he knew he wasn’t supposed to feel for just a friend, hung on the edge of his tongue and the only way he could stop himself from saving them was to lower his lips to one beautiful peak and take her into his mouth. Vicki’s hands threaded into his hair as she arched closer to him. He began by gently swirling his tongue over her, but then he had to taste her better with his teeth, his lips. She gasped as he nipped at her sensitive skin, then sucked harder, trying desperately to get his fill of her sweetness.

Suddenly, her hips went wild beneath him and he was about to move one hand down to her hips to hold her steady before she unwittingly pushed him over the edge, when she whispered, “Ryan,” in a raw voice, his name falling from her lips again and again.

My God, he suddenly realized, she was about to shatter beneath him, from nothing more than his mouth at her breast.

He cupped her hips hard against him and ground against her the way he’d been wanting to all night. He didn’t have time to worry about being gentle, or holding back for fear of shocking her. He never wanted her to forget her first climax in his arms...and didn’t intend for a minute to let her escape from the fact that he was the one taking her over the edge of pleasure.

Her skin dampened beneath him as she moved closer and closer to release and it was pure instinct to lift his head from her chest, raise one hand to stroke her cheek as she writhed beneath him.

“Let go, Vicki. Let me see how beautiful you are.”

Her eyes fluttered open just as her lips parted on a gasp. She arched into him and trembled hard in release just as he took her mouth in a kiss. Again and again he pushed his hips into hers as he held her against him, until finally he felt her go lax and soft again.

Ryan felt wild, like an animal finally released from capture as, with a soft nip at her bottom lip, he pulled back to stare down at the woman he needed more than anyone he’d ever known.

Her eyes were closed and she was still breathing hard as he ran the pad of his thumb over the lips he’d just been devouring. Slowly, her eyes opened and her cheeks flushed even more. Ryan didn’t realize he was grinning down at her until she smiled back.

“You’re amazing, Vicki.”

She blinked once, twice, then turned her head a little to the side as if she was suddenly shy. “I didn’t know that was going to happen. I’m not usually so—” She shook her head a little, staring at his bicep before saying, “—sensitive.”

While he loved hearing that he’d made her feel things she didn’t usually feel, he hated the way she seemed almost afraid to look at him. Cupping her jaw gently, he turned her face back to his.

“I may never be able to sit comfortably on this couch again,” he teased her with a smile, even though the blood was pumping through his veins so hard he could barely form a sentence.

It was true, of course, that he’d be reliving those last fifteen minutes for a very long time. Every time he walked into the living room, he’d see Vicki lying beneath him, her beautiful br**sts spilled into his hands and mouth, while she arched into him and found her pleasure.

She flushed again, but this time he wouldn’t let her turn away from him.

“You’re so beautiful when you come,” he told her, forcing her to see exactly what she did to him. “Even more beautiful than I thought you’d be.”

Again, that little look of confusion furrowed the skin between her eyebrows.

“You have no idea how many nights, how many hours I thought about you,” he admitted to her in a low voice. After all, now that they were finally together for real, there was no reason to hold back his endless fantasies, was there? “I was dying to know how you touched yourself. What you liked. How you liked it. I couldn’t stop wondering about the sounds you made when you were close...and when you finally went over.”

She didn’t say anything, just continued to stare up at him like she couldn’t possibly believe what he was saying was true. Wanting her to believe, needing her to know just how much she meant to him—how much she’d always meant—he slid his hand from her hips back to her br**sts.

Another gasp sounded from her pretty lips as he cupped her soft curves and ran his thumb over the taut, still-damp peak. “I also,” he said in a voice made raw from pure need, “dreamed of seeing you naked one day.”

“Ryan...please.”

He didn’t know if she was begging him to stop divulging his secret desires—or to hurry and make good on them. Not that there was any choice, of course. He couldn’t possibly get this close to stripping her clothes from her and not make good on it.

He grinned down at her again, his friend who had just become so much more, thank God.

Benefits had never been this good, that was for sure.

“I always have liked the sound of a woman begging.”

Her eyes rolled, then, and he was glad to see that her shyness finally seemed to have gone.

“So I’ve heard,” she replied with a sassy lift of one eyebrow.

He had to lower his mouth to one breast and then the other again before asking, “What else did you hear?” When she didn’t answer right away, he licked at her again. “Come on, I’m dying to know.”

“I can’t think when you do that.”

His grin grew wider. “Good.” Shifting over her on the couch, he sat back so that he could reach the zippers that started just above her knees and ran up the outer length of each thigh. “God, this is hot,” he said as he slid the first slowly open, baring inch after inch of her gorgeous thighs.

He could feel her trembling slightly beneath his hand, but it was clearly from arousal, not fear, so he relished it, let the edges of his fingernails scrape softly across the top of her thigh so that she actually shuddered in his hands.

How could he have done anything else but lick his way up the leg he’d just uncovered? Open on one side now, the fabric of her dress was barely covering her sex and he was a beat away from lifting it and pressing his mouth to her heat. Somehow, he managed to pull back to undo the zipper on the other side. He wasn’t able to go as slow this time, could barely handle the thought that Vicki was almost naked on his couch.