He sounded terrible and wonderful. A torture victim.

"Give me a little credit. I have some idea. I do understand that if I tell you I want your c.o.c.k in my mouth, you'll probably-"

He knocked her hand away, and the towel came off, and his lips came down on hers, hard.

She stumbled into the kiss, unsure how to respond to the urgency she felt in him. His tongue slicked over her lip, asking for entry, and when she opened her mouth his hand came up to cup her face, and he poured all the desire she'd made him feel back into her. It was like that, like being drenched in longing, one sudden, shocking wave of need that knocked into her and made all her muscles weak, so she had to cling to his arms and try to remember to breathe.

He touched her everywhere he could reach, her hip, her waist, her breast, her b.u.t.t, while his other hand anch.o.r.ed her in place, steady and practiced in the way he used it to angle her head where he wanted it, to push the kiss deeper, darker.

His thumb brushed over her nipple, eliciting a brazen pulse directly between her legs.

She couldn't stand up. Not when she was drowning like this.

When she started to sink toward the floor, his arm came around her waist, and he lifted her up and deposited her on the bed. Somehow her hands had found his head and the back of his neck; her fingers speared in his hair to hold him close. She didn't want him to stop kissing her. When he tried to pull away, she made a mewling sound of dismay.

"Just for a second. I need to get my pants off, or it won't be very comfortable to have me lying on top of you."

She released him and watched as he unzipped his pants and pushed them off, along with whatever he'd been wearing underneath.

And then she just stared.

It was so much ... ruder than she'd been prepared for. Big and hard, jutting out from between his legs, purplish and swollen.

She'd seen them before, of course. Twice. But Tony's was not- Tony's was- Even her brain started to stutter.

"Bunny?"

"Don't call me bunny,' " she said, and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

He sat down on the bed, then stretched out beside her.

"You look like a bunny right now. You look like you think I might beat you to death with it."

"It does kind of have a ... cudgel-like look about it."

"There you go again with the big words."

" Cudgel'? It's only two syllables."

She was still staring at it. He scooted closer, and it brushed against her thigh.

So hot, and silky smooth.

"What's a cudgel, like a club?"

"Yeah."

"That's a new one."

"Sorry. It's not that I don't, uh- It's just that I wasn't ready."

When he shifted again, his thigh moved between hers, and the whole hot length of him pressed against her hip.

Not like a cudgel at all. Like ... like wanting, if it had a shape.

"I'll make sure you're ready," he said gently. "And then I'm gonna make you beg me."

"Oh, good," she whispered, before his mouth came down on hers again.

Chapter Nine.

Amber kissed like two different women-confident and sensual one moment, shy and uncertain the next. When he skimmed his palm over her nipple, her lips parted and her knees came up. But when he took the invitation and moved his hand to her thigh, she squeezed her legs back together.

This was going to take some time.

Tony didn't mind. He was a guy-he'd take s.e.x just about any way he could get it. Fast and rough was hot. But so was slow, especially the first time. If it took hours to get Amber figured out, that was fine with him.

Though he might need a two-minute break to jerk off in the bathroom if she kept talking dirty to him. The word c.o.c.k on her lips got him so hard it hurt.

For now, he just stuck to kissing her and let her do what she wanted with her hands. Those tentative fingers grew bolder, stroking up his back, then stopping just above his a.s.s because she wasn't quite brave enough to touch him there yet.

He propped himself on one elbow and let her play, knowing she needed this. Needed time to get used to his body and to adjust to the idea of him inside her.

When she finally worked up the nerve to slip her hands down over his a.s.s and tug him up harder against her thigh, Tony figured she was ready for a little more. Which was good, because he was dying to get his hands on her.

He let them go where they would, never lingering long anywhere. Just getting her used to it, letting her adjust to the idea that he could touch her wherever he wanted. That she belonged to him, at least for tonight.

She felt even better than she looked, which was saying something. She was all contrasts-long, lean limbs from running or working out or whatever she did to stay in such great shape, but soft belly, soft b.r.e.a.s.t.s, soft between her thighs and along her neck and between her legs.

And wet, too. She might be nervous, but she wanted him.

He let his fingers drift along her inner thigh, trace the shape of her p.u.s.s.y, tease at her c.l.i.t. Her hips rose off the bed.

"Tell me what you like," he said. "That's how we get good at this."

