A Heart Decision (15 page)

“No, way,” he whispered as he struggled to peel her
slacks and panties off with his good hand. “I want to make slow
sweet love to you. But it’s gotta be right now.”

Once he finished removing her underwear, with her
help, he tossed them down the steps with the rest of her clothing.
His muscular chest heaved like the bellows on an accordion as he
gazed down at her lying stark naked on the rug.

“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” The
hot passion in his hooded eyes generated a fresh wave of shivers
through her.

“Not nearly as beautiful as you are.” She sat up and
inched forward on the top step until their noses nearly touched.
Luke’s ribs pressed against her knees, spreading her legs to hug
his body as he tipped his head and captured her lips in a long,
deep kiss. The rough fabric of his Ace bandage grazed her nipple as
he cupped both her breasts in his hands. If he didn’t take her
soon, she’d go out of her mind.

The moist throbbing between her thighs reminded her
of a flashing vacancy sign on a cheap motel urgently seeking an
occupant. However, even as desperate as her need was, she didn’t
want anyone but Luke filling her.

His mouth gradually trekked down her throat to her
breasts. He licked and teased her nipples as he pushed her back on
the carpet, leaving her hips perched at the edge of the step.

Kissing his way south on her stomach, he moved down
a step. She threaded her fingers through his hair and gasped as his
mouth moved lower.

“Luke?” she squeaked, every muscle in her tensing in
anticipation of his lips on her most intimate place.

“Shhh....just relax, Brina. You have got me so
turned on, if I don’t love you this way first, I’ll—”

“
Relax
? That’s easy for you to say. No one’s
ever done this to me before.”

“Good,” he whispered, hooking her knees over his
shoulders. “You have no idea how much I love being the first to
treat you to this.”

Oh, jeez, she was so wet. “Wouldn’t you like me to
shower before—”

“Unh-uh.” He flicked his tongue at her aching heat.
“I want to taste how much you want me.” She trembled as he sucked
her sensitive flesh and groaned into her slick heat. “Damn, you’re
luscious. The best dessert I’ve ever had.”

“
Pleease
.” The ache inside her intensified
with each flick of his tongue. Gripping his hair, she wiggled her
hips and squeezed her eyes shut. What had made her think she’d made
love before? The two men she’d slept with had definitely had, but
her? No way. Her experience had been nothing remotely like this
incredible pleasure.

Her body felt weightless as bells rang persistently
in her head.

Luke lifted his head and chuckled. “Should I stop so
you can answer that?”

“Answer what?” She shoved his face back down.

“The phone?” he mumbled into her curls. “Wasn’t Ben
supposed to call you tonight?”

Was he saying the bells weren’t in her head? The
phone continued ringing, on both floors, in a stereo effect, as
Luke moved up onto the landing with her and stroked her with his
fingers.

She gasped, unable to think straight with the
delicious tingles rippling through her. “Who?” She panted.
“Pleeease, more.”

Luke smiled down at her. “Remember Ben, your fiancé?
What if it’s him?”

“He’ll call back,” she murmured and shuddered as her
whole body cheered his fingers on, chanting ‘
Gimme an O, gimme
an O, gimmee a great big
—“Oh-OH-ohmigosh,” she squealed,
clawing at his shoulders. “Faster, pleeease. Whatever you do, don’t
stop.”

~*~

Awestruck, Luke stared at the utter surprise and
delight in Sabrina’s eyes. He’d never known a woman’s orgasm to
last this long. The phone rang several more times before her body
finally finished convulsing. She always looked beautiful, but in
the throes of her climax, her flushed cheeks and kiss-drenched lips
made her breathtakingly gorgeous.

“You look as if you’ve never come before,” he
whispered.

She shrugged wordlessly, as if she were too stunned
to speak. Her breasts bobbed in time with her panting as she found
her voice. “I haven’t with anyone else. Sure, I’ve had some minor
orgasms when I’ve touched myself, but nothing like that.”

If he wasn’t inside her in the next ten seconds,
he’d explode right in his boxers. After ripping his fly open, he
pushed down his cargo shorts and underwear, shoving them off with
his good foot.

