Once Around (28 page)

She pressed her face against the side of his neck. Of course it was a dream. A beautiful
, impossible dream.

He kicked open the front door and carried her inside. The smell of pine filled her head. She saw exposed beams
, oatmeal-colored walls hung with vibrant woven blankets and wood carvings, but mostly she saw him. He had a small cleft in his chin. Why hadn't she noticed that before? His face was smooth. There wasn't the hint of stubble anywhere. She wanted to lick his cheek, his chin, his lips.

She rubbed her cheek against his.
"You shaved." Robert had been a morning shaver. He'd never particularly cared what happened after dark.

"
I didn't want to scratch you."

She touched the tip of her index finger to the cleft in his chin.
"You didn't know I was coming here tonight."

"
I was on my way to see you."

Whatever resistance remained
, whatever tiny hold she still had on good sense, melted like a quick-burning candle.

Chapter Sixteen

They reached the landing at the top of the stairs.

"You can put me down," Molly said in her lush contralto. "I'm tall and I'm pregnant. That's asking a lot of a man."

"
Quiet," he said and then he kissed her. He would have carried her to the ends of the earth and beyond if it meant she wouldn't leave him.

It was a gentle kiss
, sweet as spun sugar, sweeter than he thought a kiss could be. She had this way of sighing when he kissed her, a sweet soft rush of breath as their lips met that spun his head around.

He placed her gently on top of his bed.

"A feather bed?"

"
You sound surprised,"

"
This isn't at all what I expected."

"
You are," he said. "You're all that I expected and more."

Her eyes glittered with tears
, and she looked down at her hands but not before he saw her lips curve into a smile. He wanted to take credit for each one of those tears and for that smile, but he knew that pregnancy heightened a woman's emotions. What she felt tonight she might not feel in the morning.

This was all they had
, all they might ever have. He knew it, and so did she.

Her beauty stunned him. She leaned back against his pillows
, and her body curved naturally into a pose of such grace that he was torn between desire and worship.

He bent down over her and reached for the buttons on her blouse. He heard the sound of her breath as it caught in her throat. Her eyes locked with his
, and she didn't move or react as he unbuttoned the creamy silk blouse. She leaned forward slightly to help him slip it from her body then lay back against the pillow once again. She wore a lacy bra the color of the palest champagne. He worked the front clasp with two fingers, and she sighed as he freed her breasts.

The urgency of the night before had been replaced with slow exploration. He bent low over her
, tracing the contours of her beautiful breasts first with his fingers and then with his tongue, circling each nipple in turn until they glistened wet and deep rose.

"
The light," she whispered as he eased her jeans over her belly and hips, and he extinguished it before she drew her next breath. He could still see her in the faint glow of moonlight that filtered through his bedroom window. She had removed her panties and lay before him, naked and lovelier than any dream of paradise he'd ever dreamed.

"
I don't want to disappoint you," she said as he took off his own clothes and tossed them in a corner of the room.

He struggled again to find words to give meaning to all that he was feeling
, all that he'd felt for her for so long.. "You're beautiful," he said, then kicked himself for the inadequacy of those simple words. "You couldn't disappoint me."

She ducked her head for an instant then once again met his eyes. She gestured toward the bed with a graceful arc of her hand.
"I might," she said simply.

He touched her lips with the tip of his index finger.
"You couldn't."

She took his hand and kissed it then held it fast.
"Please listen," she said. "I've only been with my husband, and we weren't—" Her face flooded with embarrassment. "We weren't very passionate."

The words he
'd struggled to find came to him in that instant, and he started to talk. She was the most sensual, beautiful woman he'd ever known. Her sensuality was deep and true, a result of who she was and not what she'd done along the way. And he wanted her. He would swim an ocean to be with her, scale the highest mountain, walk through fire if that was what it took. He didn't care where she'd been, what she'd done or hadn't done along the way. This moment, who they were together, what they did—that was all that mattered.

She listened to him
, her body silhouetted in the moonlight as she sat at the edge of the bed, and then she held out her arms to him.

He approached the bed. Magic was everywhere. She slid her hands around the backs of his thighs and rested her cheek against his belly. His erection leaped at the brush of her hair against
his skin. He saw the way her eyes widened in surprise and he held his breath as she lightly drew her tongue down from his navel to the base of his penis. She was trembling.. So was he. The touch of her delicate tongue was enough to take him where he needed to go, but he willed himself to hold back, to make the moment last.

Forever
, if possible.

He
'd settle for forever.

#

He was hard and soft and hot and wet and every shatteringly wonderful sensation in between. Her hands trembled, and he took the condom from her and quickly put it on. She drew her tongue from tip to base, laughing softly as he danced to her tune. She'd never known power like this before. She was in charge of every magnificent inch of his erection. It was hers. She knew it instinctively. She was ripe with child. Her breasts were round and full and exquisitely sensitive to his touch. She felt powerful and generous and more female, more womanly, than she had ever felt in her life.

Life flowed from her fingertips to his. From her lips to the tip of his erection. From her belly to the universe. The secrets and mysteries that had eluded her all her life came clear to her now
, and she could only laugh at the years she'd wasted living only half a life. When it was right, when the magic held a man and woman in its thrall, you just had to follow your heart.

