Free Could This Be Love? by Lee Kilraine Page B

his lips up her jaw to whisper honeyed words in her ear.
    Unhooking her bra, he followed the wispy material with his lips as it slid down and off her chest. His lips and hands worked together, partners in an adagio of stroking, licking, sucking, and kissing. Her breasts, ribs, shoulders, and arms all received equal attention. Just when he thought to slow down the pace, she surprised him again by throwing gasoline on the flames.
    “My turn.”
    Sijan groaned and quickly pulled his shirt up and off. Her gaze heated as it roamed his chest. She touched tentative hands on his biceps, the feather touch seared like a brand. A living flame on his skin that shot through his body like a lightning bolt. She caressed her hands up to his shoulders and down his chest, brushing his nipples before gliding down his abs. His breath stacked up in his windpipe like a fifty-car pileup on a freeway when her fingertips hovered at the waistband of his jeans.
    “Is it too soon for third base?”
    “Hell no, it isn’t, but I think we’re both done playing games.” He helped her stand, then moved them over to the bed, where he sat, pulling her into the V of his legs. One tug and her dress slid past the generous curves of her hips to fall forgotten at their feet. This was not the body of a woman who cared about the trend toward model-thin figures.
    “God, you’re beautiful.” The scent of her went to his head as he moved his mouth across the sexy softness of her abdomen. When her hips started to move between his hands, Sijan swung Avery down onto the bed, covering her with his warmth and need. He needed to bury himself in her, but when he looked into her eyes, he realized she needed something else.
    “I’m ready,” Avery said, her body suddenly stiff under his. Her eyes, a swirl of uncertainty and vulnerability.
    “Sweetheart, you aren’t even close.” He needed to make love to her, but not like this. Sijan rolled his weight off. He lay stretched out beside her, searching her face for a hint as to what she wanted or needed, but now all he saw was confusion. He caressed her cheek with his hand. “Hey, it’s okay. There are no rules here. And this sure as hell is no race.”
     
    ***
     
    Avery looked into Sijan’s heated gaze and knew the time for that other plan—the one she needed to pry open the monstrous, crushing straitjacket of her screwed-up past—was now. Or never.
    Because if she couldn’t push the mistakes from her past out of her head in order to make room in her bed for last year’s Sexiest Man Alive, then it was never going to happen.
    So, tonight, her plan was to grab this part of her life back. To stop letting ghosts have so much control. For this one night, she was going to stop thinking and give her body over to this gorgeous man. Her Hollywood experiences had left her numb and hollowed out. For five long years. Yet, with his first glance, this man had reawakened her senses and filled her insides with hot, sensuous yearning.
    “Sijan. Please don’t stop.” She gazed into his face, determined to make this work. Leaning in, she placed a breath of a kiss against his lips and whispered, “I need you so bad. And I want you more than I need you. I really am ready.”
    His gaze searched hers. Then he nodded and cupped his hands around her face. “Okay, but hold that thought, honey, because I need a little more time. I’m high maintenance like that.” He kissed each eyelid, her nose, and the corner of her mouth. Closing her eyes and shutting out all her thoughts, she gave herself over to the tidal wave of sensations Sijan sent crashing over her body.
    He worked his way down her throat to lavish more time on her breasts, kissing the sensitive underside of each. Then he caught one nipple between his thumb and finger, adding a hint of pressure before lathing it with his tongue and sucking it between his lips. Her stifled moan urged him on, and he sucked a little harder, causing her next moan to escape unabridged.
    She