Page 75 of The Knockout Rule

Fuck was right. She’d never felt so possessed, revered. Worshiped in the most beautiful way, because they’d become friends before lovers, the comfort in their relationship building into more than she could have imagined. With his free hand, he brushed her hair to the side, kissed the shell of her ear, gave it a lick. Treated her jaw and the line of her neck to the same pleasure. Both shoulders and every space between.

And suddenly she wanted to cry. Why did she want to cry?

“Eric.” She squirmed under him, terrified to voice what she was feeling.

He stilled. “You’re trembling.”

“You…I…” The words wouldn’t come. She was dizzy with desire and overwhelmed with emotion.

His hot breath blew against her back. “I know,” he whispered, his voice back to honey and gravel. “I feel the same.”

He dragged his nose up her spine, followed with his tongue and lips. Not pushing for her to explain her stilted words or this too-tight feeling in her chest, how she wanted to shout her happiness and cry at once. He somehow understood without asking. Like he was mapping more than her body. Seeing through her skin to the beating center of her, giving her what she needed by taking control and letting her exist in this place of burning desire and blooming emotions, no questions asked.

He released her wrists, moved down her body, stopping to bite her ass. She laughed, a burst of joy mingling with her overwhelming feelings. When he lifted her garter and let it slap against her inner thigh, she gasped.

He smoothed his hand over the spot. “This lace is criminally sexy.”

“You’re criminally sexy.” She opened her eyes, twisted her head to see the gorgeous man straddling her from behind. She wiggled her butt, tried to entice him to move faster, get naked. Relieve the need throbbing between her thighs.

Smirking, he took handfuls of her ass, squeezed, kissed each cheek, his fingers grazing the hot center of her. When he finally flipped her over, he didn’t give her time to bask in his manly glory. His mouth found hers, a rough kiss as he removed her loosened bra. Then he was everywhere, moving faster—thank God—unhooking her garters, kissing her stomach, rolling down her stockings, cupping her between her thighs. Finally, he dragged her lace panties down, and his breath stuttered.

He stretched out beside her, still in his infuriating briefs, his huge hand splayed on her belly. The tips of his fingers drew circles through her soft curls, driving her mad. “I didn’t know being with someone could feel this way,” he said, his eyes flicking to hers. “I’m dying to make love to you, but I can’t stop exploring your body.” His Adam’s apple bobbed, like he was suddenly uncertain. Vulnerable.

Her body was still hovering on a knife’s edge of pleasure, her hips moving while his fingers teased her, but those blasted tears threatened again—happy tears. How could a man be this incredible tears. “Everything with you feels different.”

She pressed her hand overs his, their fingers moving together as she guided his hand lower, to where she positively ached. His eyes drifted shut on a moan. She squeezed her thighs, forcing more pressure from his hand. Her hips bucked. Together, they trailed through her wetness. She almost wept from how desperately she wanted him.

She clamped her hand on his. “I need you naked and inside me.” Moving with her, filling her up. “I’m done being patient.”

“Then I guess I better obey.” Fire in his smoke-gray eyes, he nipped her shoulder, then extricated his hand from under hers and left the bed.

Immediately, she felt bereft. Empty. Rushing heat still pulsed through her body, the clawing need to have him buried inside her flaring, but the emptiness went deeper. Seeped into her marrow. “You’re taking too long.”

He got a condom from his dresser and tossed it on the bed. “You’re demanding.”

“Get over here.”

Amusement sparking, he dropped his boxers, and his cock sprang free. He was as thick as she’d imagined. Big. Curving up slightly toward his stomach. She was beyond hot, burning up from wanting him. Needed his skin sliding against hers, his heart beating next to hers. He kneeled on the bed, his heavy thighs nudging her legs apart. Instead of dragging him closer like she craved, she maneuvered to her knees, too. Had the sudden need to explore him, touch and kiss and learn his body.

She stroked the scar cleaving his right ribs, the bruise darkening his left pec. Sparring injuries, no doubt. Her heart gave a sharp squeeze, and a shot of fear mixed with the ten thousand emotions vying for dominance. “I’m scared,” she whispered. Sudden nerves. Stupid anxiety.

“I know it looks big, but I’ll go slow.”

She laughed and dropped her forehead to his shoulder. “Thank you for that.” For lightening her heavy.

His hands moved to her back, brushed up and down. “If you tell me to stop right now, we stop. No questions asked.”

Another reason why she was falling hard and fast for this man. He was as honorable as they came, and he deserved her unequivocal trust. She leaned down, kissed the scar on his ribs, the bruise on his chest. “I don’t want to stop.” She brushed her fingers down his sides.

He shivered, his hands gripping her back harder. “That’s fucking great news.”

And he was fucking gorgeous. She reached between them, fisted his length—silky and hot, hard and perfect. Air hissed through his teeth; his erection twitched in her hand. Too turned on to wait, she grabbed the condom and ripped the package—magnum size, of course—lined the plastic circle up with his tip, and trembled slightly. Feeling emotional again. Overwhelmed and excited.

As she rolled the condom down, his knuckles met her cheek, stroked softly. Eric murmured something in a language she couldn’t decipher, and her chest squeezed. Burning tightened her throat. She lay down and reached for him, desperate for him. He followed her movement, eyes locked on her face as his hips lowered and her knees came up.

He was right there at her center, prodding her opening, the intensity on his face making her throat burn hotter, so intently and insistently she whispered, “I love you.”

When? How? She was suddenly bursting with so much love.