Swallowing, she slid off her seat.

The music changed, slowing the pace as he led her by the hand to the dance floor. The feel of the hard planes of his body pressed to hers planted her feet firmly back in the present. It didn’t matter what happened all those years ago. What mattered were the strong band of Falon’s arms around her and the press of the heat of his arousal against her belly.

Moving with a slow sensuality that had both of them taking shallow breaths, neither said a word. They let their bodies do the talking, teasing their senses with the promise of sweaty skin and hot kisses.

His hand traced the delicate line of her spine, causing a shiver of desire to race through her body and settle low in her belly. Tangling his fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back and looked deep into her eyes. Before his mouth took hers in a searing kiss, Sarah could have sworn it was fire, not ice, dancing in the golden light of his eyes. When he finally let her up for air, she couldn’t remember why it mattered.

“We’re leaving.” He pushed out between harsh breaths, nipping the lobe of her ear before pulling her from the dance floor.

***

He didn’t say a word as he sped them with white-knuckled control back to her brownstone. Sarah was glad he didn’t give her time to think about her actions when he slammed the car into park and practically pulled her from the car.

“What exactly—”

“Not a word, Sarah.” He interrupted her question, holding his hand out impatiently. “Keys?”

Producing them from the bottom of her purse, she watched as he unlocked the door. She was lost, swept up in the wave of his impatience and eager to know exactly what it meant.

“You’ve pushed me, Sarah,” he growled, turning to her in the dark entryway. “I think that it’s time you learned that I don’t like being tested.”

Sarah tried to swallow around her heart that suddenly took up residence in her throat. When he took a menacing step toward her the thought that she should be frightened registered in the back of her mind before a wave of lust washed it away. Who would have thought the caveman posturing would be such a turn on? She silently thanked him when he took a firm hold of her arms. They were the only things keeping her standing as her knees turned to useless piles of Jell-O.

“I want you to be fully aware.” He paused to kiss an exposed shoulder. “What’s about to happen, and trust me it will happen, is just as it appears to be.” He kissed the sensitive skin of the other shoulder. “Two people, giving in to the pull of their bodies. Nothing more.”

His mouth was on her throat now, nibbling its way to her jaw line. Doing delicious things to her heart rate. If he would just … move a little to the … yes, right there. She let a moan slip past her lips as he discovered the sensitive spot just below her ear.

He pulled back to blow warm air across the freshly kissed skin causing warmth to fill her empty spaces. “If you wanted this to happen all you had to do was speak up. I don’t like games, Sarah. I don’t like games and I don’t like people poking around at my reasons. This is going to happen but on my conditions. Can you handle that?”

Right now, she couldn’t handle if he stopped. Sarah gave him a jerky nod and he released her arms to frame her face. “Glad we understand each other.”

When his mouth met hers, she forgot all about her struggle against his formidable control. She could only focus on the hollow ache that longed for him to fill it and the way he expertly laid siege to her mouth.

If he wanted tonight to be just about the sex that was fine, she was more than happy to play along. He could think that it was just his body he was sharing with her, but deep down she believed that when someone gave themselves to another they left a piece of them there. It was a connection Falon had refused to acknowledge for years, hiding behind the ice that encapsulated his life.

As Sarah returned his kiss with a hunger all her own, she vowed that tonight’s inferno would be the first of many to test those walls.

She couldn’t withstand his seduction of her senses. He surrounded her, filled her lungs like her aching body longed to be filled. When he backed her into the nearby wall, she didn’t think to protest. Instead, she used it as leverage to wrap a leg around his hip. Bringing his rigid length into direct contact with the neediest part of her.

She couldn’t go on much longer like this, wrapped in delicate lace. Layers of clothing a barrier between her hands and what she really wanted to feel. Her hands on him, his on her, it didn’t matter, she craved skin.

As if reading her mind, he ran a palm down the thigh hooked around his waist. Stopping at the knee he hiked it a little higher while rocking his hips into hers setting off sparks throughout her sensitized body. When he lifted her other leg, she instinctively anchored her ankles around his lean waist. The movement brought her chest flat against the strong wall of his, causing her to purr in approval. He caught the sound with his mouth as he walked them up the stairs.

Never missing a step or breaking the kiss, he masterfully navigated the darkened hallway stopping just outside her bedroom door. Letting her slide down his body, the move rubbing her sensitive nipples against his chest, he released her mouth.

“Last chance.” His voice rumbled low in his chest causing a quiver lower in her anatomy.

“Not on your life,” she panted, twisting the knob sending them tumbling into the room.

He backed her into the middle of the room and Sarah had to fight a groan. This wasn’t where she wanted to be. She wanted to be rolling around with him on the bed, not two feet from where he stopped her.

“Close your eyes.” He held her unsure gaze. “Close them, Sarah.”

The smooth seduction in his voice had her eyes languidly falling shut. She had no resistance to the way she was making her body feel with little more than a whispered command. His fingers ghosted across her cheekbone before tracing the lines of her lips.

“Beautiful.” When his hand fell away and the movement of air indicated he had stepped away from her side, she felt a sense of panic. What if he changed his mind? Afraid to move and break the spell he was weaving around them, she attempted to calm her frantic breathing and focus on the sound of his movements.

All her hard work to calm down was undone by the rustle of clothing and the soft thud of shoes falling to the carpet. Images of his elegant fingers working the buttons free down the front of his shirt, him slowly peeling the white silk from his muscular chest and arms before sliding off his shoes. His muscles flexing as he released his belt from the loops, all without taking his predatory eyes from her body. Soon the only thing she could hear was the erratic tattoo her heart beat against her ribs.

The warm heat of his body behind her was startling. She hadn’t heard him move. She felt a finger trace the back of her dress, just barely making contact with her skin. If it was his mission to slowly drive her insane, he was succeeding.

Slowly lowering her zipper he brushed her hair aside, leaning over her shoulder his breath whispered across her skin. “I want you to feel, Sarah. Just feel.”

***

Falon was going crazy. He hadn’t planned on the sizzling heat to nearly consume him. That was why he made her close her eyes. He couldn’t watch the fires burning there that begged him to lose himself in her heat.

When he told her he only wanted her to feel, he had only been speaking half the truth. The fact was he wanted her to live. He had a feeling she hadn’t been truly living since the accident that robbed her of her family. He wanted to make her feel so alive she ached with it, couldn’t hold it in and fell to pieces in his arms.