I inhaled deeply, embracing his scent on my sheets. Smiling, I opened my eyes…only to find him gone. He had slipped out without flipping the covers, and for a moment I wondered if I had dreamed the passion of the night before. The pleasant ache between my legs convinced me that it had been real. Stretching, loving the feeling of the satin sheets against my bare skin, I pulled myself out of bed.

“Can’t go wandering around naked,” I murmured dreamily as I pulled on some clothes. Not many; just enough to entice him. For as satisfying as the night before had been, I couldn’t seem to get enough. I wanted more.

“It’s been too long, girl,” I told my reflection, blowing it a kiss. It had been ages since I’d had sex, and even longer since I’d had good sex.

Padding out of my room, I cast an amused glance at the scattered clothes on the stairs. A second glance had me wrinkling my brow; Tyler’s clothes were gone. A twinge of panic in my gut made me ask myself if he’d left, gotten what he wanted from me and run away.

Heart pounding, I hurried down the thick carpet toward his bedroom. His door was open. Was that a good sign or a bad one?

Sick with worry, I stopped in front of his door. There he was, dressed in nothing but jeans, watching his laptop intently. Relief made me yawn, and I stretched into it.

“Mm, morning, lover.”

He slammed the laptop closed, startling me. “Morning! How’d you sleep?”

He was jumpy, and seemed weirdly distant. He shoved the laptop away from him and crossed his legs defensively.

Had I really been that bad in bed? I mentally calculated just how out of practice I had been, and I almost winced at the figure.

“Like a baby,” I said, stepping into his room. “How ’bout you?”

“Oh, I…slept,” he said noncommittally.

Crap. It had been terrible. Well, he couldn’t really expect it to be perfect the first time, could he? It never was. At least that was what I had been told by people far more experienced than I. But the night before had been absolutely magical for me. He stood and turned his back to me, looking out the window. Heartsick, I nearly walked away.

That’s no way to get what you want, I admonished myself. I had never given up perfecting anything I was passionate about, and this was no different. I would rock his world the way he’d rocked mine, even if it took a thousand hours of practice.

I sidled up behind him, sliding my hands around his tight, muscular waist.

“I had a great time last night,” I murmured with my lips pressed against his shoulder.

“Did you?” he asked neutrally.

It stung my pride, but I pressed on. “Mm-hm. I’d like to thank you for it.” I slipped my fingers under his waistband, excited at the absence of underwear.

“Thank me?” he asked, a laugh barely concealed in his voice. “No need to thank me, darlin’.”

Oh, no you don’t. I’m damn good at that, and you’re going to let me prove it.

“I don’t need to…but I want to.” I slid my hands down farther, to find him half-hard. He swelled under my touch, bouncing slightly with the rush.

I chuckled, pleased with myself. I might not be the best he’d ever had yet, but I could definitely get him going. I moved my hands up, over his rippling abs to his bulging pecs, raking my nails over his skin until he shivered.

He turned in my arms, meeting my eyes with his fiery emerald smolder. “Well…I wouldn’t want to deprive you of something you want.”

I bit my lip, turning my face up to him as he took my mouth in his. There was less desperation in his touch this morning. I intended to change that, but first I wanted to drink him in slowly. He traced my lips with his tongue, nibbling tenderly at my mouth. I sighed, melting into him, letting him cradle me in his strong arms like a lover out of an old movie.

Breaking the kiss, forming it again, over and over, I led him to the bed. I had been too passive last night, I decided. He deserved the full-body treatment he’d given me so expertly. Spinning, I pushed him down on the bed, and he barked a laugh of surprise.

“Woman on a mission,” he said with a grin.

“You know it, baby,” I grinned back as I unfastened his pants.

He reached for my shirt, but I batted him away.

“Lie still. It’s my turn to love on you.”

A small, unmistakably carnal sound bubbled from his throat as I stripped his clothes away. Straddling him, pressing his hard heat into the soft crease in my panties, I raked my nails over him from ears to navel, finding the spots that made him twitch and moan. Lips followed fingers, raising goosebumps of pleasure over his skin. His tattoos called to me, those beautiful colors and patterns that had caught my eye from the first moment I met him.

One by one, I kissed them all. The dragon. The flower made of skulls. The crystal drops of blood, and the severed head that birthed them. So macabre. So lively. So many stories, and I wanted them all. For now, I would satisfy myself with their colors and forms. His wrists were sensitive, I found as I scraped my teeth over them. He pulsed beneath me, sighing heavily as his eyes fluttered closed.

Fingers were next. I sucked one into my mouth, swirling my tongue around the tip, mimicking what I would do to him once I made it down there. He moaned and arched against me, nearly piercing my cotton barrier with his erect cock.

Moaning, I ground against him, teasing him and myself all at once. My need moistened my panties, slicking the barrier, letting me slide over him with ease. His breath caught in his throat and his head fell back as he clamped his hands onto my hips, moving me over him in earnest.

