And oh-so-perfect.

"You overwhelm me, too," she said as she stroked his soft, dark hair. When he tilted his face up to meet her gaze, she whispered, "Overwhelm me some more," then rocked her pelvis into the thick bulge behind the zipper of his dark jeans.

On a growl of pleasure, he pushed just as hard into her, both of their bodies young and strong and so hungry for each other that even the confines of his truck and their clothes could barely get in their way now.

"Please, Grayson," she begged. "Take me. All of me."

As wild as their night had been so far, at her breathless urging, Grayson finally let go of the hold he'd been keeping on his control, and the next thing she knew, he was moving them so that she was flat on her back on the bench seat and he was taking her pretty dress in his fists and ripping it in two. She gasped not from fear, but from excitement, as he reached for her thong next and shredded it to pieces with little more than one hard tug.

All week they'd been vying with each other to see who was stronger, tougher, who could hold out longer, but tonight they were equal partners in everything: pa.s.sion, desire, need. She reached for his shirt and tore it open.

She couldn't wait to get her hands on his bare chest, had actually daydreamed about it so many times that she couldn't believe it hadn't happened yet. And, oh, that first touch of hard, tanned muscles was so good.

"You're the one who can't possibly be real," she said as he levered himself up over her so that she could run her hands over his gorgeously muscled shoulders and chest, and then the deep indentations of his abdominal muscles.

"You make me forget," he said in a raw voice. "Everything but how much I want you."

"You don't have to remember tonight," she told him, both of them panting from the force of their desire. "All you have to do is make love to me the way I've wanted you to from the first moment I saw you."

He followed her plea with a searing kiss that made her head spin even more than it already was. And his hands, his mouth, were roaming over every last inch of her naked body. She couldn't possibly keep up as he tasted her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in one moment, then nipped at her hip bone the next. His hands sometimes led, other times followed the devastating path of his lips and tongue and teeth over her overheated skin.

She'd already come twice, but when he curled his hand around her ankle and lifted her leg so that her foot was resting on the dashboard, then stared down at her with the hottest, hungriest expression she'd ever seen, she nearly climaxed again without any further contact at all.

"Swear to G.o.d," he said as he reached out to stroke the slick flesh between her legs, "I've never seen anything prettier than you in all my life." He moved down from the seat to kneel on the floor of the truck before adding, "And I'll bet you taste even better."

She gasped in pleasure when his tongue found her. He'd splayed his hands on her inner thighs to open her up even further to him, and when she looked down and saw his tanned fingers on her pale skin, his tongue moving over her, and his eyes lifted to her face so that he could watch her reaction, she tumbled abruptly into yet another sinfully perfect climax.

Slowly, he kissed his way up her body as he climbed back over her. "You were just as sweet as I thought you'd be," he said right before he covered her mouth with his.

She was working on his belt buckle when he grabbed her wrists. "I need you," she pleaded as she fought to break free of his hold. "I can't wait another second to have you."

"I don't have any protection. We have to go back to my house." He was already moving away from her to let her up as he said it, and she barely bit back a groan of frustration.

So close. She'd been so close to finally having him, and now because neither of them had thought to bring a condom to the barn dance, she was stuck having to shift back into her seat and put on the long-sleeved shirt he handed her over her naked body for a far-too-long fifteen-minute drive home.

Lori knew she should be thankful that he'd remained lucid enough to stop before they had unprotected s.e.x. Especially after what had happened to Sophie on the night she'd had a one-night stand and become pregnant despite using a condom.

But right now, with need roiling around inside her, Lori didn't feel grateful at all.

On the contrary, what she felt was a clawing need to claim-and be claimed by-Grayson, once and for all.

Only, once she finally got his shirt on and was sitting in her seat, instead of starting the engine and burning rubber so that they could continue where they'd left off, he just sat there and glared at her. Three back-to-back o.r.g.a.s.ms with no big finale in sight made her ornery as she glared back.

"What's your problem now?"

"I'm waiting for you to put your G.o.dd.a.m.ned seatbelt on."

She started at his tone, and the hardness of his gaze that had been so full of hunger just seconds before, and was opening her mouth on a sarcastic retort when she remembered what she couldn't believe she'd almost forgotten: he'd lost his wife in a car crash. No wonder he was so adamant about her putting her seatbelt on, even in the wake of what they'd just been doing with one another.

With trembling hands, she snapped her seatbelt into place, at which point Grayson pushed the gas pedal down hard enough that gravel sprayed out from his tires.

Minutes felt more like hours as Grayson forced himself to take the dark farm roads just barely above the speed limit. And then-finally!-he was pulling into his drive.

Lori was about to jump out onto the gravel when he caught her in his arms. "You left your shoes at the dance."

"You had no problem with me walking around in bare feet on the gravel before," she reminded him.

