Free Find Wonder In All Things by Karen M. Cox Page A

kiss. He eased her back onto the blanket and ran his hand from her shoulder to her hip and back to rest on her belly.
    “Are you sure about doing this out here?” he murmured to her. “You might be more comfortable on the boat . . . ”
    “No, not the boat. Half the girls I know who lost their virginity did it on a houseboat. Too cliché.”
    He chuckled at her spirit. She had been thinking about this for a while. “Okay then — not the boat.”
    She looked up, eyes round. “I want to, but James . . . ”
    “Yes, sweetheart?”
    “I’m afraid . . . just a little.”
    He trailed kisses down her neck and below her ear. “Don’t be afraid. Just tell me what you want.”
    Her voice was small and tentative. “I don’t know what I want.”
    He froze, almost panicked for a second, but as he looked at her, he felt his pulse slow and his breathing calm, and his inner knight-in-shining-armor kicked in. He called up confidence and bravado from some long-subdued part of his past and promised himself he would bring her out safe and happy on the other side of this, although he didn’t know exactly how. The challenge was spine tingling, like walking on a tightrope above a ravine. He felt reckless and daring — and a little nervous himself. She was so precious and so worth all the care he could give her. He took in a deep breath and expelled it slowly.
    “I know what you want, Laurel.” He was amazed at how confident his voice sounded. “And I’m going to make sure you have it.”
    She nodded.
    He started at the top of her head, pressed a gentle kiss to her hairline, and worked his way to her mouth. He lingered there while he drew a finger over her bare arm and pulled her to him in rhythmic tugs. He kissed her throat and smiled when she made a little whimper. When he got to the v-neck of her t-shirt, he sat her up gently and pulled it over her head. She reached behind her back for her bra hook, but he stopped her.
    “Not yet. Let’s leave that alone for now.” He stripped off his own shirt and nearly groaned out loud when her long delicate fingers ran down his rib cage and slid under the waistband of his jeans just an inch or two. He took hold of them and shut his eyes. “Let’s leave that alone for now, too.”
    He eased her down and took a long look at her. Red waves of silk radiated from behind her head in every direction. Her white skin was luminous in the moonlight, her breasts covered in virginal white lace.
    “You’re amazing,” he whispered. He saw her embarrassment, even in the dim light of the moon, and he smiled. “What I mean is every part of you is designed to go with every other part. You’re the perfect incarnation of you.” He leaned over and nibbled at the pulse throbbing in her throat before running his tongue along her collarbone and just inside the inner edge of her bra till his mouth rested between her breasts. She arched her back and her moan reverberated from her chest into his lips. He drew his fingers down over her stomach, feeling it move up and down as she gasped. One finger slipped under the button on her cutoffs and he undid them in one smooth motion, drawing down the zipper and laying the fly open. The white cotton of her panties peeked out from underneath. He kissed right below her belly button and took a little nip at the hipbone jutting out.
    “James?” She breathed. “What are you . . . ?”
    He slipped his hands inside her shorts and drew them down, exposing her skin to the night air and his hungry eyes. “Would you believe me if I said, ‘Trust me’?”
    She giggled, actually giggled out loud, and his heartbeat flared and pounded in his veins for a minute. He sat beside her, simply staring at her in wonder, before reaching under her to unhook the last bit of clothing and drawing the straps down her arms.
    The beauty of her body beckoned him, but he found himself unable to tear his gaze from her face, intense and exquisite. Her eyes were like arrows, hot pokers stabbing