Just To Be With You (The Sullivans #12)(65)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Can I ask you something?”

Ian’s lungs still burned with the need for oxygen. The need to take Tatiana, to possess her and make her his, had become such an obsession that desire obliterated common sense every time he touched her. Hell, so much as looking at her or catching her scent in a room made him go a little crazier.

Now, in the aftermath of crazy, they were tangled in each other on the small bed, with the quilt bunched beneath their damp, naked bodies. He growled, “If you’re going to ask me why...”

She laughed, her br**sts bouncing against him as she said, “I’m pretty sure I already know why this time. Although—” She gave a little nip at his shoulder. “—I may ask you later, anyway, just to see you get all riled up. But only because I never quite know what you’re going to do or how you’re going to take me when you’re like that.” She made a little hum of pleasure. “A little rough. A little angry. A little fast. A little hard.”

Even as a fresh hit of need nailed him, guilt rose. “Tatiana, I shouldn’t—”

“I’ve told you again and again, you should. In fact, speaking of all the things the two of us should be doing together...” She purposely left him hanging there for a few seconds, not because she was an actress who knew how to play her audience, but because she was a beautiful woman with an innate sense of just how to make her lover crave her more with every second she spent in his arms. “I know I don’t have the sexual experience you do—”

“Jesus, if you knew anything more we might never make it outside a bedroom ever again.”

Did she have any idea how sensual her answering smile was? Clearly, she liked the idea of being locked in a bedroom with him forever. And because something told him her question would likely do more than just rile him up, he decided to do whatever he could to get her to forget all about it. But though she let him roll her beneath him for yet another heated kiss that he couldn’t resist taking from her, when he made himself pull back for a moment to let her breathe, he could see that she hadn’t forgotten what she wanted to say. His beautiful, brilliant girl never did.

His?

No, she wasn’t really his, he reminded himself silently, and brutally. But even as he thought it, his hands tightened on her.

Only here, in this strange island world so completely separated from reality, could he let himself possess her.

Only for as long as the rain and wind drove the leaves from the trees outside, and the rough waves of salt water carved out chunks of the cliffs, could he reach for her and know that she was right there reaching for him, too.

Only for this rare moment in time when he was completely cut off from phones and computers could he devote himself entirely to the beautiful woman beside him.

The storm outside, he knew, would end too soon. But the storm inside of him would rage, crashing between desperate desire and the knowledge that what he had to offer could never be enough for Tatiana.

Ian came out of his swirling thoughts to find Tatiana’s eyes, clear and sparkling, on his. How many of his thoughts had she read? Too many, he was sure. Enough that sometimes he might as well just speak every thought he had out loud.

“Go ahead, ask your question,” he said, in a voice rough with desire—and affection for her that grew from moment to moment.

“Well, I was hoping while we’re here and real life is on hold for a little while, maybe you could teach me…” This time she didn’t draw out her words to tantalize. She did it because she was clearly embarrassed. Her skin was flushed as she finally said, “Things.”

“Things?” The word came out strangled from his throat. “You want me to teach you things?”

“Yes.” Such innocence, even as she made the sexiest request on the planet. “Sexy things.” There was another pause, another moment of obvious bashfulness, before she lifted her bright eyes back to meet his. “Please.”

It was the sweet and simple please that got him. That, and the fact that for all his legendary self-control, in this small room, on this island, in the throes of this storm, he was lost.

Completely, utterly lost in Tatiana. Even when he knew better than to drag either of them deeper...

She watched him, clearly confused as he got up off the bed and walked naked—and aroused—across the room to pick up one of the red-painted wooden chairs. Deliberately, he set the chair at the foot of the bed and sat down on it.

“Touch yourself.”

He could see a thousand new questions pop up in her eyes, but she finally settled on only one. “Is this your way of saying yes?”

He didn’t smile, though he wanted to. He didn’t reassure her, either. She’d said just minutes earlier that it turned her on when he was a little rough. A little hard. Lord knew his erection was as hard as it had ever been from nothing more than looking at her sitting sweet and naked on the crumpled quilt.

“Touch. Yourself.” Each word was spoken as a command, because for all her strength, for all her determination, it was obvious to him that she also loved giving herself up to his dominance in the bedroom. Not every time, perhaps, but definitely tonight.

While he taught her things.

Jesus, he thought as his erection pulsed hard between his thighs, he wanted to pounce on her, wanted to take her again and again until he’d figured out a way to burn through his fierce need for her. Instead, he forced himself to remain on the chair as she blushed and began to slowly slide her hand on top of her stomach.