Her head fell back when the moist heat of his mouth lingered on the underside of her jaw. “No worries, I haven’t read one of those in ages.”
His curious gaze met hers. “Why not?”
She shrugged, prompting him to nip her shoulder with his teeth. The pleasure pain zinged along her nerves. What had he asked?
Oh right. The books. “Well, all your lessons made them pale in comparison.”
His eyes widened. “Great. That’s not helping.”
“Wait. Are you really nervous?”
“A little bit.” He ran his hands down her arms, and then entwined their fingers. “I kind of feel like this is my first time all over again.” He toyed with the rings on her left hand. “I’ve never made love to my wife before.”
Wowsers. She swallowed and freed one hand to cup his face. “Well, then we can be pseudo-virgins together.”
He raised the hand he still held to his lips and placed a searing kiss on the palm. “I like the sound of that.”
She nodded. “Now kiss me. For real.”
His lips quirked. “Yes, ma’am.” He bestowed teasing nibbles along her mouth, then sucked her lower lip between his. He nipped, then soothed the spot with his tongue before enticing her to open to him so he could slip it inside. It stroked over and around hers in a slow, erotic dance until she melted against him in a puddle of liquid nerves.
The fingers of one hand thrust into her hair, keeping her in place: her head tilted at the perfect angle to keep lips and bodies aligned. The other hand found the bow fastened from the narrow straps holding her gown up at the base of her neck.
He pulled away to look into her eyes. Love, commitment, and promise shone from his. In that moment, nervousness vanished, leaving behind the powerful urge to communicate with his soul in the most intimate way possible.
Never taking his gaze from hers, he tugged at the string. It loosened, and he let it go, allowing the satin to slither down her body and pool at her feet.
After endless heartbeats that pounded in her chest like a jackhammer breaking concrete, his glance slid from hers to sweep over her. As if he’d touched her, her breasts tingled, her stomach quivered, moist heat pooled between her thighs.
“Thank you.” The whisper was reverent.
“What for?”
“For asking me to be the one to help you with your crazy plan.”
She laughed and slid her hands beneath the fabric of his shirt at his shoulders to slide it down and off his arms. It joined her gown on the floor. She kissed the ridge of his collarbone. “Doesn’t seem so crazy now, does it?” She grazed a fingernail across his nipple.
He sucked in a breath. “Oh there’s still some crazy involved.” He walked her backwards toward the bed. “You’re still my crazy, wonderful, beautiful Chloe.” Her knees hit the edge of the mattress. He eased her down onto its soft surface. After divesting himself of his pants but leaving on his boxers, which tented out from the thrust of his arousal, he joined her.
Anticipation, like the blurred beating of a hummingbird’s wings, trembled through her. Bracing an arm on either side of her head, he lowered his chest so it met the hardened peaks of her nipples. The muscles in his jaw tautened. “I’m crazy about you.”
His kiss started as the sweet brush of his mouth, then built. When he drifted to her neck, she swallowed against the rough rasp of his tongue there. “I should thank you, too.” She squeezed her eyes shut when he dipped his head to the swell of her breast. In the darkness behind the closed lids, the scrape of stubble against the soft flesh was intensified. “For saying yes. And for getting to the final exam at last. The coursework has definitely been...stimulating.”
“So no more complaints about the syllabus?” His lips closed over the nipple.
Her mind blanked as all the nerves in her body rerouted to the spot he’d sucked into the wet heat of his mouth. When his tongue flicked back and forth in rapid bursts, her hips arched off the bed to meet the thrust of his erection. His groan vibrated against the swollen tip of her breast.
Somehow, she found her voice. “Nope. I’ve even been doing my...” His teeth grazed her nipple. “...ahhhhh, homework, you know.”
He looked up and frowned. “How exactly have you been doing homework?”
She smoothed the furrow between his brows. “I’ve been reading up. The Joy of Sex. Sex for Dummies. The Kama Sutra.”
His lips quirked. He used them to nip the plump underside of her breast before replying. “What did you think?”
“I think The Kama Sutra was a little...advanced...for me.”
He grinned. “Don’t worry. We can work our way up to it over the next fifty years.”
With the tip of his finger, he traced a circle around her nipple, then down her abdomen to her belly button. Then further.
He brushed the curls between her thighs. She jumped, but managed. “‘Bout time you made it south of the Mason-Dixon Line.” All his lessons had focused north of the border.
His sexy chuckle vibrated against her neck. “Mhn hmn. Unchartered territory.”
“Definitely.” In more ways than one.
As always, he read her mind. He raised his questioning gaze to hers. “You’ve had an orgasm before, right?”
Holy crap. Just the way he said it brought her close.
“O…of course. But I don’t need a guy for that.” Double crap. Had she just said that?
His eyes turned the turbulent blue-gray-green of a tornado-laden sky. “Do you touch yourself, Chloe?”
The gritty sandpaper tone of awe in his voice brought her closer. But the question made heat blossom in her cheeks. Which gave him his answer. He squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, she wanted to whirl in the storm with him. “I want to touch you like that.”
Even closer. If he kept talking like that, he wouldn’t have to touch her at all.
But he did. As soon as his fingers found the hard bud, she spasmed. Her legs squeezed closed, trying to hold on to the quivery sensation.
“Easy.” He stroked her inner thigh. “Open for me.”
Slowly, beneath his ministrations, the tightened muscles relaxed.
“That’s it.” He slid a finger inside her. Instinctively, she clenched it. “So tight.” He circled his thumb around the slippery, swollen bud. A fine tremor seized her. His free hand nudged her legs farther apart. He inserted another finger. Stretching her. At the same time he applied more pressure with his thumb.
The tremor turned to a shudder.
And then he gently pinched her.
