by Sharon Swan
That did it. His temper, fueled by sheer male frustration that was soaring to new heights with every breath he took, got the better of him. A few swift strides put him at the foot of the chair. With no hesitation, he reached down, picked Amanda up, blanket and all, and started across the room.
“What in the world are you—” she started to say.
Before she could finish, he dumped her in the middle of the bed. He wanted to roar out his next words. Instead, mindful of the fact that the side door to Betsy’s room was open a crack, he settled for leaning in and saying them far too softly. “You’re sleeping here. Live with it.”
She stared up at him, her brown eyes as round as he’d ever seen them and her mouth gaping open. Finally she swallowed and regained her voice. “I think you’ve lost your mind,” she told him, quietly yet in no uncertain terms.
He straightened and lifted a hand to rake it through his hair. “You could be right. The ways things are going, I may be an out-and-out basket case by morning.”
She shoved aside the blanket, revealing the same casual top and pants she’d had on earlier. No clinging robe tonight. Dev might have been grateful—if it had made any difference, if it had made her look less desirable, if had helped ease the tension tying his gut in knots. But only one thing would help, he knew.
Slowly, inch by inch, she sat up, her gaze never wavering from his. “I don’t suppose you’d care to give me a clue as to why you’re acting like this?”
There was just enough haughtiness in her tone to have his temper taking another hike. “I’ll give you more than a clue,” he said, beyond the point of beating around the bush. Again he leaned in, only this time he braced a knee on the side of the mattress and lowered his head until they were nose-to-nose.
“I want you,” he told her in a rough whisper. “I want you now and I want you badly—so badly I ache all over.”
Again she stared at him, as still as a statue, and then at last she whispered in return. “The last time…” She paused. “You agreed it was a bad idea.”
“Maybe it was. Maybe it is. But it damn sure doesn’t seem that way at the moment. It just seems…right.”
As close as they were, he couldn’t help but hear how her quiet breaths picked up a pace, couldn’t help but see the beginnings of a soft flush forming on her cheeks, couldn’t help but start to wonder if he wasn’t the only one who sensed the powerful attraction ripe in the air between them. And he couldn’t help but hope he wouldn’t turn out to be dead wrong if he put that theory to the test. But, regardless of the consequences, he had to know.
“I want you,” he said yet again. “And now the question is, do you want me?”
One second stretched to five, then ten, before she released a lengthy sigh and issued short one word that wiped out all traces of his temper even as it sent his blood racing through his veins.
“Yes.”
Chapter Nine
What she had just admitted was the simple truth, Amanda recognized. A simple truth she knew could lead to a host of complications. Still, she found she had no wish to take it back, even if she could have. She hadn’t been looking for it to happen, but it had happened anyway.
She wanted him, this man who’d been blunt about his own desires and, in doing so, had made her face the fact that she had some, as well—more than enough, she’d discovered in the past few minutes, to have an inner warmth spreading from tip to toe. Only a coward would deny it, and she had never been a coward.
“Yes,” she repeated, more firmly this time. “I wouldn’t be honest with either of us if I said otherwise.”
Dev let out a lengthy breath. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that.” He reached up a hand and cupped her chin. As light as his touch was, it revealed taut traces of an underlying tension, as though he were holding himself in check. “Now if you’ll just say that you’ll let me make love to you, maybe I won’t go out of my mind, after all.”
She looked into his eyes. “You want me that much?”
“You’d better believe it,” he wasted no time in replying.
She did believe. There was no mistaking the hunger she saw in his brilliant blue gaze, and no ignoring the small, pleasurable shiver that sight sent down her spine. He wanted her. She wanted him.
But it was her choice, she knew.
She hesitated, realizing there was no going back if she did what everything female inside her urged her to do. If they became lovers, even for one night, things would change. It was only a question of how much.
Amanda ran her tongue over her lips, thinking that she might have had far less trouble resisting the chance to learn the answer if he hadn’t suggested that it all seemed right to him. Even her more cautious side couldn’t keep her from coming to the same conclusion. On that subject, she had to concede, she and Dev Devlin had somehow wound up in complete agreement.
And it was the rightness that proved to be irresistible.
“I think it would be best,” she said at last, “if we made love to each other.”
Those words were barely out when his mouth came down on hers. Before she could so much as blink, she found herself sprawled flat on the bed with the whole long length of him stretched out above her. The kiss was hard and deep and had them both gasping for air at its end.
“I’m not going to be able to take it slow,” he muttered, his voice a rough breath of sound.
She had to smile with wry humor. “I got that impression.”
He braced himself on his elbows and frowned down at her. “It’ll be better next time, I promise.”
Next time. So it wouldn’t be just once, she thought. But then, she hadn’t really expected that. “I’ll try to keep up this time,” she told him.
“Good, because I’m afraid my more demanding parts are set on breaking a few speed records.” With that frank statement, he eased himself away and sat on the edge of the mattress to pull off his boots. “I’ll have us both out of our clothes in less than a New York minute.”
