The impact kicked Zach like a mule. Finally, he had his hands on her. When he'd felt her stiffen a moment ago, he'd forced himself to go slowly, but damn , the temptation had been strong to fill his hand with her breast. Now that he finally had, its tactile impression was everything he'd known it would be. It was firm and round with that marvelous inner jiggle that made tits such a magnet for men. A guttural groan rumbled in his throat, and he returned her kiss with a strength that drove her head back into the coverlet as his fingers massaged her breast's full softness. He moved his palm lightly to feel the fluid movement beneath it, and was so enthralled with the result that it was a moment before he even noticed the thrust of her nipple trying to drill a hole through his palm.

He ripped his mouth free to look down at her. "I've been a good boy scout, Lily; I've been patient and true. But you have on way too many clothes, and I want to see you."

Hot color washed up her throat and onto her face, but she coolly raised her eyebrows and met his gaze with the directness he expected from her. "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours."

"Oh, honey, now that's what I call a sweetheart deal." Pushing back to sit on his heels, he reached for the hem of his T-shirt.

By the time he'd tugged it over his head, Lily had divested herself of her pullover sweater, and Zach's shirt fell from suddenly nerveless fingers. "God," he whispered and stared at her, all lush golden skin and killer curves in a wine-colored lace bra. "You're even prettier than I imagined. And trust me," he said with a slight smile as he tore his gaze away from her body to meet her eyes, "I've spent a lot of time imagining."

Lily might have stuttered out an unimaginative, "Ditto," if every drop of moisture hadn't suddenly deserted her mouth. Instead, she simply stared. But ho ly petunia.

His shoulders were wide, his arms were powerful, and his stomach was flat and ridged with muscle. But it was his broad chest that tempted her to check her chin to make sure the moisture missing from her mouth wasn't a result of having drooled it all out.

His chest was all sculpted brawn that looked harder than granite. But stone usually denoted a certain gray chill, and she already knew Zach's tanned skin would be hot to the touch. Flat copper nipples played peek-a-boo behind the fine fan of ebony hair that covered his pectorals, and Lily wanted to search them out and catch the tiny nail-head points of them between her teeth. More than that, however, she wanted to feel her breasts flatten against all that hard muscle, only this time without any clothing to separate them. Sitting up, she rolled onto her knees and reached behind her to unhook her bra. Peeling it down her arms, she knee-walked across the short space separating them.

"No, wait," he said. "Wait, Lily. I want to look at you."

But she didn't stop until she was pressed against him, and they both sucked in a sharp breath at the first bone-melting contact of hot, naked skin against hot, naked skin. Lily reached up and looped her arms around his neck.

She felt the quick wash of goosebumps that shivered over Zach's skin, but he didn't say a word. Instead, he tucked in his chin to gaze down at where her soft curves pressed against his solid muscle.

Lily discovered she liked watching him look at them. He clearly got off on the sight, for his bottom lip developed a sensual droop, his steel-colored eyes a molten heat. She didn't have to look down herself to envision the contrast between her curves and his planes, his tanned skin and her paler olive coloring. She felt the strength of him pushing her breasts back against the wall of her chest, and she undulated a bit to rub them against the smooth, bare skin of his torso.

Zach whispered a swear word and reached behind her to direct the movement. With the heels of his hands cupping her sides and his fingers splayed wide, it felt as if her entire back was enveloped within his hard-skinned grasp as he moved her against him in voluptuous circles. Then he widened the spread of his thighs to lessen the height disparity between them, and her breasts suddenly dragged over his hair-roughened pectorals, rasping heat into her nipples. Her head dropping back, she sighed.

"Ah, man, look at this," he said hoarsely, and Lily felt one of his hands slip forward. " Pink ."

"Pink?" She couldn't seem to concentrate, and she blinked up at him. "What's pin—?" A high-pitched uh ! exploded out of her when her left nipple was suddenly captured between Zach's finger and thumb and gently compressed.

"This," he said, watching as he tugged at the small, stiff crest in his grasp. "I wondered what color your nipples would be, and now I know." He flashed her a wolfish smile then went back to gazing at his captured bounty. "Pretty, pretty pink." He gave it another pinching tug, and Lily moaned.

