Dario Acardi has enough stress in his life. His family is hounding him to marry, his father wants him to take over as head of the pride, and his cousin needs to borrow the car. All he wants is a little peace.
Narrowly escaping another engagement his uncle deems as an "appropriate" showing for the coming heir of the Taja pride, he chaperones his cousin and date to the State Fair. The obvious problem is they don't want a chaperone and leave him in the dust to find his own entertainment. Except he finds himself standing behind a curvy brunette, and suddenly both he and his cougar are pacing like wild animals.
Sheridan Donovan is nursing a bruised heart and her brother and friends are driving her crazy with their coddling. What stung wasn't the break up. It was her ex's immediate engagement to a skinny friend.
But now that a certain cougar has decided she's the woman he needs, Dario has to convince her that what she believes isn't true at all. That size isn't what rules the heart. And perfection really is in the eye of the beholder.
Blood pulsed like a roaring river, ramming through his body. He couldn’t remember a single time when he’d ever felt this hot, this hungry for a woman. She was turning him into an inferno of need.
“I’m going to tell you every single fantasy I’ve ever had, baby.” He licked at the seam of her lips and she melted into him. Rising on her toes, she pressed her body against his groin. Dario moaned through the sensation of her body rubbing over his.
“You didn’t even tell me the first one,” she replied, a laughing, teasing lilt in her voice.
Guiding her into the one room he hadn’t visited yet, he didn’t bother turning on the light. “Sweetheart, if I get that one fantasy tonight, my heart may not survive the shock.”
Lashes fluttered. “Oh. Now that does sound like a challenge.” The drag of her fingers snaked under his shirt again, and he chuckled. Then she was tugging it free of his jeans waist. With a little help, the pullover vanished beyond his shoulder.
Within minutes, they’d managed to strip each other bare, except for one little article that left Dario speechless.
“A thong?” His beautiful woman wore thongs? He couldn’t believe it, but there it was. A silk triangle smaller than a handkerchief.
She giggled self-consciously. “They make me feel sexy.”
“Sheridan, if you were any more sexy, I’d incinerate.”
Her eyes widened, her immediate answer being to shake her head. He gripped her between firm palms. “Never again. I mean that.”
Confusion dampened her excitement. “After. We’ll talk later. I need you now, baby.”
With his mouth devouring hers, he urged her backward until the edge of the bed stopped her. “Where are they? I’m not getting out of this bed for anything.”
“Nightstand.”
He grinned. “Hallelujah.” Then laughing at her startled chirp, he toppled them both to the bed, catching her in his arms. Rolling her beneath him, he began to drop open-mouth kisses across her collarbone. When he reached the harried beat of her pulse in her neck, he suckled the erratic pounding between his lips, scraping his teeth over her before pulling hard on the skin. She arched and groaned like a winter wind, a low howl that made the hair on his arms stand up. He’d never heard that sound, never heard it come from a woman. He shuddered as the timbre faded.
