He cupped her face with his hands and there was an urgency and need that his lips communicated to her so powerfully it shook her. Abbey clutched him to her and knew that if she didn’t feel him in her soon then she would cry or die or fracture into a million pieces because her heart felt as if it was being torn from her chest by her need for him.
He smiled as if aware of her dilemma and kissed her mouth one last time before his lips moved down to caress her neck and then the undersides of her breasts. Heat spiralled upwards and tortured the rosy peaks of her breasts with frustration. She groaned and sank her fingers into his hair as he circled closer to his target with hot kisses and tiny tastes of the abundance she offered. His other hand crept up and rounded her into an inviting peak and still he didn’t swoop. She arched against him, wordlessly entreating him to ease the exquisite agony of the engorgement he’d caused, until he took pity on her.
From there the tempo increased until Abbey swirled into a mindless, grasping, shifting inferno of sensations. In a brief moment of clarity, a fleeting calm in the very eye of the storm, Rohan was poised above her and their eyes met in one long, wordless communication. Then, deliberately, intimately, they were joined as one.
Her breath caught in her throat as he sank into her, each slow plunge of movement driving her closer to orgasm in a way that nothing else could have. More rapidly she surged to meet him and tiny murmurs and breathless moans escaped them both until he was all around her yet lost in her and they merged in a shuddering rush of heat. The magnitude of the sensations made her cling to him, and he to her, until they were once again mortal, and breathless, and pliant against each other with release.
They rested and even dozed in front of the fire, until Rohan opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling in wonder from the discovery of something he’d never realised existed. He turned towards the woman he loved and her eyes were closed. Her skin was flushed and a surge of love made his senses glow with alertness. Bizarrely, some sixth sense warned him that someone was watching him. Rohan twisted his head. Clive’s yellow eyes were alert and unblinking as he watched the man with his mistress.
Rohan stared back and Clive held his gaze easily until Rohan’s eyes began to water. He blinked, beaten by a dog, and began to shake with the effort of holding in his laughter.
Abbey woke and twisted her head from where she’d been resting on his chest, and looked at his face. ‘Are you laughing?’
Rohan grinned and inclined his head towards Clive. ‘We’ve just made love in front of our child.’
Abbey shrugged. ‘There’s a lot of people in this house—we really should do this sort of thing in my bedroom.’
He smiled at his awesome Abbey and kissed her brow. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. After we’re married, I wonder if you’d consider a house of our own?’
Abbey tilted her head. She felt like her whole skin was dotted with those stars he’d promised her and she would have pledged Rohan anything because she knew her place was by his side for ever. ‘Where would we live?’
Mischief glinted from his eyes and then darkened as he hugged her. ‘I was thinking about next door. There’s another old boarding house next door—we could renovate and Bella could stay here with the girls. I love your family but have the feeling it could get crowded.’
Abbey twinkled up at him. ‘And what about Aunt Sophie?’
Rohan stifled a laugh. ‘It just wouldn’t be the same without Sophie. She’s lucky. She gets a choice to stay or come with us.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ABBEY and Rohan chose to have their wedding ceremony just before sunset at Trial Bay. The bride wore her mother’s wedding gown and the gentle breeze teased the tiny train into perfect alignment as if an angel’s fingers placed it there with love.
The wedding party assembled on the headland above the beach, and the white sand stretched away in a half-moon around the azure waters of the bay as the minister welcomed the guests.
Behind the congregation, the pink granite walls of the ruins soared in church-like splendour as the minister spoke the familiar words and smiled at the wedding party. The funny old lady was obviously in her element as she gave away the bride and the bridesmaid looked incredibly beautiful—but his eyes kept returning to the couple before him.
The man was tall and handsome in his black suit but it was the look of pure adoration in his face as he made his vows to the bride beside him that touched the minister.
Abbey and Rohan gazed into each other’s eyes and pledged their troth as the sinking sun cast a golden ray of light which bathed the couple in blessing for all the years to come. On the other side of the bay, the Norfolk Island pines at South West Rocks pointed long fingers into the sky as if to catch the huge orange ball of the sun as it disappeared from sight.
When Abbey and Rohan turned to their friends and family as husband and wife, a rousing cheer scattered the seagulls that had landed to watch.
Doris waited in regal splendour for the bride and groom with her black duco polished to reflect the occasion, and a white silk ribbon fluttered gaily from her grille to the windshield.
Rohan handed his bride onto the running board and then into the rear seat, where he arranged her mother’s wedding gown so seriously that Abbey laughed and beckoned him to join her.
As the car left, they both turned to look back at Trial Bay in the fading light and Rohan covered his wife’s hand with both of his. He smiled and the love light in his eyes held their future as it stretched out before them.
‘We’ll bring our children here in the holidays and camp on the beach, and barbeque the fish we catch. And when the children are asleep, we’ll make love in our tent with the sound of waves in the distance.’ He smiled at Abbey. ‘Did I mention I’ve never actually been camping?’
She shifted her hip along the seat and her eyes sparkled with mischief as she kissed her husband. ‘We’ll make sure we have the most comfortable camping mattress I can find.’
* * * * *
Harlequin®
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
When best friends, obstetricians Jake and Emily, become single parents, there’s only one solution—move in together and try to resist their secret desire for one another!
Read on for a sneak preview of
BOUND BY THEIR BABIES
People joked all the time about sex-crazed widows, and there was no way—no way—she was turning into one! This was Jake, for heaven’s sake! Her friend. Not her lover. Not her boyfriend. And certainly not someone for a casual one-nighter.
Although they’d almost gone there that once, and the memory of the awkwardness that had followed when they’d come to their senses and pulled away from the brink had never left her, although it had long been buried.
Until now…
Emily heard the stairs creak again, and pressed down the plunger and slid the pot towards him as he came into the room.
“Here, your coffee.”
“Aren’t you having any?”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t quite meet his eyes, and she realized he wasn’t looking at her, either. “I’ll go back up in case Zach cries and wakes Matilda. Don’t forget to ring me when you’ve seen Brie.”
“OK. Thanks for making the coffee.”
“You’re welcome. Have a good day.”
She tiptoed up the stairs, listened for the sound of the front door closing and watched him from his bedroom window as he walked briskly down the road towards the hospital, travel mug in hand.
He turned the corner and went out of sight, and she sat down on the edge of his bed, her fingers knotting in a handful of rumpled bedding. What was she doing? With a stifled scream of frustration, she fell sideways onto the mattress and buried her face in his duvet.
Mistake. She could smell the scent of him on the sheets, warm and familiar and strangely exciting, could picture that glorious nakedness stretched out against the stark white linen, a beautiful specimen of masculinity in its prime—
She jack-knifed to her
feet. This was crazy. What on earth had happened to her? They’d been friends for years, and now all of a sudden this uncontrollable urge to sniff his sheets?
They had to keep this platonic. So much was riding on it—their mutual careers, if nothing else!
And the children—they had to make this work for the children, especially Matilda. The last thing she needed—any of them needed—was this fragile status quo disrupted for anything as trivial as primitive, adolescent lust.
It wasn’t fair on any of them, and she’d embarrassed herself enough fifteen years ago. She wasn’t doing it again.
No way.
Copyright ©2018 Caroline Anderson
BOUND BY THEIR BABIES
by Caroline Anderson
Available April 2018
www.Harlequin.com
ISBN-13: 9781488098109
MIDWIFE IN NEED
Copyright © 2003 by FIONA MCARTHUR
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