Glass Slippers and Unicorns

by Carole Mortimer

  He would be deeply inside her now if it weren’t for the thin layer of material between them, and she longed to have him nestled snugly sheathed inside her, the muscles contracting in her lower stomach as she moved against him in that need.

  Her bikini top disappeared on to the ground, Reed’s head dark against her as he bent to suckle one throbbingly rosy nipple into his mouth, his tongue a mere whisper across the fiery tip that hardened so obediently to the command, Darcy gasping at the warm rush of emotion between her thighs as he suckled her fully into his mouth in a rhythm that made her arch against him at every moist caress.

  She wanted to touch him, too, could feel the hardness of him that constantly stirred against her, wanted to touch the silken sheath, to take him in her hands and—

  ‘God, that feels so good!’ Reed shuddered above her.

  Without her realising what she had done her actions had closely matched her thoughts, Reed supporting himself on his elbow as her hand encircled him beneath the black material of his swim-trunks. He felt hard and throbbing, and yet his skin was silky soft to the touch, a sensual caress as she slowly began to move her hand.

  ‘Oh, Darcy, I want—’

  ‘Hi, I’m home!’ Diane shouted from the house. ‘Are you out by the pool? Reed? Darcy?’

  Reed was breathing shakily, his hands shaking slightly as he gently cupped Darcy’s face. ‘I’ve been telling my mother for years that I should have been an only child, but I never wished it more than I do at this moment!’ He kissed her lingeringly on the mouth. ‘You have the most incredible hands—!’ He groaned his frustration before levering up and diving straight into the pool.

  Darcy was just refastening her bikini top when Diane came out of the house, both women watching Reed in the pool as he surfaced before striking out with long powerful strokes.

  Darcy smiled at Diane, avoiding the speculation in the other woman’s eyes. Reed was gliding through the water with all the ease of a torpedo that had just been launched, and a gentle survey of her mouth with the tip of her tongue had shown her lips to be tender and slightly swollen from their impassioned kisses!

  ‘Had a good day?’ she asked Reed’s sister politely.

  ‘Not bad,’ Diane answered distractedly, watching Reed for several more seconds before turning back to Darcy. ‘How are you feeling now?’

  ‘Better, thank you,’ she answered sincerely. ‘Reed and I have just spent a relaxing day by the pool.’

  ‘He looks relaxed,’ Diane shot a derisive glance at her brother as he began yet another lap of the pool. ‘I’ll go and get us all an iced drink. Maybe it will help cool Reed down inside as well as out!’

  Diane remained amused by what she had guessed to be her brother’s sexual frustration, Reed muttering that she had done it on purpose as he and Darcy changed to have dinner with the rest of the family later that evening. Darcy knew exactly how he felt; she wanted to be alone with him, too.

  But that proved to be impossible as the family once again gathered around the pool for a barbecue, Darcy finding herself sitting beside Linda, Reed helping to cook this evening.

  ‘Diane told us what happened yesterday; I hope you’re feeling better now,’ Linda questioned.

  ‘Much, thank you,’ she nodded, wishing everyone would just forget about yesterday. ‘The doctor said it was just shock,’ she dismissed, Diane’s doctor having returned this morning and declared her well again.

  ‘It must have been awful for you,’ Linda sympathised. ‘I hope it hasn’t put you off our country.’

  ‘Not at all.’ She hadn’t doubted that Reed would have explained only as much as he had to to his family about yesterday, that he would keep her confidence about the reason she had reacted so extremely.

  ‘You aren’t safe anywhere nowadays,’ Linda said disgustedly.

  ‘It’s the same in England now,’ she nodded.

  ‘I—I want to apologise about the other night.’ The turquoise eyes avoided contact with Darcy’s. ‘Wade and I have always made it a rule never to involve the family in our arguments; you must have thought us very rude.’

  ‘You didn’t really argue,’ Darcy excused lightly.

  ‘You should have seen us once we got home!’ Linda grimaced. ‘Wade’s pretty amiable most of the time, but he does have a temper to match his red hair!’

  ‘Arguments often help clear the air.’

