It Must Be Your Love (The Sullivans #11)(56)

Lord, it was nearly impossible to step away from her, to know that she’d been less than a heartbeat away from coming twice tonight, and then not do whatever he could to take the ache away.

When he did finally move away from her, she looked down at him in surprise. “You still have your pants on.”

“It’s better that way,” he told her.

“No, it isn’t. If I can’t touch you tonight, then I’m definitely going to look.”

She reached for the button of his jeans, but just the slightest brush of her fingers over his abdomen made it clear just what a bad idea that was.

He put his hands over hers. “I need to do it myself.”

He could see how reluctant she was to drop her hands, but she finally nodded. “Okay, but be quick about it.”

He grinned at her sensual order, knowing that only with Mia had desire and joy ever come together this way. Wet denim was a bitch to get off at the best of times, but with the woman he loved naked and desperately aroused just inches from him, Ford kept getting distracted from his purpose by the way the drops of water rolled down over her br**sts, to slide over her ni**les to her stomach, before disappearing between her legs.

“The way you’re looking at me...” She put her hands on his jaw and lifted his gaze back to her eyes. “Hurry, please, or I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands so that I can look at you that way, too.”

Just those words from her lips had his erection growing even harder behind the zipper he’d only pulled halfway down. Moving fast now, he undid his boots and kicked them off, then shoved down his jeans and boxers, leaving them in a heap on the tiled shower floor.

“Oh, Ford.” There was awed lust in Mia’s voice, and it was a long time before she lifted her gaze back to his. “Have you grown bigger in the past five years?”

“Yes,” he teased her, his laughter reverberating from the tiled walls as he bent down to kiss her. “Especially after five days of endless foreplay.”

“Haven’t you taken care of yourself?”

“No.” He kissed her again. “A hundred times I thought about it, a hundred times I was halfway there...and a hundred times I knew it wouldn’t help. Because even if I got myself off, it wouldn’t be your hands on me. It wouldn’t be your mouth on me. And it wouldn’t be you hot and wet around me.”

“Stop.” She pressed her face against his chest. “Please stop saying things like that to me. Especially now that you’re naked.”

He knew she was right, that he wasn’t helping either of them hold to the promise, but first he needed to know, “Have you touched yourself?”

Her frame shuddered against him as she admitted, “Yes.”

“Good.” He tilted her face up to his and kissed her to let her know he meant it. “When was the last time?”

Her pupils had dilated so much by now that they had nearly pushed all the blue from her eyes. “This morning.”

Hell, she might as well have dropped to her knees and put her hands and mouth on him by this point, he was that close to the edge. “Before or after I came by your office?”

He’d never seen her skin flush so deeply as it did when she said, “Both.”

Oh Lord, he could all too easily picture her with her hand between her legs twice today with that look of sweet ecstasy on her beautiful face as she climaxed. “I need to know one more thing.” He paused, knowing he shouldn’t even be going there, but unable to help himself. “What were you thinking about as you made yourself come?”

When she looked up at him he already knew the answer, even before she said, “You. It’s always been you.”

He crushed her mouth beneath his, gripping her hair tightly in his hands so that he could keep her exactly where he wanted her.

Exactly where he needed her.

“I love the way you kiss me.” Her voice was husky with desire and pleasure. “Like you’ll never get enough.”

“I never will.”

Her eyes, already clouded with passion, went soft with emotion. “Come and sit down here,” she said as she gently tugged him down onto the tiled ledge. She moved between his legs and squirted some shampoo from the wall dispenser into her hands. “Close your eyes and tilt your head up a little bit.”

With his eyes closed, he was even more aware of her scent, the light rose of her perfume mixed with female arousal. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself, had to reach out to circle her hips with his hands, and he heard her suck in a breath at the contact just as she began to massage the shampoo into his hair.

No one had ever touched him like this before. Yes, any time her hands were on him their sensual connection couldn’t be denied, but the feel of her fingers lightly moving along his scalp and her palms pressing against his cheeks and neck, was incredibly comforting. Even as a young child he couldn’t remember anyone being this gentle with him, this caring.

“Tilt your chin up higher,” she said softly, and then she was washing him clean with handfuls of the warm water.

And as she poured one handful of water after another over him, Ford couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t just his hair she was washing clean...but that she was washing away his mistakes one at a time, too.

“There,” she said as she ran her hands over his skull, brushing his wet hair back from his face. “Perfect.”