Beauty and the Bull Rider (Hotel Rodeo #3)(43)

“What is it?” she asked softly.

“What I want . . .” He shook his head. “No. Let me rephrase that. What I need to know is whether or not this—and I mean you and me together—means anything to you?” His gaze was earnest and intense as it probed hers. “I need to know that you want me for me, and not just for the baby you’d hoped to make.”

Delaney gaped at Zac as if she were seeing him for the very first time. Her heart hammered against her chest at the realization that she’d misread everything.

“Yes, Zac,” she whispered, her throat thick with emotion. “I wouldn’t be here with you if it didn’t mean anything to me. You’re the only person who hasn’t passed judgement on me, the only one who seems to understand me, and that means everything to me.”

How could she ever have thought of him as rough and insensitive? Zac had been there for her from day one, just as he’d said he would be. He’d been supportive and encouraging and a better friend to her than anyone outside of Rosa, who’d practically raised her.

Her hands crept up his chest to slowly entwine behind his neck. She grew breathless as they stood breast to chest and heart to heart. “I won’t deny the physical attraction. I’ve tried all along to ignore it, but I can’t. I also can’t ignore that it goes much deeper than skin. Yes, I do feel something for you, Zac, and now that I’ve said it, what I want most is to feel you inside me.”

A smile spread slowly over his mouth. “Damn. I’m sure glad we got that straight.”



Although Zac answered glibly, there was nothing glib about what he was feeling. His heart galloped wildly at the realization that Delaney McCall, the woman he’d only fantasized about for eight long years, was about to become his. Although she’d stopped short of saying she loved him, she felt something, and that was good enough to keep him hoping for more.

He poured his heart and soul into the kiss, praying that his body might reach the part of her she still held back. She melted into him with a soft, sweet sigh of surrender. Their mouths melding, their tongues tangling, he backed her slowly toward the bed. Breaking from her lips, he pressed fevered kisses to her warm skin. Tangling his fingers in her hair, he sought her sensitive neck, licking, sucking, inciting sharps breaths and soft sighs.

He continued kissing, sucking, stroking, caressing, as his hands worked her blouse buttons free. He drew back only long enough to appreciate the view of the ripe mounds of mouth-watering feminine flesh spilling from her bra cups. Staring back at him with blue eyes filled with passion, Delaney shrugged out of her blouse and reached wordlessly behind her back to unhook her bra. She let it fall to the floor. Her gaze never breaking from his, she cupped the generous globes, offering them up to his hungry gaze and even more ravenous mouth.

Zac reached out to claim them, burying his face in her lush mounds with a moan. Kissing, biting, gently squeezing, he laid her back on the bed, intent on worshipping every inch of her lush, womanly body with his own. His desire for her ran marrow deep. He’d never wanted to please a woman as much as he wanted to please her. He leaned over her body, covering it with his while rooting between Delaney’s ripe breasts and rosy nipples. He tongued and teased both nipples before sucking one fully into his mouth. She clutched his head to her breasts and arched her back. With one gasp, her pleasure became his own.

He inhaled the heady essence of vanilla and honey as he worked his way down her body with his lips and tongue while his hands mapped the full, feminine curves of her hips. Sweeping his hands slowly up her thighs, he unzipped and peeled down her jeans, throbbing with anticipation of the moment he’d slide his fingers into her slick, wet heat. Licking and sucking, he worked down to that heavenly place that reminded him so vividly of peaches and cream.

She exhaled a hiss at the first long swipe of his tongue along the upper edge of her panties, and squirmed under his mouth as he teasingly traced the folds of her slit with his fingers through the delicate fabric. He removed her panties, licking and kissing his way back up her legs, paying special attention to the erogenous zone behind her knees. He worked his way back to her sweet spot with hot open-mouth kisses and lazy licks of his tongue. Nudging her trembling legs apart, he moved between them and spread her lips to gaze at the most gloriously erotic vision. Unable to hold back the powerful urge, he nuzzled his face into her. Stroking, kissing, licking, teasing, ramping her higher until she whimpered and begged.

“Please, Zac.” She dug her fingers into his scalp and pulled his head up. “I want . . . I need . . . you . . . inside me. Now. Please.”

The needy look in her eyes ruptured the dam of his self-control. With eyes locked on her beautiful naked body, he stripped to his skin. His eyelids fluttered as she licked her lips in invitation, but it wasn’t her luscious mouth he’d dreamed about for eight years. He ached to have her long legs tangled around him, locked at the ankles, as he plunged into her over and over until they were mindless, boneless, and spent.

Her gaze dipped to his jutting erection as he took himself in hand. “Last chance, Delaney. Do you want me to use protection?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

“No, Zac. I want you. Only you with nothing between us.”

He murmured a prayer of thanks as he lay over her, kissing her wildly as she wrapped her hand around his staff and guided him to her entrance. He shut his eyes on a long shudder of sheer, unadulterated pleasure as he sank himself slowly into her hot, sweet center. She broke from the kiss with a gasp at his first deep thrust and began moving in counterpoint with undulations that perfectly matched his rhythm. His world contracted to friction, slick, wet, sinful, and sweet.