Free Only Forever by Linda Lael Miller Page B

make children. He’ll have to help raise them, too.”
    “Fair enough,” he replied, his voice a husky rumble low in his chest. He drew Vanessa out of her chair, and she ended up kneeling astride his lap.
    “Don’t we need to go to the store and buy milk or something?” Vanessa queried, her voice an octave higher than usual.
    The sound of Nick’s laughter seemed to brush against the hollow beneath Vanessa’s right ear. “Milk?” he echoed.
    “T-to go with the cookies.” Vanessa knew she sounded desperate.
    He chuckled and began kissing the delicate flesh of her neck. “Cravings already?” he teased.
    Vanessa wondered how in the name of heaven she was going to resist this man until she’dreached that mysterious point of readiness that so eluded her. “Nick,” she pleaded.
    “Hmm?” He pulled out her tucked-in blouse and then proceeded to unbutton it. The tingling pattern his lips painted on her neck continued without interruption.
    “This isn’t fair,” she whispered breathlessly. Her head fell backward as he pushed the front of her blouse aside.
    He unfastened the front catch on her lace-trimmed, silky pink bra, freeing her. “Life is never fair,” he reminded her.
    Against her better judgment, Vanessa leaned back even farther when his hands rose to cup her breasts. “Ooooooh,” she said.
    Nick was kissing his way down over her collarbone. “My sentiments exactly,” he replied just before he closed his mouth over one straining nipple.
    Vanessa clasped both hands behind her head, increasing both her vulnerability and her pleasure. Her lips were parted, and her eyes closed as she reveled in nurturing Nick; she could feel and hear his desire, and it heightened her own.
    He was moaning as he enjoyed her like a man wild with fever, and when she would have lowered her hands, he held them in place. The fingersof his left hand rubbed Vanessa’s bare back, at once positioning her for his own unrestricted access and stroking her reassuringly.
    The moment he released her wrists, Vanessa was peeling off his shirt and tossing it away, tearing at the T-shirt beneath. She would have undressed him completely if his position hadn’t made that impossible.
    His chest was muscular and matted with dark hair and, as Vanessa had, he leaned back slightly, in effect surrendering at least a part of his body to her explorations. He gave a powerful shudder and moaned low in his throat as she kissed, caressed and nibbled at him.
    After a long time he rose gracefully to his feet, drawing Vanessa with him, clasping her close even as he stripped her of her blouse and dangling bra and began unfastening her slacks.
    “If you want to stop this, Vanessa,” he warned, “turn around and walk out of the room right now. Whatever self-control I might have had is gone, and all bets are off.”
    Looking up into his smoldering brown eyes, Vanessa remained where she was and opened the top button of his jeans. “All bets are off,” she repeated, to let him know that she understood what was about to happen, that she welcomed it.
    He kissed her then with all the passion he’d been holding back, and Vanessa could only guess at the strength it had taken to restrain such a torrent. She was hardly aware of being carried to the bed or undressed, and even though the sky outside was clear and quiet, the room crackled with lightning.
    Nick was poised above her, his mouth covering hers in another mind-splintering kiss, the mattress rippling sensuously beneath her. Vanessa ran gentle hands up and down his broad, sinewy back, telling him without words that she wanted him.
    He took her in a long, slow thrust that set her to twisting her head from side to side on the pillow, delirious in her need.
    “Easy,” he rasped out, and she could feel the struggle between Nick’s mind and his body as he lay perfectly still inside her. “Take it easy, sweetheart. We have all the time in the world….”
    Vanessa tried to force him to provide the friction,