Norah Wilson

“I wan to lie beside you and just listen to you breathe. When I've had a shitty day, I want to come home to you and lay my head in your lap and feel your hand on my face.”

“(Danni) “I was kinda busy on the way back, too,” she admitted, her face reddening.Tommy frowned. “I thought you said Dillon was passed out?”“He was, but Derek wasn’t.” She grimaced. “I guess he got a little hot and bothered by the action in the back seat and wanted a little for himself.”“Chrissakes,” exploded Ray. “Did anyone not get blown on this trip?”Danni’s gaze came up then, her eyes glinting with tears and suppressed anger. “Yeah. Those of us without dicks.”

“Her tongue was in his mouth, and oh, Jesus, God, she tasted good. Like coffee and brandy and woman. Any thought of resistance fled.She kissed him endlessly, again and again and again, like she was starving. Like she might never get enough. Like she could eat him alive. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever known.”

“Her lips parted on a shocked gasp, and he took full advantage, sweeping into her mouth. She tasted of surprise and cinnamon and an unexpected innocence, which took the edge off his anger, but did nothing to dull the keenness of his intent. He grasped her face, tilting it for better access to her mouth, and proceeded to kiss her with deliberate, frank eroticism. No gentle request, no teasing enticement, no sweet cling of lips. Just pure, driving sexual demand.”

“Then, suddenly, she was convulsing around him, shimmering, flying apart. Seconds later, he followed, his own release ripping the lid right off his world.Slowly, like a feather on the breeze, he felt his spirit lilt back and forth until finally it settled to earth again.Incredible. He’d just had the hottest sex of his life, and he’d had it with his wife of almost five years.”

“I hope you’re ready for me,” he rasped, rolling her under him, “‘cuz in about five seconds, I’m gonna be inside you.”“Ray Morgan, I was born ready for you,” she breathed against his ear, even as she guided him to her entrance.He slid home with one strong thrust. Both of them froze.”

“He caught her hand. “What do you want from me, Grace?”That was easy. “Everything.” She wanted to touch his chest, but since he held her hand prisoner, she insinuated one leg between his legs, delighting in what it did to his breathing. “I don’t want you to hold anything back. I don’t want you to be so careful with me all the time.”“Grace….”“I want you to give me as much as I can take, and then I want you to give me more.”“Like I did last night?”His voice was rough, laced with self-disgust. God help her, she’d never loved him more.”

“Hot and fierce and impossibly arousing, it was like that day in the car outside the motel. Elemental.Yes, he was angry; she could feel it in his coiled muscles, taste it in the demand of his mouth and the bite of the hand cupping her head. But it didn’t matter. Anger was honest. Anger was real. Right now, she’d take it.Ray’s hand raked up under the hem of her loose boxers to squeeze her bottom and she arched into him. Oh, yes, she’d definitely take it!”

“And heaven help him, there was that pain again, the one that pierced him to his very marrow and started all that emotion bleeding out of him.Dammit, he loved her.He’d been denying it for weeks now, but he could deny it no longer.Not the giddy drug of infatuation. Not the mind-blowing drive of unadulterated lust. Not the bone-deep need to possess.It was all of those things wrapped up together, but so much more. It was simple, really. She had somehow become all that mattered.”

“You are so beautiful,” he breathed. “Watching you come like that … feeling you come like that…. Christ, Nita, I could die happy.”She closed her eyes.“No, don’t baby. Keep your eyes open. I want you to stay with me while we kiss and whisper and f#ck.”

“I want to marry you because you’re the one, Nita. Period.” He pinned her with his gaze, fierce and outrageously blue. “I’ve never felt like this before. I want to lie beside you and just listen to you breathe. When I’ve had a shitty day, I want to come home to you and lay my head in your lap and feel your hands on my face. And when you’ve had a shitty day and it feels like one more straw is gonna break your back, I want to be there to carry the load for you. I want you to tell me your darkest fears, and be able to tell you mine.”

“Why did you call me?” he said.The question took her aback. She touched her tongue to her upper lip in a gesture she hoped would distract him. “I should think that would be obvious by now.”He smiled. “Honey, that was obvious from the first time we locked horns in the court room.”