He moved to the step that allowed him to kneel
between Sabrina’s legs and leaned on his right elbow while bracing
himself with his left hand. “I don’t mean to rush you, Princess,
but I’m gonna burst.”

“Then what’re you waiting for?” She shimmied her
hips a little closer to the edge of the landing and gasped as he
entered her halfway. Damn, she felt so good—so slick and tight.
Being inside her was like coming home. With no condom between them,
it wasn’t going to take much to push him over the top. “Are you all
right, Brina?”

“Uh-huh. I’ve just never....oh, please.” Her hips
undulated beneath him, urging him to give her more of himself. As
he thrust deeper, she gripped his shoulders and wrapped her legs
around him. She dug her heels into his haunches, pushing him inside
her to the hilt. “Oh, I can’t believe how good you feel.”

Pumping his hips, he gazed down at the love shining
on her face, and his throat constricted. As he increased his tempo,
tears shimmered in her eyes. He froze and buried his face in her
hair. “Oh, baby,” he murmured, “I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt
you.”

“You’re not hurting me, silly.” She bucked beneath
him. “Please, don’t ever stop loving me.”

Apparently, their joining had affected her as deeply
as it had him. He resumed his thrusting and immersed himself in the
ecstasy of her body squeezing and stroking his screaming flesh.

The same blasted music that’d interrupted them that
morning played in her purse in the living room below. “Should I
sto—”

“Don’t you dare.” She panted as the music ceased,
indicating the call must have gone to her voicemail. “If you do, I
swear I’ll break that night stick of yours so you can never torture
me like this again. Faster, damn it.”

He loved this woman so much. Way too much to pound
into her deep and hard the way his body ached to. But with each
thrust, her moans and eager whimpers grew louder until he couldn’t
restrain himself.

Serenaded by the phone’s infernal tune a second
time, Luke closed his eyes and unleashed his pent-up passion. He
pumped his hips full tilt, driving into her like a machine run
amuck.

“Yes, yes!” she shouted as he tweaked both her
nipples. “Oh, Luke, you make me crazy.” She yanked his head down.
Their lips merged in a frantic battle of tongues and teeth, nipping
and licking, while he continued his rapid-fire thrusting.

Her nails raked his back as her body clenched around
him seconds before his control blew like an improperly sealed
pressure cooker. His eyes rolled back in his head as he burst
inside her, reveling in the sweet release.

Once he collapsed on her, she breathed her
astonishment in his ear and whispered, “Wow! If that wasn’t wild
monkey sex, I don’t think I should ever try it. My heart couldn’t
take anything more frenzied than that.”

“Princess, they haven’t invented a term for what we
just shared.” He rolled off her and chuckled. “I’m not sure, but I
think you might’ve drawn blood.”

“Oh, no. Let me see.” She pushed him on his side.
“Oh, jeez, you’re not bleeding, but I did leave some welts.” She
kissed his back. “I’m sorry. Some great nurse I am, clawing up my
patient.”

“Did you hear me complaining?” The smell of sweat
and sex filled his nostrils. “You can demonstrate your superior
nursing skills by giving me a sponge bath before I treat you to the
slow loving I meant to give you.”

“What makes you so sure you’ll be any more
successful next time around?”

“I’m not sure of anything with you, love. But if I
fail,”—he grinned—“I’ll just have to keep trying until I get it
right.”

~*~

If only he could freeze time and stay in this moment
forever. Luke stretched on the bed and closed his eyes to fully
enjoy the incredible sensation of Sabrina’s soft hands washing his
naked body.

As she wiped the soapy washrag under his arms, her
soft sigh tickled the damp hair on his chest. “Luke?”

“Ummm?”

“Why did you get the vasectomy?”

“I already told you why.”

“No, you didn’t—not really. I know it wasn’t just
about avoiding an accidental pregnancy. No man who likes kids as
much as you do would be so paranoid about procreating. Not unless
he had a good reason. What is it?”

He swallowed hard and kept his eyes closed. “I don’t
want to discuss this.”

“Well, I do.” She rinsed the washcloth in the
plastic basin of hot water on the night table. “I want to marry you
even if you don’t want kids. And if you change your mind, we could
adopt or use a sperm donor.”

