by Cat Schield
Letting her long wool coat slide off her shoulders, she cast it onto a nearby chair and took a step toward him. That was all the encouragement he needed to move into her space. She shivered as he gripped her chin and tilted her head so he could study her expression. Hunger tightened in his gut at the longing in her eyes. His heartbeat was a booming gong that sent shock waves reverberating through him.
“I enjoy being with you,” he murmured. Consumed by wonder, he sifted his fingers through her silky brown locks. “From the start there’s been something between us.”
“I feel it too,” she whispered. “The apartment search was an excuse to spend time with you.”
With a low growl, Oliver pulled her into his arms. As her closeness warmed his whole body, he found sanity slipping from his grasp. Poised as they were on the verge of taking things to the next level, he was wary of pushing too hard, too fast. He slid his palms up her back, the fuzzy sweater slipping evocatively against his skin, and cupped her face. His muscles protested as he held perfectly still and captured her gaze with his.
“Tell me,” he urged, his voice roughened with hunger as he let his lips drift from her temple to her ear, “how you want this to go.”
“I want...” The rest of her words were lost to a gasp as he brushed the tips of his fingers over her nape.
His eyelids drifted shut, hoping he could hold still until she gave him some sign. The uneven cadence of her breathing mirrored the unsettled thump of his heart as he awaited the rest of her answer. When she shuddered, he realized she was waging her own internal war. This gave him some hope. If they were on the same page on this one thing, surely they could figure out the rest. Her small hand gripped his biceps. Sparks exploded in his mind. His whole body vibrated with anticipation.
And then she whispered, “I want to be with you.”
Electricity somersaulted down his spine and sent tingling energy dancing across his skin. He leaned close enough to kiss her and paused while his fingers traced along her jawline to the elegant curve of her neck. He didn’t rush. Last time they’d come together in a frantic hurricane of demanding kisses and white-hot caresses. This time he touched her with more care, making her tremble and her chest heave with each fitful breath.
“Oliver.” She moaned his name like a plea, and there was only so much strength in his self-control. “Kiss me.”
And so he did.
* * *
Sammi swayed at the first brush of his lips against hers. The teasing, gentle stroke made her hum. That he intended to take his time with her was clear from the butterfly sweep of kisses across her eyelids and down her nose. Desire shimmered to wakefulness, flashed like lightning and filled her to bursting. She gripped him around the waist and held on as he drew her lower lip into his mouth and gently sucked. Hunger built as his tongue stroked into her mouth. Her blood raged as she clung to him, needing more.
Her lashes fluttered as his strength surrounded her. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she gloried in the erection pressing against her. He was everything she wanted, and she used her lips and hands to tell him so. The world spun around her as he nipped her throat. She moaned in frustration as his hands skimmed over her curves, the barrier of her clothes dulling the sensation of his touch. Even still, his urgency was wildly exciting. She began to writhe against him, tunneling her fingers through his wavy hair and fusing their lips together. His tongue danced with hers, plunging in and out of her mouth, a tantalizing prelude for what was to come.
She was drowning in bliss when he swept her into his arms and carried her down the hall to his bedroom. With her arms wrapped around his neck, he crossed the room in two long strides and stopped beside the bed. And stilled. Before she knew what was happening, he’d lowered her feet to the floor. A moment later he jerked his hands back and stared down at her. She grasped his arm, her nails flexing into his muscles, protesting his retreat.
As his blazing blue eyes captured her full attention, Sammi realized they hadn’t yet reached a point where it was impossible to stop. Had he come to his senses? Were they to remain platonic and avoid heartache?
“Oliver?” Her lungs seized as panic gripped her. He couldn’t stop. She needed him. Why didn’t he understand that he was everything she wanted? “What’s wrong?”
“Sammi...”
His immobility made her heart sink. Had she pushed him away once too often? Of all times for him to listen. Was he going to pick this moment to agree that sleeping together again would be a mistake?
