McIver's Mission

by Brenda Harlen

  She hadn't realized how important it was to her to feel that she had some control over the situation, but Shaun had. It worried her, if she thought about it, how well he knew her already, how much he could see inside her. And it liberated her, to know that he understood her.

  "I want you, Shaun. I want to make love with you," she told him.

  His breath caught and his eyes darkened perceptibly, but he stepped back, away from her. He cleared his throat. "I'm trying to show some restraint here. I thought you might at least want to take a walk into the village or explore the hotel."

  His procrastination, his uncertainty, empowered her. "It's too late for a walk or a tour," she said. "And I think you've been restrained long enough."

  She began unfastening the long row of buttons down the front of her jacket. The last of her doubts were cast aside by the flare of hunger in his eyes. He wanted her, hopefully as much as she wanted him.

  He put his hands over hers, halting their progress. "Are you sure?"

  She nodded. There was no hesitation in her response, none in her heart. "Yes."

  He linked his fingers with hers, pulled her hands down by her sides. "Let me," he whispered the words against her lips. "I've been dreaming about this for a long time."

  Me, too, she admitted to herself as his lips plundered hers again. There was more than a hint of passion in his kiss now, no evidence of his earlier restraint.

  He slipped the jacket from her shoulders, tossed it carelessly onto the sofa, then moved on to her blouse. The back of his knuckles brushed against her skin as he worked his way down the front, and she shivered. He pushed the garment down, used the sleeves to pin her arms at her sides. His mouth left hers, skimmed down the column of her throat, lower to the curve of her breast. His tongue trailed along the edge of her bra, his breath warm and moist on her skin.

  All her concerns about her lack of appropriate lingerie were forgotten as he closed his mouth over one cotton-covered breast.

  She gasped as his teeth grazed the pebbled nipple, the pleasure arrowing so sharp and deep inside her it was almost painful. She hadn't even been aware of him unfastening the clasp at the back of her bra until he nudged it aside and continued the exquisite torture of her breast without the fabric barrier. His mouth was hot and hungry, fueling a matching hunger inside her.

  Arden tugged at his tie, fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. She pushed it off his shoulders, needing to put her hands on his skin, to feel his flesh beneath her fingertips.

  She hadn't realized he'd unfastened her skirt until she felt his hands work it over her hips. Of course, his lips were still doing wonderful things to her breasts, so it was a wonder she was cognizant of anything else. He quickly stripped away her underwear, leaving her naked before him.

  "You are so beautiful." His words were little more than a breathless whisper, and Arden felt the last of the barriers around her heart begin to crumble. It wasn't just the words—she'd heard them before—but the way he said them. She knew he meant them and that made her feel beautiful.

  Then he lifted her off her feet and carried her into the closest bedroom. He laid her down on top of the covers, then stood beside her, just staring down at her. She didn't feel at all self-conscious. She felt wanted. And she wanted in return.

  She raised her arms to him in silent invitation. He paused only long enough to strip off the rest of his own clothes before lowering himself onto the bed beside her. She turned to him, met his mouth with her own as her hands moved over him, eager and searching, reaching for the evidence of his desire, wanting to give him even a fraction of the pleasure he'd already given her.

  She wrapped her hand around the hard length of his shaft, heard the groan rumble deep in his throat. Smiling, she stroked her hand downward, then up again. He grasped her wrist in his fingers, raised her hand up over her head and held it there.

  "I want to touch you," she told him.

  "Honey, if you keep touching me like that, it's going to be all over before we get started," he warned.

  Any response she might have made was lost when he slid down her body. The friction of his skin on hers caused all kinds of sensations to run rampant through her system. Everything was so sharp and close and she felt an incredible pressure starting to build inside her, coiling low and tight in her belly. His hands were on her breasts again, his thumbs rasping over her peaked nipples, as he trailed hot, hungry kisses down to her navel, then lower still.

