Nope. It wasn’t exactly the temperature of the water I was worried about. The pool had to be warmer than the ocean temperature in California.

  I was having a moment of uncertainty about yanking off the coverup I was wearing, and exposing my less-than-perfect body to a guy who was built like a Greek god.

  Ridiculous. I swim all the time in California, and I’ve never had a moment of embarrassment about running around in a swimsuit.

  It wasn’t like I was a bikini wearer. I was sporting a modest, one-piece suit beneath my black-and-white flowered coverup that ended at my knees.

  I just wished that it didn’t hug every single curve on my body.

  “What’s wrong?” Damian questioned as he swam to the edge of the pool to talk to me.

  “I don’t think that my body will be similar to the bikini-clad women who usually use this pool,” I said doubtfully.

  “Are you saying that you’re nervous about stripping down to your suit?” he asked, sounding confused.

  “Bingo,” I said sarcastically. “You win the prize.”

  He grinned as he looked up at me. “I’ll get my prize when you take off that ridiculous thing you’re wearing and get into the pool.”

  Okay. My coverup was kind of silly, but I liked flowers. “Easy for you to say since you have a perfect damn body,” I grumbled.

  “Yours is perfect, too,” he replied. “Or are you just shy because your entire body is covered in bad dragon tattoos?”

  I felt my lips start to curve up in a small smile. I knew what he was up to, and it was working. A little. Damian was trying to make me laugh, and realize that I had no reason to feel self-conscious.

  “Of course it isn’t,” I shot back, playing along. “I’ve always much preferred unicorn tattoos.”

  “Now you’ve got me dying to see them, beautiful. Take it off.”

  He knew damn well that I wasn’t sporting any kind of ink on my body, but his casual badgering was making me relax.

  “Just for the record,” he added. “You’ll be the first female to ever swim in this pool. There’s been no women, bikini-clad or otherwise, in this house at all.”

  I melted.

  It was a home made to impress, yet Damian had never welcomed a female guest?

  “Don’t say you weren’t warned,” I muttered as I started to lift the only article of clothing standing between me and embarrassment.

  I flipped it over my head determinedly, and tossed the garment onto a nearby lounger.

  “Don’t get in,” Damian said hoarsely. “Not yet.”

  My entire body flushed bright pink as his eyes roamed over every tightly hugged curve, from the top of my head to my toes.

  Finally, he met my eyes, and his covetous, hungry look told me everything I needed to know.

  For some strange, unknown reason, Damian liked what he saw.

  “How in the world could you see yourself as anything other than gorgeous?” he asked in a husky tone.

  Frustrated, I did a twirl around slowly. “There’s not a single thing that’s gorgeous about me.”

  It wasn’t like I enjoyed being self-conscious, but when I was beside a man like Damian, it was hard not to find every single flaw I had.

  Granted, I was fit from swimming, diving, and all of the other physical exercise I did in the pursuit of fun in California, but the extra pounds I carried still stuck to my ass and hips like glue.

  “Come here,” Damian demanded in his panty-dropping baritone.

  He held his arms up, and I leapt, already knowing he’d catch me.

  Even though the pool was heated, I still gasped from the shock of my body hitting the water. Damian kept me from submerging very far, but my hair was wet when he tightened his grasp and hauled my body against his.

  “Don’t ever doubt yourself, Nicole,” he rasped. “I hate it. You’re gorgeously tall and curvy. You should be flaunting it. Or wait…maybe not, because seeing another man look at you like I do would make me fucking insane. But you should know that a lot of guys are going to salivate over a woman like you. And I happen to be one of them.”

  I let go of a sigh as I put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself. “I’ve never met one who did. Even my high school prom date backed out of our date at the last minute because I towered over him, even in low-heeled shoes. I guess he’d never bothered to actually stand right next to me before. I was heartbroken. We were supposed to hang out with Kylie, Macy, and their dates. Instead, I stayed home and watched TV with Mom, and my date found a last-minute fill-in who was shorter than he was. After that first humiliation, I guess I just learned to settle. Somewhere along the way, I lost my confidence in how I looked, and I never quite got it back.”

