Jess sucked in a breath as she raised shaking hands to his collar. Her breath brought with it a lungful of his scent, as spicy and exotic as she’d thought when he’d sat down beside her back in the hotel ballroom. Only all the more powerful now that it was just the two of them.
Jess understood how scent worked in the animal kingdom. Pheromones were chemical communication signals that many animals used to let the opposite sex know they were ready to mate. She wondered what scent her own body was giving off. Would it reflect the turmoil of desire, confusion and fear that she was feeling right now?
It took only a couple of tugs on the tie to loosen it, and then it was hanging free. Having her untie it was clearly a ruse, but it had brought them closer together. Jess was backed against the table—nowhere to go. Sean was in front of her, looking down at her with an intense expression in his darkened eyes.
Those fancy tuxedo studs glinted at her, and Jess recalled her urge to find out how they worked. Before she knew it, before she’d made a conscious decision to do so, she found her fingers at the top one, working it free.
“I, uh, haven’t come across these buttons before,” she said. Looked as though she was committed now. Some of her nervousness disappeared simply at having made the decision. But her fingers still shook.
“You’ll work it out.”
She could feel the vibration of his voice as she worked the stud free, unhooking it from the button on the shirt flap below. Her hand brushed the bare skin of his chest as she parted the fabric, and his breath snagged.
His skin was smooth and lightly tanned, a sparse sprinkling of hair in the center of his chest revealed when she undid the second button. Sean helped her by reaching behind himself to unhook his cummerbund, letting it drop to the floor and then tugging his shirt free of his trousers.
Finally, his shirt was hanging open, and Jess held out her hand, the four tuxedo studs sitting in her palm.
“Here you go.” Her trembling was obvious, but Jess figured that was entirely understandable. He was standing there, right in front of her, like something out of a GQ celebrity photo shoot—bare feet, black pants, bared chest, white shirt hanging open, undone bow tie dangling around his neck. Jess half wished she could stop and take a photo, because this was a sight worth preserving.
“Thanks.” He took the studs and tossed them on the table, barely even glancing at them.
“How complicated is your dress?” he asked.
Jess frowned. “What do you mean?”
He gave a little wave at her neck. “I mean, is it like my tux? Do we need to begin preparations to remove it now? Or does it just unzip?”
Oh. That.
Jess had a sudden surge of memory, of what it had felt like when she’d been standing on that platform over a river in New Zealand, the safety people double-checking the rigging before she launched herself off into empty space.
She shook her head. “Nope. It’s simple. It lifts up over my head.” Leaving her in nothing but a skimpy thong. The dress clung to every curve, so she’d worn no bra and had done her best to minimize any VPL.
He gave her a slow smile. “Excellent.”
Thinking in a situation like this was only going to lead to trouble, Jess rationalized. Therefore, the only suitable choice was to halt all logic and proceed purely on sensation. And as far as sensation went, kissing Sean Paterson was pretty darned magical.
Jess reached up to cup his cheek. The prickle of his stubble scraped her palm. With him in bare feet and her still in heels it was a simple matter of leaning forward, tilting her chin up slightly and bringing her lips to his. She kept the touch light, a mere brushing of her mouth against his. He returned her light caress, bracketing her lower lip between his, pulling on it slightly before doing the same again with her top lip. His hands came to rest gently on her waist and his thumbs spanned her belly, rubbing the curve of her stomach in soft, gentle strokes.
Once again, Jess wondered if her knees were going to support her. A dart of desire, so sharp it almost hurt, stabbed through her body. She knew men often had issues with “holding on”—her ex-husband was a case in point. But she’d never before wondered if she might have the same problem. Sean had barely touched her, and she was on the edge, already.
He deepened the kiss, opening his mouth, teasing her with his tongue. Jess wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or proud of the low groan that came from her throat as she opened to him, welcoming him, meeting his desire with her own.
His fingers tightened on her waist and then one hand slid slowly upward until he cupped her breast, weighing it in his palm before he skated around to the low neckline of her dress and slipped inside. Skin against skin. He unerringly found her nipple and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger.
Jess collapsed against the table, her head falling back as Sean traced her jaw with his mouth, stopping to nibble on the skin under her ear.
“Please,” she murmured, although she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted. She just wanted more and wasn’t too proud to beg.
Sean seemed to know before she did—the hand on her waist skirted her hip, trailing heat over her skin as he traced her thigh, finding the split in her dress and breaching it. A moment later his fingertips brushed the lace panel at the front of her thong, sending ripples of pleasure through her entire body.
He sucked her earlobe into his mouth, diamond earring stud and all, before pulling back with a pop. “Do you want me to touch you here?” he whispered in her ear, pressing his fingers against her core. “Is that what you want?”
Jess’s first attempt at speech was a wordless gasp that seemed to please him; she felt his lips curve into a smile against her ear.
“Yeah?” he asked again.
“Yes.” She finally managed to form the word. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, the solid resistance of muscle against her hands almost as arousing as his touch.
He slipped inside the lace barrier and then he was touching her, teasing and rubbing and slipping against her. He was still kissing her neck, light teasing nibbles that weren’t enough, weren’t what she wanted. She wanted to be taken, to be overwhelmed. Jess sought his mouth again, kissing him with punishing abandon, groaning when he caught up with what she wanted and returned the kiss, forceful and demanding. His tongue plunged into her mouth as his fingers tormented her, and the winding coil of desire inside her reached the point of no return.
“Sean,” she gasped.
“Yes, baby.”
Jess’s breath caught, her body stiffened and every nerve sang with the power of his touch. Her last logical thought was that it had been far, far too long since someone had brought her to the edge of reason like this, and then there was no more room for logic, only sensation—exquisite sensation that made her thighs tighten, her toes curl and her fingernails dig deep into Sean’s skin.
She cried out as she shattered, and he swallowed her cry with a kiss that went on and on, anchoring her through the shudders that racked her body.
Finally, dragging in a breath that sounded like a sob, Jess collapsed, her forehead sagging to his shoulder, her knees almost buckling. If not for the table behind her and the man in front of her, she would have fallen to a puddle on the floor.
Sean’s arms went around her, half an embrace, half to support her, as she tried to regain her breath. She was very aware of the heat of him, her cheek rested against his still-shirt-covered shoulder, but the body beneath was hot, and she wished her dress was gone so she could press herself against him and feel that warmth directly against her skin.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked gently, his hands rubbing circles over her back.
Jess managed a strangled-sounding laugh. “I’m awesome,” she said, her voice breathy and strained.
He