"No," she moaned, missing his heat, wanting him closer, not farther away.

"Shh, baby," he crooned. "I'm right here. Loving you. No bondage. No toys. Just me.

And you. That's all we need."

Something inside her chest came undone at his soft words, a cold wall she'd built around her heart cracking in two. His fingers undid the top button on her dress. He stopped at the second.

"I can feel your heart beating, baby, so hard it's almost lifting my hands off you."

"I didn't know," she whispered, the adoration in his eyes making her braver than she'd ever thought she could be. "I didn't know I could ever love anyone this mu--"

He kissed her before she could finish her sentence, stealing not just her words, not just her breath, but her very soul. Her dress was open to her waist when he finally lifted his head.

"Let me look at you, baby. So beautiful." He reached out, his hand trembling as he brushed his knuckles over the swell of one breast and then the other. "So damn beautiful."

"You make me feel beautiful." No one ever had before, not until Cole.

"You make me lose my mind, my control." He tried to undo the clasp at the front of her bra. "My hands are shaking." He looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I've been having sex since I was fourteen, but I've never been nervous before. Not until you."

She covered his hands with hers, smiling as she helped him undo the clasp. But then her smile fell away as she arched her back to force her br**sts closer to the heat of his mouth.

"I could just stop here," he said, between decadent slurps against the swelling flesh, the hard tips growing even tighter beneath his sultry tongue, "could just spend the rest of the night doing nothing but licking and sucking your tits."

Waves of pleasure shuddered through her pu**y, her clit throbbing as if he was sucking there instead.

"I could just keep loving you like this until you come for me."

His sensual threat--or was it a promise?--sent another rush of arousal through her. His mouth burned hot across her br**sts, laving her with his tongue, making her cry out with pleasure as his teeth scraped across her swollen flesh.

"That's it, sweet girl. That's how I want you to feel when I touch you. Now. Always."

His large hand flattened against her belly and she pressed her hips up into his fingers. He suckled her again, causing uncontrollable tremors to take over her muscles, her limbs. And then his hand was moving lower, beneath the lower part of her dress that was still covering her and she opened her thighs wide in a silent plea for him to touch her. Instead of sliding into her panties, he cupped her between her legs.

"I can feel how wet, how swollen you are for me even through the silk."

She was only just managing to take in his low words as he spoke against the curve of her br**sts, when he nipped at her breast. Maybe it was the sweet flash of pain that cut the final thread that was holding her to reality. Or maybe it was the way he licked over the tiny abrasion so gently, so lovingly that had her crying out his name as the lowest part of her belly tightened, threatening to shatter. Or maybe it was looking down and seeing his dark head bent over her chest, that sent her orgasm slamming through her, from the apex of her thighs all the way down to her toes and fingertips and everywhere in between.

"Anna. Sweet Anna. I love hearing you come. Watching you come. Feeling you come."

Just the sound of his voice was enough to keep her orgasm spiraling on and on, until she was fighting for breath, praying for oxygen to fill her empty lungs.

"I thought you were joking," she admitted when she was finally able to speak again. "I didn't know I could come like that."

"It will happen again. I can promise you that. Only next time we'll get there with just these." He pressed soft kisses to her br**sts, first one and then the other, and her low moan sounded in the room. "Let's get this all the way off you."

His words were steady, his face focused, but his hands gave him away, the slight tremble that she'd never thought to see in the incredibly strong man she'd married.

It shouldn't make sense that having him undress her was such a big deal. Not when he'd had her naked so many times before, not when he'd had her tied up, not when he'd played with sex toys with her, not when she'd taken him down her throat and swallowed his come. But he'd never looked at her like this. Even when lust was tearing them both apart, there'd always been a barrier. Not just his, she realized with surprise, but hers, too.

Because even as she'd been falling in love with him, she'd been scared. Holding back if not her heart, then the last piece of her soul.

Tonight, he was claiming every part of her, inside and out.

"All of me," she whispered as he gazed down at her naked skin. "I want you to have all of me."

A sound--half growl, half groan--rumbled out of his chest and over her, but before she could reach out for him and demand the kiss she was so desperate for, his face was between her legs, her thighs spread open over his shoulders.

"I haven't spent enough time here, haven't tasted your sweetness nearly enough," he lamented as he gazed at her wet folds with something akin to rapt wonder. "My damn dick is just going to have to learn to share."

She shouldn't be able to feel such deep emotion, such powerful desire, and still laugh.

None of those things had ever gone together before. But Cole tapped into every part of her: The part that wanted to laugh. The part that wanted to love. The part that wanted to f**k like a wild woman.

"You laughing at me, sweet girl?"

His tongue curled around the tight bud of her clit before pushing between her labia, and then his fingers joined his tongue, plying her open, sliding into her aching core.

She arched into his mouth, his fingers, opening wider, taking him deeper. And through it all, she was smiling, was so happy she thought she might burst.

"You make me smile."

And then Cole was saying, "You're right," and he was up and over her so quick she barely had time to mourn the loss of his tongue against her clit. How could she miss that when he was pressing the thick head of his erection between her slick folds?

"Tomorrow." Propping himself up on his elbows, he cupped her face in his hands. His mouth a breath from hers, he said, "I'll love you slow and easy tomorrow."

He thrust all the way into her at the exact same moment that their lips touched. It didn't matter that she'd detonated just minutes ago, that she should have been sated. In fact, her previous orgasm only seemed to make her more sensitive, more responsive. And when his tongue found hers and he kissed her like he'd never get enough of her, she came undone. Again.