He turned out to be a man of his word, sending her top and his shirt, then her pants and his jeans, flying through air to land on the floor. “I can only be damn grateful that I moved all of my stuff here,” he said.
Still wearing his dark briefs, he turned away to quickly cross the room. He crouched down to ruffle through one of the suitcases stacked against a wall. More of his belongings went flying before he found what he sought and strode back to the bed with a small bunch of foil packets in hand.
Amanda had to be grateful, as well, watching as he tossed the protection on the nightstand. She hadn’t even had time to bring up the subject. No, she’d been too busy enjoying the feel of his avid hands undressing her, and now she was flat on her back again with only her white nylon bra and panties to provide a trace of modesty.
Dev stood next to the bed and stared down, letting his gaze roam over her body, his features tight. “I’m never going to last,” he said, raising his eyes to meet hers.
That had her smiling again. She was discovering the undeniable thrill that came with the knowledge of being so badly desired. “You don’t have to last,” she replied, deciding she could be generous, “not the first time.”
And then he pulled off his briefs and her breath caught in her throat. By the time her underwear went sailing across the room to join them, she was feeling far more needy than generous, so much so that she welcomed him with open arms after he applied protection and came down on top of her again. Rather than launching another kiss, he bent his head to stroke his lips over her newly revealed breasts and, despite his hurry, lingered there long enough to have her clutching his strong shoulders as her own tension grew.
“Don’t wait any longer on my account,” she managed to get out. Her hips moved against his with a will of their own.
“I can’t wait.” With that short, gritted statement, he reached down and fitted himself to her. Then he was pressing his way inside, and she had to close her eyes as tension transformed into something else entirely in the w
ake of his swiftly established rhythm.
Pleasure, she thought, didn’t begin to describe the sensation. In fact, no word she could come up with at the moment seemed to do it justice. The only thing she knew for certain was that, whatever description would fit, she had never quite felt it before. This man, with more blunt eagerness than smoothly suave skill, was blazing a path to somewhere new, different…better.
This man. Her one-time nemesis. Her brand-new lover.
Her husband.
With his face inches above hers, Dev stared down at Amanda and clenched his teeth, calling on every scrap of control he could muster. It wasn’t much.
But he had to hang on, he told himself, sensing that the woman in his arms was close to release—the same woman who’d been a thorn in his side for so long and now held the key to paradise. For all that she’d assured him he didn’t have to wait for her—not the first time—he was set on doing his damnedest not go there without her. It was more than his ego at stake, he recognized. He’d always been a man who was mindful of his partner’s needs as well as his own. But this time it was more than that.
He simply wanted this woman with him when he soared to the heights and made a bid to touch cloud nine. This woman. His former adversary. His current bedmate.
His wife.
“We’ll reach the end of this road together,” he told her, his husky voice now a near growl.
He knew he was risking losing it himself, but he stepped up the already rapid pace anyway, taking it to the limit in a matter of seconds. “Just let yourself go. Just—”
Suddenly her eyes flashed open and she came apart with a soft cry. In the next breath his eyes slammed shut as his own release roared through him.
Yes! he thought in triumph. Yes!
Then every muscle in his body went lax and his head dropped to rest alongside Amanda’s. He buried his nose in her hair and let himself drift, content to bask in the rewards of sheer male satisfaction.
Eventually, reality returned. It was too soon to suit Dev, but he knew he had to be heavy. So, with a great deal of effort, he lifted his upper body and braced his weight on his elbows. Then he gazed down at the woman stretched out under him and grinned a slow grin.
Looking delightfully rumpled and less like a practical businessperson than he’d ever seen her, she studied him for a long moment. “You seem to be in a better mood,” she told him, keeping her voice low.
His grin grew. “You could say that. My insides are no longer tied up in knots…thanks to you.”
“Mmm,” was her only reply.
“Now you’re supposed to thank me,” he told her.
Again she studied him. “What makes you think thanks are in order…Mr. Macho.”
For once, the nickname didn’t rile him in the least. “I know they’re in order. And I’ll never call you Ms. Prim again, believe me.”
That won him a small smile. “Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She released a soft sigh. “Just don’t let it go to your head too much. Remember, we still have Louise to deal with in the morning, and she may not be so agreeable.”
“We’ve got hours until morning.” He lowered his head and nuzzled her cheek. “Right now, I plan to concentrate on the next time I make love to you. And then I’ll be concentrating on the time after that.”
Silence reigned for a second before she asked carefully, “How many times are you planning on?”
“As many as I can manage,” he didn’t hesitate to tell her, lifting his head. “And just so things don’t get dull, I’m figuring we need to be a little…creative.”
“Creative,” she repeated in a slow murmur, as though testing the word.
“Uh-huh. Luckily, I remember that book you were reading a while back, the one with the, uh, interesting cover. I’ve got a hunch it provided more than a few inventive ideas.”
She arched a brow. “Maybe I’ve forgotten them.”
He brought his lips to hers. “Have you?” he asked against her mouth.
“No,” she admitted after a beat.
He could have groaned in anticipation. Instead, he kissed her long and hard, and relished every minute of it. “You have made my night,” he said at last.
