Page 55 of Love Game

His nose brushed her own. She tipped her head to accommodate the kiss she hoped was coming, but he stopped, his lips millimeters from hers. “Nope. I’m pretty clear on them. You’re mine, and for the record, I would have torn him to pieces with my bare hands if he tried to cross one more line.”

Heat radiated from him. Warm, moist puffs of air teased her mouth. The taut muscles of his chest and arms were enticingly hard. But his eyes… That direct, blue gaze was soft, filled with apology, embarrassment, and enough stubborn righteousness to make her knees wobbly. That whole “you’re mine” thing should have raised her feminist hackles, but it didn’t. Not with this man. Danny respected her. More than that, he liked her. And she liked the note of wonderment in his voice when he made those gruff, grumbly declarations. He sounded almost as if he couldn’t believe his luck.

“I meant boundaries with you,” she said, running her fingertip under the collar of his T-shirt.

“No. No boundaries between you and me.”

He kissed her then, sealing the pronouncement with a caress so tender and searching, she couldn’t remember a single reason why she should resist. Just when she thought he might pull away, he ran his tongue over the seam of her lips. Asking, not taking. Tempting instead of demanding. Of course, she gave in. How could she not when he drew her bottom lip between his and sucked gently? She plunged her hands into his hair and hung on. His warm palm slid down over her bottom, but unlike Jim’s adolescent grab, Danny knew how to hold her. Firm and unyielding. Safe and secure. His body aligned with hers, a fit so perfect the barrier of their clothes hardly mattered.

Wet, warm kisses. His tongue sliding against hers. The steely length of his cock pressing into her. The muscles of his thighs were every bit a match for hers. She liked that. She’d known few men strong enough to stand up to her, but this man could take her. And damn, that knowledge thrilled her to her bones.

Fevered kisses blanketed her cheek, jaw, and throat. He ran one hand up over her ribs, bypassed her breasts, and cupped the side of her neck. She opened her eyes as she tilted her head back, granting him all the access he needed. His thumb traced her jaw as calloused fingertips teased her hairline. Desperate to center herself, she tried to find a spot in the expanse of white ceiling to focus on. One tiny speck to anchor her to the earth. That was all she needed. He shifted a fraction of an inch, and she gave up the search. There was no point when she could come right there and then, without anything more than the contours of his body fitted to hers.

“Kate?”

He nibbled on her earlobe with the sharp edges of his teeth. God, she loved it when he did that, even if it did turn her brain to mush. “Hm?”

“I’ve been going crazy all day.”

She bowed up into his caress as he started on the buttons of her blouse. The silky fabric slid from her shoulders. She’d barely extricated her hands from the fabric when the front clasp on her bra gave way. He cupped her breasts as if they were something to be treasured. Tender and reverent, he teased her nipples with the pads of his thumbs, abrading the sensitive tips until they furled into hard, tight knots. With a moan, she let her head fall back, surrendering to the unadulterated want this man unleashed in her. She smoothed the back of his head, holding him close as he marked the slope of her neck and her collarbone with fervent kisses.

“You had no need to worry,” she assured him.

He chuckled as he bent to kiss her breast. Nimble fingers opened the button on her pants. She wiggled her hips as he tugged at the zipper. She wanted them gone even more than he did.

“The hell I didn’t.” Danny dropped to his knees, dragging her trousers and panties down with him. He steadied her with a hand on the small of her back and his cheek pressed to the curve of her belly. She stepped out of the puddle of fabric and shook the dangling bra from her arms. He looked up at her, those brilliant-blue eyes alight with pleasure even as his mouth twisted in anguish. Trailing his fingertips up her shin, he paused to trace teasing circles on the scars on her knee, then spread his hand wide over her thigh. “Christ, what if you’d worn a skirt?”

Kate stifled the urge to laugh. He’d uttered the speculation with such horror. Like her battered and scarred legs were some kind of secret weapon. “I wore a skirt the last time I went out with Jim. Didn’t make him crazed with lust.”

“He’s an idiot.” He gave her leg a gentle squeeze to reinforce the assertion. “Thank God.”

A shudder ran through her as he slid both palms up her hamstrings. His biceps tensed and bunched. She yelped as he rose, lifting her off the floor. Grabbing the broad, strong shoulders she loved so much, she dug her fingertips into his tantalizing traps and hung on tight.

* * *

Danny growled deep in his throat as he circled the end of the bed. He loved the power in her hands. Had the most bizarre impulse to lick them. Not just the long graceful fingers, but the broad palms as well. Lord, he was a goner. He’d let her tear him limb from limb with those strong, capable hands if she wanted to. It would be a hell of a lot easier to endure than knowing that some other man was basking in her smile, smarting from her wit, or, God forbid, holding one of those perfect hands.

Without ceremony or apology, he dropped her on the bed, then extricated himself from her grasp. He couldn’t look at her as he shed his clothes. If he did, he might make an even bigger fool of himself than he already had.

Balled-up jeans kicked aside, he finally chanced a glance. Color played over her skin. He watched the greens, golds, blues, and whites from the television screen wash over the smooth expanse of creamy skin. But he didn’t need added pixels or high definition to paint his favorite parts of her. The soles of her feet were pink, the high arch white and achingly vulnerable. The pinks and whites repeated in the scars left from her surgeries but in more vivid shades. The dark curls between her legs made his mouth water with anticipation. Golden-brown freckles dusted her chest and shoulders but stopped abruptly at the milk-white slope of her breasts. Only one dared to mark that expanse of skin the sun had never seen. A tiny, dark-brown rogue clung to the sweet spot just beneath her left nipple.

Knowing that freckle was there made him feel smug and sly. Kissing it made him feel like a god.

He stroked two fingers along the inside of her knee. Like magic, she parted her legs for him. A strangled groan tangled in his throat. He stared down at her. She lay naked and exposed, completely open to him. Totally trusting. Heat pulsed in his veins. Kate reached for him. One beautiful hand beckoning for him to join her. She whispered his name, and the last threads of his self-restraint snapped.

He grabbed her hand and pulled it to his mouth. His lips parted as they pressed to the center of her palm. She squirmed while he traced her lines and creases with his tongue, memorizing her pattern and wondering if he fit into it somehow. Not just for a few weeks, but for years, maybe even decades. She gasped and bolted upright when he ran his tongue over the delicate flesh between her fingers. A low, heart-stopping moan seeped from her lips as he drew her index and middle fingers into his mouth.

“Jesus, Danny,” she whispered when their eyes met and held.

He lowered his lashes and sucked, deep and greedy. She grabbed his arm, drawing him over her as she fell back again. He released her fingers with a pop as they wiggled and shifted, settling into each other. Angling his head, he squeezed her wrist to hold her steady, then ran his tongue over her palm in a long, languorous lick. Fingernails bit into his ass. He scraped his teeth over the flesh at the base of her thumb, and she moaned again.

“That shouldn’t be sexy.” She arched her back and undulated against him, a slow circle of her hips that proved her theory wrong.

He nipped at the pad of her little finger, then pressed a tender kiss to the afflicted flesh. “Is it?”

“God yes.” She dragged her free hand up the furrow of his spine and cupped his nape. “But I need your mouth elsewhere at the moment.”

Lacing his fingers through her wet ones, he trapped his desperate, depraved kisses between their palms as he raised his head. “Yeah? Where?”

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