It wasn"t enough, it wasn"t nearly enough. Even as the shock waves receded, she felt fresh tremors begin to rock her. She was open, greedy, desperate to be filled.
Adam kissed his way back up her body, leaving lip prints of her own wetness on her flesh. When he kissed her lips, she tasted herself on him, then he deepened the kiss and she tasted both their flavors, mingling on her tongue and becoming something new.
When, at last, he entered her, her voice came back. Moans, cries, and even words returned as he buried himself to the hilt, his hips rocking against hers.
He raised up just enough to stare down into her eyes as he thrust. She wanted to look away; the intimacy was so intense it frightened her.
She knew in that moment that she couldn"t walk away from this and not be scarreda"couldn"t walk away from him and not be broken. Heartbreak, however, was for the morning. For now he was hers and that had to be enough.
He was moving, each slow thrust taking him impossibly deep into her body, into her heart. He reached up for her hands and twined his fingers with hers. Her legs wrapped around his as he increased the rhythm and she followed as though they were dancing to an unheard beat.
Their fingers were entwined, their gazes meshed, her legs wrapped around his, and his c.o.c.k was as deep inside her as he could thrust it, and still she felt him reaching deeper.
Connecting. Maybe the whole Elvis thing had been hokey, but she felt as married as though their union had been blessed in an ancient cathedral. They were joined in some elemental way she couldn"t have imagined existed three days ago.
She loved him.
The truth rippled through her, clenching her throat even as an o.r.g.a.s.m clenched her intimate muscles. "Ia Ia" No, she couldn"t say it, couldn"t tell him, not when they"d be parting so soon. But what she didn"t say in words, she said with every other part of her. Her blood sang with it: I love you. Her eyes telegraphed the same message. Her body drummed it against his hips. And if he understood the unspoken language of sighs, it was there on her lips.
She felt the increase of concentration in his gaze and his body, as though he"d received and understood her message, as though he were saying it right back to her with every part of him. Then his control snapped, and he jerked and shuddered inside her, which set her off again, so they cried out together, rocked by an o.r.g.a.s.m so strong she expected a tsunami to result.
He collapsed against her, damp and spent, and she stroked his hair, tears welling, while he panted against her neck.
"Want some champagne?" he said a few minutes later, when their breath was pretty much back to normal.
"Mmm. "
"We"d better eat something, too." His eyes glinted at her with s.e.xy promises. "You need to keep up your strength. "
And just like that, the desire she thought was spent spiraled up through her belly.
Gretchen awoke feeling a smile tug at her lips. A broad shaft of sunlight had her blinking and realizing they never got around to closing the curtains.
Even as she stretched, enjoying the feel of being well loved, reality hit her with a physical pain. After the greatest wedding night in history, she was getting divorced today.
She shifted, and as she did, her body brushed the warm nakedness of Adam. Love, l.u.s.t, and sadness tangled together in her throat. She watched him, still sleeping, and took the time to memorize his features. She remembered the first time she"d seen him, not long ago, but a lifetime ago if feelings could be measured like time.
She"d been right in her first a.s.sessment. He had the eyes of a poet, the nose of a fighter, and the mouth of a lover. She"d seen all those sides of him in the last few days, and so much more. He was all the heroes she hadn"t believed existed.
Odd that she"d first believed him an adulterer, for she now knew he was the rare kind of man who valued integrity above everything. Of course, his integrity almost got him killed, and her, too, but it had also caused her to fall in love with him. He was a man she could trust with her life and her heart.
But not a man who could pretend. When he loved, it would be forever, that she knew. Until that happened, no woman could claim him, any more than she could claim the gold signet ring he"d stuck on her finger as a real wedding ring.
Beneath her gaze she saw his eyes flicker and didn"t deny herself the pleasure of watching him wake.
He blinked, the gorgeous black lashes lifting like a curtain to reveal the dark blue gleam of his eyes. He blinked again, and then his gaze fell on her face and he smiled up at her. "Morning. "
Even though her heart was breaking, she couldn"t help but smile back. "Morning. "
He stretched, and she wished she could turn back the clock and start last night all over again. They"d made love until dawn, watching the sun come up from the whirlpool. And the sunrise had been spectacular. No wonder they"d slept in.
"How about breakfast in bed?"