  She screamed out as his tongue delved inside her, her hips arching off the bed instinctively as the first climax ripped through her. She hadn't been prepared for the intensity of the explosion, the aftershocks that rippled through her body. She'd never experienced anything like it before, wasn't sure she'd live through it. She was certain she couldn't survive a second time.

  But Shaun had other ideas. He waited until her shudders subsided, then he drove her up again. She wanted to protest, to beg him to stop, but she could hardly even breathe, never mind speak. And she was rushing toward that peak again, and she didn't want him to stop.

  She was gasping, her body quivering, when he finally covered himself with a condom and slipped inside her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, clinging to him, drawing him deeper inside.

  Then he began to move. Slow, steady strokes that seemed to touch the very center of her being, driving her again to the edge of that desperate, greedy pleasure. She matched his rhythm, their bodies moving in tandem, their hearts beating as one, until they finally leaped over the edge together.

  Afterward, as Arden lay quietly in his arms, Shaun was stunned, overwhelmed, by the emotions that coursed through him. None of his fantasies had prepared him for the reality of making love with Arden. Nothing had prepared him for an experience that was as satisfying emotionally as it had been physically. It was so much more than the culmination of desire. It was a life-altering experience. He stroked a hand down her back, tracing along her spine. He loved to touch her, the feel of her warm, silky skin beneath his hands, the passion of her responses.

  "Thank you," she murmured sleepily.

  He lifted his head to look down at her. Her eyes were closed, her lips curved in a satisfied smile. And he wanted her all over again.

  "What are you thanking me for?"

  "For showing me how incredible making love could be."

  Her words stunned him, humbled him. He hadn't shown her anything. It was she who had opened him up to a whole new experience.

  "I've never felt so…" Her words trailed off, her eyelids flickered open. "I've never felt like that before. I didn't believe it was possible."

  "Are you telling me…" He hesitated, looking for the right words to phrase the question, failing.

  "I've never had an orgasm before," Arden admitted. She glanced away, her cheeks flushing.

  Never? He was speechless.

  "I never understood what the big deal was … about sex." Her eyes were soft, her smile warm, as she looked up at him again. "Now I know."

  "I never understood the difference between having sex and making love," he told her, meaning it. "Now I know."

  Her smile widened. "That's a really sweet thing to say."

  He winced. "It's not sweet, it's true."

  "I'm glad. I wasn't sure if—" she blew out an impatient breath "—I didn't want you to be disappointed."

  "I'm not disappointed," he told her.

  "Good."

  She took another condom from the box he'd left on the bedside table and removed the wrapper. He was almost embarrassed by the enthusiasm with which his manhood stood up again to be sheathed. She rolled the condom onto his erection, and his eyes practically rolled back into his head.

  "I am sorry that I didn't take my time with you," he said, trying to focus on conversation rather than the impatient demands of his body. "I wanted to give you romance and seduction."

  He pulled her on top of him, kissed her slowly, thoroughly.

  "You can make it up to me later," she said, pulling her knees up so
that she was straddling him. She rocked forward slightly and took him inside her in one long, deep thrust.

  Now his eyes did roll back in his head. Heaven help him, he thought, if she ever figured out the power she had over him. Then she was moving her hips, and he wasn't thinking at all.

  * * *

  Arden woke early Sunday morning, but she wasn't in a hurry to get out of bed. She felt comfortable with Shaun, more so than she would have expected. She'd always been a little self-conscious about her body, more than a little uncomfortable with her own nakedness. Not with Shaun. During the past thirty-six hours he'd touched every inch of her bare skin with his hands, caressed every curve and angle with his lips, and loved her body with his own.

  He'd taught her so much in such a short period of time about the giving and receiving of pleasure, and she knew that, regardless of whatever else might happen between them, she'd always be grateful to him for that.

  A low murmur of pleasure hummed in her throat as his hand skimmed over her hip to cup her breast.

  "You are awake." His voice was still rough with sleep, his breath warm on her ear.

