The husky promise in his voice nearly undid her. “Do we have to stay for the fireworks?”
“If we leave now, everyone is going to know why,” he warned, and the low timbre of his voice close to her ear made the muscles in her belly tighten with anticipation.
“I don’t care.”
“We rushed through a few things last time. My fault,” he assured her, continuing with the featherlight touches. “I couldn’t seem to think straight when you were naked. But this time, I’m going to take it slow. I’m going to run my hands and my lips over every inch of your body.”
She had never been so incredibly turned on, and he was barely even touching her. She wanted to touch him, too. But from the position she was in, trapped between his legs, there was no way to get her hands on him.
She could feel his erection against her back, so she knew he was as aroused as she was. And as his hands slid up her torso, brushing the sides of her breasts, she shifted back. Just a little. Just so she was tucked more firmly against him, so that she could tease and torment him with subtle shifts and wiggles. The growl in her ear confirmed that her efforts were succeeding, and made her shiver with heady anticipation.
“Are you ready to go now?” she asked.
“More than ready,” he admitted.
He stood up and helped her to her feet just as the first rocket was launched into the sky.
They rushed through their goodbyes to his family more easily than they might otherwise have done because the pyrotechnic display was beginning. As they made their way through the park, she vaguely registered the oohs and the aahs of the crowd in response to the rockets that whizzed and whistled and finally exploded with thunderous booms. Even the barrage of light and sound of the big finale only seemed a distant echo of the rockets of heat and pleasure bursting inside her.
They were in his car and driving away from the park before the last burst of color had completely faded from the sky.
* * *
He’d promised to take it slow this time. After the deliciously torturous foreplay in the park, he wasn’t sure that was a promise he could keep.
He closed the door of the condo at his back and pulled her into his arms. As he lowered his head toward hers, she lifted herself onto her toes to meet him halfway. Their mouths brushed, clung. Her lips were as deliciously soft as he remembered, and sweetly yielding. As the kiss grew hotter and more intense, her lips parted willingly, her tongue meeting his.
He couldn’t figure out her dress. The halter-style tie was easy enough, but he knew there had to be a zipper somewhere, too, and he couldn’t find it. He was actually thinking that he might just tear the garment off her when she took his hand and guided it to the zipper hidden in the seam of the fabric at her side. His hands felt big and clumsy as he worked the tiny pull, then the material finally parted and the dress slid down her body to pool at her feet.
His gaze skimmed over her, slowly, hungrily. “You weren’t lying about the pink ruffles,” he noted, his voice husky with appreciation. “Although you didn’t tell me that the panties were part of a matching set.”
“I thought there should be some element of surprise.”
“I’m surprised.” He traced the lacy ruffle that dipped into a vee between her breasts, and slid his hands over the matching adornment across her bottom. “And grateful.”
“I like sexy lingerie,” she admitted.
“Something else we have in common.” He reached behind her to unclasp her bra, then slowly drew it away from her body. “But I like you naked even better.”
“I like you naked, too,” she told him.
“Soon,” he promised. “I told you I wanted to take things slow tonight.”
“That was more than an hour ago. Don’t you think that’s slow enough?”
He responded by picking her up and carrying her to his bed.
And then he was kissing his way down her body, blazing a trail of heat down her throat, over her collarbone. He made his way to her breasts, lingered at her nipples. Kissing. Licking. Sucking. Until she was panting and writhing.
He lifted his head to give her one of those slow, sexy smiles that never failed to make her knees quiver.
“I love those little sounds you make in your throat,” he told her. “But tonight, I want you to scream.”
She swallowed. “I don’t think I’m a screamer.”
“Let’s find out,” he suggested, and dipped his head between her breasts again.
The sensation of his beard-roughened cheeks scraping against her soft skin was deliciously erotic. Then his tongue traced a path toward her belly button, and circled around it. She instinctively tensed as he continued lower, her breath catching in her throat. “What are you—”
He touched his fingers to her lips, silencing her words. “Trust me.”
“I do,” she told him.
She bit into her lip as his teeth scraped over her hip, nibbled on her thigh. She thought she knew where he was going, but she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it. As it was outside her realm of experience, she couldn’t deny a certain curiosity mixed with wariness.
She’d known what to expect with sex—at least with respect to the mechanics. But this seemed even more intimate somehow, and—
And then his mouth was on her, and her mind went totally and completely blank. She didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but she could feel his lips and his tongue on her and—
Oh. My.
Oh. Wow.
Ohhh...
Had he not been so thoroughly engaged in what he was doing, Daniel might have smiled. Because it turned out that Kenna was a screamer after all.
He took her to the edge—and over. And while her body was still shuddering and the echo of his name still hung in the air, he quickly covered himself with a condom and buried himself in the wet heat between her thighs.
