Instant Temptation (Wilder #3)(30)

She absorbed his calm, his strength, and best of all his heat, and after a few minutes, her jaw relaxed, and her teeth stopped chattering. Finally, the rest of her stopped shaking.

Harley woke up some time later, lying on top of TJ. If she pressed her knees into the ground on either side of his hips and pushed herself upright, she could ride him like a pony.

Yep, definitely out of her comfort zone. Her legs were entwined in his and her face was plastered to the crook of his neck. She didn’t have to wonder if he was awake because his hands were slowly caressing her back, holding her in all that wonderful body heat of his.

Or maybe that was her heat. She certainly felt…heated.

“I know you’re awake,” he said. “You stopped breathing.”

She still didn’t move, incredibly aware of her hands braced on his chest for leverage, the muscles hard beneath her palms, his heart beating steady and sure beneath her fingertips.

Unlike hers, which was racing.

When he spoke, she felt the rumble of his voice, even deeper and huskier than normal. “We’ve played this your way,” he said. “I didn’t like it. My turn now.”

Oh boy.

Cupping the nape of her neck, he urged her head up. His other hand slid down low, to the very small of her back, holding her in place for his kiss. At the first touch of his mouth on hers, her bones completely dissolved, and that was it, she was his for the taking.

Please take me…

She already knew that getting kissed by him was a full-body experience, but she hadn’t expected to be rendered a quivering mass of lust before his tongue even touched hers—a huge miscalculation on her part because she knew, dammit she knew he kissed like heaven on earth. She braced for the onslaught of erotic, sensual heat, but when he lightly ran his tongue over the seam of her lips, she opened to him, softening in his arms, letting out a low moan. A sound he apparently took for acquiescence because he tightened his hold on her and deepened the kiss. Giving herself up to it, she sank her fingers into his hair, holding his head to hers as they devoured each other.

When he finally drew back and looked at her, there was warmth in his eyes and a smile on his face that promised all sorts of wicked things if she only said the word. And suddenly she became incredibly aware of how little she wore, how her nipples were boring holes in his chest, how his arm was low around her back, his palm sliding across her ass, skimming the thin silk of her panties.

Yeah, there was a word right on the tip of her tongue, and that word was yes! Her hands ran over his shoulders and down his sides—

That’s when she remembered. She’d wanted passion in her life, but she’d planned on finding it with Nolan. Sweet, gentle, kind Nolan, who would remember their lovemaking, once they had it. “Crap.”

TJ pulled back a fraction, all sleepy and sexy-eyed. “That’s not the reaction I usually get.”

“I’m thinking of Nolan.”

TJ’s hands went still. “My kiss made you think of another man?”

She winced at the warning in his tone. “No, your kiss melted my bones.”

“Like the sound of that,” he murmured, rocking his hips against hers. Hers responded in kind before she stopped herself. Dammit. She rol ed off the glorious mountain of heat to her side, which was as far as she could get in the sleeping bag, roomy and cushy as it was. Outside, it was still very dark, which was a good thing. She wasn’t ready to see him.

“You’re not with him,” he said, tucking one arm beneath his head, resting his other hand on his bel y.

“Two dates—and one of them not counting—doesn’t make anything exclusive.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that? And how in the hell does everyone know we had two dates and that one of them didn’t count?”

“Wishful is Mayberry, remember? Everyone knows everything.” He rolled to face her, propping up his head with his hand, the other settling on her hip. “You had to save his ass when he should be saving yours.”

“And what does that mean?”

“Nothing.” He paused, then ran the tips of his fingers lightly up her spine. And damn if she didn’t melt all over again. “You really think of him as your boyfriend?”

She wanted to nod but she didn’t. Because the truth was, she liked the idea of Nolan being her boyfriend, but somehow it never seemed to materialize.

And she didn’t know why.

TJ brushed a soft kiss to her temple before trailing more of those soft kisses along her jaw, and without thinking, her body arched to give him better access, which she abruptly stopped when she felt his smile against her skin. Damn him! “TJ—”

“Uh huh…” he murmured, making his way back to her mouth while his fingers slid across her belly. Goose bumps erupted on her skin. Then those fingers headed north, just grazing over her silk-covered breasts as his thigh slipped between hers.

He caught her gasp with his mouth, and the kiss went hard and demanding again, until finally they ripped apart, breathless. TJ looked down at her, his eyes dark and filled with hunger. “Tell me you’re happy with him and we stop this right now.”

“I’m…” She struggled for the words that would make her a big, fat, turned-on liar.

With shocking patience, TJ waited her out.

“I want to say yes so bad,” she finally whispered. “But it’s the ‘with him’ part that’s holding me up.”