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The look he gave her sizzled nerve endings in some very interesting places. “I can sleep when I’m dead,” he growled. “You’re not going anywhere.”
The arrogance was justified given her propensity for throwing herself at him tonight. But it rankled nevertheless. “Is that a threat?”
He cupped her neck with one hand and pulled her into his kiss. “Call it what you want, Cassidy Corelli. But if I’m going to be a guinea pig in your goofy cousin’s wedding charade, then I think I’m entitled to a fake honeymoon, too.” He claimed her mouth with knee-weakening mastery. “C’mon, Cass. I need a bed. ASAP.”
“Because you’re tired?”
He got out and came around to her door, helping her to her feet. “Because I need you. Now.”
* * *
Gavin had never been more serious or more desperate to have a woman. Granted, it had been several months since the last time he’d been naked with a female. In addition to his youthful catastrophic history in misjudging the fairer sex, when he lost himself in his work, his hermit leanings tended to take over. He liked people. But solitude gave him energy. Sharpened his mind. Spurred his creativity.
When it came to Cassidy, however, he was neither clearheaded nor particularly intelligent. His brain was not in the driver’s seat. He wanted her. Fiercely. Madly. In a way that wiped out all his normal reservations. With an insanity no doubt induced by sleep deprivation and champagne and recent celibacy. But insanity nevertheless.
Later, he would not be able to recall the exact sequence of steps that took them from the artificially illuminated parking garage to the thickly carpeted hallway where his room was located. But through it all, he kept Cassidy by his side, hip to hip, his arm around her shoulders.
She laughed at him when he fumbled the key card from his shirt pocket and took three tries to open the door. “Are you sure this is your room?” she whispered.
The door swung wide. “Don’t you remember? You were here not that long ago.”
She passed him, entering the suite with a swish of hips and a low chuckle that went straight to his gut and hardened his aching sex even more. “All these hallways look alike.”
The door closed with a muffled sound. For the first time, his charming, funny tour guide seemed momentarily abashed. Her eyes wouldn’t meet his. Graceful hands fluttered as if not knowing where to land.
He restrained the urge to grab her, an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Problem, Cass?”
She licked her lips. “No.”
The simple negative didn’t sound convincing. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She kicked off her shoes as she had earlier, still not looking at him. “Would you mind if I take a quick shower...alone?”
He frowned, immediately suspicious. “If you think waiting will make me want you more, you’re crazy. I’m far past teasing, I promise you.”
Her chin came up at last and she grimaced. “I’ve never showered with a man. It may not seem like it, but I’m shy in certain situations. I won’t linger, I swear. I want this, too.”
Something about the vulnerability and honesty in her bittersweet chocolate gaze convinced him she wasn’t playing games.
Nodding tersely, he put some distance between them. “Go, then.”
When she disappeared, he drew in oxygen with a sharp inhale. Was Cassidy Corelli some kind of scam artist? Would he awake to find his billfold missing? Or was she what she seemed...an artless, far-too-young-for-him ingenue with a propensity for flirtation?
He paced automatically, doing everything he could think of to get himself under control. The last woman he’d slept with had been an artist in Asheville. They’d met at the home of mutual friends and acted on a quiet attraction that proved to be physically satisfying. Despite having much in common, their relationship had ended after six months due to a lack of fire.
That wasn’t going to be a problem with Cassidy. Though this current encounter had all the earmarks of a one-night stand, what he felt at this pivotal moment was far more volatile than simple attraction. It wasn’t that he wanted Cass. He craved her...with an intensity that alarmed his well-ordered existence.
Thankfully, she was true to her word. She reappeared in a very short amount of time wearing the same robe she had modeled earlier. He cleared his throat. “All done?”
She nodded, staring at him.
“Give me three minutes,” he said. In the shower, he washed rapidly. The taut skin covering his erect sex was almost too sensitive to touch. Imagining Cassidy’s fingers on his body made him groan.
When he stepped out of the shower, he caught his reflection in the mirror. It gave him pause. His eyes glittered with feral hunger, and his cheekbones were slashed with hot color. Every vestige of civilized male had been stripped away. He shuddered, closing his eyes as he imagined the moment when his body would penetrate hers.
She was so alive. He wanted some of that warmth for himself. Whether he had isolated himself deliberately or whether it had been a quirk of his birth order, he found it difficult to let people get close. With Cassidy, it was the opposite. He wouldn’t be satisfied until they shared the same space, the same air, the same hushed anticipation.
His hair was still wet when he tucked a towel around his hips and returned to the living room. He found Cassidy sitting on the edge of a chair, feet planted flat on the floor, knees pressed together. She looked like a schoolgirl waiting for punishment to be doled out.
“Are you ready?”
She jerked when he spoke, as if she had been lost in thought. He saw her throat move as she swallowed. “Of course.” She stood up so fast she stumbled and had to catch herself on the arm of the chair.
If he could have reached out a hand, he would have, but he was afraid that if he touched her, he would take her right there on the carpet. Extending an arm in the direction of the bedroom, he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “After you, Cass.”
When she slid by him, careful not to touch, he caught a whiff of the shower gel he had rubbed over his own skin. The scent got in his head, imprinting her in his psyche.
Beside the king-size bed, she paused, her back to him. “Do you have condoms?”
