Sage trembled with anticipation as she looked up at the wood plank ceiling.

Although she knew this was all real, it felt dreamlike.

Maybe because she had dreamed of surrendering to him so many times.

As good as her dreams were, none of them had anything on this.

She gasped as she felt his breath against the tender skin of her inner thigh.

Sage had never liked this kind of thing. Men in general did not know what they were doing down there. And this one especially could not possibly know what to do. Riggs’s inexperience made the idiot she’d done this with in college seem like an international playboy in comparison.

But she was feverish with honeyed desire. It seemed her whole happiness began and ended with the places he touched her - a hand on her thigh, lips against her skin.

She felt she could come apart at a thought. Or not come apart at all and not care.

She only knew that she needed his touch more than she needed her next breath.

His big hands parted her sex.

“Oh, Sage,” he groaned.

She actually felt her body respond at the sound. She was pulsing, opening like a flower seeking the sun.

When he pressed his lips to her opening she cried out helplessly.

He growled and stretched his mouth over her, licking and sucking as if he wanted to consume her.

Sage felt her hips lifting off the table to meet his mouth.

He slid a finger against her, teasing as he lapped at her.

She sank her fingernails into the wooden table.

He groaned against her and pressed his finger inside slowly, so slowly.

Sage whimpered, her thighs shaking.

He eased his finger in and out slowly, massaging her interior in a way that made her eyes roll back.

“Please,” she keened, astonished to hear herself beg.

Instantly he strummed her clitoris with his tongue, his fingers playing the rhythm she needed inside.

Sage cried out and then the world seemed to explode behind her eyelids, shooting stars pulsing in time with her pleasure.

Riggs continued to toy with her until the stimulation was too much and she tugged at his hands, urging him up to her.

He crawled up onto the table top with her. His eyes were shining with wonder, though his jaw was taut with need.

Sage reached down to unbutton his jeans.

He pushed her hands away gently.

“Don’t you want...?” she hardly had to finish the question. What he wanted was clear by his expression and the outrageously large bulge in his pants.

But he shook his head.

“That was incredible,” he murmured. “It was all I need.”

“It was not all you need,” she protested.

“It is all I need for now,” he said calmly, resting on his side beside her.

He placed a hand on her chest, and closed his eyes, as if he were trying to feel her heart beat.

“I have never felt such happiness,” he whispered.

She put her hand over his and smiled. She felt happy too. But also loose-limbed and sleepy.

“You’re tired, aren’t you?” he asked, chuckling.

She nodded.

“Why don’t you rest a little?” he asked. “I’ll wake you when it’s time to finish the sign.”

“It does need to dry before we letter it,” she said over a tremendous yawn.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead.

The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the pleasant sensation of his hand stroking her hair.