The Object of His Protection - Brenda Jackson [38]
Drey continued to hold her with her face buried in his chest. He whispered over and over that she was okay while her shaking continued. What she needed was something to drink, preferably a glass of wine. But he didn’t want to leave her alone for the time it took to fix her one. He just wanted to stand there and hold her.
A few moments later the shivers in her body began to ease. He tried not to think about just how soft she felt in his arms, how nice she smelled or how good her body felt pressed up to his. And most of all, he didn’t want to remember just how delicious her mouth tasted.
But he did remember. And when she lifted her head to stare into his eyes, he no longer saw tension in them. He saw desire so thick it made his breath catch. Before he could react in any way, she stood on tiptoe and placed her mouth on his. And then she eased her tongue into his mouth.
He wasn’t exactly sure what was driving her, but he knew what was driving him when he took control of the kiss. It was as if something inside him snapped and he wanted to gobble her up. And the way she was returning the kiss let him know that she wanted to be gobbled up. He thought the other kisses they’d shared had been intense, but they couldn’t compare to the heat and passion they shared now. There was nothing simple about this kiss. It was the hottest kiss he’d ever endured and he felt his entire body ignite in flames.
He tangled his hands in her hair, trying to keep her mouth immobile while he plundered it in pleasure, and when she pressed even closer to him, molded her body intimately to his, he felt an explosion just waiting to happen. He knew just where he wanted to be when it did.
Inside her.
That thought made him pull back to end the kiss. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind for him to have such thoughts, and he refused to take advantage of her. He would do the right thing even if it killed him, and right now it almost was. His entire body was on fire. More than anything he wanted to make love to her. But he wouldn’t.
“Why did you stop, Drey?”
He heard her words, felt her confusion and knew he would be honest with her. “Because you aren’t in your right mind now. You’re thinking that you want something you really don’t.”
She shook her head, disagreeing with him. Instead of saying anything verbally, she leaned up on tiptoe and took his mouth again and he didn’t deny her. What he did do was fight for control, though he found it hard to do. This time it was she who finally pulled back. “I know what I want, Drey. I know what I need,” she said in a whisper. “I need you. Now.”
He gazed into her dark eyes, saw the desire there. That same desire stabbed him in the chest and he was tempted to pull her back into his arms to taste her some more. To gobble her up again.
He remembered what he’d said after their first kiss and the promise he’d made about not taking his desire for her any further until she gave the word. Although she had just done so, he wanted to make sure she understood what she was asking of him.
“You want us to make love?” he asked, so there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding, no morning-after regrets.
“Yes.”
He heard her response but pressed on to make absolutely certain. “I want to get inside you, Charlene. I want to make love to you the way a man makes love to the woman he wants, the woman he desires. I want to take you to the edge and back. I want to hear you scream, and in the end I want to make you come. Again and again. I want to feel it. Taste it. Are you absolutely sure those are the things that you want too?”
She stared at him, and he watched as she nervously licked her lips. She probably hadn’t expected him to make things so blatantly clear. He watched her eyes darken and heard her breathy sigh before she said, “Yes, I’m sure that I want all those things. I want to share every single one of them with you.”
In one smooth move Drey swept her off her feet and into his arms. He moved toward his bedroom, hoping