“Damn you, Oliver Lowell,” she raged, grabbing his shirt and shaking him as concern etched his handsome features. Need sparked in her stomach, before surging downward. “Don’t you dare go all noble on me now.”
He was giving her an out. The realization made her furious. Something raw and irrational raced through her. She embraced the recklessness. If he needed her to demonstrate that she wanted him, then she’d do just that. Sammi wrestled with his T-shirt until she succeeded in stripping it over his head. They stared at each other, and the only thing breaking the silence was their panting.
“Don’t hold back,” she whispered, her cheeks on fire. “Tell me what you want to do to me.”
This seemed to be the cue he’d been waiting for, because he slid his hands beneath the hem of her sweater and skimmed it over her head. The air struck her skin and made her shiver. His eyes darkened as they trailed over the nearly transparent material.
“I want to suck on your breasts until you moan,” he said, feathering his fingertips over her bra’s delicate lace cups.
Hunger tightened her nipples to hard buds and wrenched an inarticulate sound from her throat. She caught a glimpse of an irrepressible smile as he lowered his head and drew his lips along the edge of the fabric, near her skin, but not quite touching. As frustration coiled in her belly, she reached behind her and popped the hook. When the bra loosened, he pinched the fabric between his fingers and pulled it aside, baring her to his gaze.
He licked his lips as if anticipating a tasty treat, and then his mouth was moving over her, dusting kisses over the curve of one breast and then the other, leaving her tight nipples unattended and forlorn. There was none of the promised sucking, but she did moan. And she dug her nails into his head, half-mad with wanting.
“Oliver, what are you waiting for?” She quaked as he blew on her nipple, before rolling the sensitive bud between his thumb and forefinger. “You said you wanted to...suck.”
The last word emerged as a strangled cry as he finally drew her nipple into his mouth with firm pressure. This time she wasn’t sure what sort of noise she made, but his approval hummed against her skin.
“What else?” she purred, shimmying her hips as he slid her jeans down, leaving her clad in the lacy white panties that matched her bra.
“Hell, babe.” He cupped one hand behind her head and one over her mound, applying exquisite pressure as he explored the arousal-dampened fabric. “You are so wet.”
“For you.” She murmured the words an instant before his lips found hers again.
Meanwhile, his fingers pulsed against her clit, the slow movement making her whimper as the tantalizing caress made her body burn.
“And sweet...” As he nuzzled and nibbled her neck, he kept up the knee-weakening glide of his fingers against the soaked panel of her panties. “And hot.”
Sammi fumbled with his belt, needing his skin on hers. “These must go.”
With a throaty laugh, Oliver pushed aside her hands and stripped off the rest of his clothes. She watched the process with avid delight as she backed toward the bed and settled onto the mattress. When he was naked, he stalked toward her. A primal pleasure lanced through her as he settled between her spread thighs, his heavy weight a warm blanket that made her tremble. He caught her wrists and held them above her head.
Sammi squirmed beneath him as his erection skimmed along her inner thigh. His mouth was b
ack on her breast, his hand sliding over her soft stomach.
“Oliver.”
She groaned as he dipped his fingers into the wet, swollen flesh that throbbed between her thighs. Crying out as he circled her clit before toying with her entrance, she thought she might do him harm if he didn’t...
“Ah, yes.”
They both gusted out a satisfied breath as he slid his finger into her.
“You are so sexy like this.”
She was too far gone for his words to make her self-conscious. She closed her eyes and surrendered to the pleasure building beneath his masterful touch. Each glide and sweep brought her closer. She pushed against his hand, rocking to heighten the sensations. He planted a hot, openmouthed kiss on her lips, driving his tongue into her mouth as his fingers moved faster and harder.
Sammi’s fingernails sank into his shoulder as she detonated against his hand. She bit down on his lip an instant before she came and then her mouth flew open as a cry broke from her throat, a harsh, ecstatic wrench of joy that made her laugh.