“He pulled her into the alley between the restaurant and the art gallery next door, pushed her up against the cool brick of the building and kissed her.It was not a searching, tentative kiss. It was urgent and fiercely demanding, as were the hands that skimmed down her shoulders to her hips.”

“She kissed him back with a fervor that betrayed her anxiety, her relief. Rolling her hips, she pressed her breasts into his chest, felt the thudding of his heart against hers. God, if she could crawl into him, it might just be close enough.”

“(Aiden) “Sam, honey, I can smell your scent when you’re at the other end of your house, on a different floor. I can feel your heartbeat in my head. Your blood … it’s in me, Sam, enriched from the meals I cook for you with my own hands. Believe me, baby, I’ll know you’re there. And I will never hurt you.”

“She turned away in dismissal, only to have him grab her hand and whirl her around again. Before her startled gasp died, his mouth was on hers, his fingers buried in her hair. [...]He tasted like nothing she’d ever tasted before. Like dark fantasy. Like the sweetest temptation imaginable. And his scent! He smelled of cool night air and warm leather jacket and heated male skin.”

“(Sam) “Wait a minute … there are others like you?”He offered her his best grin, the one the ladies loved. “Honey, there’s no one like me.”

“And then — holy mother of God — he smiled at her. A knowing, toe-curling, sex-drenched smile.”

“If she could give the fiercest storm a corporeal human body, this is what it would look like. Beauty and violence, all rolled up in one gorgeous, terrible package.”

“We had fun, didn’t we?” she said, her eyes glinting. “Well, apart from the last bit.”Fun? He remembered burying himself inside her and thinking he’d finally come home. He remembered pillowing his head on her breasts and coming apart in her arms. Fun?She took a step closer, her body language shouting that she was going to lean over the bed rail and kiss him. A long, bittersweet goodbye kiss, no doubt. Jesus, he couldn’t bear it.”

“Her bathrobe came off with one sweep, exposing her silky skin, fragrant from the bath. Perfect, he marveled, even as part of him wondered when his tastes had changed so radically. Small breasts, boyishly slender hips, long, long legs.Mine! On that fierce thought, he proceeded to brand her with his mouth.”

“He gathered her carefully into his arms, tucking her head into his shoulder and aligning her frozen limbs with his. She felt stiff enough to shatter, but bit by bit, her muscles began to relax until she lay pliant against him. Pliant and sleeping. It didn’t take very long. Maybe fifteen minutes.Fifteen minutes for her to regain herself.Fifteen minutes for him to lose himself.”

“Anywhere, she thought. He could touch her anywhere with that talented mouth, those clever hands. She’d do anything as long as he didn’t stop. On a surge of raw lust, she caught his lower lip between her teeth and bit. His growl thrilled her, but then he flexed a powerful thumb against her throat.”

“When his hard hand cupped her face, an involuntary shiver raced up her spine, but she made no objection Then his lips were on hers.It wasn’t what she expected. Instead of hot demand, there was testing, tasting. He shaped her lips with his, tilting his head this way and that, as though searching for the best angle. Her heart pounding, she conceded they were all good. But she wanted more. Without thought, she opened her mouth against his.She sensed him stiffen, but instead of deepening the kiss, he started to pull back. Abandoning any pretense that she didn’t want this, hadn’t thought about it since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, she caught his head and really kissed him.”

“(Cal) “I was thinking, maybe you’d like a livelier mount, since you’re obviously a skilled rider.”She glanced at him sharply. The fact that he’d paid her a compliment sank in her consternation at the thought of a more forceful mount under her. [...]“Thank you, no. I think I’ll stick with slow and steady.”His hooded eyes suddenly took on a sleepy, sensual look. “That’s a sensible decision, ma’am. But if you should get a yen for fast and wild, just give me a shout.”

“Okay, but would you say between us we have the combined IQ of at least a garden slug?”

“The look he shot her was incredulous in the extreme. "You have a filing system for your shoes?”

“What? Have I stunned you into silence? Shocked you with myforwardness, maybe?”“Nah, I was just searching for the weather report from hell. I’m guessing it must have frozenover down there.”