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“I was terrified until you took off your sunglasses and I saw your eyes,” she said honestly.

“My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight. I wear dark sunglasses year-round.”

“You kept calling me ma’am. That was out of character with your desperado appearance.”

“My mother would be proud that her strict etiquette lessons paid off,” he said, grinning.

“And despite how dirty you were, I thought you were handsome, especially with the bandanna tied around your forehead.”

He laughed. “That wasn’t cosmetic. I did that to keep from drowning you and the baby with sweat. I was so damned scared I’d do something to injure both of you.”

“You were more gentle than any nurse or doctor could have been,” she whispered.

Placing a hand on the back of her neck, he drew her down to his waiting lips and kissed her tenderly. Again and again his lips tripped lightly over hers, stopping periodically to press more insistently before drawing away.

Then he couldn’t pull away any longer. His mouth stayed pressed against hers until their lips parted at the same moment and the ribbons of desire that had been tightly bound for the past few hours began to unfurl.

Holding her tightly, he rolled her against the back cushions, positioning himself precariously close to the edge of the sofa. Their thighs interlocked. He lifted her arm and placed it over his shoulder, giving him better access to the breast that his hand stroked through the silk blouse.

They kissed with such heat that at last they were forced to separate, breathless, hearts knocking together, laughing slightly in sheer delight of each other. Chad rained sma

ll, rapid kisses on Leigh’s cheeks, her neck, down her chest, chasing the fingers that hurriedly divested her of blouse and undergarments.

Burying his face between the deep cleavage made more pronounced by her position, he murmured, “Leigh, do you want me?”

She nodded, sighing as he planted a hot, wet kiss on the inside curve of her breast, “Yes, Chad. Yes.”

He rolled off the narrow sofa and picked her up as he had out of the back of his pickup. “Then I’m going to love you,” he said against her hair.

Plagued by a sudden rush of modesty, she buried her head against his shoulder and nodded again. He carried her down the short hallway to her bedroom. His knee made a long, deep dent in the mattress as he leaned upon it and laid her down crosswise.

He straightened and Leigh watched in fascination as he peeled off his clothes. The buttons were almost torn from his shirt as he pulled impatiently at them. Bare-chested, he danced on one foot and then the other as he tugged off his boots and socks. His jeans were lowered before Leigh could prepare herself for seeing him wearing only the brief, dark blue underwear. She caught her breath.

The small lamp beside her bed cast into sharp relief the hollows of his body and highlighted the planes. The body hair that matted his chest and dusted the rest of him glinted against the dark skin. Muscles rippled in legs and arms as he lowered himself beside her. Shirtless, his shoulders seemed broader and his chest more massive. The evidence of his sex beneath the tight briefs was awesome, and Leigh knew a moment of panic.

But his voice eliminated any hesitancy. “Leigh.” He spoke only her name, but that simple word and the manner in which he said it told her so much more. He kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue and spearing her with pleasure that shot like an arrow from the back of her throat to deep inside her.

His hand found her breast. Kneading it lovingly, he lifted it and lightly brushed the nipple with his thumb. When it stood proud and firm under his encouragement, his mouth fastened around the taut bud. Her fingers threading through his hair, she grasped his head. “Chad, Chad,” she cried, writhing against him as his mouth filled her with exquisite sensations.

“I’ll never get enough of you,” he whispered as he turned his head to give the same attention to her other breast. His hand, palm flat and fingers splayed, smoothed down her stomach. For the second time that day, he grappled with snap and zipper until they were undone. He sat up and reached down to pull off her shoes.

His permission-seeking eyes conferred with hers before he hooked his thumbs under the wool of her slacks and slid them down her legs. Now she wore only her panty hose and her lacy, yellow panties.

“Ohhhh.” She covered her face with her hands. “The women in the movies always have on satin garter belts and black stockings.”

“Do you hear me complaining?” he asked on a soft chuckle as he peeled the panty hose off her legs. His eyes made a leisurely tour of her near-nakedness before he lay down again close beside her and drew her to him with a proprietary arm around her waist. “I never saw anyone—in the movies or not—who could hold a candle to you. You have a beautiful body, Leigh. I thought new mothers were supposed to have saggy breasts and flabby stomachs with unsightly stretch marks.”

He kissed her long and thoroughly, then continued as though he hadn’t been deterred. “Your breasts are wonderfully firm.” To prove his point, his finger tantalizingly circled one nipple until it puckered in response. “And you don’t have any stretch marks,” he murmured against the aroused nipple and flicked it with his tongue. “You’re gorgeous all over.”

His hand slid beneath the lacy panties to cup her tenderly. A small groan purred from her throat. He settled against her with his arousal juxtaposed against her thigh. Restlessly she moved closer.

“I’ll do the honors,” he whispered as he eased the panties down her legs. He lifted himself over her and cradled one of her thighs between the two of his. The hair-roughened skin teased and tickled her silkiness.

“Kiss me, Leigh.”

She required no second invitation. Her lips were eager for his. Seeking the taste of him, her tongue darted unself-consciously past his lips. Her hands gloried in the hard, broad expanse of his back. She wrapped her arms around his waist and moved against him.

He tore his mouth away from her lips, only to scorch her stomach and abdomen with ravenous, primitive kisses. One bold hand stroked up her thigh. She held her legs protectively together for only a heartbeat before she relaxed against his coaxing fingers.


Tags: Sandra Brown Romance