"We don"t have time. We have to see Special Agent Wilks at noon, and before that we have to get divorced." It broke her heart to say it, but she had to let Adam know she wasn"t holding him to a promise made under duress.
He stacked his hands behind his head and regarded her. "Or we could stay married. "
"Why would we do that?" The words were shocked out of her.
"Well, let"s see." He scratched his chest and appeared to ponder. "If we skip the divorce, we"ve got time for breakfast in bed. I love you. And those nice old people bought us the wedding for a present. Seems churlish to reject it. "
Her heart was beating so hard her ribs were in danger. "What was the middle reason again?"
He grinned at her, and she wondered if there was any high like being the recipient of that grin. "I love you. I know it"s crazy. These things aren"t supposed to happen so fast, but I was in love with you before I knew it. "
Tears were welling so fast she couldn"t prevent them overflowing and spilling down her cheeks. "I love you, too. But it is crazy. Love can"t possibly work that fast. "
"We"ve already trusted each other with our lives. Isn"t that what marriage is about?" He cupped her cheek and kissed her softly. "I thought we"d have a wedding reception here at the hotel and invite the bus tour people. They"d get a kick out of that. "
"I don"t know, Ia It"s awfully sudden. "
His grin was a dare. "This is Las Vegas. Let"s take a chance. "
"Well, the wedding night was pretty spectacular," she said, laughing through her tears. "I guess I"m willing to gamble with the rest of my life. "
And she crawled on top of him and got started.
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by Nancy Warren.
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Help. She had to get help. There was a phone in her office, but she wasn"t near brave enough to hang around having a tete-a-tete with a corpse while she waited for the police. She"d run next door and get Tom Perkins. He"d know what to do.
Run being the operative word.
She took off at a sprint. She barreled through the library, rounding the corner so fast she put out a hand to hang onto an end cap and knocked Interior Decorating for Beginners, Third Edition onto the floor.
It was an indication of her level of panic that she didn"t even consider pausing to reshelve the book sprawled untidily on the floor, but kept running.
Only to smack into something warm and hard.
That grabbed her.
She screamed, horror-movie visions of psycho killers overcoming her common sense. Strong arms tightened, and she bucked and struggled wildly. Kicking, scratching, squirminga"fright lending her supernatural strength.
Her fist connected with flesh in a satisfyingly deep jab-Immediately, the arms released her. "Ow! Alex! It"s me. Duncan Forbes. Hey, what"s wrong?"
The voice. She knew the voice. As the words penetrated the veil of terror covering her senses, she stopped struggling and drew a deep breath, focusing on the strong, rugged planes of the face in front of her. She"d think about how foolish she"d acted later. For now, even a book defacer was a comforting presence in comparison to a psychotic murderer.
"He"s dead," she said in a small voice, pointing, ashamed to note that her entire arm trembled.
"Dead? Who"s dead?"
"The man. On the floor. Between Art and Home Decorating. "
Duncan Forbes didn"t look all that shocked by her explanation. He had, she realized, eyes that had seen everything, broad shoulders that encouraged a woman to lay her heada"and her problemsa"there. There was a solidness to him. If there was trouble he"d get to the bottom of it. A fight to be fought, he"d fight it. A dead man on the floor, he"d deal with it.
For a woman who already had too much weight on her own shoulders, such a man looked tempting indeed.
Duncan Forbes gave her arms a brisk rub. "You okay?"
She nodded. Liar.
"Wait here," he said and headed off to investigate. Now that Duncan Forbes was here, she didn"t feel such a strong urge to run, and she realized she couldn"t leave her post. Forcing herself to march back through the door and into the library, she walked straight to her office and phoned the sergeant.
"Tom"s across the street getting donuts," his cheerful secretary told her. "He"ll just be a minute. Want him to call you?"
"No. Ask him to come straight over. I"m closing the library so he"ll have to use his master key or knock. "
"Oh, my gosh! You didn"t close that time you had pneumonia. Were you all robbed?"
If Alex told gossipy Raenne there was a dead man in her library, the entire county would know about it long before Tom made his choice between cream-filled and sprinkles.
"No. We weren"t robbed. There"s aa situation I"d like his advice about. "
"Is there anything Ia""
G.o.d no. "No. Tell Tom to bring me over a cinnamon sugar." The very idea of a donut was enough to make her gag, but her request would squelch Reanne"s curiosity.
She locked up the library, then reluctantly went back to the dead man.
