“You hire someone to shop? How do I get that job?” She found the comfort of his arm and the crackle of the fire hypnotic.

“You’re overqualified.”

“Find me a woman who doesn’t like to shop with other people’s money.”

“I doubt that exists,” Dameon said.

She certainly didn’t know any. “So the house is lacking essentials, but I’m guessing the garage is already well equipped.”

“Of course. I know my way around the home improvement stores. Dish towels and coffee tables are a different story.”

“That’s a man for you. Buy a hammer you might need before a towel you use every day.”

Dameon took her hand in his and traced her fingers. His simple touch pulled a flutter from deep within her belly.

She gazed up to find him watching their hands. He stopped and looked at her. “I should probably be encouraging you to leave.”

“Probably.” Grace lifted her chin a fraction of an inch, and Dameon accepted her invitation.

The way the man kissed . . . slow and sexy. His arm around her shoulders pulled her in tighter as she opened her lips in acceptance. Her eyes closed, and the space between them did as well. This wasn’t a kiss good night in the front seat of a truck, or at her front door. No, this was hello. An awakening of sensations brought on by more than just the act. More than the feel of Dameon’s arms roaming down her back and up into her hair to tilt her head. This was more, somehow.

Grace didn’t want to question the butterflies in her stomach and the excitement of his touch.

She just wanted to feel.

Her hands reached for him, his chest . . . his arms.

The small brush of his thumb on her breast caught her breath in her throat.

Dameon moved his hand away and kept kissing her.

Grace reached for his retreating hand and put it more firmly on her chest.

He sighed and took what she was offering.

She started to squirm. The desire for more and closer and without clothes slowly became a need. Her fingertips pulled at the edges of Dameon’s sweater until she felt skin.

His lips broke away and his hand reached for her face.

Grace opened her eyes to find him staring. “This isn’t why I invited you over,” he whispered.

“I know that”—and she did—“but it’s what we both want.”

The firelight swirled in his eyes and he lowered his lips again.

Feeling free to touch, Grace let her hands roam. The strong muscles of his chest and the tapered waist to the belt he wore with his jeans . . . everything excited her more.

Dameon’s lips moved to her jaw with a playful scrape of his teeth.

Grace crawled on top of him, straddling his legs with hers. She felt his heat through their clothes and reveled in his hands as they moved down her back and squeezed her backside. She tugged at his sweater. “This needs to go.”

He helped her pull it over his head and relaxed against the couch as she explored his bare chest with her hands.

She looked him in the eye as her fingernails ran over his nipples.

When his hands squeezed her hips and he lifted his pelvis toward hers, she knew she’d found one of his sweet spots. He was certainly pressing against all of hers.

She kissed him this time, leading his tongue into a dance with hers. More urgent with need. It had been a long time since she’d been intimate with anyone, and even longer since she felt this kind of buildup inside of her.

Her shirt met his on the floor, and Dameon filled both his hands with her breasts through her bra. “Is there any part of you that isn’t gorgeous?” he asked before he leaned forward to press his lips on her flesh and push her bra aside. Her nipples were already tiny nubs of desire, and Dameon captured them with his teeth.

She rocked against him, enjoying the friction between her legs. “Please tell me you have a proper bed in this house,” she said with a sigh.

His chest rumbled with laughter. “Hold on.”

Before she could move, Dameon was on his feet, and his hands held her against him so she couldn’t escape.

With her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms holding on to his neck, Dameon walked them down the hall and into his bedroom. “I can walk,” she told him.

He shook his head. “I like this better.”

Dameon set her down on his mattress and helped her scoot up the bed. For a moment he simply looked at her, the rise and fall of her chest, her swollen lips from their make-out session on the couch. The couch he hated but had to give props to for keeping her so close to him while they sat there. Grace was sexy and beautiful and staring at him with her hair sprawled all over his pillows. There were so many things he wanted to say to her in that moment, but there was something he wanted to do to her more.

He spread out over her, his knee resting between her legs, and pressed his skin to hers. Their lips met, and Dameon melted into her kiss. He matched her nibble for nibble, sigh for sigh. He could kiss the woman forever and bask in the heat from her body.

Her fingernails clawed into his back and teased the edge of his jeans. His cock twitched in his tight clothes. Pulling away, he moved his kiss to her neck. “You taste like honey and smell like flowers.”

His words had her hips lifting around his leg.

Dameon smiled and gave her the friction her body asked for.

“I want more than your knee,” she told him.

“Patience . . .”

But Grace wasn’t. That beautiful hand he liked to play with while they sat next to each other eating, or talking . . . or anything slid down his waist and covered his erection through his clothing.

Not to be outdone, Dameon slowly unzipped her slacks and ran one finger over the edge of her panties.

Their eyes caught again.

Grace was smiling and stroking him as he let his fingers reach the folds of her sex.

She bit her lower lip with a moan. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Dameon smiled and cupped her completely. He wanted this to last all night.

“I need . . .”

He didn’t let her finish. His teasing needed more room.

She lifted her hips to aid in him tugging off her pants. He pulled at hers and she worked frantically to get him just as naked. And they kissed. Hot open-mouth kisses mad with desire.

With their clothes lying wherever they were thrown, Dameon teased her sex again. This time she pushed against him and opened to give him better access. “So beautiful,” he whispered above her breasts before taking his time bringing them into his mouth.

“Dameon, please,” she called out as her hand circled the length of his erection.

All thoughts of making this first time last forever vanished. He rested his head on her chest and savored the feeling of her touching him.

She called his name again, and he pulled away long enough to remove a condom from the nightstand by the bed.

Grace touched his hand as he put the condom on. “I’m on the pill,” she told him.

Her words felt like permission to continue without his layer of protection. Her trust didn’t pass him by. But right then, with both of them setting off fire alarms with desire, was not the time for clarification. “I’ll remember that for the future.”

“Okay.”

Grace wrapped her legs around him as he covered her body.

Dameon placed his hands in hers and stretched them over her head. Their eyes never lost contact as he moved into her for the first time.