He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just … stared.

I fidgeted, anxiety taking hold of me.

As an eighteen-year-old girl—an eighteen-year-old virgin at that—I didn’t know the first thing about seduction. I thought that if I shaved my legs, wore something sexy, and doused on some lip gloss and perfume, I would be irresistible. But looking at Hendrix right then caused doubts to roll around in my head.

What if this was all wrong? What if he wasn’t ready to have sex with me? Had I been wrong in assuming that, after all these years, he’d automatically be ready too? I mean every time we fooled around he was more than eager to take it as far as I’d let it go. And when we were downstairs together a few minutes ago, I’d told him what I wanted, and he hadn’t seemed to object.

Not that I really gave him a chance to before I took off.

I thought …

Well, I guess it didn’t matter what I thought.

I should have talked to him about this! I shouldn’t have just assumed that this is what he would want. After all, you know what they say about assumptions. They make an ass out of you and me, and right now I was feeling like one big, gigantic ass.  

Insides twisting, I looked away from him. What if he rejected me?

I didn’t want tonight, the last night that we had together, to be ruined.

Crap.

I bit my bottom lip for a second before releasing it. “I should have talked to you about this, shouldn’t I? I’m sorry, Hendrix, I just thought…” I rambled, the words flowing from my mouth in a slew of verbal diarrhea.

It was a habit, a bad habit I’d had since I was a kid. Pretty sure it was genetic since Grandmama seemed to be affected by the same trait. Daddy too. Not sure about my Mama since she passed away before I ever got to know her… 

 Hendrix spoke, thankfully halting my verbal tirade before I had a chance to really embarrass myself.

“Maddie, shut up.”

I stopped and reared back. Ooh, I was gonna smack him so hard! How dare he tell me of all people to shut up?

“Excuse—”

He cut me off. “Look at me, baby.”

I looked at him. Well, more like glared at him. My eyes met his as my belly tightened.

Ooohhh! He didn’t look angry. He looked … hungry.

Oh...

Looking into his darkened irises, I saw a storm brewing. A lust-driven, carnal-inducing storm.

Hendrix moved towards me. His steps were slow. Calculated. He stalked me, his movements mimicking those of a predator locked in on its prey.

Guess that makes me his prey.

His body inches from mine, he stopped. His calloused hand reached up to cup my jaw and my heart jack hammered at the slight contact.

When he spoke, his words were raw. Hungry. Filled with need. “Do you have any idea how fucking beautiful you are?”

I shook my head. I knew how beautiful I was, or at least I knew how beautiful he thought I was, but I still wanted to hear him say it. I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit that I was fishing for compliments and searching for reassurances. I needed them. Craved them.

Just like I needed and craved him.

“You don’t?” Hendrix asked, placing his other hand on the base of my throat and squeezing slightly. I don’t know what it says about me, but the soft constriction wreaked havoc on my body. The power, the strength he possessed made my head spin. He was so strong. Lethal. I loved that about him. Knowing he could protect me. He was the epitome of an alpha male. “Well, let me tell you.”

He moved closer, his warm breath fanning across my face. “This face—” he leaned down and placed a tender kiss on my forehead “—is the kind of face men go to war for.”

Butterflies danced in my belly.

“And this body”—he released my neck and jaw, grazing his hands down my sides as he looked me up and down. His incessant gaze scorched my skin as his eyes traveled the length of me, paying special attention to his favorite curves— “is a body a man would kill for.” He dusted my ribs with his fingertips and the light sensation drove me crazy. “Just to have a single taste.”

Stepping closer, he removed his hand from my rib and placed it on my breast. Moving it, he caressed me, his roughened palm rubbing over my pebbled nipple. I moaned at the light contact.

Eyes locked on mine, he continued. “And this”—he pressed his other hand over the place where my heart strummed wildly in my chest— “is the most beautiful thing about you. This right here, pretty girl, is worth more than all the gold in the world.”

Tears filled my eyes. I loved him. I loved him so damn much.

“And it’s all mine. Now, forever, and always.”

I leaned into him and took a breath. The smell of the newly lit candles mixed with his cologne swirled around the tip of my nose. It was intoxicating.

“Yours. Always.”

Hendrix leaned in to kiss me, his lips stopping a hairbreadth away from my sweat-slicked skin. “You’re goddamn right.”

Pressing his mouth to mine, he wrapped his arms around me, and I slid mine behind his neck. He pushed me back until I fell on the bed. His body followed mine down; his lips never losing contact with mine as he braced his muscular chest over my much smaller one.

His weight on top of me was heavy, but it felt right.