She cried out again, arching up to take him deeper inside. He fisted his hands in the sheet, desperately fighting for control as he felt her pulse around him. Her eyes were glazed, her breath coming in short, shallow gasps. He forced his own eyes to stay open, to watch her, reveling in her innate sensuality and unbridled passion.
When the first wave had passed, he started to move, thrusting into her, pushing both of them to the brink. He gripped her hips, holding on to her as the next orgasm shuddered through her, and finally lost himself in her pleasure.
* * *
He was collapsed facedown on the bed, too drained to move, too sated to want to. He was hovering on the periphery of sleep, considering a quick nap to recharge for the next round of lovemaking with his sexy wife.
He felt a subtle shift in the mattress as she slid toward the edge.
“Where are you going?”
She went completely still, like a teenager who’d stepped on the creaky stair while trying to sneak out at night.
“I, uh, thought you were asleep.”
He propped himself up on an elbow to better see her face in the dim light of the moon through the window. “Which doesn’t answer my question.”
“I’m going to bed.”
“You’re already in bed,” he reminded her.
“My bed,” she clarified.
He caught her arm and tugged her down onto the mattress again. “Why would you want to go to your bed when this one’s big enough for the both of us?”
“Our agreement was separate beds,” she reminded him.
“I’d say that what just happened here proves our agreement has changed.”
“I know you had some concerns that I might make too much out of this, so I thought sleeping in my own bed would help maintain some of those boundaries you’re so keen on.”
“Right now, I’m keen on you staying right where you are,” he told her.
“You no l
onger think I’m going to use sex to sink my claws into you?”
“Actually—” he reached up to rub his shoulder “—I think you already did.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I’m not complaining.” He brushed his lips over hers. “I love watching you lose control. You’re so incredibly passionate and uninhibited.”
“I’ve never been passionate before,” she admitted. “Even when I tried to stop thinking and analyzing and let myself go, it didn’t happen.”
“It shouldn’t take that much effort.” His hands were on her breasts now, to please her and himself. He loved their shape, their size, their texture. “The pleasure should be so much that your brain just shuts off.”
“It does...every time you touch me.”
He smiled in response to the reluctant confession. “Then I’d say the problem wasn’t you, but whoever you were with.”
Her brow furrowed, as if she’d never considered the possibility before. “Harrison said I was frigid.”
“Who the hell is Harrison?”
“The phys ed teacher I was dating a few months ago.”
“He’s obviously an idiot who doesn’t have the first clue about women.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“Honey, who are you going to believe? Some guy who was pissed because he didn’t get past first base with you, or the man who gave you three orgasms already tonight?”
“Well, when you put it that way...”
“And—” he slung a leg over hers, pinning her into place “—the night’s still young.”
As it turned out, he didn’t need a nap to recharge him for the second round. He just needed Kenna.
Afterward, while their bodies were still joined, he asked, “Will you stay here with me?”
She sighed contentedly. “Since I’m already here and don’t seem to have enough energy to move, I guess I will.”
As she fell asleep in his arms, he wanted to feel satisfied that he’d got the answer he wanted. But there was a tiny piece deep in his heart that recognized he hadn’t just been asking her about tonight.
And that question was still unanswered.
* * *
Kenna was already up and making breakfast when Daniel got out of bed the next morning.
She was wearing his old MIT shirt again with those silky red boxers that barely covered the curve of her butt, leaving the rest of her long, lean legs bare. Her hair was tousled, her face bare of makeup, and she was still, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.
Her iPod was clipped on the waistband of her shorts and her hips were moving in tune to music only she could hear. He stood in the doorway, watching her until she turned—and screamed when she saw him.
Holding the spatula to her chest, she plucked the earbuds out. “I thought you were still sleeping.”
“Yeah, I got that impression,” he said, grinning as he poured himself a mug of coffee, then topped up her cup. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Very well, thanks.”
He sipped his coffee, thinking that there was nothing better after a night of intense lovemaking than waking up to a gorgeous woman making breakfast. “So tell me,” he said, “why a woman with a fascinating collection of sexy lingerie would sleep in an old T-shirt and boxer shorts?”
“Actually I slept in the nude last night,” she reminded him.
“Which doesn’t begin to explain why you’re wearing that this morning.”
“Nostalgia.” She slid the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate, then carried it to the table. “You were going to get breakfast in bed, but since you’re up, you can eat here.”
“That’s for me?”
She leaned over to brush a quick kiss to his lips. “In appreciation of the spectacular sex last night.”
“Spectacular, huh?”
“Do you disagree?” She retrieved cutlery from the drawer, set it beside his plate.
“I don’t disagree—I just think you could add a few superlatives.”
“If I gave you too much praise, you wouldn’t have anything to aspire to,” she teased.