Heat flared in Zach's eyes. "I want you naked," he growled and laid her back on the bed. "Now." Knees splayed wide as he knelt at her side, he bent to tease her nipple with his teeth and tongue as he reached for her waistband. But despite his words, he didn't immediately divest her of her jeans the instant he unfastened them. Instead he slid his hand inside the opening.

He stroked her stomach, and eased beneath the elastic band of her bikini panties. His fingers lightly brushed the downy stripe of hair on her mound before moving lower to cup her in his hand. He pressed with his fingers, then slid deeper to alternately cup and flatten his palm over her. She was so wet with arousal his actions caused a faint squelching sound, and her face flamed with mortification. But Zach groaned in wholehearted approval and insinuated his fingers between the dewy lips of her sex.

"Oh, God, sweet" he said reverently, and his eyes slid closed. They reopened almost immediately, but his eyelids remained at half-mast when he stared down to where his hand disappeared beneath her open fly. "This is exactly what I wanted—to feel you hot and wet." He licked his lips and raised his gaze to her eyes. "To feel you all slick." His fingers slid leisurely up and down slippery feminine folds, and every nerve in Lily's body screamed for more.

He gave it to her, too… but just as her breath grew choppy and the rocking of her hips began to strain upward in search of release, he eased his hand out of her pants. "I want you spread out naked beneath me," he said, and tugged at her pants.

"Do you?" Disgruntled at having been brought so close, only to be left hanging, she nevertheless lifted her hips to facilitate her jeans' removal. "How very macho of you. What happens if I want to be on top?"

"Then, honey, climb aboard and show me how you like it." He grinned at her. "You want on top, you get the top. You want the bottom, it's your choice whether you wrap your legs around my waist or prop your ankles on my shoulders. You prefer it doggie style, I'll grab those gorgeous hips and bark with the best of them. I'm not fussy about position, sweet thing, as long as you let me in." He finished peeling her pants down her legs, but ran into a snag when they puddled around her faux alligator Cuban-heeled shoes. There was no way the legs of her jeans would go over them.

"Damn," he muttered. "Guess I have to take these off you after all. There goes my big fantasy." He unbuckled the straps around her ankles and slid the shoes from her feet.

Lily laughed, kicked free of her jeans, and pushed herself to sit up, clad in only a minuscule pair of wine-colored panties. "Tell you what," she offered. "I'll put them back on while you make things a little more equitable by taking off your pants."

He climbed to his feet. "I like the way you think." He watched her put her shoes back on and fasten the straps as he shucked out of his pants. "You've probably heard this a lot, but you've sure got one killer body."

Pure pleasure suffused her, leaving no room for even a flicker of her usual compulsion to catalog her flaws. She simply flashed him a radiant smile. "Thanks." Watching him slide his hands beneath his jockeys and push them down his narrow hips, she blinked. Then she blinked again. And licked her lips.

"Wow," she whispered.

He gave her a crooked grin. "Thanks yourself. I'm hardly in Rocket's class, but I can promise you I've never had any complaints."

This time when she blinked it was in confusion. "You're not in a rocket class?"

"No, I'm not in Rocket's —" Smiling wryly, he shook his head. "Forget it. It's not important."

"Wait, are you talking about your friend John? That Rocket?"

"Yeah."

She stared at his erection so long it began to bob and weave, and he reached down to hold it still. Then she raised her eyes to his. "I don't know, soldier boy. If a guy came at me with something more than what you've got there, I'd probably run for the door. Seems to me that'd be a major case of overkill."

Damn. He dove onto the bed and snatched her up. Clearly surprised, Lily gave a shriek of laughter, and Zach found himself laughing, too, as he rolled them both over and over until they rocked to a halt perilously close to the edge of the mattress. The playfulness caught him by surprise. The kind of sex he was used to was all about being hot and driven and getting to the goal. He'd never thought of it as having fun. But this was fun. And when Lily, who'd ended up draped atop him with her fingers tangled in the hair on his chest, pushed up slightly to grin down at him as if she were queen of the mountain, Zach suddenly felt happier than he had in ages. For a brief moment the realization made him uneasy. Because it didn't pay to get attached to people.