Oh, so right.

“Open for me, Maddie,” Hendrix growled, his tongue swiping over my bottom lip, demanding entrance.

I obliged, opening quickly and moaning into his mouth as his tongue dueled with mine.

He tasted like the green striped mints he always carried in his pocket. It was a taste I’d crave until the day I died.

Scraping my pink tipped nails down his back, I wrapped my legs around his hips. Hendrix groaned, his breathing accelerated as pushed his pelvis into me. The bulge in the front of his jeans aligned perfectly to make me…

“Oh, my God,” I cried out, shoving my soft chest into his hard one as he pressed down, rubbing the length of his denim-clad cock along the needy bundle of nerves between my legs.

Jesus, Joseph, and Mary that felt good. Too good.

Overheated, and gasping for breath, I was near begging when Hendrix reached up and grazed his fingertips along the outside of my thighs where the lacy chemise ended and my flesh began.

I moaned. I squirmed.

I panted like a bitch in heat.

Hendrix ghosted his hot lips and scorching breath down the column of my neck and over the center of my chest, stopping right above my left breast. He looked up at me. “Tell me what you want, Maddie.”

Oh, good God! He expected me to speak? I was beyond words, functioning on instinct alone. All I knew was that I wanted him on me and inside of me. I wanted his taste, his smell, his touch ingrained so far in me that I wouldn’t know which was mine and which was his.

I dropped my head back onto the pillow and lifted my hips, rubbing them against the zipper of his jeans again; my need driving me to push for what I wanted.

What I needed.

Hendrix’s breath hitched. “Tell me what you want, baby.”

He wanted to hear the words. I was beyond anything other than basic speech.

I looked at him, giving him the best glare I could muster for making me wait, and muttered the only word that I could get past my thick tongue and swollen lips.

“Please.”

One word was enough.

Not wasting another second, Hendrix reached down, pinched the hem of my chemise between his index finger and thumb, and ripped it over my head. Breasts bared, my erect nipples hardened further as the chilled air caressed my scorching skin.

Hendrix paused, admiring me. His jaw ticked before he opened his mouth and ran his tongue over his bottom lip.

“Can’t wait to taste those.” He leaned back, his butt resting on the back of his calves.

I opened my mouth to tell him to hurry up and taste me when he reached forward, hooked his fingers around the crotch of my thong and said, “You attached to these?”

I shook my head.

“Good.”

The sound of ripping fabric filled the room.

Cool air hit my center.

My first instinct was to close my legs, to shield myself from his view, but I didn’t. I’d be damned if I gave in to any insecurities tonight.

Tonight, belonged to him.

To me.

To us.

Fighting against the panicked voice in my head that kept screaming, “Hide, hide, hide!” over and over, I spread my legs, letting my knees fall to the side.

I was utterly exposed at that point.

It was the first-time Hendrix had seen me. Well, all of me. He’d touched me there before, but he’d never seen me.

“Goddamn.” His voice was harsh and strained. “Perfect. You’re fucking perfect.”

I smiled. Wide. Finding my voice, I spoke. “Yeah? I’m glad you think so considering you'll be seeing a lot of me over the next fifty years or so.”

Hendrix pulled his eyes from my bare body and looked me in the eye. “Only fifty? Damn, baby. Thought I had at least sixty. Guess I better get started. Gotta make up for being shorted a decade.”

I laughed until he reached behind him, fisted his shirt behind his neck and ripped it over his head.

My core ached, pulsed, and throbbed at the site of his naked chest and ripped abdomen. He was perfection. All hard planes, deep ripped valleys, and smooth tan skin. Just looking at him made my heart pound.

Mouth-watering. I watched with half-hooded eyes as he tossed his well-worn T-shirt to the carpeted floor and popped open the lone button of his jeans. Tagging the zipper, he spread it wide, giving me the barest glimpse of the pipe beneath, before he hopped off the bed.

His eyes never leaving mine, he pulled off his Nikes and then his socks. In one shaky movement, he yanked his faded jeans and boxers down before stepping out of them.

He looked as nervous as I felt.

His cock jutted out from his body and my mind blanked. Pretty sure I had a mini-stroke. I’d felt him, felt it, through his thin basketball shorts before, but I’d never seen it. That was … that was too much. I mean I’d watched enough porn to know he was bigger than normal but I didn’t know he was that big. 

That thing wouldn’t fit inside of me!

Hendrix must have seen the look of pure terror plastered all over my face because he spoke, low and soft, trying to reassure me. “Don’t worry. We’ll make it work.”