  Damian stroked the wet hair from my face. “You’ve had my dick rock-hard since the moment we met. Your prom date was an insecure idiot. And you should never have to settle for whatever affection a guy is willing to give you. You should demand whatever you want, Nicole, and if some guy won’t give it to you, crush him with a high-heeled shoe, and move on. No…scratch that, because you’ve already met a man who salivates over you. You don’t need another one.”

  My heart tripped as I saw the longing glint in his gorgeous eyes. I wasn’t sure why I had such a hard time believing that Damian found me irresistibly sexy, but God, I really wanted to revel in it.

  He made me feel beautiful.

  Couldn’t I just accept that, unlikely or not, I was his type?

  “Where in the hell have you been all my life, Damian Lancaster?” I asked softly as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “Right here, waiting to be the first guy to give you a screaming orgasm, gorgeous,” he said playfully. “I think I’ve always been waiting for you.”

  My heart ached with yearning, because, jokes aside, I felt like I’d always been waiting for him, too.

  Every other relationship I’d ever had in my life paled next to how I felt about Damian Lancaster.

  And there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to take this just as far as it could possibly go.

  I wanted to be with him, and I was going to claim his gorgeous body as mine until it had to be otherwise.

  Kylie had been right.

  I’d regret it forever if I didn’t.

  I wanted to see how it felt to be really desired, and the perfect man to tutor me was right in front of me.

  “Then show me, Damian,” I requested softly. “Teach me what it’s like to experience real physical satisfaction.”

  “Not yet,” he said with a desperate rasp. “I want you to trust me, Nicole. I want you to know what kind of man I am first.”

  I smiled. “I already know. You’re the kind of man who slips a veterinarian you barely know an outrageous check to help her animal rescue without really wanting any recognition for doing it. You’re the kind of man who offers an older flight attendant a job on your private jet because it would make her life easier. You’re the kind of man who worries more about his family than he does himself. You’re the kind of man who would do anything to save your mother from a single moment of unhappiness. You’re the kind of man who would play tour guide to a woman who wants to see London, even though you’ve been to every location a million times. You’re a good man, Damian. I’ve known that for a while now.”

  “I want you to trust me,” he said fiercely.

  “I already do,” I murmured as my lips touched the corner of his mouth.

  “Then God help you, gorgeous, because now that you trust me, I can’t wait another fucking moment to touch you.”

  My body could only tremble in answer as his mouth slammed down on mine.

  CHAPTER 24

  Nicole

  I WASN’T SURE HOW it happened, but one moment he was greedily feasting on my mouth in the pool, and the next, he had me back to the ground level, and was striding toward his bedroom with me in his arms.

  Of course, I had been highly distracted by the way he was kissing me like he couldn’t possibly stop.

  When he did cease his assault on my lips, Damian was lowering me back to my feet before I could mention that I was far too heavy to carry around his house.

  That protest died before it could be uttered when my feet touched the ground, and I was caught in a sensual green-eyed gaze that I couldn’t escape.

  Damian didn’t look the least bit winded.

  He looked ravenous, hungry, and determined to devour me whole.

  “W-we’re wet,” I stammered.

  “My goal is to get you as wet as possible,” he answered. “So I don’t give a damn if I’ve already started the process.”

  I shuddered from the intensity of his gaze, and suddenly, I didn’t really give a damn if we were dripping all over the expensive hardwood floor, either.

  Honestly, I wasn’t nervous anymore. All I really wanted was to be as close to Damian as I could possibly get. It didn’t matter if I didn’t think my body was perfect.

  He thought it was, and that was good enough for me.

  His master suite was similar to the one I was occupying, but other than a brief glance, I couldn’t bring myself to care much about anything except the enormous bed right beside me.

