He froze. He could have pushed her off, she was tiny enough. But his muscles wouldn’t obey.
Behind him, she burrowed deeper, her entire body sliding sinuously against him. Her arm crept up over his hip to settle in the center of his chest.
A low, sleepy sound of satisfaction vibrated against his back. She rocked, her hips pulsing even as her arm and leg tightened to pull him back harder against her.
His honor only went so far....
Surging up and over her, Jace had Quinn on her back beneath him before either of them could think. A startled squeak burst through her parted lips.
“I only have so much strength, Quinn. You can’t touch me like that and not expect me to respond.”
She blinked up at him through those big brown eyes, heavy with sleep and a languid heat that had him clenching down on an answering surge of need.
The teasing tip of her little pink tongue slipped out to run across her plush lips. Jace groaned deep in the back of his throat.
“Maybe I want you to respond.”
He drew in a sharp breath, his lungs filling with the pure essence of her. She wasn’t lying. He could feel the radiating heat of her desire slipping off her body.
He wanted to taste her skin. Her mouth.
And he didn’t have any more fight left in him.
With a soft curse, he bent to claim her lips. He left her enough space to find some sanity and push him away, but she opened for him. Accepted him. Took him in and gave him everything.
The kiss was explosive, all they’d been holding back smoldering to ashes between them.
Jace’s arms began to tremble from the strain of holding himself away from her. Something he’d been doing for years. As if sensing how tight he was still trying to hold on, Quinn arched up, closing the gap between them.
If he wouldn’t come to her, she was coming for him.
Wrapping one leg high around his hips, she dug her heel into his rear and drove him down. His body collapsed, half on and half off of her. He expected her to groan beneath his weight. Instead, the most amazing sound fell from her parted lips—a sigh of relief.
He felt the echo of it straight through to his bones. He drank the sound in, taking it, cherishing it.
She wanted him. At least for this one moment.
Comfort, relief, a mad physical need...he didn’t care. Whatever had driven her into his arms, Jace was going to take it. He wasn’t strong enough for anything else. Not where Quinn was concerned.
The covers tangled between them. His desperate hands searched for her anyway, fighting the folds of material blocking her from him.
With a breathless laugh, Quinn sat up, pushing against his shoulders. For the briefest moment, panic suffused him, and he was afraid that just as he’d decided to give in she’d decided to call a halt.
He shouldn’t have worried.
Climbing up to her knees, Quinn sent the quilt to the floor, clearing the way between them.
The T-shirt she was wearing was so big it hung off one shoulder, leaving her bare. The hem was crooked, slashing from barely below one hip to several inches down the other thigh. Her skin was creamy pale and he wanted to spend hours just licking it, worshipping every single freckle dotting her.
Jace watched her, drinking in each minute detail. The laughter died on her lips, fading from her big, beautiful eyes to be replaced with a heat that nearly singed him.
Crossing her arms, she reached for the bottom of the shirt and pulled it over her head.
God, she was gorgeous, inside and out. So luminous.
He reached for her, his wide palms spanning her hips. Hell, he could practically reach from the curve of her breast to the edge of her hipbone. She made him feel...big and graceless. She was so tiny and delicate. Precious.
Rolling to his back, he tugged until she fell against him. His mouth found her skin, licking along the ridge of her collarbone. He felt her shiver, saw the wave of goose bumps that scattered over her. She arched into his caress. Her fingers curled into him where they’d landed on his chest.
He took his time, savoring the salty tang of her skin filling his mouth. His hands swept up and down the curve of her back, each time dipping further and further beneath the waistband of her panties until his palms cupped the high, round globes of her ass.
She was shivering, the slight tremble racking her entire body.
“God, Jace, you’re killing me,” she groaned when his exploration got close to the tight pink tip of one breast, but didn’t touch.
“I’ve thought about this for a very long time, Quinn. I will not be rushed. Before we’re done, my mouth will be on every single one of your freckles.”
She whimpered, a cross between anticipation and torture.
But Quinn Keller had never been the kind of woman to sit still and wait for anything. Especially something she wanted.
He loved that about her.
Throwing a leg over his hip, she straddled him, bringing them tight together. Even through the layers between them, he could feel the blazing heat of her sex. Reaching down, she shifted her panties out of the way, settling right over him.
A red-hot haze blocked out everything but the feel of her.
“Aw, hell,” he breathed.
* * *
THIS WAS NOT what she’d planned when she’d woken up. But Quinn wasn’t going to quibble. Not when she finally had Jace where she’d wanted him for so long.
At first, she’d thought she was in the middle of another dream. Until she’d followed her instincts, wrapped her leg and arm around him and felt real muscle and bone.
By then it was too late to take it back. She was draped around him like a sweater...and it had felt too good to run her hands along the planes of his body. The silky-smooth texture of him, roughened by the dusting of hair across his chest.
And now...she was straddling his hips, driving them both crazy by rubbing them together. Spark to tinder.