“Slow down,” I chuckled lightly, dropping my head to his chest to run my lips over every bulge and crease of muscle. “I’m not there yet.”

“Now who’s being cruel?” he groaned.

I laughed in delight, feeling the littlest bit accomplished. If I could get him aching for it the way he had me, I would feel like I had won.

I flicked my tongue over his abdomen, reveling in the way his heavy breaths pressed his skin against my mouth. The raw scent of testosterone spiked the air, driving me lower, down that deep V-shape between his hips. A glittering drop bejeweled the throbbing head, enticing and beautiful.

My tongue tingling in anticipation, I tasted him. Pure masculinity, pure Tyler. He groaned, thrust his hips up, and I pulled away. He made a sound that was almost a whimper, and I chuckled.

“Just lie back and enjoy it,” I whispered.

Nails trailing up his thighs, I kissed the length of him softly, making him jump and twitch with every touch. His smooth balls felt like velvet in my mouth, and I juggled them on my tongue as I stroked him lightly with my hand.

His low, growling noises seared a line of need from my lips to my groin, pooling liquid between my hips. I wanted him desperately, but I was determined to take my time. As I pulled him into my mouth, he gasped audibly, grabbing a fistful of my hair.

I groaned with pleasure, loving the feeling of being under his control. He moved my head as he thrust into my mouth, cursing breathlessly, growling wordlessly. I fondled him lazily as I let him slide over my tongue, filling my mouth with his taste.

Scraping my nails over his ass, I drew him in as deep as he would go, using my tongue on his shaft until his growls became melodic shouts, until his pulses pressed against my cheeks, until the heat of his ecstasy ignited my throat.

He tightened in my hand, his thighs quivered, and he shouted a curse at the sky. The force of his orgasm nearly choked me as he swelled in my mouth, emptying his seed down my throat. I swallowed as if I was dying of thirst, high on his musk, aching for his touch. I let him slip from between my lips with a sigh, and gazed up at him.

“Holy shit,” he breathed, shoving his hands through his hair. “How did you get so good at that?”

“Natural talent,” I said wryly.

He laughed breathlessly, then reached down to pull me up beside him. “I’ll accept that,” he murmured, nuzzling my neck.

His hands wandered over my back, settling on my ass. He cupped it, fondling it as he kissed my throat, scraping his teeth across my skin just enough to make me shudder. One hand wandered under my shirt as the other slipped into my panties, gently fingering my folds, sending tingles flying all over my body.

As I gasped and moved against him, he took my mouth, and I wondered only momentarily if he could taste himself on my tongue. The mingling sensations made me dizzy, and I clung to him, falling back on the bed as he rolled on top of me.

He ripped my shirt off and threw it, covering the laptop. His eyes drank me in, darkening as they drifted over my breasts, glittering as they traced my belly, heating as they landed on my panties. Almost fascinated, he outlined the wet spot with his fingers, rubbing the fabric against my swollen sex. A moan broke from me as he tantalized me with his gentle touch, slowly drawing me nearer to nirvana.

Cupping me in his hand, he lay beside me, kissing my mouth, my neck, my breasts. Licks of pleasure danced across my body like flames, and he pressed the heel of his hand against my aching clit, settling his fingers in my crease.

I rocked against him, each breath becoming a sob as ecstasy ripped through me, lightning through the clouds of my being. The storm built between my hips, lighting a fire under his hand. The howling wind was my own voice, and as the clouds burst, I thought I would fly to pieces from the force of it.

I melted into a puddle with a sigh, pulling him to me to drink from his mouth. He gave tenderly, stroking every sensitive place with his tongue as he hooked his finger over my waistband, freeing me from the last of my clothes.

“You’re intoxicating,” he murmured in my ear as he settled between my hips.

I shuddered with pleasure, glowing with the words I so needed to hear, and slid my hips against him, drawing him inside of me. He groaned, hiding his face in the curve of my neck, curling his body around me as he filled me.

The pain which had laced the pleasure the night before was gone, my body adjusting to his length, his girth, his power. Arching my back, pressing my heels into the bed, I met each of his thrusts with one of my own until we were moving in perfect unison, our slick bodies entwined on the sun-kissed bed.

The storm moved into his eyes. I held his head in my hands, losing myself in the depths of it, feeling my own pleasure build as the intensity grew in those sparkling green eyes.

He gasped, my breath quickened, and the lighting skittered between us, linking our bodies. He dropped his forehead against mine, plunging into an animal rhythm, forcing tiny screams from my throat, swallowing them with his kiss.

Thunder rolled from the base of my skull, down my spine, reflected in the tension of his body. In a delirious, earth-moving crescendo, his pleasure crashed into mine, exploding in a torrent of ecstasy.

As he collapsed against me, a stray thought flitted through my head. I might be closer to that nice, normal boyfriend than I thought.