“I haven’t been between a man’s legs…”

“In too long, I’d gather.” He chuckled.

The sound of his short laugh was rich and deep and it thrilled her again.

She wondered what he would sound like if he really laughed out loud and she longed to hear him do so. His hands massaged her shoulder blades open as if they were wings she was just beginning to spread. She sighed, rolling her neck and inching back toward him. She heard his sharp intake of breath as she clutched his thighs.

“I take back what I said about Olympia,” she murmured. “Great school.”

“Is that a compliment?” He brushed her hair from her shoulders for better access.

“If I was a religious kinda girl, I’d say I’d died and gone to heaven,” she breathed, feeling both of his hands spreading over the entire expanse of her back from spine to ribs. “Ahhhh god, Eric, that…feels…incredible…”

“How about this?” His breath tickled the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck before he kissed her there, his lips full and warm. Annie shivered, her nails digging into his thighs, making him jump. She had forgotten they were sitting under her sister’s kitchen table in the dark, with a party going on in the other room. She had forgotten she didn’t know this man, that she had never seen his face. There was nothing but his hands, his mouth, and the soft velvet darkness all around them.

Chapter Two

“Can we stop talking?” she whispered, leaning back and turning her face so her cheek rested against his. “I don’t remember ever feeling this good.”

“Do you want to just see what happens?” he asked, his fingers trailing down her chin, her throat.

“No. I want to be what happens.”

His mouth found hers in the darkness, a slow journey from a mislaid kiss against her ear, a wet trail over her cheek leading to her open and anticipating lips. He kissed her like she was a secret he was keeping-something precious and tender and worth protecting.