Quinn sucked in a breath when his large hands wrapped around her waist. He surged up and rolled her beneath him. Somewhere in the maneuver, her panties slid down her thighs. And his mouth finally found her breast, tugging the tight, aching tip into the deep recesses of his mouth.
She cried out, unable to keep the sound of pleasure in. It was as if a direct line ran straight from the rasp of his tongue to her throbbing sex.
Was it possible to come from just that? Maybe, considering she’d been fantasizing about this for a while...and hadn’t been touched for just as long.
Her fingers were buried deep in the hair at his nape, holding him in place, silently begging for more.
She was so preoccupied she didn’t brace for the jolt of feeling his hand slip up the inside of her thigh. Parting her. Diving inside.
Her hips bucked. Her mouth dropped open on a keening cry that he swallowed.
God, she wanted more. Needed more. All of him.
“Jace,” she whispered, the sound harsh with urgency.
She couldn’t stay still, not with his fingers slipping and sliding through her sex. Pumping in and out. Thumbing her clit. Driving her crazy, but not giving her enough.
Never enough.
Frantic, she reached for him. Running her palms across the peaks and valleys of his hard, honed body. Maybe his long hours of training were worth it. As long as he wanted to use her for relief instead of that damn cage.
She tunneled beneath the waistband of his boxers, finally finding what she wanted.
She’d felt him nestled against her, when he’d tackled her to the ground.
But there was nothing like filling her hands with him. Touching, testing. Sliding up and down his hard length.
Squeezing, she relished the deep rumble of his groan and the way he watched her from beneath half-closed lids. Those clear b
lue eyes glittered, heat, need and promise sending another tremor through her body.
Pleasure. She wanted to give it to him. Give him anything that would banish the shadows that haunted the edges of his eyes. Make him forget, if only for a few moments.
Curling up, she flicked her tongue out, taking her first, full lap at him.
His taste exploded across her tongue, potent and salty. Honeyed heat. God, she wanted more. Everything he’d give her.
Widening her mouth, Quinn took him in. Her eyelids slid shut as sensations bombarded her—the stutter of his groan trailing off into a jagged rasp.
The fever of his silky skin. The wave of response sweeping through her own body, making her tingle and clench and burn.
Up and down, she moved. Sucking hard and soft. Fast and slow. Lapping, laving, loving. Quinn wanted to stay here with him forever, giving pleasure, letting this drive her higher.
She should have known Jace wouldn’t be satisfied with that. He wasn’t the kind of man who took. He gave. More than he had. More than he should. In everything he did.
His hands wrapped around the back of her head, burying in her hair, letting strands twine around his fingers. With the leverage, he gently, relentlessly pulled her away.
A whimper of protest rippled through her throat. She felt like a child who’d just lost her favorite toy.
She wanted to finish what she’d started. But the moment her gaze collided with his all thought fled, right along with her powers of speech.
Jace Hyland was intense. She didn’t need anyone to tell her that. She’d known it the first moment they’d met. Could read it in the set line of his jaw, muscles stone hard across his shoulders and back.
A few months after she and Michael had started seeing each other, Michael had taken her home for Sunday dinner. Like everything else, they’d talked about it at length before she met his family. That was Michael—purposeful, attentive and cautious.
She’d liked the steady easiness of him. Of their relationship. Of who she could be when they were together.
He’d told her about his older brother. Nothing that had prepared her for the impact of Jace. It didn’t matter that she was already in love with Michael. Even then, her body had responded to him.
To his simmering power, the silent, intense way he’d watched her all evening, as if she was taking the most important test of her life and he alone would determine if she passed or failed.
Nervous energy had run through her body. She’d never experienced anything like it. Constant awareness. It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.
She had to admit that, on that first night, she’d been so happy to leave. To get away from Jace and back to the comfort and contentment of the life she was building with Michael.
She’d already had plenty of drama in her short life and didn’t need any more.
Jace was combustible energy and barely leashed control.
The way his blue eyes glittered at her now reminded her of that first night. His entire focus was on her. She could almost believe that in this single moment nothing else existed for him outside of her.
It was powerful and provocative. Being the sole focus of a man like Jace could definitely become addictive.
Quinn’s stomach rolled with badly timed trepidation. There was no going back from this. They wouldn’t be able to laugh it off or pretend.
But even as the fear coiled tight, she couldn’t make herself stop. Courage was reaching out and taking what you wanted, even if it scared you senseless.
She’d been safe for too damn long.
He loomed over her, big and sheltering and strong. But he didn’t move.
Jace watched her. Saw her. Looked far deeper than anyone probably ever had. There was a part of her that waited for him to decide she wasn’t worth it and turn away, leaving her alone all over again.
She’d been alone for so long. She should be used to it. Was, really. But in that moment, if Jace turned from her it might just crush her, as none of the other tragedies in her life had. They’d tried, but she was stronger than the grief and misfortune.
A lump formed in the back of her throat and her eyes burned. She wasn’t stronger than this. Than him.
