His patience eroded like sand in the midst of a storm. “Enough,” he groaned. Forcing her onto her back, he used one hand to spread her thighs. Her sex was perfection, pink and wet and inviting. She smelled like lemons and need.
It never occurred to him to warn her before he tasted her essence. Her shriek might have awakened half the hotel had not the walls been so very well insulated. She shoved at his head. “Stop that. It tickles.”
He had told her she could call a halt at any point. He just hadn’t expected it to be now. Resting his forehead on her firm, soft thigh, he breathed harshly. “What’s wrong? Surely you’ve had oral sex before.”
“Of course I have. You startled me, that’s all.”
“Then may I continue?”
Her silence lasted about as long as it took earth to turn on its axis. Eons. Decades. “Cass?” He shivered like a man with ague.
“Yes...”
Her response was a tiny breathless syllable.
Returning to his task, he set about making her absolutely as insane as she had made him. Even as he pleasured her slowly, images filled his head. Driving hell-bent on a dark Nevada highway. Kissing wildly in the middle of the desert. Watching her body move like poetry in motion beneath that silver dress. Standing in front of an Elvis impersonator and promising forever.
At this precise moment all of it seemed perfectly reasonable.
He felt the instant when she neared the edge. Her hips lifted off the mattress. He held her down. Her breathing accelerated. He bit gently at the spot where she was most sensitive.
Holding Cassidy Corelli as she climaxed made every criticism he’d ever expressed about Vegas fade away into nothingness.
This was her town. And he’d staked a claim.
Gavin shifted up in the bed so he could kiss her. On the mouth. The room was dim. When he moved his lips over hers, he was alarmed to taste salty tears. “Are you crying?” he asked, aghast.
She cupped his cheek. “Only a little,” she whispered. “I didn’t know it could feel that good.”
“I haven’t even gotten started yet.” He said it to make her smile, but damned if it wasn’t the truth.
“You’re a dangerous man, Gavin Kavanagh.”
“Dangerous how?”
“Addictive. Like gambling or alcohol.”
“Are you saying I’m bad for you?”
“Maybe. Probably.”
“Isn’t that why people come to Vegas? To sow their wild oats? To cast off convention and morality? To take a walk on the wild side?”
As he argued his case, he stroked her breasts. They filled his hands as if she’d been created just for him. Not too large, not too small. He was beginning to think everything about her was eerily perfect. As if he were dreaming and any moment he would wake up and find the TV running some lower-than-B-movie porn flick.
He shook his head, trying to clear the fog and the feeling that he was letting down his guard at the worst possible moment. Cassidy’s pert nipples fascinated him. Her little pants and groans urged him on as he played with the sensitive nubs.
She tossed her head, her hands gripping the sheets as he tormented them both. He usually preferred long hair on women, but Cass’s chin-length curls framed her face and suited her personality so well, he couldn’t imagine her any other way.
At last, he knew he couldn’t hold out any longer. Testing her readiness with two fingers, he found her damp and welcoming. He grabbed a condom and rolled it on. As he moved between her legs and positioned himself at her entrance, he felt a flicker of unease. “Do you want this, Cass? No regrets in the cold light of day?”
At twenty-three, he’d been an immature ass. But Cassidy seemed far older than her years. Surely she knew her own mind.
Her smile was small but genuine. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
Surging forward, he cursed softly as the welcoming caress of her body squeezed him like a velvet fist. But icy shock slithered down his spine when he met with resistance. “Cassidy? Hell, Cass... Are you a...? Is this your...?”
Disbelief rendered him speechless. Along with another shot of suspicion and cynical doubt.
Slender legs wrapped around his waist. “Don’t be mad. I know what I’m doing, Gavin. I realized not long after I set foot in your hotel room earlier tonight that I wanted you to be my first. It took me a little while to make up my mind, but I’m so glad I met you.”
Something about that statement struck him at a raw spot, but he didn’t have the mental acuity to process why. Instead, he focused on her deliberate omission. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You would have left. Accused me of being too young for you. Done the noble thing and denied yourself.”
To hear her assess him so accurately stung. “Or I would have taken what you offered regardless.”
Her smile was wry. “I don’t think so.”
It wasn’t as if he had a choice now. It would cripple him to leave this bed. Dazed and exhausted, he didn’t have the strength of will to call a halt to things. She said she wanted this. And lord knows, he did.
Gently, he pressed forward. Her helpless wince stopped him cold. “I’ve never done this with a virgin,” he croaked. “It’s going to hurt you, Cass.”
“Only for a minute. We’ll muddle through, sweet man.”
He was selfish and emotionally withdrawn and often cranky. Clearly, she didn’t know him at all. He was torn in a dozen different directions. His body clawed for release like a junkie craving a hit. His brain shouted a warning. But Cass had done something to him. He couldn’t bear the thought that this moment might be as bad for her as it was good for him.
Her fingernails dug into his butt cheeks. “It’s okay, Gavin. I like it, really.”
It was a brave lie, but nothing could disguise her cry when he pushed the final distance and found himself seated fully within her inner embrace. “I’m sorry, Cass,” he muttered. It killed him to know he had caused her pain.
She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not so bad now. I like how you feel inside me. Big and thick. Filling me up.” Little flutters caressed his length as she exercised muscles that would give them both pleasure. “This is good. Truly. You’ve already given me an orgasm. It’s your turn. Take what you need. I won’t break.”
Her altruism was charming but misguided. He would only go the distance if he could take her with him. He began to move slowly, shallow thrusts that applied pressure where her recent climax had left her ultrasensitive.
“Gavin!”
He knew the moment she crested again. Determined to make her forget the initial unpleasantness, he moved in her with care, staving off his own release until he felt her shudder and cry out.
Then it was all or nothing. He took her wildly, almost insensate, his world flaring into a hot white light before going black as incredible pleasure washed over him and carried him to a place of peace and unconsciousness.
* * *
Cassidy had done her share of impulsive things during her short life, but this was the most cataclysmic. Her body still hummed with aftershocks of sensation that made her toes curl against the soft cotton sheets.
Gavin Kavanagh was magnificent. Too bad she hadn’t met him at a different