The Baby Track (18 page)

Her voice trailed off as his fingers slipped audaciously beneath the waistband of her bikini panties. She reflexively parted her legs as his fingers tangled in the soft tight curls between her thighs. Her mind seemed to spin away. What had she been about to say? She didn’t know, she couldn’t think, she didn’t want to. His hand cupped her intimately, his clever fingers making her moan with mindless pleasure.

“Take off your panties while I get undressed,” Connor ordered, his voice deep and seductive.

Courtney blushed but obeyed him, her eyes never leaving him as he swiftly divested himself of his clothes. Her mouth went dry at her first sight of a fully aroused nude male. He was so big, so strong, so powerfully masculine. She stared, transfixed, at his muscular chest with the mat of wiry hair covering it, at his abdomen which was flat and hard, and at the dark, dark hair that arrowed lower...

“Come here, darling,” Connor said huskily, reaching for her.

They lay down on the bed together, kissing wildly, hungrily, as they touched and stroked and caressed. For a long time the only sounds in the room were soft sighs mingled with deep moans of pleasure.

“I want you now, Courtney,” Connor growled. “You’re ready for me, sweetheart.” He kissed her with rough urgency. “So very ready.”

“Yes, Connor, yes!” Courtney whimpered, almost crying from the fierce sensual tension gripping her entire body. His hand was between her legs and she was burning with a delicious pleasure that kept building and building, making her writhe and sob with need.

She watched him settle himself intimately between her thighs.
“You’re the sexiest, most desirable woman in the world. ”
His words echoed in her ears. The look in his eyes made her feel that she really was. And she was his, she belonged to him. She smiled at him, linking her arms around him.

“Courtney.” His eyes never left hers as he entered her slowly, carefully, finally filling her with a powerful thrust. “You’re so small, so hot and tight,” he grated.

Courtney clenched her teeth together. “I’m a little nervous. T-tense.” A major understatement if ever there was one, she thought grimly. Connor thought they had been married for five years! If he knew she was a virgin... How could she ever explain it to him? She squeezed her eyes shut to keep the hot tears, which had filled them, from spilling down her cheeks. What if he was furious with her when he learned the truth? What if he hated her and never wanted to see her again?

“I know you’re nervous, sweetheart,” Connor said soothingly, stroking her cheek with his hand. “Just relax, baby. Relax.” He talked softly to her, gently stroking her hair.

Something was going on here, there was something that was eluding him, but his mind was too clouded with passion to work it out. He soothed Courtney instinctively, understanding that she needed him to dispel her fear and tension.

As he talked and caressed and kissed her, Courtney felt her anxiety begin to dissipate. Her body gradually adjusted to his presence. A liquid softness was melting her; she felt sensuously full. She clung to him, savoring the voluptuous, new sensations spiraling through her. And then Connor moved inside her, again and again, deeper and deeper, until she was moving with him and gasping with pure unadulterated pleasure.

She heard herself make a low, sexy sound as she felt herself slipping into some uncharted but sublime oblivion. Their passion flared to a white-hot intensity and they moved as one, becoming one, as their bodies shook with rapturous release, sending them into the realms of ecstasy.

But it wasn’t over. They rested awhile, they kissed and talked and teased and played, and then they started all over again.

It wasn’t until much later, after their passion had been thoroughly sated, that Connor’s mind had cleared enough to enable him to think. Courtney lay sleeping in his arms, her head on his shoulder, one slim leg thrust over his. She was exhausted and replete and had drifted into a deep, relaxed sleep. He was alert and awake, his mind wired, his body energized by the explosive sexual release.

He was flooded with memories that flashed through his mind like pictures in a collage. He remembered other times in other beds with other women. None had come close to what he had shared with Courtney tonight. Never had he felt so close, so connected to anyone, never had he felt so intense and committed and deeply in love.

Which was the way a husband should feel about his wife, of course. There was just one outstanding glitch in their idyllic night of love. Courtney was a virgin. That is, she’d been one until tonight when he had become her first lover. And he was supposed to have been her husband for the past five years!

