Dangerous to Touch
Page 22
Marc approached her leisurely, his hands still buried in his pockets, his expression guarded. “Want to go for a walk?”
Behind his back, her sister winked and made an okay sign, as if she thought they were wandering off for a quickie and she approved of the idea.
“Sure,” Sidney said, smoothing her skirt again.
A few yards down the beach, he took her hand in his, a gesture that never failed to tug at her heartstrings. Blinking back the hot sting of tears, she looked out at the setting sun over the Pacific, its last rays casting brilliant golden light across that infinite expanse.
“I was going to tell you,” she said in a nervous rush, “but everything’s been going so well and I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“Tell me what?” he asked, pulling her toward him.
She stared at him without speaking, too anxious to be articulate.
“Why don’t you tell me later,” he murmured, brushing his lips across hers.
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, gripping fistfuls of his shirt, wishing she could hold onto him forever.
“Hey,” he said softly. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.
He jerked his head back to look at her. “You’re what?” Any notion that he’d already guessed was dispelled by his wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression. “You’re what?”
She couldn’t make herself repeat it.
“You said you weren’t.”
“I wasn’t. Now I am.”
“We haven’t even…”
“Yes we have.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth, then her breasts, then her belly. She knew without asking that he was remembering the only time they’d failed to use protection since that first tempestuous week together.
About a month ago, they’d spent a steamy afternoon in bed. He kissed every inch of her body, worshipping her with his tongue, rousing her to a fever pitch. Instead of bringing her to climax, he begged her to do it herself while he watched, and she complied shyly, enthralled by his interest. After having lost the last of her inhibitions, she’d wanted him all over her, between her legs, between her breasts, in her mouth.
He’d obliged her thoroughly, dipping his engorged shaft inside her, pushing her breasts together and pleasuring himself there, plumbing the depths of her mouth. At last, he’d brought her to another orgasm with a series of slow, deep thrusts, before he withdrew, spilling himself on her quivering stomach.
The memory of that interlude was enough to make her body flush with embarrassment and arousal, even now.
“I pulled out,” he said unnecessarily.
She smiled. “This may come as a surprise to you, but medical professionals don’t consider that method particularly reliable.”
Her humor was lost on him, perhaps because he was staring at her breasts intently, as if trying to find some visual evidence of her condition. Against the apex of her thighs, another physical change was developing, pressing hard into her.
“Marc,” she protested, squirming in his arms. He was getting her all hot and bothered, but at sunset, the beach was far from deserted.
“I have to see you,” he said roughly, doing a quick survey of their surroundings. Taking her hand, he pulled her toward an empty lifeguard tower about a hundred feet from them. It wasn’t exactly private, but it would conceal them from all but the most prying eyes.
Blushing, she ascended the ladder ahead of him. The instant they reached the top, he fell to his knees in front of her and pushed her dress up to the waist, exposing her flat tummy.
“I can’t tell,” he said, moistening his lips.
“I’m only a few weeks along.”
He traced her navel with his fingertip then brushed his knuckles back and forth over her lower abdomen.
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“Does it hurt?”
“No.”
“Have you been sick?”
“Not yet.”
“Knowing you, you will be.”
She couldn’t laugh or cry or even breathe comfortably, so she leaned her head back against the tower wall and closed her eyes.
He reached up to slip the straps of her dress off her shoulders, lowering the stretchy cotton bodice. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
Cupping one breast gently, he said, “Your nipples are darker.”
“Yes,” she agreed, thinking she might die if he stopped touching her.
“It’s barely noticeable, but now that I know…” He circled her swollen areola slowly. “Are you sensitive?”
“Yes.” The tips of her breasts were tight and aching, pouting for his attention. When he laved each one with his tongue, she gasped, thrusting her fingers into his hair.
Murmuring something unintelligible, he slid his hand up her inner thigh until he reached her panties. Stroking her through the fabric, he asked, “What about here?”
“Yes,” she moaned.
“I mean, are you sensitive here, too?”
“No more than usual.”
“So as long as I’m gentle, I can still touch you like this?” He slid his fingers into her panties, parting the damp petals of her sex and caressing her gingerly. “And like this?”
“If you don’t stop being gentle,” she panted, “I’m going to kill you.”
He stripped her panties away and released the buttons on his fly, freeing his erection. Straddling his thighs, she impaled herself on him, digging her fingernails into the fabric of his shirt and biting down on her lower lip to hold back her cry.
His breath was heavy on her neck, his hands hot on her bare bottom. Beneath her fingertips, his shoulders trembled. “You feel so-”
“Yes.” She arched up, pushing against the floor with her bare feet and sliding back down along the length of his shaft.
Groaning, he braced one hand behind her and lifted his hips, pressing her back against the wall, thrusting hard, driving deep.
“More,” she urged, tightening her legs around him. “More.”
Giving her what she wanted, what she needed, he drove into her harder, faster, deeper. He loved her fiercely and filled her completely, giving everything, holding nothing back. When he stiffened, she exploded in pleasure, throwing her head back and crying out his name as he buried himself in her one last time.
When she caught her breath a moment later, he was sprawled underneath her, their bodies entwined in a tangled heap on the whitewashed floor. Now that the blood was returning to his brain, he probably didn’t find her pregnancy half as sexy as before. In her limited experience, a man with a hard-on had a lot of stupid ideas.