“Why can’t you get it through your stubborn head? I
am
not
getting married, and I am
not
having a family.
I’m not capable of being a good father and husband.”

“Because you’re a cop,” she said more as a statement
than as a question.

If only it were that simple. Despite that his career
would be tough on a wife and kids, it wasn’t his prime motive for
staying single. It simply reinforced his resolve. “Yeah, because
I’m a cop.”

“I don’t see why that’s such a problem. We could
just live together for a while and see how it goes. I’m okay taking
it slow.”

“Forget it. I’m not.” The moisture on his skin
evaporated in seconds in the air-conditioned room. “Other than a
legal document, there’s no difference between shacking up and
marriage.”

“I don’t understand how you can just turn your back
on what we feel for each other. This morning, BJ told me you’re in
love with me.”

His friend had a big mouth. “So? Being in love with
you doesn’t change a damn thing.”

“It most certainly does. How you can be in love with
me and not want to be with me for the rest of your life?”

“I do,” he said, his voice cracking, “but not at the
expense of your happiness.”

“Do I seem happy now?” She sniffled and a tear
plopped onto his chest. “I’ll be miserable without you.”

Not as miserable as she would be wiping his ass and
raising their child alone, never knowing what the next day would
bring.

He blew out an exasperated huff. “I knew sleeping
with you was a mistake. You promised me you could handle a casual
fling, damn it. The whole point was for you to get over me.”

“I thought I
could
handle it,” she sobbed,
rinsing out the washcloth.

“No, be honest. You and Ben both figured, if I held
you in my arms and we touched each other in ways I’d only dreamed
of, I’d change my stance on getting hitched.”

Dead silence echoed in the room for several
moments.

“You’re right. I did,” she whispered. “And I just
fell more deeply in love with you. I don’t see how I can marry Ben,
feeling this way about you.”

“And I
won’t
marry you.” He plowed his
fingers through his hair. “Why do you have to ruin the little time
we have together with your refusal to accept that?”

“I don’t know. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

His erection pulsed as she moved the washcloth
lower. Air through his gritted teeth, as he murmured, “I love you
more than life, Sabrina. But no matter how many times we make love,
I’ll still feel the same way I do now about making you my
wife.”

The only thing that would change was how much it
would hurt to let her go.

~*~

She’d been a fool to think she could exorcise Luke
from her heart, and an even bigger idiot to choose one of the most
intimate moments she would share with him to challenge his position
on marriage. She wanted this night to be perfect for him—not make
it something he’d regret in the morning.

She studied the muscles flexing in his neck and
shoulders as she washed his lower half. “Are you sure you don’t
want to do this yourself?”

“Absolutely not,” he muttered, his erection growing
larger by the second. “You’re doing just fine. Although, it
wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you lost the washrag.”

She lathered her palm with the bar of soap and
grabbed his thick shaft. It twitched and throbbed. His mouth
dropped open as she slowly pumped her hand up and down, picking up
momentum with each stroke.

“Oh, baby, don’t,” he rasped. “I want to be inside
you when I come.”

“Okay.” She smiled. “Just let me rinse the soap off
you.” Once she wiped him off with the wet rag, she stared at his
rigid flesh and shook her head, clucking her tongue. “I don’t know.
I’m not sure you’re quite clean enough yet.” She dipped her head,
slid her lips down over the length of him, and sucked on him.

He arched his back and groaned, “Brina, please.
You’ve got me so hard I’m gonna go off like a firecracker.”

Drawing back, she flashed a wide-eyed innocent grin
at him. “What’s the matter? You said you wanted to be inside me.
You were.” She swung her leg over his hips and poised the warm,
slick ache between her legs over the tip of his erection.

When his hips lifted, straining toward her heat, she
rose higher on her knees, keeping her feminine slit a hair’s
breadth away from his probing flesh.

“You’re a tease, Nurse Fitzpatrick. Is this how you
treat all your horny patients?”

“Only the
cocky
ones.” She chuckled.

“Ahhh.” He smirked and cupped her breasts in his
palms. “So, are you referring to their conceit or their manly
endowment?”

“Does it matter? You have an extra helping of
both.”

“Will it do any good if I humble myself and beg?” he
asked