Connor gazed down at the woman sleeping in his arms. A shaft of moonlight illuminated the delicate features of her face, and her thick, dark hair spilled luxuriantly over the pillow. Somehow, she managed to look both sexy and innocent. Tonight she had been exactly that, a captivating virgin who had been transformed into a passionate lover. By him.

He brushed a soft kiss on the top of her head, feeling protective and possessive. He was her first lover, of that he had no doubt. He was experienced enough to realize her own inexperience and a telltale stain on the sheet added physical proof.

Yet they’d been married for
five years?
And what about the heartbreak of infertility they’d supposedly suffered that had led to the adoption of little Sarah? It went without saying that a woman couldn’t get pregnant if she’d never had sex.

And he knew in that moment that they had not been married for five years. He was absolutely certain of it, though memories of their life together still eluded him. But he had one undeniable fact supporting him—that he couldn’t have been married to Courtney and not have made love to her until tonight. There was too much passion, too much intensity between them for celibacy to have lasted
five years!

What if they really weren’t married after all? The renegade thought flashed to mind.

Connor immediately rejected it. Courtney and Sarah were his, they belonged to him. He refused to even consider any other possibility. His arms tightened possessively around Courtney as he thought of the past week, all those hours he’d spent with her and the baby. He loved them both, they were a family and they were going to stay a family, no matter what.

Somehow affirming his commitment resolved the problem. Connor closed his eyes and was soon sleeping as deeply as Courtney.

When the baby’s cry pierced the dark silence, Connor sat up at once. His eyes drifted wearily to the bedside clock and he heaved a quiet groan. Four-thirty in the morning!

The baby squalled again. Courtney didn’t stir. She was obviously worn out from their vigorous lovemaking. Connor smiled affectionately and kissed her forehead. She’d also been getting up at night with the baby all week. She deserved to sleep.

Slipping from under the covers, he shrugged into his robe and padded into the baby’s room. A small night-light lit a path to the crib. Sarah’s tiny fists were clenched and her legs were drawn up as her whole body jerked with the fury of her cries. She was hungry or wet or both, and she was letting the world know that she expected the situation to be rectified immediately.

Connor picked her up and carried her to the changing table. Though he usually left diaper detail to Courtney, he had changed the baby a few times this past week, so he knew what he was doing. Sarah stopped crying and looked at him with those wide blue eyes of hers.

“Daddy’s here,” he said softly, lifting her into his arms. He felt protective and paternal. “Daddy will always be here for you.”

Sarah was avidly sucking on her little fist, and he knew that meant she was hungry. “Time for breakfast, huh? What kind of schedule are you on, Cookie? Not even marines in boot camp start the day this early.”

He warmed the formula in the convenient electric bottle warmer plugged into the socket above the bureau. Then he sat down in the rocking chair, the baby and bottle in hand. Sarah made a funny little noise as her small mouth closed over the nipple. Then she was sucking vigorously, staring intensely into Connor’s face.

“You’re my little girl,” he said, his voice soft yet fierce in intensity. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, but everything is going to work out for us, Cookie. I promise.” He heard Courtney call his name, softly at first. And then her voice rose in panic. ‘ ‘ Connor, where are you? ’ ’

“I’m in the baby’s room.”

Courtney appeared, naked and tousled, to stand in the threshold. “I—I thought you were gone,” she whispered hoarsely.

He extended a hand to her. “Come here.”

“I’m not dressed.” Blushing, she quickly retrieved the demure pink-and-white nightgown that she hadn’t had a chance to put on that night. It was ankle-length with a round collar, long sleeves and a ribboned yoke. When she entered Sarah’s room wearing it, Connor smiled.

“You look like a virgin straight out of a girls’ convent school,” he said dryly. It was an ideal lead-in, if she felt like confessing to anything...

Courtney’s mouth went dry. “I’m certainly not that,” she said quickly, trying to match the lightness of his tone. She thought of the way they’d made love earlier, the erotic abandon, the scorching climaxes, and went hot all over. She’d responded to him in a way she had never dreamed her virginal, inhibited self ever could.

