Page 15 of Hero's Prize

Was this moving fast? Yes. But she didn’t have any desire to stop it. It was so much better than what she had imagined in her head.

This wasColton.

He slid his hand down the outside of her thigh, hitching her leg up so that he was more fully pressed against her. This time, they both moaned.

She pushed away the insecurities that wanted to grow inside her mind. The ones that could visualize the location of every roll of fat and inch of flabby skin anywhere on her body. The ones that said her nose was too crooked and her eyelids too droopy.

The ones that could run through every supermodel Colton had dated over the past few years. None of them looked like her. Ella was never ever going to be mistaken for a supermodel.

“Hey.” He lifted his head, and all she could see were those chocolate-brown eyes. “You still with me? Do we need to slow down? That’s more than okay.”

“I’m still with you. I don’t need to slow down.”

“Thank God.”

He uttered the words like a prayer, causing her to relax. Hewantedto be here—that much was obvious by the hard length of him pressing against her.

And she wanted to be here just as much. She refused to let her insecurities ruin this.

His lips found hers again, and Ella let herself sink into it. Theway his tongue teased and dueled with hers? The way he nipped at her bottom lip then soothed the gentle pain with his tongue? She could keep kissing him all night.

But she wanted more than that. If she only got one night with Colton, she wanted more than just kissing. So when he eased back so he could sit her up and slip her sweatshirt over her head, a few seconds later, she had no thoughts of stopping him.

Especially when he was staring at her breasts like he couldn’t wait to devour them once her bra quickly followed suit.

She arched into him, a breathless sigh falling from her lips as his mouth found one nipple and began to play with it, sucking, nipping gently, and teasing. She threaded her fingers into his hair, keeping him pressed against her.

“Fucking beautiful,” he muttered.

She knew those were just words said in the heat of passion and she shouldn’t take much stock in them, but she didn’t care. She was panting by the time his lips left her breasts and made their way down her stomach. He pulled off her shoes and socks then unbuttoned her jeans and eased them down her hips along with her underwear.

Insecurity crept back in when she realized she was totally naked while he was nearly fully clothed. “Off,” she demanded as she tugged at the front of his dress shirt. She wanted to feel his naked chest against hers.

“Yes, ma’am.” His arms moved away from her as he reached to shrug off his dress shirt and toss it on the floor, before kissing her again. Both of them hissed out a breath at the feel of skin on skin.

He met her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Are you?”

His laugh was deep and sexy as he grabbed her hand and pressed it against him through his dress pants. “More than sure.”

She nodded, smiling as she helped strip him of his pants and boxer briefs.

This was really happening.

“I need to get protection.”

“Um, I’m on birth control, if you’re comfortable with that.” She could feel her face burning. She wasn’t used to having this type of talk and wasn’t sure if she was making things awkward.

But his gaze turned almost primal. “If you’re okay with that. I always use a condom since…”

He trailed off, and she didn’t want to think too hard about what the rest of that sentence would be.

Since he slept with three different women a night?

Since he had so many supermodels throwing themselves at him?

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what else to say.

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