“Holy hell.” Oliver kissed her softly, grinning with delight against her lips. “You are incredible.”
“Tell me what you want to do next,” she coaxed, smiling at him in bold satisfaction.
“I want to be inside you,” he said. “To lose myself in your tight heat.”
“I’m all yours.”
With her body still shuddering with carnal aftershocks, Sammi lifted her hips and offered herself to him. His eyes softened and warmed as he acknowledged her invitation. She wanted him to understand how badly she needed him. That he was as important to her as the oxygen she breathed.
As he nipped and kissed his way along her neck, his hands gripped hers, their fingers meshing as he settled between her thighs. Captive beneath him, opened and waiting for his possession, Sammi knew no man suited her the way this one did.
“Your turn,” she murmured.
“Oh, no,” he responded. “This is our turn.”
She smiled as he pressed into her, gliding through her slick arousal, stretching and filling her. This made sense. They made sense. In this moment. In this way. They belonged together. She threw back her head and took all of him in, shocked by an intense sense of belonging.
“Oliver—” Her voice broke on his name, overwhelmed by bliss as he filled her, slowly at first, taking his time, letting her adapt to his length. “Oh...”
He thrust into her deep and slow, the delirious, steady rhythm ripping a series of impassioned moans from her chest. Lips parting, she snatched air into her lungs until his mouth covered hers. Their tongues tangled as their bodies danced. He freed her hands and cupped her butt in his palms, shifting the angle of her hips so she could take him deeper still. Just when she thought it was impossible for the sensations to sharpen, he slipped his hand between them and touched her clit.
With a breathless cry she drove her nails into his shoulders, arched her back, and let him have all of her. Pleasure built, so acute it brought tears to her eyes. She was so close to letting go, so close to flying.
“I need to see you come,” he gasped, body quaking as he kept his strokes even and let her orgasm build. “To watch you let go.”
She opened her eyes, and there was no hiding from Oliver’s hot blue gaze as her climax caught her up in a frenzy of pleasure. Lust and love collided in an incandescent explosion as Oliver and his hunger propelled her hard and fast into delirious ecstasy that tore the roof off her world and shot her straight to the stars.
In the aftermath, Sammi lay on her back, arms splayed, eyes on the ceiling as she sifted through her emotions. To her surprise she was steadier than she’d expected.
“Well, that went okay,” she said, retreating into a place of reflection.
With her pregnancy giving their connection a level of permanence she hadn’t planned for, she worried that the earth-shattering sex she was having with Oliver would leave her physically satisfied but emotionally hollow. She wasn’t sure she could embrace desire without getting caught up in the intense emotion that accompanied the pleasure.
“I think it was better than okay,” he pointed out, eyeing her. “In fact, I thought it was pretty freaking awesome.”
“Definitely okay.”
He rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand, surveying her features without rancor. Hooking his fingers over her hip, he turned her to face him. “Is there something I missed?” A cocky grin tugged at the corners of his lips. “I know a lot of guys who are clueless when a woman is faking, but I think what you had was what’s known as a screaming—”
She pressed her fingers against his lips to stop his words. “I know what I had.”
“Then why aren’t you happy?”
“Who says I’m not?” In fact, she was too overwhelmed to let it all out.
“You aren’t giving me a satisfied-woman vibe right about now.”
She didn’t like the idea that he knew what that sort of vibe looked like. But he was wrong about her. She was satisfied. Just not comfortable enough to show him how much.
“I am satisfied.” Very satisfied. In fact, she wanted to start all over again with the kissing and sex talk. And ride his big beautiful body into the wee hours.
“But...” he prompted, amusement threading his voice.
“But there’s something else going on.” She paused. “I’m not sure you’ll be happy if I voice it.”
“Let me start,” he offered. “We’re attracted to each other.”
“And we’re having a baby, so that’s complicated.”
“I don’t know what happens next,” Oliver admitted, “but I’d like to keep doing more of this while we figure it out.”