She drew in a lengthy breath. “Somehow I think you could have come up with several ideas of your own.”
“Do you?”
Deciding to meet the challenge, he leaned in and whispered one particular, and detailed, suggestion in her ear. He almost laughed out loud at the result it produced as she seemed to struggle to find her voice. Even when she succeeded, she only got two words out, staring straight up at him.
“Oh, my.”
Now he had to chuckle, deep in his throat. “I seem to remember another female saying that earlier this evening before I carried her upstairs.” He had no trouble recalling Louise’s startled expression. But he wasn’t thinking about her or any woman except the one he’d just made love to, he reminded himself.
Tomorrow was time enough to continue to make sure the social worker left satisfied. Tonight he was dead set on providing—and receiving—satisfaction of another sort.
AMANDA’S BRAIN was fuzzy, but her body was humming. Which was hardly surprising, she thought, after a night filled with creative activities. There was no denying that it had been an incredible experience. And an educational one, as well, at least as far as she was concerned. That was another thing she’d learned after being coaxed oh-so-ardently into passing along portions of the sexy novel she’d sampled.
Dev Devlin didn’t need a book to give him any hints on how to make love, inventively or otherwise.
“Good morning,” Louise greeted as she entered the kitchen. Once again dressed in her olive suit, she looked every inch the no-nonsense government employee.
Amanda broke another egg into a glass mixing bowl. “Good morning,” she said, summoning a polite smile. Time to start thinking clearly, she told herself, and not about last night. She had to be on her toes until Louise was safely headed back to Pine Run—and so did the man she’d left singing a hearty tune in the shower minutes earlier. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better,” was Louise’s brisk reply. “The heating pad seems to have worked.”
Amanda could have sighed in relief. “I’m so happy to hear that,” she said, and fully meant it, for more than one reason.
“Happeee!” Betsy added from her high chair, where she was already making inroads on her cereal.
The declaration had the social worker’s mouth curving. “I suppose that makes it unanimous. As much as I appreciate the hospitality, I’m glad that I’ll be able to be on my way soon.”
It couldn’t be too soon for Amanda. Still, if she wanted to pursue the role of gracious hostess, she knew she couldn’t just shoo their visitor out the door. “You’re welcome to have breakfast with us before you leave. The other children will be down in a minute. And so will my husband.”
He was probably getting dressed right now, she thought. She had to concede that it was almost a shame to see him cover up that broad chest with its dusting of crisp hair, not to mention those narrow hips, muscled thighs and long legs. She’d become well acquainted with his body during the past few hours—and he with hers. She’d certainly never considered herself femme fatale material, not with a figure far more slim than curvy, but that hadn’t seemed to matter. Not to the skillful lover who’d eagerly touched and tasted her. Again and again. All…night…long.
“Thank you,” Louise said. “I believe I’ll accept that invitation.”
Amanda blinked. What invitation? she nearly asked before her more rational parts—not the parts that continued to hum from those nocturnal activities—reminded her that she’d offered food. She cleared her throat. “Wonderful. Please have a seat.”
Moving with quick efficiency, Louise stepped over to the breakfast area and pulled out a chair next to Betsy. Another round of “good mornings” followed as the rest of the Bradley bunch filed in a second lat
er, Rufus stalking along behind them with a powerful feline grace. Like their youngest sibling, they wore the new pajamas Amanda had helped them pick out during an earlier shopping expedition.
Contrary to her own usual morning routine, Amanda still wore her robe. On this particular day it had seemed prudent to deal with breakfast first and shower and dress later—when she’d be in no danger of being coaxed into any creative water sports by an insatiable man.
As if her thoughts had summoned him, Dev ambled in from the hall. For all that he looked comfortably laid-back in his white T-shirt and jeans, there was nothing casual about his gaze as it briefly locked on Amanda. Just as it had hours ago, a small pool of warmth spread inside her before he switched around to look at the woman seated at the table.
“How’s the back?” he asked Louise. After she assured him that she was in fine shape, he grinned a wide grin as he crossed the room to retrieve a can of coffee from the refrigerator. “Nothing like a decent night’s sleep to take the kinks out.”
Louise studied him for a moment. “You seem awfully cheerful this morning. I suppose I’d be safe in assuming you got a good night’s rest.”
“Mmm.” With that strictly neutral reply, he spooned dark, fragrant coffee into a gold mesh filter. “I didn’t even hear my wife get out of bed this morning.”
That much was true, Amanda reflected as she beat her bowl of eggs into a frothy mix. She’d gotten up and slipped out carrying a babbling Betsy while he was in the bathroom.
“She can be sneaky,” he added with a sidelong glance her way. The glint in his eyes told her that if he’d been around she’d never have made it downstairs without at least a kiss. Or several of them.
Telling herself to keep her mind on the task at hand, she walked over to the stove and poured the egg mixture into a heated skillet. Before long, eggs lightly scrambled, along with cold orange juice, thick slices of hot toast and homemade strawberry jam courtesy of Mabel, were served.