Page 25 of Shielded Hearts

His touch was surprisingly tender considering how stormy his gray eyes were a moment before he claimed her mouth.

Aspen’s arms moved on their own, looping around his neck. As he applied more pressure to her lips, a growl rumbled through his chest. She echoed it with a breathy noise of her own.

Dashing his tongue over her lips, he sought entry. She parted them on a purr, and he plunged his tongue inside her mouth with a deliberate hunger that started a dark heat low in her core.

She melted into him, taking his kisses and feeding back her own.

He skimmed his thumb over her jaw with more tenderness than she would have ever expected from a hardened man like Colt. With a mewl of desire, she pushed closer, sliding her tongue over his.

He deepened the kiss, arm banded around her, locking her against him. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the lake at night. In that brief moment, nothing else existed. No itineraries, no plans. Just the sheer, raw connection between her and Colt right now.

Breathless, he broke the contact. The tumult in his eyes reminded her of stormy seas.

Through the daze, she looked at him in return.

An unspoken question hung in the air.What happens next?

She gave a small shake of her head to clear her brain. Even that didn’t help. Not when Colt was dazzling her with his mere presence.

His eyes creased at the corners. “You look shaken up, princess.”

“I never expected…”

“Me to have money and a place like this?”

She blinked. His words doused the warm desire pulsating through her veins. “That’s not what I was going to say, Colt. I didn’t kiss you because you have an amazing home on Lake Tahoe. Why did you kiss me?”

“Because I’ve been thinking about it since I saw you in that damn bathtub in the first cabin.”

His words sent tingles through her body. She had lowered her arms, but they ached to wrap around him again, to feel the steel of his muscles.

She flicked her stare up to his. Their gazes locked. “Do you…want to…try it again?”

His lips quirked in that bad-boy way that would never get old, even if she saw it a thousand times. “Damn right I do.”

He yanked her into his lap. The hard planes of his thighs cradled her bottom, raising a gasp from her as he captured her mouth in a hard, claiming kiss.

Oh god, this man didn’t just kiss—he possessed her. Every thought she had centered on Colt. Every nerve in her body awakened to him, leaving her desperate for more.

When he tore his mouth away and stared into her eyes, her pussy gave a hard squeeze of want.

“Aspen, you can probably feel how much I want you.”

She nodded. Though he couldn’t tell how badly she wanted him too, she did.

Was this just a wanton mistake on both their parts? Could she live with a single night of passion with this man when she’d never experienced a one-night stand in her life?

Yes. Yes, she could.

She ran her palm down his sculpted chest. “I want you too.”

With all the gentleness in the world, he angled his arms under her and stood with her in his hold. Once he set her on her feet, he immediately reached for the blanket he’d brought to the dock. With a quick flick, he unfurled the fabric on the floor.

In a move she wasn’t expecting, he dropped to his knees in the middle of the blanket. She inched closer. When he yanked her down with him, a laugh of surprise bubbled up.

His grin flashed a moment before he took her mouth again. They tumbled down in a tangle of limbs. Somehow, she ended up straddling his strong hips, her aching pussy settled over his bulging erection.

He ran his palms up her sides. As he came closer to cupping her breasts, she tensed. Was she really ready for this?

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