But for how long?
She smiled. “I’d like that too.”
“So, move in with me.”
As tempting as it was to believe that this was a fairy tale come true, Sammi’s instincts warned her that it was all happening too fast and for the wrong reasons. She’d promised herself that for her baby she’d make the right choices. No matter how hard those decisions were, unless she embraced her needs and stuck to her values, she’d continue to drift through life instead of being in charge.
“It’s a big step,” she murmured. And one fraught with all sorts of pitfalls. “I need a little time to think about it.”
“Okay, I get it.”
And that was that. After a casual peck on her cheek, Oliver gathered her body against his. He nuzzled his face into her neck, and before long, his breathing deepened into sleep. Snuggled against his solid frame, Sammi stared at the ceiling and, for this moment only, let herself believe this was exactly where she needed to be.
Eight
Oliver headed across the river and entered New Jersey on his way to lunch with his brother Joshua. He had a lot on his mind. Foremost was the situation with Sammi and his impending fatherhood. Parenting was a lifelong commitment of the sort he’d never contemplated making. Oliver had no illusions about himself or his character. He was a selfish bastard, far more likely to take than to give and no one’s idea of a role model.
And as if all that wouldn’t work against him, his childhood lacked the sort of touching family moments for him to draw on for inspiration. Yet he’d decided to reach out to Josh. To share his news, hoping the soul-searching that Joshua had gone through with his own paternity claim might help Oliver put his fears into perspective.
Until recently the gossipmongers had assumed Josh was the father of a four-year-old girl. DNA results and an anonymous source had pointed the finger straight at Joshua. After an extensive search for the mother and child among his former lovers, Josh denied being the child’s father, a claim that Oliver took at face value. After all, Josh had been the one who’d taken on the role of hero by stepping up and pulling the family back from the brink of ruin.
Oliver was hoping that eve
n though Josh hadn’t turned out to be the father, he could sympathize with the emotional roller coaster that Oliver was on right now. Or maybe Josh would call him out as a self-involved asshole, unfit to be a parent. And maybe that’s what Oliver was hoping to hear. Wouldn’t his brother’s criticism give him the perfect out? A sensible explanation for why he’d never push for partial custody. Sammi and the baby would be better off without him, right? She had enough drama in her life where her mother was concerned and didn’t need the added trouble of Oliver and the chaos currently barging into his world. Surely everyone would be better off if he offered only financial support.
Driving into the town of Falling Brook, Oliver was struck by a mixed bag of emotions. How many of these stately homes with their manicured lawns and luxury cars parked in their driveways concealed dysfunctional families? That everything appeared perfect didn’t mean it was. Look at all that went down with his family. From the outside looking in, no doubt everybody believed the Lowells had perfect lives. All the money they could ever spend. Attractive. Intelligent. Talented. Whatever any of them touched turned to gold. Fool’s gold, maybe. Because the entire family had been made a fool of by Vernon Lowell.
Oliver passed the local prep school, recalling the trouble he’d gotten into there and the teachers that had encouraged him. Shaped by both good and bad experiences, he’d been completely unprepared for the challenges he would face when he left.
Parking his car beside the restaurant where he’d agreed to meet Joshua, with a sick feeling in his gut that diminished his appetite, Oliver entered the building. He’d arrived before Joshua and slid into a seat near the back. A smiling waiter approached, and Oliver ordered a club soda with lime. Five minutes later, his brother wove through the restaurant, his tall, muscular frame encased in a well-tailored navy suit. Where Oliver’s appearance was rough around the edges, Joshua was impeccably groomed and elegantly stylish.
With an amiable-enough greeting, Joshua slid into a chair opposite Oliver, his hazel-green gaze fixing on the crystal tumbler the waiter had just set before his brother. Out of habit, Oliver tensed. The need to defend himself jumped to the forefront, but he remained silent even as irritation rolled through him.
