NAUGHTY BUT NICE Read online

  Breaking off for air, Tag put his wet mouth to her ear and slowly exhaled, making her shiver. Making her want more. Now.

  "Cassie."

  "Yeah." A fog of sexual arousal had descended over her vision.

  "Is it the same?"

  She sighed. "Fine. Yes, you kiss me stupid with or without the uniform. Tag … tell me you have a condom in those pants on the grass over there."

  He slowly shook his head, his thumb tracing her lower lip. "I do, but we're not going to have sex."

  She stared at him, feeling a little befuddled. She looked at the hair lightly decorating his muscular chest. At the line of that same hair that divided his hard stomach and vanished with the rest of his good parts into the swirling water. Then she watched his tongue slick over his wet lower lip. Oh, God, she wanted him. Wanted him to obliterate all the emotional tension and get right to the physical. "We're not going to do it in here?"

  "No." Leaning forward, he put his mouth to her throat and sucked.

  Her head thunked back against the edge. "But…" The backs of his fingers brushed over her right breast as he reached up to touch her cheek. But she wanted his fingers back on her breasts. Wanted that so badly she was shaking. "Why not?"

  His eyes were all over her, and their hot intensity as he stared at her told he did want her very much, so she could forget the sudden fear that he didn't.

  "I want more than sex, Cassie. I want more, and I want it with you."

  Her eyes widened, because … oh, God, if he used the L-word again right now—which would be the equivalent to an icy bucket of water being dumped on her hot, hot body—she was going to slug him.

  Then probably start bawling again.

  "I want you," he said again through very tight vocal cords. "More than I want my next breath, if you want the truth. I want to make love. Then I want to sit here with you in my arms and talk. I want to know why you were crying. I want to know your hopes and dreams. I want—"

  "I get it," she said tightly, bitterly disappointed, and crossed her arms. "But I'm not up for that."

  "Really? Or are you just scared?"

  Her chin came up. "I am not."

  "Prove it," he dared softly, his heart in his throat because this felt as though it was the most important moment of his life. He didn't know when exactly, or the where or the why of it, but this woman had become more important to him than anything or anyone else.

  And he wanted to show it to her.

  "You want me to prove you don't scare me," she said to herself, taking a deep breath that brought the very tips of her breasts out of the water. "Yeah, okay. I can do that." Eyes glittering, she climbed out of the water into the equally steamy night.

  For a moment she simply looked at him, naked and gleaming by moonlight, and his chest ached just looking at her. Would she go through with it?

  But his Cassie was nothing if not the bravest woman he'd ever met, and slowly her lips curved. "Come here," she said in a sultry voice that matched her body. She led him to the long, wide swing, which had a comfortable cotton cover and more pillows than his own bed. Standing in front of it, she twined her arms around his neck, tipped her head and kissed him. Kissed him with her lips, with her tongue, and when she made that helpless sound in the back of her throat again—the sound that assured him she was every bit as lost as he was—he knew she was kissing him with her heart.

  His own opened. Flooded. "That's it," he murmured, stroking his hands down her back. "Oh, yeah, Cassie, that's it. Do you feel it?"

  "I feel you. God, Tag, I feel you." One of her legs bent, hooked at his hip so that his engorged penis brushed at the very core of her. Her head fell back and she arched closer. "Please, Tag, please…"

  "Oh, yeah." He sank with her onto the swing. "But we have all night."

  "We've had all night before."

  "This is going to be different. More." He reached out a reverent finger to the tip of one nipple, lightly circling it, watching it bead up tight beneath his touch until it distended out a good half inch, pouting for more. He shivered and brought his other still-wet hand up, dripping water over her skin. Waiting until a small rivulet ran down her breast to the very tip of the puckered nipple before he leaned in and licked it off.

  With a little cry, she arched up and did her best to thrust her entire breast into his mouth. But he simply pulled back and repeated the feathery touch to her other nipple. She let out a little mewl, gripped his hair in her fists and held his mouth to her breast.

  Tag growled and hauled her into his arms. Her mouth raised to his and he took it, groaning when she used her tongue in a blatant motion that mimicked what she wanted him to do to her. Holding her head, he gentled the kiss, sucking on her bottom lip, licking the corner of her mouth before slowly deepening the connection, making love to her mouth the way he was going to make love to her body.

  Panting, she tore free and arched her body toward his. "I'm ready right now."

  "Are you?" Holding her gaze, he slid his hands down her body to her hips, and slowly rocked them to his.

  "Yes!" Spreading her legs, she managed to get the very tip of him inside her before he gripped her hips with a rough groan. His hands were shaking as he held her still. "Not yet." There was still more. He slid his fingers between her legs and nearly fell to a boneless heap when he felt how hot, how wet she was. It was impossible not to stroke her, not to get caught up in her rhythm.

  "Oh, please," she whispered, rocking against him. "Please, Tag."

  "Tell me." Laying her back, he looked down into her eyes, at her mouth still wet from his, at the body he wanted to make love to for the rest of his life. He skimmed a hand over her breasts, her stomach, lower. Past her belly button, over her mound so that the tips of his fingers divided slick feminine folds.

  Her eyes went opaque and arching up, she cried out.

  "You want this?" His middle finger feathered over her while he took her nipple into his mouth. "Or … this?" He slid that finger inside her now, then added another, while stroking her with his thumb.

  "Tag … oh, Tag." She couldn't stop saying his name. She couldn't help it, sensations rocked and throbbed and demanded completion. Never in her life had she experienced anything like it. Oh, definitely she'd enjoyed sex, more than maybe she'd like to admit, but always … always, she'd kept her head at all times, even during a climax. And always, she'd been able to walk away.

  But right this minute, under his knowing, tortuous administrations and his most amazing fingers, she couldn't keep her head. Couldn't walk away. Could hardly breathe. One desperate mass of flesh, she spread her thighs to take in more of the magic. Her fingers dug into his arms, his chest, wherever she could reach, in an attempt to get a grip, but with his mouth on her breast, his fingers buried in her, his voice echoing in her ears that he was going to make love to her until they couldn't take any more, there was no grip to be found.

  "You're so wet," he murmured, his fingers playing in that wetness. "Wet for me."

  She couldn't stand it, not the kisses, the erotic words, the careful, knowing strokes. Her muscles started to quiver and she was one heartbeat away from coming when he released her breast with an audible pop and took his fingers away, making her nearly scream.

  "Not yet." He came up with a condom and tore it open with his teeth while his fingers stroked her one last time. Her toes curled.

  "Don't come yet," he begged, pushing up onto his knees between her legs. For a moment he just stared down at her, with such heat and affection and need she nearly came from that alone.

  "You're so sweet," he whispered.

  Well, that was a new one, and it shouldn't have caught her breath, burned her eyes. Shouldn't have done anything but infuriate her because he was effortlessly holding her on the very edge as no one had ever dared to before.

  Then, with just one finger he lightly circled her opening, not quite penetrating, bringing back the heat, the need in a flash.

  Biting her lip to keep from begging, she arched her hips. H