  ‘Not this time,’ the other woman sighed. ‘Why is it men feel the urge to procreate?’

  Darcy smiled. ‘I’m sure it isn’t just a male urge!’

  Linda’s smile was one of self-derision. ‘Then I wonder what’s wrong with me?’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with you,’ Darcy protested lightly. ‘You just need more time.’

  ‘But will I get it?’ The other woman watched her husband as he laughed with relaxed ease as he and Reed cooked the steaks.

  Darcy wished she were able to offer some words of help to Reed’s older sister, but what advice could she offer about marriage and babies!

  ‘Don’t take on the problems of my family,’ Reed advised as he sat down beside her after dinner, gently taking her hand in his. ‘That’s my job. I saw the way you looked earlier after talking to Linda,’ he explained at her frowning look.

  ‘She’s so unhappy.’

  He nodded. ‘So is Wade. But he’s promised to talk the problem through again with Linda when they get home.’

  She had thought the two men were engaged only in light banter, but it seemed Reed had found the opportunity to talk to his old friend about more serious matters. ‘Linda seems very determined,’ she grimaced.

  ‘I know my sister well enough to know that it’s her stubbornness that’s half the problem now.’ He sighed impatiently. ‘She’s great with kids, would make a great mother, and—Hell, they’ll work it out, Darcy,’ he dismissed suddenly. ‘Without any help from you or I. You, young lady, are going to be too busy helping me work out my problem to concern yourself with theirs.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You have a problem?’

  Reed placed her hand on his thigh over the black shorts he was wearing with a green T-shirt, the evidence of his arousal was warm against her. ‘Finishing what you started,’ he muttered.

  ‘What I started?’ she repeated with mock indignation, her face glowing.

  His eyes were dark with desire. ‘Darcy, I need to have you touch me like that again.’ His fingers curved her hand hard against him. ‘Do you understand?’

  How could she doubt the conclusion he wanted their earlier caresses to take? How could he doubt that it was what she wanted too?

  She moistened her lips. ‘Isn’t it a little early to go to bed? Your family will think it very odd, this sudden need to drag me off to bed.’

  ‘I’m only interested in what we think,’ he grated with a return of his usual arrogance. ‘And we aren’t going to bed—yet.’ He stood up before she could answer. ‘Darcy and I are taking over the jacuzzi,’ he announced to his family in a voice that didn’t allow for questions or offer any explanations.

  ‘Don’t mind us,’ Mike couldn’t resist taunting.

  ‘We won’t,’ Reed returned warningly.

  Darcy felt shy as she climbed into the water next to Reed, his shorts and T-shirt and her wrap-around skirt discarded on to a chair, the two of them sitting under the water.

  They were across the garden area from the rest of the family, the high sides of the jacuzzi giving them total privacy, the slightly warmed water whirling about them at the press of a button. Darcy could feel her body relaxed by the soothing pressure of the water, putting her head back with a sigh of satisfaction. This was totally decadent—and she loved it!

  ‘Nice?’

  ‘Very,’ she murmured, feeling as if every pore in her body were open—for Reed.

  She opened her eyes wide at the gentle caress of Reed’s hand up her leg to her inner thigh. ‘Are you sure these things are legal?’ she gasped breathlessly, her legs instantly parting for him.


  ‘Jacuzzis?’ he murmured against her cheek. ‘Oh, they’re legal. But what we’re about to do in one may not be!’

  ‘It might also be impossible,’ she teased.

  ‘Want to bet?’ he challenged softly.

  As the water swirled and foamed about them Darcy gave herself up to the magic of his kiss, her arms curved about his neck as she moved her mouth joyously against his.

  ‘Tonight I’m going to kiss every one of those freckles,’ Reed promised gruffly. ‘And that beautiful mark of the half-moon, and—’

  ‘Don’t talk, Reed.’ She encouraged his mouth back to hers. ‘Just do it!’

  ‘Yes, ma’am!’ He smiled his satisfaction at her aggression.