She circled him with her tongu
e then wet her lips. Somewhere in the distance she heard a low moan but she couldn't say which one of them had made the sound. She felt connected to him in every way possible. Tomorrow there would be time enough to worry about what she'd done and how. Tonight there was only soft skin over hot steel and dreams of heaven.

She explored him wi
th her tongue. She licked every inch, She worried him gently with her teeth and lips. She stroked him with curious fingers, smiling each time she found a hidden spot of profound pleasure. She pulled him down on the bed and straddled him, running her hands over his broad chest, delighting in the tickle of thick curly hair beneath her palms. She loved everything about his body—the way it looked, the smell of his skin, the rough sound of his breathing when she sucked him deeply into her mouth and slid her tongue along the ridge of his shaft. She had no road map to guide her, no experience to draw upon, only sweet hunger and the overpowering desire to make him happy.

His hand slid down his thigh and came to rest between her legs. His fingers slid through the nest of curls and stroked her gently. She touched his leg and drew back
, surprised to find that he was wet where she'd straddled him. Heat filled her, a blend of fierce longing and embarrassment. He knew what she was thinking—somehow he knew—and he took her hand and brought it to his mouth. He licked each finger slowly until she cried out for something she couldn't define but had looked for all her life.

He brought his hand
, wet with her juices, to her lips, tracing the seam between top and bottom, urging her to open and taste herself for the first time. Unimaginable. Forbidden. She tasted sweet and salty. She tasted like a woman, like herself, like someone who had only now come to be. She closed her lips around his fingers and sucked them deeply. His guttural moan was her reward. This was a place she'd never thought to go. This was a place she hadn't known existed, this world of pleasure. She wanted to sink into its dark embrace and vanish into ecstasy.

He rolled her gently onto her back
, and she lay, thighs open, with her head on his pillow while. he worshipped her breasts then kissed his way over the rise of her belly.

"
I wish you'd seen me before," she whispered, wanting to please him with the beauty she'd taken for granted up until now. "When I wasn't pregnant and—"

"
Juicy," he said. His words brushed soft against her skin, and she laughed. "Like a ripe peach." He liked what he saw, what he felt.

He shifted position as he drew his tongue
along the crease of her inner thigh. She began to tremble uncontrollably. She had never wanted anything more than she wanted his mouth against her, and she'd never feared anything more as well.

He urged her to relax. He whispered things
, words and thoughts and dreams that turned her into flame. He was extravagant with praise, this wordless man. He made love to her with words first, and then he made love to her with his beautiful lips and tongue.

She cried out at
the first touch of his tongue. The shimmering line between pleasure and pain blurred for an instant and she teetered on the edge, not knowing which way she would fall, knowing the fall was inevitable. Somehow he cradled her back with his arms, urging her knees to fall open more completely. She knew how she must look to him, wanton and hungry, unable to do anything but arch her hips up to meet his mouth. He toyed with her, working her center of pleasure with his lips and teeth until she heard herself whimpering incoherent Words of surrender and longing. And then he cupped her buttocks and plunged deep inside her and her body molded itself to his tongue, her muscles contracting around him, as shooting stars and comets and meteors flashed in front of her and she exploded into the night sky.

He was stroking her gently when she drifted back down to earth. Looking into his beautiful face was like looking into the face of the sun.

"That was your first time, wasn't it?" he asked.

"
I didn't know," she whispered, pressing closer to his warmth. "My friends talked about it, but I thought they were lying."

He was rubbing her belly in slow
, sensuous circles that made her shiver with pleasure. He made her glory in every abundant inch.

"
I want to hold you in my mouth," she said. "I want to learn how to make you happy."

"
You've already made me happy," he said, then claimed her mouth again with his. She tasted herself again, a sweet and smoky taste, and the images it evoked were almost enough to send her hurtling toward the sky.

She slid down his body and drew him into her mouth again
, playing, experimenting, glorying in the taste and texture and heat of his passion for her. He cradled her head between his hands, his fingers massaging her scalp, smoothing back her hair when it fell across her face.

"
I want to be inside you the first time," he said and again the powerful simplicity of his words sent shock waves through her body.

She went to roll over onto her back
, but he stopped her.

"
No," he said. "You set the pace."

"
I can't," she whispered. "I've never—"

"
I want you to be able to see us together," he said, holding her by the hips as he positioned her over him. "This will be easier for you and the baby."

His words charmed and excited her both. The fact that he could see through the fiery haze of passion and remember her comfort only proved the rightness of her choice. He was protecting her in ways even she hadn
't thought of.

She felt exposed and vulnerable. Her breasts and belly must look huge from that angle
, she thought, but he didn't seem to notice. He caressed her with more tenderness than she had ever known in her life, stroking her between the legs until she felt herself flow again with readiness. The baby filled her body. Wild emotions filled her heart. And yet somehow, in some primal way, she felt emptier, hungrier, more incomplete than she'd ever felt in her life. She needed him. She needed his physical self, to join with him, to bring their bodies together, to somehow become one.

She lifted her hips. He positioned himself. Slowly she lowered her body
, unable to control the gasp of shock, as she felt him pressing against her. He was so large, so hard, so powerful. Nothing had prepared her for his glorious self. Nothing in her past had even hinted at such wonder.