  Pushing the swimsuit off my shoulders, I shimmied out of it eagerly as Damian shucked off his swim trunks.

  They dropped to the floor in a small puddle of water neither one of us acknowledged right before Damian backed me up to the bed, and let me fall gracelessly onto the mattress.

  I scrambled up to the head of the bed, and allowed my wet head to land on a pillow.

  I caught Damian’s scent, and pulled the pillow against my nose, drowning in the heady, familiar, gut-wrenchingly sexy male smell of sensuality. I watched as the owner of that arousing fragrance stalked me.

  His eyes never left mine as he crawled up the bed after me. “I knew you were beautiful, Nicole, but you’ve never looked more so than you do right now,” he said in a voice that pulsated with lustful intentions. “Seeing you here like this was worth every painful fucking moment I had to wait.”

  I opened my legs as Damian covered my body with his, put a hand behind my head, and kissed me like he was trying to make sure I wasn’t some kind of mind trick or mirage.

  My entire body trembled in relief as we met skin-to-skin. How long had I waited to feel Damian’s hot, gorgeous body fused against mine?

  God, how I loved this confusing, stubborn, mouthwateringly beautiful man. I speared my hands into his damp hair, and savored the sensation as I rubbed against him. I’d probably never get my fill of having Damian this close to me, but I was going to relish every second of it.

  Any sense of time slid away as he kissed me over and over, every embrace feeling like a covetous sense of ownership, a claiming that I couldn’t deny that I wanted and needed from him.

  “Damian,” I murmured as he explored the sensitive skin of my neck, and then my ear.

  My body was restless beneath his, desperate for some kind of release from the incendiary, blistering heat this man had been stoking inside me since the moment we’d met.

  I’d bottled up every painful ache until not getting my satisfaction just wasn’t an option anymore.

  Sex had never been like this for me, like some kind of intense pleasure that was nearly painful. “Please,” I whimpered as I fisted his damp hair.

  “Be patient, sweetheart,” he groaned against my breasts as he moved down to lave that wicked tongue over one of my agonized nipples.

  I panted, holding his head against my breasts as he moved from one to the other in an effort that I swore he was doing just to torment me.

  “You have the most amazing breasts,” he said in a low, naughty bedroom voice that did nothing except ramp up my desire.

  I tensed up as his tongue trailed down my belly.

  Surely he wasn’t going to…

  Dear God, I wasn’t sure if…

  No man had ever…

  “Damian, I don’t…I can’t…

  “Oh, God…” My words came out of my mouth in an erotic moan that I couldn’t contain when he spread my legs wider and buried his head between them with an enthusiasm that had my hands clenching the bedspread beneath me, so I didn’t shoot straight off the bed.

  He ran his tongue from the bottom of the pink, quivering flesh between my thighs to the top, where he found my clit, and proceeded to torment the sensitive, small bundle of nerves until I was squirming beneath his talented mouth.

  “Damian, I never…” My babbled words seemed to infuse some kind of urgency into his successful efforts to make me completely insane.

  Every sensation was unfamiliar because I’d never been with a man who had any desire to go down on me.

  Except him.

  Except Damian.

  And he did it with a greediness that told me he thoroughly enjoyed it.

  I let go of my past, and embraced every single raw emotion coursing through my body.

  There was only him.

  There was only this.

  And the overwhelming pleasure only Damian could provide.

  “Please-oh-please,” I moaned breathlessly, not even recognizing my own voice anymore.

  I grabbed his head, and ground up against his sexy mouth.

  I wanted…

  I needed…

  I had to have…

  When I felt a blinding climax creep tantalizingly closer, my head thrashed from side to side, and I wasn’t at all sure I could handle the sheer force of it.

  “Damian!” I screamed with abandonment, both fearing and welcoming sweet release. “Yes-please-make-me-come.”