He caught the back of her shirt as she started to move away and tugged her onto his lap. Her brows lifted as his hands slid under her shirt to her breasts.
“What are you doing?”
“Aspiring,” he told her.
Her quick giggle turned to a lengthy sigh as he continued to caress her bare skin.
“Daniel.”
“Hmm?”
“Your eggs are going to get cold.”
“I have a microwave.” He tossed her shirt aside.
She gasped as her skin was exposed to the cool air, and again when his mouth captured one of her nipples.
“And you have...some client thing...this afternoon,” she reminded him.
“A training seminar,” he acknowledged.
“Right. A training seminar,” she agreed, and tried to wiggle away from him.
“That’s not until after lunch.” He stood up, lifting her with him. “We have a few hours yet.”
“You still haven’t had your breakfast.”
“I’d rather have you,” he said, and took her back to his bed.
Chapter Twelve
When Daniel finally left for his meeting after lunch, he promised that he wouldn’t be gone more than a couple of hours.
He also told Kenna that he’d text her when he was on his way back, because they were planning to grab a quick bite out and catch a movie. But when her cell phone chimed shortly after three o’clock, the message wasn’t at all what she expected.
Can u come get me?
And then she saw that the text was from her sister.
When Becca got her phone, before she started high school, Kenna promised that if she ever needed anything, she only had to call and Kenna would be there.
So when she dialed back and Becca answered the phone, her only question was, “Where are you?”
“At Belleview—” She drew in a shuddery breath. “The parking lot near the soccer fields.”
Though Becca was obviously trying to hide it, Kenna could tell that she was crying.
“I’m on my way,” she said, grabbing her purse and car keys as she spoke. “But it’s going to take me at least twenty minutes to get there.”
“’Kay.”
Kenna didn’t know what had happened to upset her sister, but Becca’s muffled sobs tore at her heart. Her hand was on the door when her phone chimed to indicate another message. Daniel.
On my way.
He’d happened to mention that his training seminar was in Eastwood, which was a lot closer to Belleview Park than she was. Not that the park was exactly on his way home, but he could be there in less than half the time it would take her to drive from his condo in Westdale.
She immediately called Becca back.
“Daniel can be there in ten minutes,” she told her sister. “Is it okay if he comes to get you?”
“Sure,” Becca agreed.
She disconnected that call, then dialed Daniel’s number.
“Hey,” he said. “I just texted you.”
“I know, but I need to change our plans.”
“What’s up?”
It didn’t take her long to summarize the situation since she didn’t have many details, but she told him where to pick up Becca, and he promised to be there in less than ten minutes. She hung up the phone, grateful that he’d always been so solidly dependable.
While she was waiting for them, Kenna got out the necessary ingredients for hot chocolate—one of her sister’s favorite comforts. She had a plate of cookies on the table and started pouring the drink into mugs when she heard Daniel’s key in the door.
>
She gave Becca a quick hug and her sister’s lower lip wobbled, a telltale sign that she was trying not to cry. Kenna released her and handed her a cup, then passed a second cup to Daniel.
“Thanks. But I thought you might want me to go, so you could have some time alone with your sister.”
She shook her head. “Stay. Please.”
She was worried that whatever was going on with Becca might be bigger than she could handle on her own. Thankfully Daniel had always been able to read her pretty well, and he recognized her concern.
They sat down at the table with Becca. The unhappy teen had taken a cookie from the plate, but instead of eating it, she’d broken it into pieces so there was just a pile of crumbs on her napkin.
“They’re not homemade but they’re pretty good cookies,” Kenna told her. “If you wanted to actually eat one.”
“Sorry.” Becca brushed crumbs from her fingers.
“Do you want to talk about whatever happened?”
Her sister’s eyes immediately filled with tears, but she valiantly held them in check. “I saw Todd—” she swallowed “—at the Hollow.”
The Hollow was the informal designation of an area on the north side of Belleview Park. It was a fair distance from the main pathways and sheltered by surrounding trees, which had turned it into a popular hangout with South Ridge teens. Kenna had overheard some of the kids in class talking about a party there one weekend and that the ground had been littered with beer cans and condom wrappers the next day.
She wasn’t pleased to know that her sister was hanging out there, but she held that thought for now.
“Did you have a fight?” she asked gently.
Becca shook her head. “We didn’t even talk. It’s hard to have a conversation with your boyfriend when he has his tongue down someone else’s throat.”
“Oh, Becca.” She reached across the table to squeeze her sister’s hand gently. “I’m so sorry.”
“He called me this morning,” Becca said, backtracking to explain. “And asked if I could meet him at the Hollow when he got off work at three o’clock. But Mom told me I wasn’t going anywhere else this weekend because I missed curfew after the fireworks last night, so I told him I couldn’t. He said okay, maybe we’ll catch up later, and that was that.”
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