Free Forever Spring by Joan Hohl Page B

aroused peak, his hands slid to the snap on her jeans.
    “Help me.” Paul’s voice held an enchanting mixture of plea and command as he released the zipper and tugged on her jeans.
    Helpless against the sensuous excitement rushing through her body, Karen kicked the loafers from her feet and lifted her hips from the carpet. In the next instant she was naked and vulnerable to Paul’s eyes and touch. But within moments she was not alone in her vulnerability. Pushing upright, Paul literally tore the clothes from his body. Noticing her smoky-eyed gaze, he stood over her, quivering as she examined him.
    Karen stared at his tall form with fascinated curiosity. In the unforgiving light of day, Paul’s body was even more appealing than when cloaked by darkness. His well-muscled shoulders and chest tapered to a flat abdomen and narrow hips. His lightly haired legs were long and well formed. And, in full arousal, he presented a breathtaking image of the primal male. And the primal male excited the primitive female inside Karen. Obeying a life drive as old as time, she opened her arms in silent invitation.
    “Karen.” Paul groaned as he dropped to his knees between her thighs. “You don’t know,” he murmured tightly, grasping her hips to lift her to him. “You can’t possibly know...” His words were drowned by the harsh breath he inhaled as he joined his body with hers.
    For an instant, Karen was confused, wondering what he had started to say. Then it no longer mattered; nothing mattered but the spiraling tension luring her toward the edge of reason.
    * * *
    Paul’s chest felt constricted from lack of air. His entire body felt tightly wired, and he held on to the last of his control with grim determination. Beneath him, Karen twisted and arched and whimpered his name; her panting voice was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. Never had a woman, any woman, responded to him so freely or given herself to him so completely. In these few moments of possession, Karen was his in an incomprehensible way that transcended the merely physical. In an effort to maintain that exquisite if inexplicable sense of ownership, Paul fought to contain the fire of desire consuming his mind and body. He would pleasure Karen before he sought his own ecstatic release.
    Paul was hovering on the brink of sensual discovery, gritting his teeth, when Karen gave herself to soaring completion. Buried deeply in her warmth, holding her tightly to him, Paul shuddered, then followed her over the edge of reason.
    He didn’t want to move. As his breathing returned to normal, Paul decided he could happily spend the rest of his life as he was at that moment: his body still joined with Karen’s, his head pillowed on her soft breasts.
    It was not be be. The phone rang.
    “I must answer it,” Karen said softly.
    “Why?”
    “It’s one of my quirks,” she confessed, pushing against his chest. “I can’t stand not answering a ringing phone.”
    Paul sighed but moved to untangle their bodies, stretching out on the carpet beside her. The instant she was free, Karen scrambled to her feet.
    “Aren’t you going to dress?” she asked, scooping her clothing from the floor before heading toward the kitchen and the shrilling wall phone.
    “Eventually,” Paul murmured, stretching.
    Clutching her rumpled garments to her chest with one hand, Karen reached for the receiver with her other hand and turned to glance back at Paul. His long body lay sprawled in a patch of bright morning sunlight. His eyes were closed. A tiny smile of satisfaction curved his lips. At that moment, Karen wanted nothing more than to ignore the persistently ringing phone and run into the dining alcove to cuddle next to him on the floor.
    Indecision held her hand motionless in midair for a moment. Then, sighing softly, she grasped the receiver and brought it to her ear.
    “Hello?” she said with barely concealed impatience.
    “Karen?”
    Karen frowned as she identified the anxious strain