by Неизвестный
the column of her neck. When she sagged against him, he added, “And for another, I promise I won’t
peek until you’re settled in the water.”
“Why am I having trouble believing that?” Her throaty question sent his blood pressure soaring.
He chuckled. “How did you know I used up all of my allocated honor for the day?”
“Just a lucky guess.”
When she threaded her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck the heat in his lower belly turned into a
hungry flame.
“I suppose we could wear our underwear in the hot tub,” she suggested.
His internal heat flared out of control and threatened to turn him to a cinder when she kissed the exposed
skin at the open collar of his shirt. “I’ve got an even better idea, sweetheart,” he revealed as he swung
her up into his arms. He carried her through the French doors of the great room and straight to the master
suite. “Why don’t we skip the hot tub and just go to bed?”
Six
A s Luke cradled her to him, Haley put her arms around his shoulders and allowed him to carry her to
his bedroom. They’d spent a wonderful day together with moments that she would never forget. And if
she hadn’t been sure she loved him before, Haley knew for certain that she did now.
When he set her on her feet at the side of his bed, then reached over to switch on the bedside lamp,
Haley’s heart thumped so hard against her ribs she was truly surprised it wasn’t deafening. She hadn’t
anticipated they would be undressing in front of each other or that the light would be on when they did.
But it appeared that was exactly what Luke had in mind as he bent to remove both of their shoes and
socks. Straightening, he pulled her back into his arms.
“If we’d gotten in the hot tub without our clothes on, you were going to peek, weren’t you?” she asked.
Grinning, he nodded. “Shamelessly, sweetheart.”
“I think I probably would have, too,” she admitted.
“I assume this means that after today you feel we’ve reached a more personal level and you’re more
comfortable with me?” he commented, sliding his hands from her back down to the curve of her hips.
“I know you think I’ve been ridiculous about our knowing more about each other. But you only knew
Haley Rollins, the executive assistant who runs your office.” She raised her gaze to meet his. “I wanted
you to learn about Haley Rollins, the woman.”
His gaze was positively sizzling as Luke studied her before he slowly began to lower his head. “And I’m
glad I got to know the real Haley. You’re warm, compassionate and…” He brushed her lips with his. “…
so damned sexy I can’t keep my hands off you.”
When his mouth covered hers, Haley’s eyes drifted shut and her heart soared. Maybe there was hope.
Maybe in time Luke could learn to care for her as deeply as she loved him.
But as his firm lips explored her with a tenderness that robbed her of breath, she lost herself in his kiss
and abandoned all speculation of what the future might hold for them. All that mattered was she was in
his arms now and it felt absolutely wonderful.
As he coaxed her to open for him, she didn’t think twice about parting her lips and granting him access.
She wanted to once again experience the mastery of his kiss and taste his growing need for her.
Tentatively touching her tongue to his, a tingling excitement filled every cell of her being and she felt as
if her insides had been turned to soft, warm butter. Wrapping her arms around his trim waist, her heart
raced and the delicious warmth spread inside her as she enjoyed the feel of his hard masculine body
pressed so closely to hers.
Slowly easing the pressure of his mouth on hers, he broke the kiss and leaned back to capture her gaze
with his. “Why don’t we get a little more comfortable?” he suggested, reaching to release the button at
the top of her blouse. His slow, promising smile sent shivers coursing throughout her body. “Do you
have any idea how much I’m going to enjoy taking these clothes off you?”
“I really…hadn’t given it…a lot of thought,” she said breathlessly. His fingers grazing her breasts as he
unfastened the next button made it seem as if the air had suddenly been sucked right out of the room.
“Have you given any thought to what it would be like taking my clothes off?”
Every night in her fantasies for the past five years, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him. “I’m
certainly thinking a lot about it now.”
By the time he finished with the buttons on her blouse, then slid the silk fabric from her shoulders and
down her arms, Haley wondered if she’d ever draw another breath. The feel of his hands skimming over
her skin as he whisked the top from her body was absolute heaven. She wanted his touch, wanted to
again feel the same delicious sensations he’d created within her that morning. But just when she thought
he would remove her bra and touch her the way he had when they made love, he surprised her.
“Let’s make this a little more equal, sweetheart,” he offered, taking her hands in his to guide them to the
front of his shirt.
She knew what he was doing and she loved him all the more for it. Luke wasn’t only making an attempt
to help her feel more comfortable by allowing her the freedom of undressing him, he was encouraging
her to do a little exploring of her own.
As she worked the first button free, she kissed the warm, tanned skin just below his collarbone. “I think
I’m really going to like this.”
“And I think it’s going to kill me,” he muttered, sounding more than a little winded.