Then he started exploring again, this time with his mouth.

He kissed her neck, her collarbone, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He licked her nipple, sucked it, bit it gently, and then, when that made her rock up against him, bit it hard. Her hand slapped down on his shoulder, a reprimand she didn't mean, because her slickness arched up into his thigh, and afterward she relaxed a little more.

Good to know. Someday, Amber might like it rougher. A little biting, some spanking ...

But not with him. He shut down that line of thought.

He worked over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with his mouth, his hands. Her little m.u.f.fled moans and sighs told him she was getting lost in sensation. Not a bad thing, but he was going to need her help to get her all the way there. He liked s.e.x, he paid attention, but he wasn't Houdini. He didn't have any magic way of guessing what was going to get her past her stage fright.

When his hand slipped between her thighs, she parted them, and he stroked his fingers over her folds. So wet. Her body was ready-it was only her mind that hesitated. And no wonder. Jesus. Her first experiments with s.e.x sounded like a f.u.c.king nightmare. He was glad she'd told him, but holy c.r.a.p.

He put his mouth on her stomach, enjoying the way she wiggled and squirmed, not yet quite sure what to do with the need chasing its way through her. His fingertip found her c.l.i.t with a glancing touch, and she rose off the bed, ready for more. "Tony," she said.

He loved the way she said his name.

He slid one finger inside her, then swept it over her c.l.i.t, a firmer touch this time. She'd liked this before, and she seemed to like it even more now, judging by the way her breathing shallowed out. He added another finger and moved his mouth lower. Lower.

Amber finally figured out where he was going. She sat up, fast.

"You can't do that."

Tony pressed his fingers into her and his thumb against her c.l.i.t, and her eyes just about rolled back into her head.

"Why not?"

"It's not- I'm not-" She tossed her hands up, a helpless little gesture that said, Rescue me.

"Amber." Another quick pulse over her c.l.i.t, and another low moan. "I'm putting my mouth on you now. I'm going to taste and lick and suck you, and I might even bite, and you're gonna tell me what you like and what you don't like so we can get you where you want to go."

"But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You don't want to be ... down there."

He grinned. "I would hang out down here all f.u.c.king day if I could. I would move in down here. Buy a couch."

She smiled, but the worry lines in her forehead didn't go away.

"Lie down," he said. "This is gonna be fun. I promise."

She did what he said, but every muscle in her body told him she didn't believe him, didn't trust that this was a good idea.

So he took it slowly. He took it just as slowly as he could stand to take it, kissing and licking and nibbling and sucking, with slow thrusts of his fingers inside her. She didn't talk, but he paid attention, and after a while she started to loosen up again. Her hands fisted in the sheets. Her eyes closed.

"Tony," she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"That feels good."

"Good. Keep talking to me."

He pressed his finger along the front wall of her channel, looking for her G-spot, and when she bucked about a foot off the bed, he figured he'd found it.

"That!" she said. "I like that."

He worked her c.l.i.t, worked that spot until she was straining off the mattress, tossing her head from side to side. Just f.u.c.king desperate to come.

But she didn't, and he didn't know how to push her over the edge.

"Tony," she pleaded. "I need ..."

"Tell me what you need."

"I don't know."

"All right. We'll figure it out."

He left his fingers inside her and moved his mouth back to her nipple, sucking hard. "Oh my gosh," she said.

"Oh my G.o.d. When you're in bed with me, you say Oh my G.o.d.' "

Amber smiled, radiant as an angel. "Oh my G.o.d, that feels f.u.c.king amazing."

"That's my girl. You tell me what to do."

He put his mouth back on her breast, licking and teasing until she spoke up and said, "Harder." When he sucked, she said, "Can you ... Will you bite me again? Not too hard?"

So he nipped her, and she tossed her head back and moaned. "Holy s.h.i.t. Why do I like that?"

"Don't worry about the why. Get out of your head and focus on the way it feels."

He found a rhythm, and she chased it with her hips.

"Tony, I want ..."

"Tell me."

"I want your mouth again."

"You want me to go down on you."

"I do."

He was already moving in that direction, but he pushed her anyway. "Say it."

"I want you to go down on me."

"Good girl."

This time she opened wide for him, and he flicked his tongue over her c.l.i.t and worked her with his fingers until she was moaning his name, over and over. "Tony, I want to come."

"I know you do, honey. What do you need?"