Midnight Kiss (Virgin River #12)(67)

HIS FINGER SLID FROM HER MOUTH. Elise grabbed his wrist to try to keep him where she wanted him. She’d waited a long time to act out her fantasies.

But here was a new fantasy. Noah rising to his feet, face beautiful in its intensity. She felt so vulnerable, standing na**d before him. She felt…soft.

She closed her eyes against the vulnerability, and then Noah was kissing her again, his hands roaming over her shoulders and her br**sts and her hips. The door pressed cold against her na**d back, but Noah was all heat against her front. She couldn’t keep track of his hands. They were everywhere, everywhere…and then her awareness focused on one spot. On one hand. On one pair of fingertips that edged down her stomach with the faintest pressure.

His fingers dragged down, torturing her, and finally they slid over the most sensitive spot on her body. Heat bloomed in a fiery rush over her skin. Her need felt almost violent, it built so quickly inside her. And Noah…Noah was still completely dressed in his suit and tie, while she wore nothing at all. Trembling at the pleasure that raced through her at every circle of his fingertips, Elise reached for him and jerked his shirt free of his pants. She caught a flash of tanned, flat stomach before she slid her hands beneath the cotton and touched his body for the first time.

He felt strong, his skin stretched like a sheet of pure heat over hard muscles. Those muscles jumped as she explored him. Before long, Elise had tilted her h*ps toward him and used his belt to pull him closer. She wrapped one leg around his h*ps and pulled him tight against her. When he pushed her hands away and finished unbuckling his belt, she looked up to his face and shivered.

Noah James looked desperate in his need. He watched her like he’d spent two long years wanting nothing more than this, just as she had. Two years of need did not make for soft wanting on her part. She needed him.

His belt opened with a clink. Her heart pounded so wildly she couldn’t hear the zipper, but she watched as he pulled a condom from his pocket and tore it open. She helped him slide it on, frantic to have him inside her. And when he lifted her and braced her against the door, Elise wrapped both legs around his waist and took him deep.

So deep.

It was perfect. Unforgiving and delicious.

She curled her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his shoulder. “Noah,” she whispered. “Noah.” Every breath she drew was filled with the scent of his skin. He filled every corner of her body.

It had only been a few months since she’d had sex, but it felt like she’d been empty for years. Noah’s strokes took on a slow, brutal rhythm.

She was going to come already. Gravity pushed her hard against him, rubbing her in just the right way. Sweat trickled down his neck, and Elise pressed her open mouth to his skin. He was sweating for her.

This was a dream. It must be a dream.

She clutched him tighter as her body squeezed him. Noah cursed. She felt his hands shake where they gripped her. “Oh, God,” she whispered into his damp hair. He slid against her one last time and her nerves stretched to the breaking point then snapped.

“No,” she moaned, but it was too late. Her body had betrayed her and all she could do was ride the ruthless waves of her cl**ax.

She sobbed his name and held tight to his shoulders when he came with a strangled groan.

Gradually, the world returned, bringing with it a strange silence. Her heartbeat slowed, and she could hear the sounds of both of them panting, but all the rushing emotion that had taken her over was gone. It was just Noah and her, alone. The door was ice against her back. The frame of the fire-escape plan pressed into her shoulder blade.

Noah’s breathing slowed, but Elise suddenly felt like she might be drowning.

“Oh,” she said softly as she carefully lowered one leg and then the other to stand on her own once again. Before she could start babbling excuses or questions or horrified exclamations, he took a deep breath and said, “Hold on a sec.” He disappeared into the bathroom.

Seconds later, just as it occurred to Elise that she was stark naked, Noah stepped back into the room. One quick zip of his pants, and he was fully dressed again, if a bit rumpled.

Something tingled under her breastbone and spread out from there. A fizzy mix of mortification and joy and sheer disbelief. Just as she was reaching to cover herself, Noah met her eyes, and the seriousness in his gaze stopped her words.

“We’re both exhausted,” he said, slipping off his suit jacket. “We’ll figure this out later, all right? For now, we need sleep.”

Elise glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even seven, but it felt like two in the morning. For a few long seconds she was frozen by the door. How could they not talk about this now? How could she get into bed with him without knowing what was going on between them?

Panic tried to rise up in her chest, but Noah was pulling his tie free of its knot and toeing off his shoes, and her body felt weak and heavy. Her muscles yearned beneath her skin, swaying her toward the bed. “All right,” she whispered, ignoring the fact that her voice was downright soft, and she rushed for her suitcase.

She’d just had sex with Noah James, and the very fact that she wanted to cuddle up na**d with him was enough of a reason to pull on panties and an old T-shirt. Sex was one thing. Cozy, sweet cuddling was another. That was an intimacy she could not grant.

When he spied her pajamas, Noah raised an eyebrow that implied she was a coward, but he stripped down to his boxer briefs and stopped there.