“You don’t like what I’m doing?” she asked as she pushed another button free. She kissed the exposed
area, then glancing up at him, kissed her way to the next button. “Would you like for me to stop?”
“Not on…your life.” He paused as if trying to arrange his thoughts. “Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart.
What you’re doing feels damned good.” When she released the next two buttons and nibbled all the way
down his chest to the rippling muscles of his abdomen, she was thrilled at the sound of his sharp intake
of breath and the shuddering of his body. “But if you go much farther, I’m going to be finished way
before we ever get started.”
“Hmm, I don’t think that would be good,” she confessed, smiling as she pulled the tail of his shirt from
the waistband of his low slung jeans.
Laughing, he shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t be good at all.” Looking up at him, Luke’s eyes were
tightly closed and a muscle along his jaw was working overtime. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked,
thrilled that he seemed to be enjoying her efforts to arouse him.
“I will be real soon,” he answered.
When he opened his eyes, the intense blaze of passion in the dark blue depths heated her all the way to
her feminine core.
His gaze held her captive as he slowly shrugged out of his shirt, then reached behind her to make quick
work of unfastening her lacy bra. When he slid the straps down her arms and tossed it at their feet, he
took her hands in his and stood back to gaze at her.
“You’re absolutely beautiful, Haley. I don’t ever want you to doubt that.”
He must have expected her to cover herself because before she had an opportunity to react, he pulled her
to him. At the initial feel of soft, feminine skin
meeting hard, masculine flesh, the fluttering in her
stomach went completely berserk and tiny electric charges skipped over every nerve ending in her body.
The delightful abrasion of his chest hair against her sensitized nipples was so sensual, so incredibly
exciting, Haley never wanted it to end. And apparently the sensations were just as intense for him as
they were for her.
A groan rumbled up from deep in his chest and he took a deep breath a moment before he shook his
head. “This was a mistake,” he said, splaying his hands over her bare back to hold her to him.
“W-why do you say that?” She was truly surprised that her vocal cords still worked, let alone that she
had the capability of putting words into a coherent thought.
Sliding his hands from her back down to her hips, he cupped her bottom and pulled her more fully into
the cradle of his hips. The solid ridge of his arousal pressed to her lower stomach threatened to send her
into a total meltdown and she had to force herself to breathe.
“You’ve made me harder than a chunk of granite.” Holding her to him with one arm, he reached for the
waistband of her khaki slacks. “I want you so damned much I’m about to explode.”
As spirals of heat twined their way throughout her body to gather in an ever-tightening coil at the apex
of her thighs, Haley couldn’t speak. Weakened by the urgent desire building inside of her, she grasped
Luke’s biceps to stay on her feet.
“You feel so good,” he said as his lips moved over her collarbone, then down the slope of her breast.
As he unfastened the closure at the top of her slacks and lowered the zipper, she unbuckled his belt and
released the snap of his jeans. Then, feeling bolder than ever, she toyed with the tab at his fly a moment
before slowly easing it downward a fraction of an inch.
“I thought we were supposed to be…” Her heart skipped several beats when her fingers brushed the
insistent bulge straining to be released from the denim fabric. “…taking each other’s clothes off.”
When he shuddered and caught her hands in his, their eyes met and the hunger she saw in the navy blue
depths sent a shiver of anticipation skipping over her. “Haley, before this night is over, I fully intend for
you to know every inch of my body, as I’m going to know every inch of yours,” he said, his voice
sounding deeper and sexier than she’d ever heard it.
As she watched, he finished lowering his fly, shoved his jeans and boxers down his long muscular legs,
then stepped out of them and kicked them to the side. When he straightened, he stood proudly in front of
her and she knew he was giving her the luxury of perusing his body without the hindrance of feeling selfconscious
about her own.
With her stomach fluttering like a swarm of butterflies had been trapped inside, her gaze slowly slid
from his muscular midsection down to his lean, well-toned hips, then beyond. Her breath caught in her
throat and her pulse pounded in her ears at the sight of his proud, heavily aroused sex surrounded by a
thick patch of crisp dark hair.
“Oh heavens,” she said, her gaze flying up to meet his.
As he wrapped his arms around her and drew her to him, his smile made her feel as if she were the most
desired woman alive. “I give you my word that making love this time will be easier, sweetheart,” he
promised as he slid his hands to her waist. “I’m going to give you nothing but pure pleasure.”
Unable to find words adequate enough to express how she felt, Haley simply nodded and waited for him
to lower the last barriers between them.
“Do you have any idea the hell I’ve gone through today just knowing what your clothes have been
hiding?” he asked, when he added her slacks and panties to the pile of clothing beside them.
“I-I didn’t…realize—”
“Let’s get into bed while we’ve still got enough strength left to get there,” he cautioned, his words
vibrating against her lips.