A ragged cry escaped her lips as an earthquake tore through her. She broke apart. The pieces became his as she reassembled around him. Her heart. Her soul. And now her body belonged completely to him.
When the aftershocks faded, she opened her eyes to find him watching her with an expression of extreme satisfaction. Her eyes widened when he very deliberately sucked on his index finger.
“Mnn. Sweet nectar and honey.”
She didn’t even have the energy to blush.
He trailed the glistening finger between her breasts and down to her stomach. “I believe the next item on the syllabus is multiple orgasms. A unique trait of female physiology.”
Did he mean… Yep. His fingers once again parted her folds.
“Wh-what about… You. Aren’t we going to…” Like she could think, let alone speak when he touched her.
“Oh, we’ll get to that. Soon. Very soon. But first…”
Before she realized his intent, he replaced his fingers with his mouth. Her hands clenched in his hair. “J-jaso…” Triple crap, she wasn’t going to last long enough to even get his name out. He flicked his tongue over her once. And she came again.
When her eyes uncrossed and she could focus, he was grinning up at her. “Well, I think you’ve mastered that lesson.”
She smoothed a lock of hair off his forehead. “I have a very talented tutor.”
He kissed her inner thigh. “It helps to have an eager pupil. You’re a
natural.”
“Only with you.”
“Ah, Mrs. Williams. You flatter me.”
What did she like more? The light stroke of his hands over her body or the sound of her new name?
The name. Definitely the name. Proving she was his forever.
He skimmed up her stomach and cupped a breast.
On second thought, a tie. Definitely a tie.
He flicked his thumb over the nipple.
Nope. The hands. Definitely the hands. She could hardly remember her name.
“Are you ready to lose our new-found virginity together?”
“Definitely.”
He yanked off his boxers and returned to the bed. The hard steel of him brushed her over-heated skin. She shifted so he prodded between her thighs.
He closed his eyes as every muscle in his body went rigid. Then slowly, ever so slowly, inch-by-inch, he filled her. She arched her back and tilted her hips as he stretched her, not uncomfortably, but to become part of her. To complete her.
And then he stilled. He pulsed inside her. Using newly discovered muscles, she drew him even deeper. He half-moaned, half-groaned and kissed her jaw, her throat, her chest. Each touch of mouth to skin sent a ripple of undulating waves through her.
When his kiss landed on her lips, she tasted him and her. Spice and sugar. She swallowed the erotic combination. He shifted. Pulled out and thrust back in. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. The other half of herself. The half she’d needed all along even though she hadn’t understood what that really meant. Until now.
The rhythm changed. Became quicker. Harder. His harsh breath sent hot puffs against her neck. The ripples expanded. Intensified. When he drove in and ground his hips in a small circle, her back bowed off the bed, and he gently bit her nipple. The surge scattered, sending wave after wave of heat and pleasure through her.
He sank deeper and his whole body tensed as the hot rush of his release poured into her, mingling with the end of hers so there was no way to tell them apart.
She clutched at him as he jerked against her. The intensity ebbed, then faded. The tension slowly receded. His muscles relaxed. He rolled away, then lay on his back beside her. He entwined his fingers with hers while they both panted, not quite in unison, but nonetheless symbiotically, to recover their breath.
Holy. Crap.
She shouldn’t be surprised. From the beginning she’d chosen him to be her lover for this. But never in a million years had she imagined it could be so…so…overwhelming. Like willingly giving pieces of herself to him, but getting something infinitely more precious in return. His soul.
How could she? Because the romance books didn’t come close. Even the most gifted writer could never express what they shared. Mere words were insignificant.
The inches separating them on the bed were too much. She wanted to be as close to him as her soul was. She snuggled against his side. Beneath her cheek, his heart still raced.
“I knew you were lying.”
He went still. “Well,” he said finally. “Don’t go around telling everyone, ‘it would seriously devastate my reputation as a dude.’”
She propped up on one elbow. “What?” The quote she got. The context, not so much. Until his expression registered.
She smacked him on a well-defined pec. “Not that, Farmer Ted.” She rained kisses over his face. “That was amazing. Wonderful. Unbelievable. Indescribable. Nothing to worry about on that score. You more than lived up to your billing.”
He rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t mix metaphors. And there’s no need to stroke my ego. You already got in my pants.”
“It’s not your ego I want to stroke.” She slid her hand beneath the sheet.
He caught it before she got to the goods. “Stop trying to distract me. What did I lie about?”
Rats. Thwarted. “Oh. I knew you weren’t really nervous.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
“It was too perfect.”
“So, you finally got your one great night, huh?”
She kissed him again. “I got more than that.” A lover. A husband. A best friend. A soul mate. “I love you, Jason.”
“I love you too. Always and forever.”
Yep. Not one great night. Thousands.
A word about the author...
Debra St. John has been reading and writing romance since high school. She always dreamed about publishing a romance novel some day. Her dream came true when she started writing sultry contemporary romance with sexy heroes and spunky heroines for The Wild Rose Press. Although she’s a country gal at heart, she lives in a suburb of Chicago with her husband, who is her real life hero.
She is the author of The Corral Series, which includes her debut release, This Time for Always, a Champagne Rose and Rosebud bestseller at The Wild Rose Press. This Can’t Be Love and This Feels Like Home complete the series.
Her holiday stories include A Christmas to Remember, An Unexpected Blessing (Thanksgiving), and The Vampire and the Vixen for Halloween.
One Great Night, Family Secrets, and Wild Wedding Weekend complete her bookshelf.
~*~
Come visit her at:
www.debrastjohnromance.com
http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.com
http://bookbeatbabes.blogspot.com
www.authorsbymoonlight.com
Thank you for purchasing
this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
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