Crawling off him, she righted her clothing in silence.
“My mother will be delighted,” he said finally.
“What about you? How do you feel?”
“I don’t know,” he groaned, refastening his pants and straightening. “I never had any brothers or sisters. I’ve never been around a-” he swallowed “-baby.”
Her mood plummeted. “This sounds remarkably like your argument for disliking dogs.”
“I’m getting along with Blue now, aren’t I?”
He had adopted the dog, with an exaggerated display of reluctance. Sidney knew the pair had forged some kind of bond, even though Marc didn’t coddle him or really even pet him from what she could see. In return, Blue tolerated Marc with stoic apathy. It was a strange, if peaceful, coexistence.
God forbid she and Marc circle around each other the same way. “I don’t want you to ‘get along’ with it. I want you to want it.”
“I want you,” he said, giving her honesty instead of promises. He reached out to clasp her hand. “Marry me.”
She jerked away. “No.”
“No?”
“You heard me.”
He gaped at her incredulously. “Why?”
Instead of answering, she scrambled down the ladder, desperate to put some space between them before she fell apart. She jogged down the beach, her ba
re feet finding uneasy purchase on the shifting sand, tears blurring her vision.
“Why?” he repeated when he caught up with her. Wrapping his fingers around her upper arms, he asked again, his voice low with desperation. “Why?”
“I don’t want to be your burden,” she said, trying to stifle a sob.
“Your obligation.”
“You could never be that. I love you.”
“You only want to marry me so our child won’t be a b-” She stuttered over the ugly word, then blurted it out, “a bastard.”
He released her immediately, a cold glint in his eyes. “Then why do I have this?” From his pocket, he pulled out a black velvet box and shoved it at her. With that, he left her standing on the sand, her mouth hanging open in shock.
She opened the box with shaking hands. A square-cut diamond sparkled from an elegant setting on a simple platinum band.
“Oh,” she gasped, clapping it shut. “Oh, no.”
She ran after him, her heart threatening to burst from her chest.
“I’m sorry,” she said, biting her lip to keep from giggling. Nowadays especially, humor struck her at odd times. “But you said you wouldn’t stay, and I believed you.”
He stopped to look at her. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No,” he protested. “Even then, I knew I could never leave you, but I was afraid to let myself…need you.”
She put her arms around him, tears looming close behind her eyes once again. “I need you,” she whispered, stroking her fingers through his hair. “I love you,” she added, kissing his tense mouth. “And I would be honored to marry you.”
He took her hand in his. “Are you sure?”
She met his eyes, whiskey-brown in the light of the setting sun. “Are you?”
He placed her palm over the center of his chest. “You tell me.”
His heartbeat thumped beneath her hand, fast and strong and true. Any misgivings he had weren’t about her, or the baby, but himself.
“I can’t promise I’ll be good at this,” he warned. “I work all the time. I never had a family. I never really had a father.”
Love welled up inside her, washing away her hesitation. “Don’t promise anything,” she whispered. “Just stay.”
Falling to his knees before her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his face into her stomach. When he inhaled a shuddering breath, the tears she’d been fighting spilled over onto her cheeks, and she slid her hands into his hair, holding him to her.
He didn’t say he would love her forever, but she knew it by the way he brushed a reverent kiss against her belly, saw it in his trembling shoulders and felt it in the strength of his embrace.
In the end, the promise he made remained unspoken, but she heard it all the same.
***
Dear Reader,
Dangerous to Touch is my first published book, and I’m thrilled to be sharing this experience with you, my first readers! I hope you enjoy getting to know my characters as much as I enjoyed creating them.
With Sidney Morrow, I really connected to the idea of her being an outcast. I think we’ve all had trouble fitting in at some point or another, and as a rebellious, bookish adolescent, I felt especially out of place. Immersing myself in the world of romance, where I was always welcome, made for a great escape.
Here’s hoping that Dangerous to Touch provides a warm welcome and great escape for those who need it as much as I did.
Best wishes,
Jill Sorenson
JILL SORENSON
has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. In the small Kansas town where she was born, there wasn’t much else to do. She picked up her first young adult romance at age eleven and fell in love with the genre at first sight. When she discovered Silhouette Intimate Moments, she didn’t leave her room for a month.
Jill moved to San Diego and fell in love all over again, with awesome weather and year-round sunshine. She met her third great love, her husband Chris, in high school, and they married after only eight years of dating. Before becoming a full-time mom and a part-time romance novelist, Jill held down a number of odd jobs, most of which involved children and/or animals, but none of these jobs were as rewarding as writing.
Jill earned a degree in English literature and a bilingual teaching credential from California State University. Upon graduating, she promptly decided to stay home with her new baby. She started writing one day while her daughter was taking a nap and hasn’t stopped since. She is delighted to be working with Silhouette Romantic Suspense, formerly Silhouette Intimate Moments, her first crush.
***
FB2 document info
Document ID: fbd-7759a9-13a0-4843-efbe-2d82-65ad-b49223
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 08.07.2012
Created using: Fiction Book Designer software
Document authors :
Source URLs :
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/