This was different. As if recognizing this was their last time together, he made love to her with his eyes first and then his hands. Languid sweeps of his lips across her skin soothed her soul and set her skin aflame. Words of appreciation and praise poured over her while his fingers reverently grazed the lines of her body.
By the time he slipped on a condom and settled between her thighs, Brooke wasn’t sure where she ended and he began. He moved slowly into her, easing in just the head of his erection, giving her time she didn’t need to adjust to him.
Tipping her hips as he began his second thrust, she ensured that his forward progress didn’t end until he was fully seated inside her. He groaned and buried his face in her neck. She dug her fingernails into his back, reveling in the fullness of his possession. For a long moment neither of them moved. Brooke filled her lungs with the spicy tang of his aftershave and the musk of their lovemaking. She closed her eyes to memorize the feel of his powerful body as he began moving.
Measured and deliberate, Nic rocked against her, thrusting in and out while pleasure built. He kissed her hard, his tongue plunging to tangle with hers. Their hips came together with increased urgency. Brooke let her teeth glide along Nic’s neck. He bucked hard against her when she nipped at his skin. The thrust rapped her womb where their child grew and sent her spiraling toward climax. She must have clenched around him because suddenly Nic picked up the pace. Together they climbed, hands pleasuring, bodies striving for closeness. Brooke came first, Nic’s name on her lips. He drove into her more urgently and reached orgasm moments later.
His strong body shook with the intensity of his release and a hoarse cry spilled out of him. What followed was the deepest, most emotionally charged kiss he’d ever given her. Brooke clung to him while her body pulsed with aftershocks and surrendered to the tempest raging in Nic. If she’d thought their lovemaking had forever branded her as his, the kiss, tender one moment, joyous the next, stole the heart right out of her body.
“Incredible.” He buried his face in her neck, his breath heavy and uneven, body limp and powerless.
Brooke wrapped her arms around his shoulders, marveling that this formidable man had been reduced to overcooked noodles in her arms. Grinning, she stroked the bumpy length of his spine and ran her nails through his hair in a soothing caress.
“Am I too heavy?” he murmured, lips moving against her shoulder as he spoke.
“A little, but I don’t want you to move just yet.” She was afraid any shift would disrupt this moment of perfect harmony.
“Good. I like it just where I am.”
They stayed that way for a long time. Legs entwined, his breath soft and steady on her neck, his fingers playing idly in her tangled curls. Brooke couldn’t recall if she’d ever enjoyed being so utterly still before. She didn’t want to talk or to think. Only to be.
But as with all things, change is inevitable. Nic heaved a mighty sigh and rolled away from her to dispose of the condom and pull a sheet over their cooling bodies. The breeze had shifted direction and the air that had seemed dense and sultry an hour earlier was swept away.
With her head pillowed on his shoulder and Nic’s fingers absently gliding across the small of her back, the lethargy she’d experienced earlier didn’t return.
“I can feel you thinking,” Nic said, his eyes closed, a half smile curving his lips.
“That’s illogical.”
His chest moved up and down with his sigh. “If I was in a logical frame of mind, I wouldn’t be lying naked with you in my arms.”
“I suppose not.”
“What’s on your mind?”
Not wanting to share her true thoughts, she said the first thing that popped into her head. “If you must know I was thinking about getting a cat when I get home.”
“Really?” He sounded genuinely surprised. “I thought Glen said you guys grew up with dogs.”
“We did, but dogs are so needy and some of my days can go really long with classes and office hours. I think a cat would be a wiser choice.”
“I like cats.”
“You do?” She couldn’t imagine Nic owning anything that needed regular feeding or care. “Wouldn’t a snake be a more suitable pet for you?”
“A snake?”
“Sure, something you only had to feed once a week.” She chuckled when he growled at her.
“No snakes.” He yawned. “A cat. Definitely.”
Brooke could tell by the sleepiness of his voice that she was losing him. “But a cat is going to jump on your worktable and knock things off. It’s going to wake you in the middle of the night wanting to be petted and yowling at you for attention. They ignore you when you give them commands and never come when they’re called.”