Free Letting Go by Sarah McCarty Page A

black
    speckled with shining stars and dotted with glowing
    planets. She took a deep breath of the frigid air, shivering
    as it bit into her lungs.
    A cloud wafted across the moonlit sky. She released her
    breath, watching the frozen vapor rise until it seemed to
    meld with that wispy traveler, becoming more than what it
    was, and yet stil less than it would be. For a minute more,
    she watched the cloud skate along, free and unfettered,
    and then smiled as, with absolute certainty, she knew
    everything was going to be al right. There was nothing she
    and he couldn’t do. Nothing they couldn’t accomplish. Not
    together. Together, they were like that cloud. More than
    what they had been before, yet ever growing with
    boundless potential. She just had to stop being afraid to let
    go.
    Anticipation skittered through her veins as she walked
    around the back of the car. The view here was as
    interesting as the night sky, seeing as Marc was stretched
    forward, retrieving a suitcase. The man had the body of a
    runner, roped with lean, hard muscle. She slid her hands up
    the side of his thighs, smiling as taut muscle flexed under
    her touch, gliding them up over his narrow hips, under his
    jacket, around his waist.
    He jumped at the chil of her hands and then relaxed into
    her hug, settling his palms over hers, pressing them into his
    abdomen. As always, he communicated so much with a
    touch, his thoughts as clear as if he’d spoken. She pressed
    her cheek against the smooth leather of his jacket.
    “I love you, too,” she whispered. And because she
    couldn’t resist, added, “And I swear, I’m not going to be like
    this al weekend.”
    “Sweetheart, a few nerves aren’t going to send me
    running scared.”
    “Even if I babble occasional y?”
    He turned in her arms, his hands dropping to the hol ow
    of her spine. “I’ve never seen you babble. Might be cute to
    witness.”
    She tilted her head. With a foot difference in their
    heights, she had to lean back a bit before she could see his
    expression. “Trust me, it’s not a pretty picture.”
    That half amused, half indulgent smile was stil on his
    face. His head bent. Just before his mouth met hers, he
    whispered, “I’l chance it.”
    If there was ever proof that the man got her, it was right
    there in his kiss. He didn’t just take what he wanted like she
    expected, but rather he seduced, his mouth rubbing against
    hers in a subtle coaxing that sapped the anxiety right out of
    her and replaced it with a warm wil ingness. Wil ingness to
    trust him, to do what he wanted, to be what he wanted.
    What she wanted.
    She opened her mouth and stretched up on her toes,
    accepting the thrust of his tongue, the natural dominance in
    his hold, tilting her head to give him more, letting him lead
    her past the point where caution said stop. Spreading her
    legs for the insertion of his thigh between, she checked her
    impulse to control the need to rub against him, fol owing her
    instinct and his lead rather than her head. With her next
    breath she inhaled his groan of satisfaction.
    “That’s it. Just let it happen.”
    His grip moved to her hips, lifting her up against the
    thrust of his cock, pressing down as she worked her hips in
    an effort to get closer, to his heat, his cock, to him….
    Too soon he was sliding her down his body, setting her
    feet on the ground, separating their lips.
    “Hold that thought.”
    She didn’t want to hold anything but him. The press of
    his thumb at the corner of her mouth sent a shock wave of
    need through her. Everything she ever dreaded seeing in a
    man’s eyes was there in Marc’s: amusement, satisfaction
    and, worst of al , a complacent grin that said he knew
    exactly how weak she was when it came to him. But her
    inward flinch never got a running start because there was
    no malice in that grin, just a bone deep satisfaction that
    was as arousing as it was comforting because it said more
    than anything else that at least one of them