Slowly, his thumb brushed across her cheek, gliding along the edge of her cheekbone. Then the roughened pad snagged at the center of her bottom lip, tugging it open.
Longing, apprehension, wonder and a tinge of guilt all twisted inside her. It was too much. Her chest ached with the pressure of it all. She needed the pleasure she knew he could make her feel.
Rearing up, she claimed his mouth, diving inside to tangle her tongue with his. She reveled in the scrape of him across her sensitive taste buds and the jolt of energy that went straight through her.
Jace groaned, low and deep. And suddenly she got her wish.
Gone was the controlled seduction, the distance he’d still been holding between them. Quinn was flat on her back, stretched beneath him, arms held in place above her head before she could blink.
His mouth found the long column of her throat and sucked. He punctuated the caress with a nipping bite before whispering, “I can’t keep my hands off you anymore. I don’t have enough control for that. I need you like I haven’t needed anything before.”
His words stole her breath. They were a seduction all their own. Pleasant warmth spread through her and the only response she could possibly give him was, “Yes. Please, yes.”
He reached above her, stretching out so that her mouth aligned with the tempting expanse of his chest. Quinn scraped her tongue across the ridge of muscles there.
She heard the squealing sound of wood against wood. Fumbling. Didn’t really care what he was doing, not when she was so engrossed in tasting him.
Not until he dropped back to her, a foil packet held between them like a sacrificial offering to some wicked god. Quinn’s mouth curved. Thank heaven he was thinking clearly because until that moment the word condom hadn’t been anywhere close to her brain.
It had been a hell of a long time since she’d needed to worry about protection and birth control.
“Just so you know, I haven’t been with anyone since...” Quinn’s voice trailed off. Michael was already a specter between them, and she didn’t want to give voice to his name. Not now. Not like this.
The only other person Quinn wanted in this bed right now was Jace.
Strengthening her voice, she continued, “For a couple of years. I’m clean and I have an IUD.”
Jace nodded. “I’m clean, tested regularly and always careful.”
Snatching the square from between his fingers, Quinn tossed it away. “I want to feel you, just you,” she whispered.
Jace didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The way his heated gaze bored into her, consumed her, was enough to tell her he wanted that, too.
Hooking an arm beneath her knee, Jace pressed gently until she opened for him. She expected him to surge inside. Wanted him to put her out of her misery. Once again, he surprised her, taking his time. Torturing her.
She could feel him right there, at the aching entrance to her body. But he didn’t take what she was happy to offer.
He rocked against her, pushing in an inch before retreating, giving her a little more each time.
Her hands tightened on his shoulders, trying to urge him to give her what she wanted. But he wouldn’t be rushed.
“Jace, you’re killing me,” she whispered.
Reaching down, he trailed his lips along her temple, across her eyelids and along her jaw. “Shh, beautiful. I’m going to savor every last moment, in case this is all I’ll ever get.”
His words sent her world spinning. They were tinged with torment and a reverence that surprised and thrilled her.
No man had ever said anything like that to her
. Something so sensual. Something that made her feel cherished and...needed.
Her fingers bracketed his jaws as she pulled his face closer to hers. From somewhere deep inside, a confession she never meant to make spilled from her lips. “Jace, I don’t want this to be all we get. Not when I’ve wanted you for so long.”
All the breath exploded from his body. The force of it burst across her skin. And then his hot mouth was on hers, devouring and demanding, and yet somehow soothing.
Or maybe that was just the relief of not having to fight herself anymore.
Before she could get her bearings again, Jace finally gave her what she’d wanted all along. Surging deep, he filled her completely.
Quinn couldn’t stop the bone-deep groan of contentment that roared up from her belly. The sound morphed to a whimper when he undulated his hips as he pulsed in and out. He did it over and over again until her skin was slick with sweat, her muscles quivered with the pressure of being held just on the edge of oblivion and pleasure swamped her in waves that threatened to take her under and never let her back up again.
Her fingers dug into his skin, trying to hold on to the only solid thing left in her world—him. She could feel the release building, just out of reach, like a wave rolling toward shore, gathering strength and height with each yard traveled.
God, it was going to be too much. Leave her open and vulnerable. But it was too late to stop, not that she would even if she could.
And she wasn’t wrong. When it hit, her release took away everything, leaving only the pleasure he’d given her, the way he cradled her body and the soft murmur of his incoherent words in her ear. Contentment and happiness radiated out from where they joined.
But he didn’t stop. Jace demanded more than she thought possible. Relentlessly, he drove them both higher. Caresses, kisses, words trailed across her oversensitized skin. He tempted and coaxed, knowing just how to touch her to draw the moment out.
The crest of the first release had barely subsided when another was building. And he was right with her. Her hands slipped across his sweat-slicked skin. She licked at any piece of him she could get, savoring the taste of him on her tongue, the sounds, her cries mixing with his groans.
Testing the Limits Page 9