The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9)(56)

Brooke cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with all the love in her heart. But even though his kisses were pure magic, right now she needed more. She needed all of him, needed to feel him move inside of her and fill up all the spaces that the phone call with her parents had left empty.

She grabbed at his T-shirt so hard that it ripped as she yanked it up over his head. Her hands were at the fly of his jeans a heartbeat later, and thank God, he didn’t try to stall her this time, wasn’t planning to tease her today until she was begging.

He kicked off his jeans and boxers, and then he was lifting her hips off the counter enough that she could pull off her own dress. She was unhooking her bra when he reached for the lace between her legs and tore it from her body.

The thrill of being wanted, of being desired this much, shook through her. Completely naked now, she threw her arms and legs around him as he fisted his hands in her hair. Rafe tilted her head so that he could plunder her mouth in a sizzling kiss that told her exactly how he wanted her, hot and writhing beneath him, skin damp as she came again and again at his command.

The next thing she knew, he was pushing her bottom toward the center of the kitchen counter, and he was climbing up onto it with her. The granite was blessedly cool beneath her overheated skin, but Rafe’s hands moving over every inch of her were more than enough to warm her again.

Both of them had slid into the chocolate by then and were covering each other’s skin with it as they stroked and touched, licked and nibbled. What a thrill it was to have her two favorite things in the world at the same time: Rafe and chocolate.

She was just thinking how much easier it would be to never taste or make truffles again than it would be to lose Rafe when he sent all thoughts of loss from her head by moving fully between her thighs and driving into her in one perfect thrust.

"Oh God, Rafe."

Her words sounded as if they had come from a great distance rather than from her own lips. She was faintly aware of one of his large hands cradling her head while the other cupped her hip, protecting her from the granite, but she would have gladly gotten a few bruises. She didn’t care about being safe, didn’t care about anything but loving—and being loved—by the most beautiful man in the world. When they were together like this, nothing else mattered, only the joy that took her over from head to toe, inside and out.

She couldn’t stop saying his name as he took her higher, and then higher still, and she finally realized he was saying her name, too, as their mouths found each other again in a heated kiss. Even caught up in desperation, they moved in perfect sync, from fast to slow and then back again. And when the wicked beauty of their lovemaking finally overwhelmed her, she arched back to take him even deeper as he held her tighter than he ever had before. Brooke had never felt more whole than she did as she came apart beneath him, his own release just moments behind hers.

It wasn’t until he pulled away from her that she realized he must have taken out a condom before he’d dropped his jeans on the kitchen floor. She’d never been careless in bed with a man before, had never truly lost control before Rafe, had never trusted anyone as much as she trusted him.

Yet again, he’d taken care of them both, just as she’d always known he would.

He lifted her from the counter and carried her into the bathroom, holding her tightly in his arms as he climbed into the tub and let the water pour in to wash the chocolate from both of them.

She leaned her head back against his shoulder and closed her eyes. "You’re right. We don’t need any props to be wild." She turned her face to his with a smile on her lips, but he wasn’t smiling back. "You’re not feeling guilty for debauching me again, are you?"

Clearly, he was surprised she’d figured him out so well. "I could have hurt you up on that hard granite."

"You could never hurt me."

She felt him stiffen behind her. Come to think of it, hadn’t he looked a little twisted up about something when he walked into the kitchen? But she’d been so wrapped up in her own emotions that she hadn’t stopped to ask if he was okay.

"Rafe?" She immediately twisted around in the tub so that she was straddling his hips, her hands linked around his neck. "We’re not just lovers, we’re friends, too. You can say anything to me. You know that, don’t you?"

"I’ve never been friends with a lover before."

She caressed his cheek. "Me either, but I think we’re doing pretty good so far."

So good that she knew she couldn’t expect him to be honest with her about what was on his mind if she wasn’t honest with him, too. She could have avoided his earlier question again, the same way she had just minutes before. Especially when he was already hard again. Just the slightest shift of her hips and she could have both of them forgetting for a little while longer.

But for them to truly be more than lovers, even more than friends, meant talking not only about the cute things, the sexy things...but about the difficult things, too.

"You asked what happened when you walked into the kitchen." She sighed. "My parents called."

He slid a chocolate-covered strand of hair away from her forehead. "What did they say to upset you?"

"They still think I’m a little girl who needs their guidance, their protection, their wisdom. I’m not saying I don’t sometimes or that their learned wisdom isn’t valuable, but—" She sighed, the water in the tub shifting beneath the slight movement of her body over his. "All these years I’ve been so sure that one day they’ll open their eyes and see me. The real me, the woman I’ve become, not just a teenager who made a big mistake when she was sixteen. I can understand that they were terrified when I ended up in a car crash, but—"