Night Is Darkest

go to hell for this, but it’ll be worth it.” His fierce declaration obliterated the last shred of her rationality. She lunged up, crushing him in her embrace when words couldn’t suffice. Of course, he understood. “Shh. I need you, too.”
Fantasies came alive as he capitulated to her desire, devouring her with a frenzy of passion that rivaled her own need.
“I want you closer,” she whispered between the intense clash of their lips. He lowered her to the bed, rising above her on outstretched arms. Compared to the polished women he usually selected for liaisons, she worried about what he saw.
She shut her eyes against his intense inspection but he descended over her prone form and whispered in her ear. “Even with your red nose and swollen eyes, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Lacey. Don’t hide from me now.”
He solicited a gasp when his teeth inflicted a wet trail of love bites along her neck to her collarbone. Then his fingers slipped beneath the straps of her bra and nudged them off her shoulders. The side of his smooth, clean-shaven cheek nestled in the valley between her breasts as the tip of his tongue darkened the edge of the purple satin cupping them.
She arched her back, pressing the aching tips closer to his exploratory touch. Tyler obliged her by surrounding a pebbled nipple with the moist heat of his mouth. He sucked the flesh through the thin covering until it stood out in proud, glistening profile when he moved on to the other. While he ravaged her needy flesh, she heard the dual clunks of his shoes hitting the floor after he toed them off, his long legs dangling from the end of the bed.
Lacey wanted to lose herself in the pleasure rising inside her. She reached between them to work the top button of his shirt free. In her haste, she fumbled around with the coordination of a newborn. A frustrated moan signaled her distress.
“You want me to get naked?” Tyler asked. “Are you sure this is what you want, little one? I can stop right now, just say the word.”
“Don’t you dare,” she panted. “Make me forget about everything but you.”
“I can arrange that without taking my clothes off. I can take care of you.” He brushed a lock of hair from her neck. “There are other ways if you’re not sure…”
“I need it all. Please.” She left no room for misunderstanding.
He shucked his uniform in less time than it took for her to mourn the departure of the heat his close contact had generated. She’d admired his lithe build numerous times before when they swam during the steamy summers or when he helped Rob and Mason work on the house but nothing compared to the up close view of his six-pack abs when his emerald eyes blazed with sexual intent. Her stare wandered along the path of honed muscle to the scrap of black cotton shielding the impressive bulge in his boxer briefs from her hungry eyes.
“Take them off.” She didn’t ask.
“Not yet, Lace. I won’t last. I want to make you so hot it burns away all our sadness. At least for a little while. I can’t stand to watch you suffer.”
Tyler dipped forward to ensnare her mouth in a passionate kiss. While he stole her mind with fluid strokes of his tongue, he eased her shoulders from the bed. He peeled her shirt and bra away as if he unwrapped a fragile gift. He licked his lips then gulped, “So pretty.”
Then he was back, skin on skin. She nearly shrieked at the electric glide of his chest against hers. The smooth expanse of his pectorals brushed across her nipples as he licked a meandering path along the center of her body. He paused long enough to plump each breast before he worked his way lower still.
His tongue rimmed her belly button, sending sparks through her abdomen. When she bucked beneath his sensual assault, he wrapped his hands around her hips to lock her in place. He continued the sweet torture with glancing contact between his lips and the exposed swatch of her midriff until his mouth latched onto the material of her skirt.
She watched in fascination as Tyler unfastened the button with a shake of his head then lowered the zipper with his teeth. The operation tucked his chin against her mound. A moan echoed through the room as the blunt pressure drove her further up the spiral of ecstasy. It lifted her higher and higher with each pump of blood blasting through her veins. If he hadn’t restricted her motion, she would have ground her pussy against his face for the moment it would have taken to jump over the edge into climax. Days—no, years—of suppressed urges and violent emotion threatened to erupt.
He chuckled against the damp barrier separating her from what she wanted most. The triumphant laughter lifted a burden from her heart. “You’re so responsive, so demanding and greedy. I love it.”
In one seamless motion, Tyler knelt between her legs and yanked the skirt from her body. He tossed the material over his shoulder without thought, his focus never straying from between her legs.
“You shave?” The question came out more as a groan when he took in the smooth lay of her matching satin thong. He stared up at the ceiling and blew out a sigh.
“Wax.”
“God help me.” His fingers balled into fists at his side for the space of several ragged breaths. “And this underwear! Do you always wear such fucking hot lingerie under your baggy scrubs?”
Before she could affirm his suspicions, he shook his head while clenching his chest.
“Don’t tell me, I’ll never survive knowing you’re walking around the hospital in these.” His fingertip ran along the frilly bow topping the thigh-high stocking until it intersected with the garter belt securing it in place. A shiver shook her. She expected him to unhook the silk then roll it down her leg. Instead, he raised his ravenous eyes