Free And Able by Lucy Monroe Page A

heartbeat recordings played to calm crying babies. She’d read about it on the Internet and then listened to the wave files that accompanied the article. She had easily understood why the sound soothed babies. It was nice. Comforting.
    So was the warmth against her cheek and sense of security she felt, from being held.
    Oh, gosh, she was being held . That heartbeat was Hotwire’s and he was underneath her, just like earlier. How had she gotten here?
    Had she rolled over on top of him? She couldn’t see him pulling her into his arms, but then she would never have imagined him touching her the way he had before she slept, either. And not expecting recompense in her body. Men just were not that generous.
    But he had been.
    He had asked if he could give her pleasure to take away the pain. She’d agreed, but been totally unprepared for what he meant by pleasure. She’d never experienced anything like it, which was not so surprising. She’d be willing to bet few women had, but she’d never read about anything like it, either. And she read a lot.
    It had worked, too. The dull ache in her head was now nothing like the sharp, slicing pain she’d experienced earlier.
    But that still didn’t explain how she had ended up on top of him. She’d been a light sleeper for as long as she could remember. Claire simply could not see how Hotwire could have pulled her into his arms or how she could have rolled on top of him without her waking up.
    Not only had she slept very soundly, but she had slept for   hours . She could see the bedside clock from where she lay on top of Hotwire. Unbelievably, it was just a little after five   A.M . And other than the almost negligible throb of pain in the back of her head, she felt great.
    Ready for anything. If normal sex did this for a person, celibacy would be just a word, not her way of life by choice. What if sex with Hotwire was that good?
    It was an interesting thought, but not one she wanted to explore at the moment. Even if maybe he was a guy who could make her feel things she had thought were pure fantasy before last night. He was still totally commitment-phobic.
    The thought of trusting someone intimately who didn’t do the “C” word was just plain stupid.
    “You awake, Claire?”
    “Yes.”
    “I thought so.”
    “How did you know?” She hadn’t moved.
    “You’re tense and your breathing changed.”
    “Oh.”
    “You’re on top of me again.”
    “I noticed.”
    “It’s starting to become a habit.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Why? Did I say I didn’t like it?”
    “It can’t be comfortable to sleep with a woman draped across you like a dead weight.”
    “Comfortable? No, I wouldn’t call the way I feel right now comfortable…”
    She tried to move, but the arms he had wrapped around her tightened.
    “Hotwire?”
    “Uncomfortable isn’t the same as unpleasant. In fact, there are times I find it distinctly pleasurable to be uncomfortable.”
    She shifted, trying to move, and felt an unfamiliar hardness against her thigh. She stilled, shocked by the heat pulsing off of it and awed by its dimensions. Those dimensions were all too evident to her, because there was nothing between her thigh and his erection.
    “You’re naked,” she gasped.

Chapter 6
    “I   always sleep in the buff.”
    “You were wearing jockey shorts before.”
    “A concession to your modesty.”
    She leaned up, propping her hands on his hard chest and doing her best to look into his eyes. However, he was little more than a vague shape in the darkness, though she could certainly feel him.
    She was careful not to move her lower body against the blatant evidence of his arousal. “You don’t think I’m modest anymore because I let you touch me yesterday?”
    It was a logical conclusion, but she didn’t like it.
    “Does my nudity offend you?” he asked instead of answering her.
    Did it? His nakedness titillated her. It intrigued her. It even scared her a little because it made her feel stuff