  He thrust his fingers deep inside me without releasing the swirling pressure on my clit, and curled them in to a g-spot I never realized I had.

  “I-can’t-take-any-more-it’s-way-too-much! Please, Damian,” I yelped, even as I shattered, my entire body splitting into tiny shards as the most forceful orgasm I’d ever experienced tore me apart.

  I gasped for breath as the giant climax turned into rhythmic spasms, and I tried to just take air into my lungs as the intensity slowly waned.

  Breathe…just breathe, Nicole. You didn’t die. You’re still alive.

  In.

  Out.

  In.

  Out.

  Holy shit!

  Holy shit!

  I was a mess by the time Damian climbed back up my body with a shit-eating grin on his gorgeous face.

  “Please don’t try to tell me you faked that one,” he said as he stretched out beside me, and held my spent body against him. “And how in the hell is it that you’ve never had a man bury his face into that delicious pussy of yours?”

  He kissed my forehead and stroked a comforting hand up and down my back. I felt so damn vulnerable, so completely destroyed that I needed his reassurance.

  “You know damn well I could never fake that,” I said, my pulse still racing, my breathing short and shallow. “And no man has ever wanted to bury his face between my legs. They like their blowjobs, but aren’t eager to reciprocate.”

  He sent me a devilish smile that nearly curled my toes. “There’s fantastic pleasure in making a woman come,” he answered. “I get off on it. But this was better than any of those fantasies. You have no idea what it feels like for me to hear you screaming my name when you’re about to come. Nothing like it. I’d happily stay planted there any time you let me.”

  Let him?

  Like I was going to stop him?

  “I felt like I was coming apart,” I shared with him. “It was kind of…scary.”

  He toyed with a lock of my still-somewhat-wet hair. “I promised I’d be right there to catch you when you fell. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  His tone was earnest, and my heart ached because he wasn’t afraid to make himself vulnerable to make me feel better. Damian wanted me to know that he was experiencing the same raw defenselessness that I was going through right now.

  When I’d dropped all of my defenses, I’d felt it, and I still wasn’t completely comfortable in my unprotected state.

  We were probably both scared of this kind of intimacy.

  It was too powerful.

  Yet, neither one of us could shy away from it anymore.

  My sense that Damian belonged to me, with me, was so natural that I couldn’t possibly ignore it.

  I wasn’t going anywhere, either, because this man was worth the discomfort it was going to take to get used to the way he wanted me.

  “Did you really get off to fantasies of giving me oral sex?” I asked curiously as my heart rate started to return to normal.

  He frowned. “All the fucking time, sweetheart, but it didn’t really take the edge off. And I have a pretty good imagination. I wanted it to be real way too much.”

  I stroked over the stubble of whiskers on his jawline, my mind trying to drum up an image of Damian leaning against the wall of a shower, his body wet and tight, his hand stroking up and down that gloriously aroused cock I’d barely seen before he’d gone down on me. The vision was so erotic that I had to block it out before it really began. “You’re such an amazing man,” I whispered.

  He grinned. “What? Because I do what any other guy would do to expel unrequited lust?”

  I shook my head. “No, although that is a tantalizing visual. And you know the lust was never unrequited.”

  There were dozens of reasons why Damian was so special, but he obviously didn’t see them.

  “I’ve thought about you getting yourself off, too,” he said huskily. “But it didn’t work. A woman like you should never, ever have to come alone, so I keep sending myself into that particular fantasy.”

  I finally smiled. “Touching myself was the only way I could ever have an orgasm, so it isn’t all that bad. I guess I know what I want.”

  Strangely, I wasn’t embarrassed in the least to discuss my masturbation habits with Damian. Maybe because he could talk about sex without an ounce of mortification himself.

  Like it was natural, normal, a part of everyday life.

  Thinking about it, sex was part of being a healthy adult.

  I’d just never had a guy who could discuss it with so much…enthusiasm.