  ‘Women can be frustrated too, you know,’ she defended irritably. ‘Forget I said that; of course you know,’ she frowned. ‘Just don’t expect me to have the experience of your other women, Reed,’ she warned self-consciously. ‘My one relationship was very—limited.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ He touched her mouth with gentle fingertips. ‘It may be chauvinistic and totally unfair of me, but I don’t think I could bear it if I knew another man had loved you as thoroughly as I’m going to.’

  It had to be different with Reed, because she loved him in a way she never had Jason. She had gone to Jason for all the wrong reasons, she would give herself to Reed for all the right ones!

  She looked confidently into passionate green depths: ‘Make love with me, Reed.’

  His throat moved convulsively. ‘I’ve imagined this moment,’ he groaned.

  ‘Reed—’

  He moved in the water to lie between her thighs, Darcy gasping as she realised he had removed her bikini bottom and his swimming trunks as they talked, their thighs entangling as he pressed that silken length of himself against the flowering bud of her womanhood.

  He paled suddenly, his breathing constricted. ‘We have to get out of here,’ he gasped in a pained voice.

  ‘Reed?’ She voiced her uncertainty as to what was wrong.

  ‘This hasn’t happened to me since I was in high school,’ he rasped through gritted teeth, pulling on the black trunks in jerky movements. ‘Darcy, I was going to kiss and caress you out here until we were wild for each other, until we could make our escape and go to the bedroom and finish this, but if I don’t get out of here and take you to bed now I’m going to disgrace myself and then neither of us will have any pleasure for some time. Do you understand what I’m saying?’ he grated, pulling her bikini briefs on with difficulty.

  It wasn’t funny, she knew it wasn’t, and yet after her disastrous encounter with Jason the thought of Reed, strong invincible Reed, losing complete control in the way he described over her brought a mischievous twinkle to her eyes.

  ‘You wouldn’t be so amused if that happened, Darcy.’ He scowled irritably as he helped her out of the water. ‘I’m not one of these sexual athletes all those women’s magazines are supposed to rave about; I only do one gala performance a night! And maybe an encore in the morning,’ he added self-derisively.

  No matter how disgruntled it made him she couldn’t help laughing softly as they walked back to the house. Despite her love for Reed she had felt some trepidation about their lovemaking, but that had completely disappeared in the face of Reed’s discomfort at his complete lack of control. She felt elated by the admission, completely confident in her ability to satisfy him.

  ‘That was quick,’ Chris drawled.

  Darcy gasped back a laugh at the unintended double edge to the words, determinedly keeping her face averted as Reed told his family she was tired and he was taking her to bed.

  ‘You can laugh now, you little devil,’ Reed groaned after dragging her into the house, the bedroom door closed behind them.

  She couldn’t help it, she did exactly that, too amused by the situation to control the bubble of laughter.

  ‘And when you’ve finished laughing maybe you would like to see that you didn’t get away scot-free either,’ he derided softly.

  Darcy looked up at him with puzzled eyes, following his line of vision to her breasts, the nipples standing out against the blue material like twin pebbles. ‘Oh, Reed!’ She fell laughingly into his arms. ‘What are they going to think of us?’

  ‘Do I really need to answer that?’ he drawled, his hands threading into her hair either side of her nape as he brought his mouth down on hers.

  She forgot about his family, forgot it was only nine o’clock at night and that of course the others would know why they had come to bed so abruptly, losing herself in the magic of his kiss.

  ‘Maybe you really are a witch,’ Reed murmured against the curve of her breast as he removed the scrap of material that covered them. ‘I’ve been imagining feasting on this milk and honey all evening!’

  Darcy gasped as she felt the pleasure-pain of his mouth closing about one nipple, suckling thirstily; her legs trembled weakly and her hands grasped his shoulders to support her.

  ‘Milk and honey!’ He moaned before capturing her other breast to give it the same loving caress.

  She had never experienced caresses like these before, collapsing completely as Reed’s hand sought the secrets he had bared with the removal of that other scrap of material, her eyes wide with shock as she felt the touch of his mouth where his hand had just been.

  Reed looked up at her concernedly. ‘You don’t like that? Just tell me if I go too far, if I shock you. I only want to give you pleasure!’

