“Tanner!” she gasped as he slid a finger inside her.

“Yeah, darlin’.” He teased her clit with the tip of his tongue as he slowly pushed his finger deeper, loving the way her inner muscles clamped tight around it. “You’re so fucking tight, and so wet.”

His scalp tingled as she tugged on his hair. “Stop teasing.”

He chuckled and added a second finger as he closed his mouth over her. His cock throbbed against his zipper, impatient to be inside her. He’d been with a lot of women in his time, but he’d never wanted a woman the way he wanted her. The little sounds she made as he feasted on her had him on the edge himself.

When she started to rock against his face, he knew she was on the edge. He twisted his hand, seeking the spot. Her hands dropped to his shoulders and her thighs started to quiver.

“Tanner!”

He smiled and worked harder, bracing his arm over her stomach to keep her upright as she came undone. It got harder to move his hand as her inner muscles pulsated around him. He urged more from her with his lips and tongue, driving her higher and higher until he felt her crest the wave. As she started to come down the other side, he was overcome by the need to be inside her.

She was still trembling as he got to his feet and scooped her up in his arms. He threw her down on the bed and fumbled with his belt and zipper. He only managed to get his jeans pusheddown to his ankles, before he was scrabbling in the drawer for a condom. Once he had it on, he positioned himself above her. Her satisfied smile as she said, “Give me a minute, you almost destroyed me,” made him feel like a damned hero.

He shook his head and spread her thighs with his knees. “No minutes left. I need …” Then it hit him. No matter how badly he needed her, he couldn’t just … “Jesus, Everly. Can I?”

Her cheeks and chest were flushed, her eyes were wide as she lifted her hips and nodded.

“Thank fuck for that,” he groaned as he thrust deep and hard.

“Tanner!”

The last ripples of her orgasm fluttered around his aching cock, tearing a sound from his chest that was more like a growl than anything else. He pulled back and slammed into her again. She wrapped her legs around his thighs and clung on as he set a wild, punishing rhythm. He was losing himself inside her – and he never wanted to be found again.

He wasn’t going to last, but he needed her to come again. He needn’t have worried about that. She thrashed her head from side to side as she moaned his name, over and over.

“Tanner! I … I …”

He drove harder. “Come for me, darlin’.”

She gripped him tight in wave after wave, and he let go. A wave of darkness crashed over him as he pulsated inside her. He came so hard that every nerve ending from his scalp to the soles of his feet seemed to convulse as he gave her everything he had.

As he slowly came back to his senses, the thought hit him that he hadn’t just given her all he had – he’d given her all he was.

He tried to hold his weight off her, but she pulled him down to her.

“Wow!” she breathed after a while.

He slid his arm under her, wanting to hold her as close as he could. “Wow doesn’t even come close.”

She smiled. “You’re right. But if wow isn’t the word, I don’t know what is.”

His scalp prickled again when the word hit him. “I do.”

She looked up into his eyes with that gorgeous, satisfied smile on her face. “What is it, then?”

He kissed her slowly and carefully before he said it. The word used to scare him. He’d never said it to a woman he’d been with – and now he knew why. He’d been saving it for her.

“Love.”

Her eyebrows drew together.

He dropped a peck on her lips and smiled. “That’s the word,” he explained. “I love you, Everly.”

Her eyes grew wide, and he held his breath.

“Wow!”