“That’s probably…a good idea,” she agreed, trying to catch her non-existent breath.
The world suddenly tilted precariously when he lifted her in his arms to gently place her in the middle of
his bed. As he stretched out beside her, she briefly wondered if he was thinking about making love to her
or if he was concentrating on making her pregnant. But as he pulled her to him and she saw the raw
hunger in the vivid blue depths of his eyes, she forgot about the purpose behind their union and
concentrated on the way he was making her feel.
As he kissed her with a tenderness that robbed her of patience, heat streaked from every part of her to
gather in a pool in her very core and she briefly wondered if she’d ever breathe again. But when he
cupped her breasts and chafed the overly sensitive tip with the pad of his thumb, a shiver rippled the
length of her spine and she moaned from the pure pleasure of it.
“Does that feel good, Haley?” he asked as he nibbled tiny kisses to the rapidly fluttering pulse at the
base of her throat.
“Y-yes.”
He slid his hand over her ribs to her waist. Then, as he kissed his way from her collarbone down the
slope of her breast, he moved his hand to her hip. “Would you like for me to do more?”
“I-If you don’t, I think I’ll go out of my mind,” she groaned, meaning it. She needed his touch, needed
his lovemaking like she needed her next heartbeat.
The overwhelming hunger in her lower belly quickly turned to an emptiness that needed to be filled
when he took the hardened bud into his mouth and teased her with his tongue at the same time he
touched her intimately. Tremors of desire ran through her at the speed of light, but when he slipped his
finger inside it felt as if fireworks had been ignited in her soul.
Wanting to bring him the same kind of pleasure, she flattened her palms on his chest and caressed the
firm pads of his pectoral muscles, then used her fingertips to trace the lines of his abs on the way to his
flat lower belly. But unsure if she should touch him as intimately as he touched her, her hands stilled.
“Go ahead, sweetheart. I promise I won’t break,” he reassured her, taking her hand in his to guide her to
his rigid flesh.
As she encircled his hard masculinity, Haley was encouraged by his deep shuddering groan and she took
the liberty of measuring his strength, of teasing his velvety tip and exploring the softness below. But all
too quickly Luke took her hands in his and brought them back to his wide chest.
His gaze never left hers as without another word he nudged her knees apart and moved to settle himself
between her thighs. “Only pleasure this time,” he repeated as he slowly moved his hips forward. “I
promise.”
Trusting him as she’d never trusted any other man, she didn’t even think to be apprehensive. She wanted
him to love her, wanted him to take her back to the heights of ecstasy that he’d taken her to that morning.
A shimmering heat began to dance behind Haley’s tightly closed eyes when she felt the blunt tip of him
against the most feminine part of her. “Please make love to me, Luke. I need you inside. Now.”
The blood in her veins felt as if it flowed to the beat of a sultry drum as he slowly began to enter her.
Wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders, she reveled in the exquisite stretching of her body as she
became one with the man she loved.
When their b
odies were completely joined, Haley closed her eyes and lost herself in the intimacy of it
all. It felt as if there was no beginning and no end as he set a slow, leisurely pace and wave after wave of
pleasure began to consume her. Tension, sensual and exhilarating, began to grip every fiber of her being.
Apparently sensing that she was rapidly approaching the peak, Luke deepened his thrusts and she
suddenly broke free of the ever-tightening need holding her captive.
Basking in the delicious crescendo of sensations overcoming her, she clung to him to keep from losing
herself and held him close in an effort to prolong the feelings. Then suddenly, she felt his body go
perfectly still a moment before he hoarsely called her name and joined her in the peace of sweet release.
Haley tightened her arms around Luke and tried not to think about their arrangement being temporary.
How long after she became pregnant would he still desire her? Would he view the pregnancy as
“mission accomplished” and lose interest in their lovemaking?
And what would happen if she didn’t get pregnant right away? Would Luke become impatient and end
their arrangement prematurely? Would he decide to find someone else to have the baby both wanted so
badly but for different reasons?
She forced herself to end her disturbing speculation as he rolled to her side and drew her to him. All too
soon her questions would be answered. Until then, she would store up every memory that she could for
the cold, lonely nights when she would be without him.
Cursing a blue streak, Luke bolted out of bed and hurriedly searched for his jeans in the pile of clothing
on the bedroom floor. Who the hell would be calling him at this hour of the night? And why couldn’t he
find his damned cell phone?
“Do you have any idea what the hell time it is?” he demanded when he finally found his phone and
ended its incessant noise.
“I don’t give a damn what time it is, we need to talk.”
At the sound of his twin brother’s voice, Luke growled, “This had better be important, Jake.”
“There’s something wrong with Arielle,” Jake said, unaffected by Luke’s harsh tone.