“Cassie? Honey?”

She shook her head, lips pressed together to hold back the tears. Her hands came up to put his on her again.

Leaning down he laid a kiss on her chest, just over her heart. “I hate seeing you in pain. We can stop, go inside, watch a movie on the couch. I can wait for you. You’re worth it.”

The tears slipped free then. “Shane, I don’t want you to stop. I promise. I’m sorry I’m such a mess.”

“You’re not a mess, Cassie. You’re working to get past something terrible. Why are you crying?”

“It’s nothing bad. Please, I can’t talk about it right now. Just touch me again. Make love to me. I need you.”

His lips found her cheeks and he kissed away the salt of her tears and then back down to her chest. His movements were slow and gentle, giving her the time and space to stop him if she needed to.

Shane gloried in the beauty of her body, in the fragile shell that lay around her heart. But she kept on and didn’t quit. His woman was everything. He stilled as he insinuated himself between her thighs.

The enormity of that statement hit him. She was his woman. She’d held his attention from the first moment but each time he thought of her it built in him, attention became attraction became something more intense.

There was no fear though. The shadow of worry passed. The moment when he’d run out the door on Maggie became clear to him. It wasn’t that they could have had this thing he shared with Cassie. It was that Maggie wasn’t Cassie. His heart knew what he needed and it was the woman stretched beneath him.

He wanted to heal every hurt she’d ever endured. Wanted to let her know that even broken women deserved passion and love.

And suddenly his need for her was so intense that his hands shook with it.

Sliding his palms up her ribs, he took the curve of her br**sts into his hands, holding them so he could taste the hard ni**les begging for his mouth.

Triumph roared through his system when she gasped and arched into him, her fingers digging into his upper arms.

The moment Shane’s mouth closed around her nipple, Cassie’s hesitancy was gone. Instead, desire coursed through her with each pull of lips and tongue against the sensitive flesh of her nipple. The edge of his teeth just barely skimmed over her and a deep, shuddering moan came from low in her gut.

Her squirms placed his c**k against her pu**y, pressing against her slick heat and they both stilled on a gasp.

“Oh hell. Okay, let me move away a bit or I’m liable to just plunge into you without a condom. You feel so good.” When he shimmied down her body he left a trail of kisses down her ribs and belly.

When he knelt between her thighs the sheer size of him held her legs apart. “You’re so wet, I can see you glistening in the light.” Two fingertips dipped into her and, eyes still locked with hers, he brought those fingers to his mouth.

The sheer carnality of the action rendered her utterly speechless. Instead, she opened her mouth but no sound came out as her eyes widened.

“So good. I need more. Are you ready for that, Cassie?”

She nodded quickly. Oh hell yes she was ready for that!

He chuckled as he settled himself on his belly. His thumbs spread her open to his gaze just before leaning forward to take a long lick from her gate up and around her clit.

Her hands slid through the softness of his hair, thick and cool against her fingers. His tongue flicked up quickly over her clit until she began to see white lights against her closed eyelids, until she began to feel the burn in her thigh muscles and the flush working its way up her body.

He angled his hand, sliding two fingers up and into her pu**y, twisting his wrist to find that sweet bump, the pressure against it feeling so good it nearly hurt.

There was no time to think about how Terry hadn’t gone down on her in years and how he’d never made her feel good and delicious and sexy like Shane did at that moment. There was only the intense sensation of his mouth on her, his fingers inside her and the open sky above them.

When climax hit, an arc of pleasure shot up her spine with blinding intensity. Her back arched as she rolled her hips into him, helpless to do more than bite back the cry of joy, instead, whispering his name.

Shane remained there, nestled between her thighs, until her pu**y stopped spasming around his fingers.

“You’re very good at that,” she gasped out, eyes still closed.

“Darlin’, you’re the tastiest thing this side of the Mason Dixon.”

She laughed and he loved the sound. It wasn’t one he heard that often from her so he treasured it all the more. So damned beautiful and sexy and she had no idea.

“It’s my turn now. I want to taste you.” She tried to sit up but he moved quickly, leaning over her, reaching for a condom.

“Darlin’, if you do that, it’ll all be over before it starts. I want to be inside you when I come. I’ve been dreaming of it. Later, I promise you can suck my c**k all you want.” One handed, he rolled the condom on while keeping his weight off her. “Are you still okay with this?”

She reached up and caressed his cheek. “Yes. So okay with it I’m shaking like it’s my first time.”

“Well, it’s your first time with me. That’s what counts.”

She laughed then. “Of course.”

Without breaking his gaze with hers, he reached down and guided himself to her gate and slowly began to push inside. She was slick from her recent climax and relaxed but still blindingly tight. Beads of sweat broke out over his forehead.