He nuzzled her cheek and breathed in her sweet, wild, oh-so-feminine scent. "That was before I liked you." Grayson was stepping on his porch and was about to kiss her again when he realized she was pushing at his chest.

"I think all the excitement has made my ears go wonky," she declared. "What did you just say?"

G.o.d, he could hardly think at all with her soft and warm in his arms, his long-sleeved shirt falling open over her beautiful b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He kicked his front door open and tried to remember, but all he could come up with was, "I don't want you tearing up your feet on the gravel."

"No," she said, "after that."

He'd had so many fantasies of Lori naked and begging for him to take her here in his bedroom, that as he carried her into it, her question was instantly forgotten. He laid her down on the covers, pulled the shirt he'd given her to wear in the truck all the way open, and slid it from her body.

Sweet Lord, he wanted to start all over from the beginning, wanted to make her come another three times with his hands, his mouth.

Just as he was lowering his mouth to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she said, "Did you even mean it?"

Reluctantly moving his mouth away from her chest, he cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in his hands and teased the nipples with his thumb and forefinger instead until they were sharply aroused points. "Did I mean what?"

Now she was the one losing hold of their conversation. "That-" She arched deeper into his hands. "You-"

He took advantage of her confusion to lick across one tip and then the other, loving the way she gasped with pleasure as he tasted her. He was just sliding one hand down her flat stomach to the bare, slick flesh between her legs, when she finally got all the words out.

"You said you liked me, Grayson."

Again, it took him longer than it should have for her words to actually make it all the way through to his brain. Especially when he had his hand cupped over her s.e.x and he could feel how wet, how ready she was for him.

But when he lifted his gaze to hers, and he saw the surprising vulnerability in them, he finally understood what she was asking: Was he just making love to her tonight because he wanted her body?

Or had they, against all odds, developed a deeper connection than that?

Grayson knew he shouldn't have let her stay on his farm all week, and that he definitely shouldn't be taking her to his bed now. He also knew that he should be working overtime to keep tonight to nothing but s.e.x.

But knowing all those things hadn't made a d.a.m.n bit of difference so far, had they?

"I do like you, Lori," he admitted in a low voice. "More than I should."

"I like you, too," she whispered as she reached out to gently touch his face. "More than you know."

Her eyes were full of such sweet emotion that his heart stuttered in his chest.

For three years he'd sworn to himself that nothing-and no one-would ever touch him again. But he'd never counted on Lori Sullivan blowing past every wall, every fortress in less than one week.

And it scared the h.e.l.l out of him.

Chapter Eighteen.

Grayson knew what he needed to do. He needed to stop them from going any further, just as he had in the cottage. He needed to turn his back not only on desire, but on affection as well. Because while he hadn't been a monk these past three years, there hadn't been any risk at all of emotional connection with the women he'd slept with.

But with Lori, everything was at risk.

"Grayson."

His name on her lips had him refocusing on her, and when he did, he was surprised to find her smiling as she gazed back at him. He could still see desire in her beautiful eyes, but more than that, he realized there was understanding.

Understanding he'd done nothing whatsoever to deserve.

"One night. That's all you have to give me." She leaned in close, as if to tell him a secret. "And I won't tell anyone that you like me, if you don't tell anyone that I like you, too."

With that, she drew him back down over her so that she could give him one hot, sweet little kiss after another, each one of them made to confuse and inflame and drive his demons back down. Soon they were tangled up in each other again, his hands greedily filling themselves with her sleek curves, her sighs of pleasure sounding out against his mouth as he stroked over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her hips.

Grayson wanted nothing more than to hear, to feel her come apart again in his arms, but before he could take her over yet another peak with his hands and mouth, she moved so quickly, and with such remarkable strength, that the next thing he knew, he was lying on his back with Lori straddling him.

"Next time I come," she informed him in a no-nonsense voice, "you're going to be inside me. Or else."

h.e.l.l, those beautifully filthy words coming out of her pretty mouth were almost enough to finish things off for him right then and there, but of course she had to make things even more touch-and-go by reaching for his belt buckle and brushing her fingertips over his raging hard-on.

"There's nothing you like more than torturing me, is there?" he asked as he shoved her hands aside to yank his jeans and boxers off himself.

"Actually," she said as she stared at his erection with wide eyes, "there's one thing I think I'm going to like a whole lot more than that."

Before he could prepare for it, she reached out and wrapped her hand around him. His loud groan reverberated off his bedroom walls.

"Lori-"

"You had your fun with me, now I'm going to have mine with you."

Naughty didn't even come close to the way she looked as she licked her lips greedily and moved her hand down, then back up the length of him. And maybe he would have gritted his teeth and let her have her fun a while longer if she hadn't shifted just then so that the tips of her long, dark hair tickled his chest and he could feel her warm breath coming down over him.