  She felt bereft without the touch of his mouth, arching up to initiate the caress, sighing her satisfaction at the pleasure that lit up his eyes before his head bent in studied concentration.

  He only relented when her whimpers of need reached screaming fulfilment, their bodies covered in a silken sheen as Reed pressed soothing kisses against her brow, her breathing laboured as she returned to sanity.

  But another shock awaited her as Reed began to move his thigh rhythmically against her; she could feel the pleasure course through her body a second time, knew that this time she wanted him inside her, his hardness taking her to that kaleidoscope of colour as he joined her there.

  She bit down on her lip to stop from crying out as he gently separated that barrier that prevented the perfect joining of their bodies, feeling the tension in his shoulders where seconds ago he had been relaxed with the knowledge of the approaching satisfaction for them both.

  Her eyes pleaded with him not to stop, not to question, and after a significant pause the pain went out of his eyes, the tension leaving his shoulders and back as he began to stroke deep inside her where no other man had ever been.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘IF there was one other relationship, Darcy, how did you come to me a virgin?’

  She had been expecting this question since last night when she had sensed his shock at her inexperience. But even though it was now morning, the night hours, despite Reed’s claim to the contrary, having seen them return to that heady delight twice more before they fell asleep in each others arms, she couldn’t look him directly in the eyes as she answered him.

  ‘He—Jason realised at the last minute that he didn’t want me.’ She could still remember the painful humiliation of realising she couldn’t even arouse Jason enough to give him what he needed, the two of them dressing in silence afterwards, knowing that the experiment wouldn’t be repeated. It hadn’t been until she met Reed and realised how she felt about him that she had been grateful for her aborted affair with Jason, knew that the relationship hadn’t been worthy of either of them.

  Reed had left her in little doubt last night of her ability to arouse him!

  ‘Were you in love with him?’ Reed asked huskily, obviously puzzled about the whole relationship.

  ‘I thought we—needed, each other,’ she evaded. ‘It just didn’t work out.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘I’m so glad you were the first, Reed.’ She looked up at him with glowing eyes. ‘It felt—right, with you.’ She frowned as she saw the flicker of
uncertainty in his eyes. ‘Reed?’ He couldn’t already be regretting last night, not when it had been so beautiful!

  ‘After the first time, when I realised that in your experience you wouldn’t have taken care of such things, I took preventative measures, but that first time…!’ He grimaced at his lack of control even after he had breached that gossamer barrier. ‘I couldn’t have stopped at that moment if our lives had depended on it!’

  She knew what he was trying to say, and the thought of a child being made from their lovemaking was as much a shock to her as it obviously was to him. But for different reasons she was sure. She knew she didn’t deserve the happiness of having Reed’s baby.

  ‘It will be all right, Reed,’ she assured him as she stretched her silky length above him, thrilled as she felt him stir beneath her.

  ‘You would tell me if it isn’t?’ he persisted, even as his body leapt with desire.

  ‘Of course,’ she confirmed without hesitation. ‘I’m sure you would never “demand” that I marry you or threaten to take the baby away from me.’ She was confident he would never be so cruel as to do the latter but she wouldn’t object at all if he wanted to do the former.

  ‘Darcy, this is serious!’

  ‘Babies usually are,’ she nodded. ‘But aren’t you being a little premature?’ she teased. ‘We’ve only spent one night together.’

  ‘Are there going to be other nights?’

  Now that she had known him so completely she felt as if she would die if she didn’t spend the rest of her nights with him in his arms and all of her days at his side. ‘Do you want there to be?’

  ‘What a damn silly question to ask a man in my obvious condition!’ He grinned self-derisively at the movement of his desire against her thigh.

  ‘I’m yours for as long as you want me, Reed,’ she told him simply.

  ‘Why?’

  She looked at him sharply. ‘Why?’ she repeated slowly, not expecting this response and unnerved by it.

  He nodded. ‘And for God’s sake don’t say it’s because you like and respect me!’

  ‘But I do.’ She frowned her confusion as the desire began to ebb from his body at the admission.