He lifted one hand, brushed her hair back from her face and then smoothed his palm down the line of her jaw, her throat. Everywhere he touched her, licks of flame erupted. Ivy had never experienced anything like it. She’d never known this kind of frenzied need that was clawing at her, demanding more.
“You make me want to throw the rules away,” he murmured and dipped his head to brush his lips to her forehead.
She sucked in a breath. “Rules?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head. “You’ve been making me a little nuts the last few days.”
“I have?”
He smiled and the curve of his mouth sent tiny electrical shocks blasting through her system.
“Yeah. And you know it,” he said softly. “Every woman knows when she’s driving a man crazy with want.”
“Want?”
Oh God yes, she thought. Want was good. Want was very good.
“I like your hair down,” he told her, running his fingers through the heavy mass, scraping his short nails across her scalp.
Ivy sighed and closed her eyes.
“I like how you feel in my arms,” he admitted.
“I like it, too.”
“Good,” he said, voice a low throb of need, “because I want more of it. I want more of you.”
Her eyes flew open in time to see him lower his head and slant his lips over hers.
The kiss staggered Ivy. All of her preconceptions, all of her idle daydreaming splintered under the reality of his mouth on hers. His lips were soft yet firm and unyielding. He parted her lips with his tongue and claimed her more intimately, more deeply.
While he explored her mouth, his hands went on a searching mission of their own. He ran his palms up and down her spine and then to the curve of her rear where he held on tightly and pulled her closer against him. She moaned when she felt the hardness of his body pressing into hers and she squirmed as if trying to get even closer. She clung to his shoulders as if holding on for dear life and when her feet shifted on the inflated floor, she felt him move with her.
Her tongue tangled with his in a dance of desperate hunger that shattered her resolve, disintegrated her good intentions. Here was the heat that had drawn her to him from the beginning. Here was the need that had kept her awake nights, wondering what it would be like to touch him and be touched.
Tanner groaned and dropped them both to the floor. He held her cradled against him and when they landed on the cool rubber floor, they rolled, still locked together. Over and under him, she felt her body springing into life as it hadn’t for more than four years.
His kiss demanded everything she had to give and she offered it to him gladly. His hands moved as he brought them to a stop, pinned against the inflatable wall. He slid one hand beneath the hem of her T-shirt and she gasped at the exquisite feel of his skin on hers.
His fingertips traced their way up her body until he reached the edge of her bra, then he pushed it up and out of the way and covered her breast with his palm.
“Tanner…” She arched into him, sighing his name.
“Oh yeah,” he whispered, his thumb and forefinger twisting and teasing her sensitive nipple. “This is what I’ve wanted since the day I saw you, Ivy.”
“Me, too. Oh, me, too,” she admitted, opening her eyes to look up into his. “Taste me, Tanner. I want to feel your mouth on me.”
His eyes flared with raw hunger. He didn’t say a word, only dipped his head to her breast and took her nipple into his mouth. Lips and teeth and tongue tortured her gently with sensations that coursed through her with rocketlike speed.
She twisted beneath him, unable to hold still. She lifted one hand to the back of his head and held him there, as if afraid he might stop. And oh, she didn’t want him to stop.
The world fell away. All that mattered was this moment. Tanner’s mouth on her body. His hot breath brushing her skin.
She wanted more and she wanted it now. Ivy forgot all about where they were. Forgot about the tree farm. Forgot that Tanner King was the one man who had the power to shut down her family’s business. Forgot everything, in fact, in favor of concentrating solely on what his touch could do to her.
As if he heard her thoughts, he skimmed his hand down her belly and beneath the waistband of her jeans.
Sunlight beat against Ivy’s closed eyelids and she took a breath and held it as Tanner’s fingers moved beneath the elastic band of her panties and continued down, to the heart of her torment.
He touched her once and she shattered, body trembling, breath exploding from her lungs. But it wasn’t enough for him, he wanted to take her higher.
“Again, Ivy,” he whispered, lifting his head from her breast to look down at her. “Break for me again.”
She slid her hands up his muscular arms to his shoulders and then dug her fingertips in and held on as her legs parted for him, making room, welcoming his touch.
He dipped one finger inside her and she shivered. Then he withdrew that finger and entered her again in a slow, gliding rhythm that tore at already sensitized nerves. Her h*ps rocked into him as he gave and demanded all at once. She felt tension building within and embraced it.
Her gaze locked with his as she felt another cl**ax approaching. She stared into his eyes as the first ripples of pleasure rocked her.
“Tanner!” Her voice was strained and quiet.
“Let go, Ivy,” he ordered. “Let go and feel me.”
She did.
She had no choice.
Maybe, she thought wildly as she trembled and shook in the safety of his arms, she hadn’t had a choice from the first moment she’d walked into his house. Maybe every step they’d taken together had brought them here, to this moment.
Then he kissed her, swallowing her wrenching moans and she stopped thinking entirely.
When the last of her cl**ax faded away, she felt both weak and energized. Her body was alive in a way she’d never experienced before and though she acknowledged another twinge of guilt at the thought, she couldn’t deny it.
Tanner pulled his hand free, then tugged her T-shirt down over her br**sts. Still looking into her eyes, he said, “This is just the beginning. You know that, right?”
She swallowed hard and fought down a rising tide of desire. Already, her body wanted more.
“Yes, I know,” she agreed softly.
“Good.” He sat up and drew her with him.
Late afternoon sunshine played through the mesh walls and lay tiny checkerboard patterns over his face. A soft wind sighed through the trees and lifted her hair from her neck. But the breeze didn’t do a thing toward damping the fires he’d stirred inside her. She was burning up, aching for his touch and she could see in his eyes that he was feeling the same way.