  "Mmm-hmm." But she closed her eyes again as his thumb brushed over the tingling peak of her nipple. She felt the familiar tension already beginning to build deep in her belly, the aching warmth spread between her legs.

  "Good." He rolled her onto her back and levered himself over top of her, the hard length of his shaft pressing against her leg.

  She shifted to position him more firmly between her thighs, her hips arching instinctively off the mattress, her body seeking the fulfillment of his.

  "Not yet," he said. He combed his fingers through her hair and touched his mouth to hers. A teasing caress more than a kiss. Gentle, fleeting. Then his lips skimmed over her cheek, nibbled down the column of her throat. His hands moved over her skin softly, slowly.

  Arden thought she knew by now what it was like to make love with Shaun. She was wrong. Everything was different this time. The very air she breathed seemed richer, intoxicatingly sweet. Every moment stretched into an eternity, drawing her inexorably deeper into a swirling vortex of building desire. Each kiss was agonizingly tender, every touch gloriously gentle.

  When he finally sheathed himself in a condom and slipped between her thighs, filling her, fulfilling her, nothing else in the world mattered.

  He kissed her again. "I don't ever want to leave here."

  "We have to," Arden said, with more than a little regret. She glanced over at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock on the bedside table. "Very soon, in fact. We have less than an hour before checkout."

  "It would be worth paying for an extra day to hold you in my arms just a little while longer."

  Arden's heart sighed. Gorgeous, sexy, and charming. "You could come back to my place and hold me for free."

  She hadn't intended to issue such an invitation. She didn't want to assume anything beyond the right now; she didn't want to think about what would happen when they had to return to the real world.

  "Or you could come home with me," Shaun countered. "I have a king-size bed."

  "How do you know I don't?" Arden demanded, both pleased and relieved by the reciprocal invitation.

  "You're a very practical woman, and a king-size bed is impractical for a woman sleeping alone. Besides, I peeked into your bedroom while you were packing."

  "Practical," she echoed. "As in boring?"

  Shaun smiled. "No. One thing you're not is boring." He nuzzled her throat. "What do you say, Doherty? Will you come home with me?"

  Arden hesitated, not because she didn't want to, but because she did. Maybe too much.

  "Please," he said.

  "Okay."

  * * *

  A short while later he pulled into the driveway beside the two-story Georgian-style house that was his home. It wasn't the first time Arden had been there. In fact, she'd attended a barbecue at his house a few months earlier, but that was with Nikki and Colin. This time it was just her and Shaun, and she was nervous. Terrified, even. Not of what would happen when she walked through the door with him, but of what had already happened.

  How could she keep sharing her body with this incredible man and expect to keep her heart intact?

  Then he pulled her into the house and closed the door behind them. Arden met him eagerly, lips meshed, bodies aligned. He backed her down the hallway and into the kitchen, then lifted her onto the table. She wrapped her legs around him, drawing him closer to the heat pulsing inside her. He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, then his tongue soothed the gentle ache, slipped between her parted lips. Arden sighed, leaning into him, losing herself in his kiss.

  She felt his hands at the front of her blouse, slipping the buttons free. His movements were steady, quick, determined. Then the garment was gone, and his hand covered her breast through the thin fabric of her bra. She gasped as his thumb moved over the already taut peak, enticing, teasing. She felt her blood heat, pulse, and she went to work tugging his shirt out of his jeans.

  His lips skimmed along her jaw, down the column of her throat, and she shivered with anticipation. His mouth moved lower, over the curve of her breast, to fasten over the straining nipple. "I seem to recall you promising me a king-size bed," Arden managed to get the words out between gasps and moans.

  "In a minute," he promised, pushing her skirt up over her thighs.

  Just as the doorbell chimed.

  Shaun hesitated, swore under his breath, then lifted Arden into his arms and moved decisively to the stairs.

  "I'm not answering that," he said, when the bell chimed again.

  "It might be important," Arden said.

