Free Sweet as Sin by Inez Kelley Page B

cream lingered on his jawline as she nibbled to his ear. Her path was cut short when he rolled and pinched her aching tip.
    She hissed in pleasure. She felt him thicken under her thighs. She was too weak for this temptation.
    “You feel so good, Livvy. And you always
    taste like sugar. So sweet.”
    She stilled the fingers at her breast. “Murphy, stop. We can’t.”
    “We could,” he tempted, nuzzling her cheek.
    “We’re not.” Rather than pull away, she circled his shoulders with her arms and buried her face in his neck. John wrapped his arms tighter and held her. She swallowed her own desperate appetite.
    As he relaxed under her, she melted into his frame.
    She laid her head on his shoulder and breathed in the soft fragrance of soap and spice. One finger ran up and down her arm, the slow trek seeming to hypnotize him.
    “I’m tired.”
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    “I bet. Why don’t you go on to bed? I’ll clean this up then I’m headed there myself. Morning comes too early.”
    His eyes lifted and locked with hers. The embrace shifted from easing lust to comfort to something deeper, something fragile and sacred.
    She pulled back and searched his face for a change, an explanation of the magic he’d spun from air. All she saw was the blue of his eyes as they worshipped her with a reverence she had yet to earn.
    Something lurked in his exhausted gaze, a need, a question she couldn’t fathom. Livvy got the strongest sense he was afraid and clinging to her like a child’s security blanket. She quirked one brow, inviting his words. He dipped his head until he could press his cheek to her shoulder.
    “Will you sleep with me, Livvy? Just sleep? I promise I’ll behave.”
    His words turned her stomach to warm
    pudding. He craved her touch, not her flesh. She wasn’t lusted for, just cherished and needed. Her throat choked with a tenderness no words would form. She walked shaky fingers through his hair and down his cheek before she nodded.
    Shutters dropped over his eyes but not before Livvy glimpsed the unspoken gratitude. He’d thought she might refuse him. Somehow, his plea Inez Kelley
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    now meant more, as if she’d honored him with her presence. He humbled her.
    She held him close a long minute before they rose and went to bed, the dishes still on the table.
    She slipped into his bathroom, reemerging to find him straightening the rumpled blankets. The alarm clock on the left told her John’s preferred side of the bed and she went to the right. She crawled in and rolled to face the wall as he took his turn in the bathroom. He didn’t speak when he returned, flipped off the lamp and slid beside her. His arm curled around her hip. Within minutes of crawling beneath the sheets, his breathing leveled into a deep rhythm but he never released her.
    The tiny hairs on his arm tickled her fingertips in the dark. It had been so long since she’d slept beside a man, she marveled her nerves weren’t twanging. But John kept his promise and hadn’t pushed once they lay down. This simply felt right, being here in his arms while the hushed night surrounded them.
    Sleep came slowly. Just as the softened edges touched her, John jerked. A stuttered catch to his breathing opened her eyes and Livvy looked over her shoulder. A deep line sliced into his brow as his eyelids pinched tight, his lips moving in muttered syllables.
    “Murphy?” She rolled to face him. The garbled whisper was beyond her comprehension but the 92
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    emotion came through clearly. John’s nightmare reduced his voice to a frightened child. His knees drew up between them, and his shoulders hunched, rounding his back. The position chilled her.
    “Shh, it’s okay. It’s just a dream.” Shushing him with gentle words, her hand landed on his cheek. He shied away from her touch, curling tighter into himself. He trembled, fine shivers that racked his entire body.
    “Hurts,” he mumbled.
    “What hurts, Murphy?”
    “Stop, please.”
    “It’s