Page 43 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
Leaning over her, he brushed his mouth whisper-soft over hers, stretching out the moment when he tasted her while knowing nothing short of an apocalyptic event would move him.
‘I’m sure you can feel for yourself exactly what ails me,cara.’
Her eyes fluttered before she forced them open, meeting his with a naked sultriness that made his heart gallop harder.
‘So you need me? To make it better?’ she teased, a satisfying fever raging in her eyes that tore through him.
The breathless baiting released another surge of sensation. Unnerving because it skated far too close to the truth. Albeit atemporarytruth. Because Jario Tagarro didn’t need anything oranyone. Right?
He’d learned through torment and hardship that the only person he could rely on,could ever need, was himself.
‘Want,hermosa. Maddening.’ Another brush of his mouth over hers. ‘Unstoppable.’ The faintest taste of her lower lip drew another moan. ‘Beguiling.’ He drifted over to the sensitive area beneath her ear, grazed his teeth over it and was rewarded with a delightful whimper before he caught her lobe between his teeth. ‘But still only just...want.’
Fingers that had drifted to his shoulders dug in, dragging a hiss from his throat.
‘Still against your better judgement?’ The careful undercurrent warned him that his answer mattered. That however intoxicating the chemistry, she possessed the admirable willpower to deny him.
And...did it even matter anymore what his judgement dictated? He wanted her, badly. She wanted him almost as much. Perhaps it needed to be as simple as that. He’d proposed a ceasefire. The crucial mandate of vengeance could be delayed for a while...longer.
‘My every instinct dictates that I possess you,carina. And that is what I intend to do.’ He revisited that place beneath her ear, his hand moving up to cup one luscious breast as he rolled his steel erection between her thighs. ‘Object. Or agree. Now.’
It was hell itself to pry himself away from her silken flesh. To exercise the last crumb of self-restraint and fast-dwindling patience.
She tortured him by dragging out her response. But Jario couldn’t bring himself to fault her for it. He hadn’t been this turned on in a long time. Hadn’t felt this alarming tightening in his chest that mocked this merewanthe’d professed. With every woman recently, his pursuit had ended with a heavy dose of ennui that’d made the process lukewarm at best.
This...shewas different.
He couldn’t entirely dismiss that there was an edge associated with who she was. But she was also her own woman, with her own fears and battles, enthralling and challenging, with talents that had repeatedly taken his breath away. So he could only watch, captivated beyond reason, as her shapely legs dragged up his thighs to wrap around his waist; as her eyes locked on his, her chest rising and falling in hypnotic rhythm that threatened to drive him insane.
As she whispered, ‘Agree.’
He was devouring the consent from her lips before she’d finished saying the word, tasting the impending feast straight from the source.
Urgent fingers spiked into his hair, dragging against his scalp in pain-edged enthusiasm that made him grunt in satisfaction as his hands frantically freed one button, parting it so he could cup her firm, supple breasts.
‘Oh.’ Her breath gushed between their lips as he toyed with the stiff peaks, tortured and teased until her back arched into his grip. Blood roared through his veins as her legs wrapped tighter around him, her movements shoving him closer to the edge. Already?
He reared back, shook his head to clear the insanity ravaging him. ‘How are you so intoxicating?’ His voice was slurred and rough, drunk on a strain of lust he’d never felt before.
Lips swollen from their potent kiss parted and she licked her bottom lip, looking as hungry for him as he was for her. ‘Don’t stop,’ she pleaded.
Jario grabbed the halves of her shirt and ripped them open, her shocked gasp turning him on harder. Then her top half was completely bared to him.Thena different madness took over.
A distant part of his brain was aware of the primal urgency of his caress, the drive of his claiming, but he couldn’t have stopped himself if he tried. Swooping down, he closed his mouth over one rose-pink peak, a thick groan erupting from him at the sublime taste of her. Laving her until she was back to clawing at him, he feasted on one breast, then the other and back again, until the scent of her arousal bloomed with an insistence he couldn’t ignore.
Her shorts and flimsy panties were just as easy to rip off, feral hunger roaring through him, driving him to take, devour what was offered.
‘Destroying my clothes shouldn’t be this hot,’ she half moaned, half protested.
Slivers of amusement she seemed to frequently draw almost made him smile. That urge was smashed to smithereens when her breathtaking body wasfinallybared to him.
‘Santo cielo,’he muttered under his breath. Hell, even her belly button was sexy, coaxing his fingers to drift over it, his erection jumping when a decadent shiver chased through her. ‘You’re so responsive.’
Her flush grew as she trailed her own fingers down his chest, her nails raking over his flat nipples and drawing an unguarded hiss. ‘So are you.’
Only for you.
Jario was glad the words stayed locked in his throat. So many confounding things had happened with this woman. He wasn’t about to admit more. Once this insane nee—wantwas out of the way, he’d find his way into essential clarity.