  "Not as important as getting you upstairs," Shaun told her.

  Arden smiled. "Go to the door to get rid of your visitor, then we can go upstairs."

  He set her feet back on the ground, pressed a brief but firm kiss on her already swollen lips. "Don't move."

  "I'm not going anywhere," she assured him.

  He pulled open the door, his most ominous glare in place. He didn't want to give his uninvited visitor any hope that he was in the mood for company. The only person he wanted to be with right now was Arden, naked and sweaty. He swore again when he found his brother on the doorstep. "Don't you have a wife to go home to?" Shaun asked testily.

  Colin didn't wait for an invitation but pushed past his brother and into the house. "She's having some kind of candle party tonight—told me not to rush home."

  "Well, find somewhere else to hang out," Shaun advised. "I'm busy."

  "Busy?" Colin's confusion edged away as he smiled in understanding. "Hot date?"

  Before Shaun could confirm, as he intended to do in order to speed his brother out the door, Arden stepped into the kitchen. The buttons on her blouse had been refastened, the hem tucked back into her skirt, but her lips were bare, swollen from his kisses, and her hair sexily disheveled.

  She looked as if she'd just rolled out of bed, and he couldn't wait to roll her into his. It didn't matter that they'd already made love more than half a dozen times this weekend, he wanted her again, wanted her with an intensity that shook him to the very core.

  "Just me," Arden told Colin, forcing a smile.

  "Arden." Colin looked from his wife's cousin to his brother, and back again.

  "Shaun, um, offered to lend me some research … for a case I'm working on."

  The words spilled out of Arden's mouth in a rush, and with them came a stab of pain, quick and unexpected. He hadn't realized it would be so easy, so effortless, for her to hurt him.

  He knew that she was reluctant to let Nikki and Colin know they were involved, and he thought he understood. But he also thought if she was willing to take their relationship to the next level, she'd be willing to admit to others that they were a couple. Obviously, he'd been wrong.

  Arden turned back to him, but she wouldn't quite meet his eyes. "If you can't find the book, maybe it's at your office. I'll give you a call on Monday and pick it
up there."

  Hurt turned to anger, began to churn hot inside him. "Fine," he agreed abruptly.

  She grabbed her purse from where she'd dropped it on the counter, just minutes before she'd ended up panting and breathless beneath him on the kitchen table, her blouse open, her skirt up around her hips. Now she was acting as if none of that had meant anything, as if the weekend hadn't meant anything.

  She pulled her keys out of the little purse, then realized she was stranded. "If I could just borrow your phone, to call a cab."

  "That's not necessary," Shaun said tightly. "I'll take you home."

  She shook her head, almost desperately, he thought. "It's out of your way."

  "It's not out of mine," Colin said, a slight edge to his voice as he glanced accusingly at his brother.

  "I thought you wanted to visit with Shaun."

  Colin shrugged. "He doesn't seem very sociable tonight."

  Shaun could tell his brother knew exactly what he'd interrupted, and that he wasn't the least bit sorry. He wasn't sure who he should be angrier with—Colin for bad timing, or Arden for her complete about-face. He'd never known a woman who ran hot and cold the way she did. If she didn't know what she wanted, that was her problem. There were plenty of other women in this town.

  The thought was hardly reassuring. He only wanted Arden. And that was his problem.

  Arden cast a quick, hesitant glance in his direction before turning to Colin. "I'd appreciate the ride home, if you're sure you don't mind."

  "Of course not." Colin nodded at him. "I'll talk to you later."

  Shaun didn't bother to respond; Arden didn't even say goodbye.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  « ^ »

  Arden was more than a little distracted Monday morning. She went through the motions of meeting with her clients, asked all the right questions more out of habit than concentration. She knew she had to see Shaun, had to explain what had happened last night. He'd been angry when she'd left with Colin, and she didn't blame him. One minute they'd been engaged in the most intimate act of a man and a woman, and the next she'd bailed on him.