start to surrender. She slipped one hand between them and caressed the outer curve of Adrian’s breast. Adrian sagged and Rooke couldn’t think of anything except having her. Until Adrian told her to stop, she would follow the call of Adrian’s flesh. Bending her knees slightly, she cradled Adrian’s rear, lifted, and set her up on the counter.

Astonished, Adrian gripped Rooke’s shoulders and automatically spread her legs to let Rooke slide between them. When she glanced down, her center was pressed to Rooke’s abdomen and oh God, she ached to have her bare sex against the tight muscles she’d glimpsed earlier. She wanted to be touched. She wanted Rooke to touch her. She sensed danger, but she couldn’t think. She couldn’t think.

“I can’t think,” Adrian gasped, frightened and so terribly aroused.

Rooke unbuttoned Adrian’s blouse and pushed it off her shoulders.

She kissed the prominence of her collarbone, the soft hollow beneath, and rubbed her cheek over Adrian’s breast still cupped within her satin bra. “I’ll stop whenever you want me to. I swear it.”

“Oh God,” Adrian half laughed, half sobbed. “I can’t. I can’t stop now. Please, God, Rooke. Touch me.” She moaned when Rooke squeezed her still-covered nipple, arching like an overstrung bow about to snap. Desperate for the silken heat of Rooke’s mouth, she pulled her bra up herself, baring her breast. “Please…your mouth. I need your mouth.”

Rooke cradled Adrian’s breast in both palms as she lowered her head. She sucked Adrian’s nipple as she softly kneaded the firm flesh in her hands. Adrian’s cry of shocked pleasure made Rooke’s clitoris jerk and she thrust her pelvis against the hard edge of the counter. She groaned at the twin sensations of Adrian’s ripe nipple in her mouth and the sharp pressure in her groin. While she worked her way back and forth between Adrian’s breasts, she tugged off Adrian’s blouse and bra until Adrian was bare to the waist. Then she ran her tongue down the center of Adrian’s torso and around her navel.

“I want to taste you,” Rooke murmured, her mouth against Adrian’s skin, her fingers gripping the snap on Adrian’s jeans.

Adrian lurched, her ass tensing as a spasm ran through her sex.

She was too far gone to hold back now, her mind nothing but a blizzard of pleasure and need. “Yes. Yes, yes, please.”

Swiftly, Rooke unzipped Adrian’s jeans, then gripped her around

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the waist, raised her up, and tugged her jeans down. Grasping the material with both hands, she pushed the material below Adrian’s knees.

“Rooke, please. Touch me,” Adrian groaned.

“Soon.” Rooke slowed everything down. This she wanted to savor.

She trailed the backs of her fingers up the insides of Adrian’s thighs until she brushed the drenched lips of Adrian’s sex with her fingertips.

Delicately, she plucked the tender flesh between her fingers, opening her so she could take in every beautiful detail. She skimmed along the edges of the dusky rose cleft and gently fingered the swollen flesh shielding Adrian’s clitoris. When she lightly massaged the firm ridge buried beneath the hood, Adrian’s hips bucked.

“Do you want me to come?” Adrian cried. “You’re going to make me.”

Rooke kissed her mouth, licking the inner surface of her lips as she lightly caressed her clitoris. “Are you close?”

“Very. God.” Adrian clutched Rooke’s shoulders and ground against the fingers stimulating her. “Seconds from coming in your hand.”

“Can you wait?” Rooke teased at the corner of Adrian’s mouth, then thrust her tongue deep inside. Adrian writhed in Rooke’s arms, moaning and sucking on Rooke’s tongue. Rooke slid three fingers inside and Adrian instantly clamped down on her.

Adrian’s head flew back. “Oh my God!”

Rooke dropped to her knees and covered Adrian’s sex with her mouth. Casting her gaze upward, she met Adrian’s stunned, storm blue eyes.

“Take me,” Adrian whispered.

Rooke sealed her lips around Adrian’s clitoris and the instant she sucked, Adrian climaxed. Rooke pushed deeper inside as muscles rippled and rolled. Adrian’s hips thrust hard against her mouth, over and over, her cries of release searing Rooke’s soul. Rooke kept licking and stroking until Adrian cupped her jaw and eased her face away.

Standing, Rooke gathered Adrian close and kissed her damp cheek. She tasted tears.

“Are you okay?” Rooke whispered.

Adrian clung to her, her mind fuzzy and her body demolished.