As she dragged her feet back to the spot, she braced herself to face a deceased man face down on her floor, but even so she suffered a second shock.
"What are you doing?" she shrieked.
So much for her ridiculous fantasy that a man who scribbled on library books could be counted on in an emergency. The fool had flipped the corpse onto its back.
"I was checking to make sure he was dead. "
Oh. The man had no pulse and felt like a slab of granite. That had been good enough for her. "Is he?"
Duncan Forbes glanced up. "Oh, yeah. "
Something about the way he spoke made her look at the body again, and the minute she did so she wished she hadn"t.
"Oh, G.o.d. He wasa he wasa" She slapped a hand over her mouth as nausea choked her.
Ignoring her distress, Forbes calmly completed her sentence. "Murdered. Yes. Recognize him?"
She forced herself to look at the man, really look at him. "No." She swallowed. If the stranger could be matter-of-fact, so could she. "Why would anybody murder a man inside a library? It doesn"t make sense. "
He shook his head. "n.o.body did. "
"What? You think he killed himself in here?" She glanced around. "Where"s the gun?"
"He was murdered all right. But not here. "
How did Forbes know that? Who was he anyway? Two strangers came into her library within twenty-four hours, one live and one dead. Could it be a coincidence? d.a.m.n, she wished Tom would hurry. As one of the only bachelors in town young enough to sport a good head of hair and his own teeth, Tom was popular and prey to matchmakers of every description. She supposed even getting donuts involved chit chata"especially since Val at the donut shop had a single daughter she"d been trying to fix him up with for years.
Meanwhile, Alex was stuck in here. For all she knew, the live stranger had killed the dead one. She rubbed her chilled arms. "I called the police. "
"Good. "
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She left the bar and grill thinking to search out another pay phone nearby. The rain continued to fall, and the wind was blowing it against the building fronts, leaving the narrow streets almost deserted. Earlier, when she"d arrived to get Leigh, she"d seen other women she suspected to be working the streets, too. She"d wanted to talk to them, but apparently, the weather had chased them all away.
Huddling under the faded, tattered awning of the bar, Shay folded her arms around herself and debated what to do next.
That"s when she saw him.
And once seeing him, no way could she look away.
The man, seeming oblivious to the storm, stood in front of a small, gaudy barroom on the opposite side of the street. Blinking lights surrounded him, forming a soft glow, giving him the look of a dark, too serious angel.
Despite the rain, his shoulders weren"t hunched, but were straight and wide, his posture confident, even arrogant. Long legs were fitted into snug, well worn jeans, braced apart as if preparing for battle, though Shay doubted anyone would dare to oppose him. She knew she wouldn"t.
He stood facing her, staring at her in intense concentration. Although she couldn"t see his eyes, she knew he looked directly at her, that somehow he could see her eyes. It was the oddest feeling, like comfortable familiarity, but with the excitement of the unknown.
Rain blew in her face and she remembered to close to her mouth before she drowned. As it was, steam surely rose from her head. She felt flushed from head to toe.
In an effort to see him more clearly, she wiped the rain from her cheeks and eyesa"and belatedly remembered her makeup. She probably looked a fright now, but she wouldn"t turn tail and run because of it. She wasn"t sure she could leave.
There was no sense of danger, no alarm, only a thrill of awareness that ran bone deep, leaving her breathless and edgy as she instinctively responded to it. Her emotions had been rioting since the call had come in from Leigh. She"d suffered anxiety and urgency, then anger and remorse, all powerful emotions, only now they were being transformed into something much more exhilarating.
The man took a calm, measured step toward her, then another, straight into the storm. His movements were unhurried but determined, and Shay had the feeling he didn"t want to spook her with his approach. Her stomach curled in response, her cheeks flaming. She wasn"t afraid, but then, she rarely did feel fear. Not anymore.
Once, long ago when she"d been a child, she"d lived in fear. But she"d gotten over that with a vengeance, and now she kept it at bay with bossiness and a will of iron.
At least, that"s what her parents claimed.
Shivering, Shay attempted to smooth her wind-blown hair, then walked out to meet him halfway. Leaving the scant protection of the rough-brick building, she immediately felt the rain soak through to her bones.
His step faltered as she started toward him, and when the neon lights flashed again, she finally saw his eyes. They were such a dark brown as to almost look black. They were intense and direct, scrutinizing her in a most uncomfortable way.