"Time for you to come again, farm girl," he said as he yanked her back up his body. "So if you want to make good on your threat, you'd better grab one of the condoms out of my bedside table."

"G.o.d, you're bossy," she said, but she'd never looked happier about his bossiness than she did when she leaned over to pull out the box of condoms. "You've never opened the box." She frowned as she caught sight of the date stamped on it. "These expire next month. When's the last time you had s.e.x?"

"It should have been twenty minutes ago in my truck," he growled as he grabbed the box out of her hands and ripped it open, sending condoms flying everywhere. Grabbing the nearest one, he had it on in seconds. "Now be quiet, and get over here."

She was half-laughing, half-scowling as he lifted her back over his hips, but as soon as he began to slide inside, her eyes fluttered closed and she gave a low moan of pleasure.

He held tight to her hips so she wouldn't move too fast-at least, not this first time, when he wanted to memorize every single sensation. How warm and wet and ready she was. How she fit him as though she'd been made for him.

"Please," she begged him, his strong, dancing farm girl entirely lost to sensation. To need. "Please. Please. Please."

Needing her just as much as she needed him, Grayson reached up to thread his fingers into her hair and pull her mouth down to his at the same moment that he flipped them over so that her back was pressed flat against his sheets. With one hard stroke, he thrust all the way inside, and as her inner muscles clenched tight around him, he completely forgot every one of his vows about holding back.

All that mattered-as he pulled her tightly to him and she held him just as close while they drove each other even higher and further-was loving Lori.

And letting her love him, too.

Grayson was crushing her, but Lori didn't care if her lungs collapsed from trying to breathe with two hundred pounds of pure muscle pressing her deep into the mattress.

She'd never felt so good in all her life.

From almost-truck-s.e.x to completely messing up his sheets, Grayson had totally rocked her sensual world to pieces. Here she'd thought she was a connoisseur of s.e.x, but none of her previous lovers had made her come so fast, so hard, or so repeatedly. Heck, just lying here beneath him, she was practically on the verge again.

Only, making love with Grayson had been about so much more than just physical pleasure. For the very first time in her life, she actually felt whole; as if she'd needed to date and mess up with other men and relationships all these years just so that she could finally come around to this farm in the middle of nowhere and find the one man who truly mattered.

As they lay together, he continued to stroke her hip with one hand, her hair with the other. In his arms, she felt sated and adored and protected, and could have stayed like that forever.

Of course, considering she and Grayson had almost never seen eye to eye on anything, she wasn't too surprised that he had other ideas-ones that included pulling her up from the bed.

"Is it time to mess up my sheets now?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope," he said as he dragged her into his bathroom, turned on the warm spray of the shower, and pushed her under it. "It's time to clean up, instead."

She still wasn't happy about having to be upright again, but at least she was getting a really nice eyeful of his naked body-not to mention an erection that wouldn't quit. After he went to pick up one of the unused condoms that had fallen onto the floor, she reached for him with both hands.

He took them, but didn't move into her arms. "I don't know if I can control myself with you. You're too beautiful."

Her ex's sweet words had been little more than lies to get what he wanted. But Grayson never said anything but the truth. Knowing he truly thought she was beautiful meant everything to her.

"Well, I know I can't control myself with you." She tugged at his hands. "Now come here and let's both lose control again."

Before she could even blink, Grayson had the condom on, then was lifting her up so that her back was pressed up against the tiled shower wall and her legs were around his waist.

"I wanted to seduce you this time, d.a.m.n it," he said in a grumbly voice against her earlobe that sent shivers up her skin. "Slowly." He bit down on the soft flesh, then added, "Gently."

"Later," she said as she tightened her legs around his waist so that she could keep her hands free to run down over his shoulders and magnificently muscled back. "Right now this is what I want. You're what I want."

She lowered herself onto him just as he plunged up into her. Wet skin slid against wet skin, hands grasped, moans sounded as he angled his hips up perfectly to send her spiraling off yet one more time into such incredible pleasure she wondered if she was strong enough to survive it. Especially when he found his own pleasure and sent her rocketing off even higher with every rough, deep stroke of his body inside hers.

A few minutes later, Grayson moved her away from the shower wall and she unwrapped her legs from his waist, but even as the water grew colder they continued to kiss, going from hungry to sweet, then back again. After he'd toweled off both of them, carried her back to his bed, and drawn the sheets up over her as she yawned, she was snuggling into him spoon-style when she felt the evidence of his ongoing arousal pressing thick and hard into her hips.

"I've always really loved s.e.x," she teased him over her shoulder, "but you're insatiable. Tell me again, when's the last time you got some?"

"It's not just the s.e.x, Lori," he said in a voice that held both desire and sleepiness-and maybe even a little momentary contentment, she hoped. "It's you."