Rooke felt like the only solid thing in the universe. She’d kept her

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eyes open as long as she could, wanting to see Rooke taking her. Just remembering the fierce possessiveness in Rooke’s eyes made her clitoris jerk to life. She’d never been so completely controlled by anyone before. She wrapped her arms around Rooke’s shoulders and rubbed her breasts against Rooke’s chest. When she rolled her swollen sex over the rough cotton of Rooke’s sweatpants, she shivered and came again.

“More?” Rooke whispered.

“No more. God, I’m shattered,” Adrian groaned once she caught her breath. Body and soul. Oh God, what had she done?

Rooke hooked an arm behind Adrian’s knees, lifted her from the counter, and walked the few feet to the sofa where she lay her down.

“That was impressive,” Adrian said weakly.

“You’re not that heavy, and no rough edges at all.” Rooke knelt by the sofa and stroked Adrian’s hair away from her face. Adrian’s eyes were still hazy with spent desire. She gently disentangled Adrian’s jeans from around her ankles. “I’ll get something to cover you up with.

Be right back.”

Adrian struggled against the incredible lethargy that made it difficult to even raise her head. “We’re not done yet. I want you naked.

I want to take care of you.”

Rooke kissed her. “I’m fine. Better than fine. You’re unbelievably beautiful.”

With effort, Adrian pushed up on her elbows. She’d just broken every one of her rules and she had no one to blame but herself for opening herself up to this aching chasm of vulnerability and need, but she’d be damned if she’d just take. “I want to make love to you. I want to give you what you gave me.”

“You gave me everything…more…more than I ever imagined. I feel great.” Rooke kissed her again and then rose. “You’re half asleep already. I’ll be back in a second.”

“To hell with that. Has anyone ever touched you?” Adrian demanded, sitting upright, refusing to give in to the torpor that sapped her strength. She still had her temper even if her brain had turned to mush. “What are you waiting for?”

Rooke couldn’t answer, couldn’t explain she was waiting for the one thing she couldn’t ask for. “I’m not trying to upset you. Can’t you believe me when I tell you how amazing it was to touch you?”

“What about me, Rooke? What about what I want?”

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“I don’t know, Adrian. What do you really want?”

Adrian fell silent, her gaze locked with Rooke’s. The words Rooke needed to hear, that she wanted to say, wouldn’t come. Their encounter had been so intense, her body, her soul, had been stripped bare. She feared wanting that—feared needing anyone, wanting anyone, so much that she let them inside her defenses. If she surrendered control and let herself care, really care, she would be helpless. And then she would be destroyed. As the seconds passed, Adrian retreated and Rooke must have felt her withdraw. Rooke’s eyes were gentle, but they were also heartbreakingly sad.

“I’m sorry,” Adrian whispered as Rooke finally rose and walked away.

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ChapTER TwEnTy-fOuR

Rooke paced in the middle of her bedroom with her extra pillow and blanket in her arms, trying to sort out where she’d gone wrong. She came up with half a dozen answers—the biggest being that Adrian had told her she needed time, needed to slow down, and Rooke hadn’t listened. She’d indulged herself, lost herself, in the pleasure of pleasuring Adrian. She’d been selfish. Gripping the pillow tighter, Rooke gritted her teeth. Pops’s voice echoed in her head as clearly as it had the very first night when she’d ignored Adrian’s phone call for help. You make a mistake, you make it right.

She could try, although she wouldn’t blame Adrian if it wasn’t enough. When she reached the living room her heart sank. Adrian stood by the sofa, dressed, her coat in her hand. They both spoke at once.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

Rooke stared as Adrian laughed self-consciously.

“You’re leaving?” Rooke asked.

“If you’re feeling all right, there’s really no reason for me to stay.”“I’m fine. I’ll drive you home.”

“No,” Adrian said quickly. “It’s late and you definitely shouldn’t be driving after your accident.” She grinned wryly. “License or not. I’ll call a cab.”

“I want to apologize for what happened,” Rooke said, placing the stack of bedding on the corner of the sofa.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Adrian kneaded her coat, searching through her jumbled thoughts for the right words. “We had

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sex. We’re both adults. I…” She shook her head. “I’ve been wanting to do that pretty much nonstop for a while now. Have sex with you, I mean.

I guess that came through loud and clear. So I’m the one who—”

“You said you wanted to wait,” Rooke said, interrupting what sounded like an apology she did not want.

“My head said that. My body sure didn’t.” Fleetingly Adrian wondered how her heart fit into the equation, but she quickly pushed that aside. She couldn’t deal with any more tonight.

“Your head counts too,” Rooke said softly, “but I didn’t listen to what you said you wanted.”