He'd never felt pleasure like this. Had never known a woman to be so strong and yet soft all at the same time. Had never wanted to look into someone's soul and know that there was a place for himself there.

Because he swore that's what he saw when he looked into her eyes.

A hundred times over the next minutes as they moved together, he could have come. Explosively. But, goddamn it, now that he was where he'd thought he wanted to be, right there on the verge of exploding in her willing body, all he wanted was to give her pleasure.

Knowing it was going to nearly kill him to leave her body, he forced himself back into the cool air.

Her eyes were unfocused with pleasure. And now, confusion. “Luke?”

“You're beautiful,” he said against her lips, before taking them in a quick, hard kiss.

“So are you. Please fuck me some more.”

A smile moved onto his face before he even realized it was coming. “I will. After you come.”

She shook her head frantically. “No. Please. I want you inside of me again.”

Lord, he wanted to be inside her again too, but he needed to give her this first. “Not before you come, sweetheart.”

“I can come like that.”

About to kiss his way down her sweat-dampened naked body, he stilled and held her gaze. Another smile, this one full of sensual promise, came with his response.

“Good. Then you'll come around my cock the second time.”

At her swift intake of breath, he moved his lips and hands quickly over her sweet breasts and rock-hard nipples, down across her belly, then slid his mouth back over her mound. Her clit was a hard nub against his tongue. Knowing he couldn't bear this torture for much longer, he sucked her into his mouth at the same time that he slid first one finger, then two into her hot passage.

She cried out his name as she arched into his mouth. And this time when he felt her inner muscles tighten on his fingers, instead of pulling away, he focused in on her swollen, heated flesh.

Her entire body tightened beneath his hands, the tendons in her thighs tightening around his head, as she circled in on her orgasm. He felt the rapid spasming of her vaginal muscles clamping down on his fingers a split second before her cry of pleasure sounded into her bedroom.

Jesus, she was tight. And strong. Knowing he was about to be back inside of her, knowing she was going to come again around his cock, knowing that she was all his for at least one night, had him almost climaxing onto her bed cover.

He'd never moved as fast as he did right then, to get back inside her, and—fuck!—as soon as he pushed his head inside of her, he realized she was even tighter, even hotter, even wetter now that he'd finally let her come.

Thank God at least he knew he wasn't going to hurt her, because he couldn't hold back this time.

Letting loose all the pent up lust for Janica that he'd carefully corralled for the past five years, maybe even longer than that, he drove himself into her, high and hard. Her slick flesh stretched open for him before closing back in a perfectly snug clasp around his thick, pulsing cock. She was still coming, her muscles grasping him in rhythmic bursts as he thrust into her again and again.

Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she took everything he gave her and somehow managed to give it back in equal measure.

He'd never fucked a woman like this. Never taken anyone's pussy so ruthlessly.

As if she could read his mind, Janica hissed, “Harder, Luke. Please. Harder,” her hands gripping his shoulders tightly, her legs wrapped tight around his waist.

His balls tightened almost painfully at her desperate appeal and it was pure instinct to take her ankles in his hands and push her legs up high, so that they were resting on his shoulders. There'd been too much of a risk of hurting his previous lovers with deep penetration to ever do the position justice, but something told him Janica could not only take him like this, but that it would give her at least as much pleasure as it gave him.

Her back walls pressed hard into his cock as he rammed into her fully open body, and he swore he could feel his head pushing against her womb.

He was right there, about to shoot his load into the most beautiful woman he'd ever known, when he saw the moisture coming from the corners of her eyes.

No!

He'd hurt her.

“Oh God, Janica, I'm sorry,” he said, his words all rushing together as he tried to get his body to obey his brain and get out of her incredibly hot, tight body.

The tiny body he was ripping in two.

But before he could do anything at all, her hands were on his face.

“I love you, Luke.” More tears flowed, making her next words thick as she said again, “I love you so much.”

Her declaration was one thing too many for him to process and even as his body took in more stimuli than it ever had before, he could feel his brain—and heart—starting to shut down.

But then, somehow, he was wiping away her tears and she was turning her face into his palm and gently kissing the inside of his hand. His body started moving again, driving back in, then out of her in hard strokes, completely of its own volition.

“Love me, Luke,” she begged him, and then they were shifting on the bed so that her body was pressed lengthwise against his and her legs were coming around his hips again and she was pulling his mouth down onto hers and he was kissing her like he'd never kissed another woman.

Like she was his first, his last, and everything in between.

And then, with her tongue stroking his, her hands warm and strong on his back, he detonated with a roar of pleasure, any thoughts of hurting her obliterated beneath his explosive release. Somewhere in there he realized she was coming again, crying out his name as her body tensed then released in ecstasy.

Making love to Janica Ellis was beyond amazing. Worlds better than incredible.

Being with her was simply mind-blowing.

But later, what struck him as the most amazing thing of all was not that she'd been able to take all of him and then some.

It wasn't even that she'd used the word “love.”

It was how right it was to pull her into his arms, how good it felt to have her curl into the protective curve of his body.

And how natural and easy it was to fall immediately into the deep, healing sleep he so desperately needed.

Chapter Eight

Luke woke to a dark bedroom.

Janica's bedroom.

Apart from the fact that she must have gotten up to turn off the light at some point, they hadn't moved for hours. Still curled into his body, Janica's breathing was even, her back to his chest. Her ass was softly pressing against his groin, her breasts resting against his forearm.

He didn't need time to react to her warm, naked body. He was already there, as hard and ready as if he hadn't already fucked her senseless.