Make it work? Had he lost his mind? Obviously, he had because there was no way.

No friggin’ way!

“Baby, trust me.”

Dumbfounded, I nodded once. What choice did I have? I wanted this more than anything. I just prayed that the monster bobbing between Hendrix’s thick, muscled thighs wouldn’t break me in half.

“I trust you.”

Hendrix froze. “You’ve got no idea what hearing you say those words does to me.”

Placing his knees on the bed, he crawled over me. Dropping to his elbows, so our chests were touching, his mouth hovered over that sensitive spot below the shell of my ear. He teased without touching me. It was torture.

“A woman like you, trusting a man like me, that’s everything baby.”

His words were the fuel that stoked my fire. My entire body burned with every cell screaming out his name. I needed him to take me. Needed him to consume me. “Hendrix,” I cried, “please.”

I was done waiting.

“I’ve got you,” he replied, sliding down my body, his hot mouth meeting my skin and leaving a trail of wetness in its wake. Nipping at the flesh that covered my collarbone, he inhaled sharply as his hands once again slid up the sides of my ribcage.

I squirmed and gasped in response.

It felt so good.

I arched my back, offering myself to him. Not surprisingly, he understood my silent pleas. The connection between us had always been strong; he’d always been able to read me like a book. Dipping down, he drew my right nipple into his mouth with a hard suck.

I lost it.

Moaning for more, I reached down, clutching Hendrix’s hand with my own, and dragged it to my neglected nipple. He squeezed the pebbled peak between his fingers and plucked, making me go wild. Letting go, he peppered soft kisses along my skin as he went to the other side. Taking my left breast in his mouth, he hummed. His tongue, hot and wet, lashed at my skin, making my body writhe in response.

Why had I waited so long for this?

Releasing my breast from between his talented lips, Hendrix looked up. “You want more?”

One jerky nod was all I was capable of at that point.

“Good, because I’ve waited long enough to taste your sweet pussy.”

I gripped handfuls of his thick hair in my fingers as he slid down my body and pushed my legs open wide.

Bending my knees and placing my feet flat on the mattress, he looked up at me, “Don’t move, Maddie. You take whatever I give you. Understand?”

Again, I nodded. Right then, I think I would have agreed to anything as long as he kept touching me.

I was that far gone.

“I’ve never done this before but I’ll figure it out. Don’t care if I gotta stay down here all night, I’m not stopping until you come all over my face. Then, and only then, will I let you come all over my cock.”

My skin tingled at his words. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had been watching porn. Never in a million years did I think such dirty words would turn me on, but they did.

To say I was not prepared for the moment that his tongue met my flesh would be the understatement of the century. I had no idea how much his mouth alone would rock my world.

Parting my center with his thumbs, Hendrix didn’t hesitate to lick from the bottom of my slit to the top. I gasped, my hips flying upward in an involuntary reflex. Hendrix’s eyes blazed fire as he used his muscular arms to hold me still against the bed.

“That feel good?”

“Yes!” I screamed, not giving a crap if the entire neighborhood heard me. This was too good. “Do it again. Please…”

I shifted, lifting my hips against his arms. I wanted his mouth back on me. I wanted more of the pleasure that I’d only been given a small taste of.

I whimpered.

I whined.

And I waited with bated breath for his tongue to touch me there again.

I didn’t have to wait long.

Like a man starved, Hendrix dove in.

His movements were awkward at first but before long his mouth, tongue, and lips worked together as he licked, sucked and nibbled every inch of my center.

The pleasure, I can’t even tell you how good it felt.

How good he felt.

“Hendrix,” I cried out his name as his finger entered me.

It burned, the sensation new and unfamiliar as he slowly pushed deeper before pulling the thick digit out. Then he repeated the motion all over again.

Despite the discomfort, my body sought more, rocking against his hand as he added a second, longer finger. Ignoring the small bite of pain, I moved on his fingers and hand as his tongue did wicked things to my body.

“Take it, baby,” he encouraged, flicking his tongue faster. “Take it all, pretty girl.”

I rocked faster and arched my back higher as the pressure built. I had no idea what to expect but I knew whatever was about to happen would be huge. Life altering.

Heaviness settled in my belly and an invisible rubber band tightened. Heavier, tighter, it kept building. And then, when I mentally begged for relief, cried for the tension to ease, the rubber band snapped, and a rainbow of bright colors exploded behind my eyelids.

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

The most beautiful thing I’d ever felt.

I felt like I was floating. Soaring high.

Up and up I went.

In that moment, I got my first taste of what Hendrix Cole could do to my body.