Chapter 23 #2
She huffed out a breath. “Fine. I’ll take off the rest of my clothes first, but you’d better not distract me this time.”
He’d been ridiculously attracted to Serena when she was shy and uncertain and just trying to feel her way around their kisses and his hands on her curves. But now that she was starting to own her sexuality?
Luckiest. Guy. Ever.
“Me? Distract you?”
She laughed softly, but he was the one currently being distracted by the way she was now lifting her T-shirt over her head. After tossing it on the floor on top of her other clothes, she said, “You love distracting me.”
Before she could lower her hands to the clasp of her bra, he grabbed her wrists. “You’re right,” he agreed. “I do. I love it.” He bent his head so that his lips were barely a breath from hers. “And you. I love you, Serena.” He swallowed her echo of his words with his kiss.
A long while later, when he knew he wasn’t being fair, he finally let her up for air. “Okay, no more distractions.”
Her eyes were cloudy with arousal, and he liked seeing how long it took for them to clear to the point where she could actually form the word, “Okay,” and then a few beats later, “You’d better not.”
Of course, when she took off her bra, he was hard-pressed to stick to his promise.
Fortunately, the next thing he knew, she was pushing him back down on the bed and levering herself over him so that the only reasonable place for him to put his hands was over her breasts.
Not because he was trying to distract her, of course.
The way her breath stuttered in her chest told him just how much she liked the way he was touching her, but he could see the determination in her eyes, too.
“I like your hands,” she said softly as she moved her attention to pulling up his shirt.
“How big they are.” Her fingertips—deliberately, he decided—lightly tickled over his abs as she lifted the cotton.
“How they’re a little rough on my skin.”
That was right when she pulled the shirt over his head and he had no choice but to take his hands off her, at least until she tossed his shirt onto the floor. And he might have gone right back to teasing her again if he hadn’t caught the look in her eyes as she stared down at his bare chest.
Flat-out awe.
“You are…” She shook her head, clearly giving up on the words she was looking for.
She used her hands instead, running them down over his chest, his abs, stopping just above the erection that was about to bust through his jeans.
But then she quickly upped the ante by leaning over so that the tips of her silky hair were brushing over him at the same time that she was pressing soft, wet kisses to his skin.
He should have known that she would beat him at his own game, and that she would end up being the true master of distraction, because she had the zipper of his jeans more than halfway down before he even realized it.
Suddenly, she had him in her hand, still covered by the cotton of his boxers, but as close to the edge of losing it as he’d ever been.
“Serena.” He panted out her name, thrusting up against the flat of her palm even as he tried to keep from exploding. “I’m close. Too close.” Hell, just looking at her got him too close.
But instead of giving him a few seconds to get any kind of grip at all, she smiled. And said, “Good,” a beat before she slid her hand beneath his boxers and they finally came skin to skin.
The last of Sean’s self-control snapped. He slid his hands into her hair and dragged her mouth back to his, their kiss spiraling off as fast, as hard, as he was now moving inside the tight clasp of her hand.
Everything but Serena disappeared. Everything but the sweet taste of her mouth.
Everything but the tangle of her tongue against his.
Everything but the scent of her skin and the silky slide of her hair between his fingertips.
Everything but the sound of her gasps of excitement.
Everything but the emotion that washed over him at the exact moment that pleasure shot through and out of him, over and over and over again.
“I knew it,” she whispered against his mouth. “I knew I would love doing that with you.”
Jesus, she wasn’t the only one who had loved it.
And after the way she’d just blown his entire world apart, it was nearly impossible to muster up the energy to clean both of them up and kick off the rest of his clothes.
Fortunately, his reward was getting to wrap her in his arms and draw the covers over them.
And as he mentally rewound the sexiest hour of his life, he was amazed to realize that being with Serena wasn’t just about feeling good, just about getting off.
Love had changed everything—had taken every kiss, every touch, and magnified the impact a million times over. His mother had told him it would be like this, but he hadn’t understood. Not until now. Not until Serena.
“She would have loved you.”
It was an opening Serena could have taken if she’d wanted to push some more. But somehow she knew he still wasn’t yet ready to tell her everything.
Instead, she simply whispered, “I would have loved her, too,” then tucked her head against his chest.
Somehow, he thought as he pulled her even closer, she knew.