“Of course.” Though he had forgotten to fetch them from his shaving kit in the bathroom. In moments he rectified that glaring omission. Tossing a handful of packets onto the small bedside table, he glanced at the clock. It would be dawn soon.
Placing a hand on her narrow shoulder, he turned her around. Without her outrageous heels, the top of her head barely reached his collarbone. Using one finger, he tipped up her chin so he could see her eyes. Though she was by no means a helpless woman, her small frame seemed delicate next to his.
The expression in her gaze was difficult to read. Despite the fact that her hands rested trustingly at his waist, he sensed defensiveness in her posture. Perhaps she, too, saw the disparity in their physical sizes and felt threatened.
“I would cut off my arm before I would hurt you,” he said. “I may be under the spell of a wicked arousal, but I’m not an animal. All you have to do is say stop...anytime. Do you believe me?”
She searched his face. “Yes,” she said. Only that one word, but it was enough.
She had tied the sash of the robe tightly at her waist. If the knot was supposed to slow him down, she didn’t know much about men. He dispatched it in seconds and slid the entire garment off her shoulders and down her arms. When it fell to her feet, he thought he heard her gasp. Or maybe it was him.
All night he’d been desperate to hold her...to take her...to make her his. Now that the time had come, he had to pause a moment to take it all in. “You’re beautiful,” he said. The compliment was trite and commonplace and totally inadequate to convey the truth.
A more feminine woman, he had yet to find. Her skin was golden, a light, warm color that conjured up Italian olive groves and barefoot maidens running laughingly from ardor-filled suitors. Her glossy hair, black as a raven’s wing, curled around his finger when he tested a strand.
He tried to fix his attention above her neck, but it was impossible not to notice the bounty below. Full, rounded breasts...curved hips...pert bottom. He scooped her into his arms, though the bed was no distance at all. It was a ploy to test the softness of her skin, to relish the naked magnificence that was Cassidy Corelli.
Her arms linked around his neck. “When do I get to undress you?”
“It’s only a towel. I’m pretty sure we can manage.”
“I notice it’s kind of poochy in front.”
Her mischievous teasing made him want to smile in the midst of his sexual frustration. “Are you calling me fat?” he asked, eyebrow raised.
“You don’t seem to be in other places,” she said. “But there’s definitely a bulge beneath that terry cloth.”
He flipped back the covers and dropped her on the bed. Her breasts jiggled nicely when she bounced. “Feel free to investigate.”
Sprawling beside her, he settled on his back. What he wanted was to pounce and take. But then again, anticipation was half of the pleasure. It took everything he had, even so, to feign relaxation.
Cassidy reared up on one elbow, fascination in her gaze as she looked him over. “I guess you work out.” When she placed a hand, palm flat, on his abs, he flinched. It was too much and not enough.
“I’m not much for gyms,” he said. “But where I live we spend a lot of time outdoors.” His skin was several shades darker than hers for that reason. Except for a pale strip around his hips, he was tanned all over. He and his brothers had ranged free as kids, playing wild in the woods until they’d heard the bell summoning them to dinner.
She traced a scar below his rib cage. “What’s this?”
“My brother Dylan shot me with a bow and arrow when we were in grade school.”
“That’s terrible,” she exclaimed.
When she ran a fingertip over the puckered, long-ago-healed wound, he squirmed. “He didn’t mean to. He was aiming for a squirrel. I ran into the line of fire at the wrong moment.” The words were guttural, barely audible. He had broken out in a cold sweat, every cell in his body leaning toward the moment when she would remove the towel that tented lewdly upward.
Finally, when he thought he couldn’t bear it a second longer, Cassidy curled her fingers beneath the edge of the damp towel and tugged. He lifted his hips. She finished the job.
“Holy crap.” Her eyes widened. “Do you have a license to carry that thing?”
His penis was neither abnormally large nor embarrassingly small. But Cass stared at it as if she had unearthed a rare and exotic treasure. Her rapt regard increased its length and girth another increment.
“Trust me, Cassidy. We’ll be a perfect fit.”
Without replying, she wrapped one small hand around his shaft and squeezed lightly. He closed his eyes, holding his breath, as yellow spots danced against a black canvas. God in heaven. He was a goner.
Fluid leaked from the head. His would-be lover touched the slick wetness. Then she placed her fingertip in her mouth, tasting the evidence of his arousal. She seemed enthralled. Or perhaps postponing the inevitable out of some misguided notion that she was in control.
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.
Four
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 time and place. If her father discovered that she had initiated sex with a virtual stranger, he would freak out, and he would certainly never take her seriously. He would question her judgment, and rightly so.
Now that school was done, it was the pivotal moment for her to take her long-coveted position at her father’s side, despite her brother’s wishes. It wasn’t exactly a job that could be transferred cross-country, even if Gavin had been interested in more than a fling.
Still, she didn’t have any regrets. Most of the guys she knew were shallow and egocentric. Boys, really. Not men. Not like Gavin. She ran a hand over his hard male chest, feeling the faint dusting of hair, the delineation of muscles, the flat belly. He was beautifully built.
When she moved lower to touch him more intimately, a large male hand clamped down on her wrist. “Give me five minutes, Cass. I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours and you just turned me inside out.” But even as his rough-toned voice asked for mercy, his sex flexed and lifted.
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