And when she had awakened and found him gone from the bed, she had felt the world crashing down on her. Connor had realized she’d been a virgin, her mind had screamed, he knew they weren’t married. He felt trapped in that cage of commitment he so dreaded and was gone for good.

Courtney shivered, remembering. Thank heavens that was a nightmare that hadn’t come true. Yet. What was she going to do if it did?

“Come here and sit on my lap,” Connor commanded.

She gave a nervous little laugh. “It’s already occupied. I won’t fit.” But she walked over to the rocking chair where he was sitting with Sarah.

With one hand he pulled her down on his lap, then readjusted the baby so that his arms were encircling both. “I’m not going anywhere, Courtney,” he said, addressing her earlier fear.

She snuggled closer, curling up in his lap while cuddling the baby in her arms. She had never felt safer or more content, and she wanted to savor the security of the moment.

“Why are you afraid that I’ll leave you?” he asked.

Courtney tensed at the question. “I’ve never been good at goodbyes,” she hedged. “All those years Dad was in the army and we had to keep moving, all the people and places we had to say goodbye to... I was heartbroken every time.’ ’

But she knew that nothing could compare to the pain she would feel if Connor left—and he would, she reminded herself harshly. Unless, by some miracle, he didn’t regain his memory along with his horror of marriage, family and commitment.

She wasn’t going to tell him the truth, Connor realized. For some reason—fear?—she wouldn’t tell him why she’d claimed to have been married to him for five years, why she’d remained a virgin until tonight, or why they had told Wilson Nollier those tales about infertility preventing them from conceiving a child.

Which brought him to another important point. That claim of infertility was patently false. And he hadn’t used any birth control tonight. Unless she had—and he had a very strong feeling that was not the case—he might have made her pregnant.

He gazed down at Courtney, whose head was resting comfortably in the curve of his shoulder, at little Sarah, whose eyelids were drooping sleepily. Another baby?

He found the prospect immensely appealing.

“There aren’t going to be any goodbyes,” he said, his voice husky and gruffly tender. “You’re mine and I’ll never let you go.”

His mouth covered hers, and his kiss was deep and long and slow, a kiss of possession and commitment. They drew apart reluctantly when the baby stirred.

“I’ll put her back in her crib,” Courtney said breathlessly, standing up with Sarah in her arms.

He walked her over to the crib, his arm around her. They smiled at each other as Sarah fell into a satisfied sleep almost immediately.

“She is a very accommodating baby,” Connor remarked.

“Not always. A few nights ago, she wanted to stay awake and socialize after this feeding.” Courtney grinned at the memory. “I could hardly keep my eyes open, but she was raring to go.”

“What about now?” Connor swept her up in his arms and carried her back to their bedroom. “Sleepy?”

He posed the question as he slipped the girlish nightgown over her head. She stood naked before him, feeling sexy and excited and aroused and more wide awake than she’d ever been in her life.

“No,” she replied, standing on tiptoe and winding her arms around his neck. She smiled into his eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

Connor laughed lustily. “Maybe a little petting.” He cupped her breasts with his palms, fondling and stroking the soft rounded warmth, his finger teasing the taut peaks. “Above the waist.”

A breathless little moan escaped from her throat.

“And below,” he added sexily, running his hands over the naked curve of her waist and lower to her hips. His fingers sunk into the lush softness of her bottom, squeezing and kneading and exploring the cleft between.

Courtney whimpered. He pulled her down onto the bed on top of him.

“I thought we’d do some kissing, too,” he continued, and his mouth possessed hers, hot and hard and deep.

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Courtney wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him back, totally surrendering to the fierce demands of his mouth and his body. When he rolled her over to her back and thrust into her, she arched and moaned and clung to him. She wanted him, wanted him desperately.

“This is what I had in mind, sweet baby,” he whispered in her ear, withdrawing himself from her until he was poised just out of reach.

“Don’t leave me,” Courtney begged softly. Her fingers clenched him tightly, pulling him to her.

“Never.” He surged into her and their bodies merged once more. He whispered words of love, and dark, sexy words of passion to her, and in response, she said things she never thought she would say, things that excited and delighted him.