LITMIR.BIZ

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Miss Price,” Elena told her, “the two of them were just worn out with excitement. I gave them a bath, put them in their pajamas and tucked them right in. They’re just fine. The monitor’s been turned on and I brought one of the receivers out here for you to keep tabs on them.”

      She set the white receiver down onto the table and Sadie looked at it. Rick knew she was thinking about just packing up the girls and running for the hills, but damned if he’d let her. This was working out great. He hadn’t planned for the girls to fall asleep, but now that they had, he wouldn’t waste his alone time with their mother.

      “You two enjoy your evening,” Elena said. “I’m just heading home myself.” She walked across the patio, slipped through the line of trees and disappeared into the shadows, headed for the Henry house just beyond the stable.

      “I didn’t plan for the girls to stay here with you tonight.” She reached for the monitor and turned up the volume.

      “You could all stay,” he said, getting up to walk to her side of the table.

      “Oh, that’s not a good idea,” she said, even as he pulled her to her feet.

      “Best idea I’ve heard in three years,” Rick argued. He smoothed his hands through her long, blond hair and then cupped her face in his palms.

      She shivered and a tiny sigh erupted from her throat. “Rick …”

      “Stop thinking, Sadie,” he whispered and bent to kiss her briefly, sweetly. “Just for tonight, stop thinking.”

      “We did that once, remember?” She was arguing, but her hands settled at his waist and he felt the heat of her soaking inside him.

      “Yeah. I remember. All of it. The feel of you, the taste of you.” He kissed her again, teasing the part in her lips with the tip of his tongue. Every inch of his body was on fire for her. The last couple of weeks, being close to her and yet so damned separate, had been torture. “Do you know, for months after I deployed, I could close my eyes and smell you on me?”

      “Oh, my …”

      He bent to kiss the curve of her neck and Sadie swayed into him. Breathing deep, Rick groaned in satisfaction. “There it is,” he said, his breath moving over her skin, “that scent that is purely you. Smells like summer. Smells like Heaven.”

      “Rick, you’re not playing fair….”

      “I know,” he said, smiling against her skin, then nibbling at the elegant line of her throat until she shivered again. “I don’t want to be fair, Sadie. I want you.”

      “Really not fair,” she murmured, hands sweeping up to splay against his back and hold him closer. “But you know this wouldn’t solve anything.”

      “Not asking it to,” he whispered.

      “It would probably only make things harder.”

      “Things are pretty hard right now,” he confessed, lifting his head to smile down at her.

      She laughed and shook her head. “How am I supposed to fight you?”

      “You’re not. I’m tired of fighting, Sadie. And so are you.” He kissed her then, long and deep, tongue tangling with hers, silently demanding that she feel what he felt, want what he wanted.

      Finally, though, he broke the kiss, lifted his head and looked into her eyes. He read passion glittering there and knew he’d won this round. Knew that her needs were going to overpower her sense of propriety. Just as they had that night three years ago.

      He dropped his hands to her waist, then skimmed his palms up, beneath the hem of her yellow silk shirt. Her skin was softer than that silk and just touching her again inflamed him more than he had expected. His body went rock-hard and aching. His heartbeat pounded in his chest and need clamped a tight fist around his lungs so that breathing was nearly impossible.

      Her eyes locked with his and when he covered her breasts with his hands, he saw the flare of desire quickening in those pale blue depths. Even through the lace of her bra, he felt her nipples pebble at his caress. Felt the sweeping rush of heat that was going to engulf them both.

      “I am tired of fighting you. Fighting this,” she said, arching into him, silently asking for more. “So touch me again. Touch me all over. Make me feel the way you did on that night.”

      He wouldn’t have thought it possible to get even harder, but he did. Hearing her ask for him. Seeing her desire. Feeling her heat.

      Rick was lost.

      Right where he wanted to be.

Seven

      With the summer wind blowing all around them like a soft caress, Sadie forgot about standing her ground and gave herself up to the wonder of being in Rick’s arms again.

      Her entire life, she had done the right thing, said the right thing, been the perfect daughter. Yes, she’d gotten a divorce, but even society expected that to happen once in a while. Until that night with Rick, she had never really rebelled. And in that one night, she had felt more alive than she ever had before.

      She wanted it again.

      His kiss enveloped her. Their tongues danced in a sensual feast of sensation until Sadie was panting for air and not really caring if she got her next breath or not. Her hands swept up and down his back, loving the feel of his hard, muscled body pressed against her.

      He grabbed her and pulled her abdomen close enough that she felt the thick heaviness of his body. Desire pumped through them both with a rush that was simply shattering. There were so many sensations. So many emotions churning inside her.

      Rick unbuttoned her blouse and slid it off her shoulders and down her arms to puddle on the stone patio at their feet. She lifted her arms to him, encircled his neck and gloried in the feel of his hands moving over her bare flesh. In moments, he had unhooked her bra and dropped it, too, to the patio.

      Then he set her back from him and looked his fill. The warm summer air felt cool on her heated skin. He bent his head and took first one hardened nipple then the other into his mouth. His lips, tongue and teeth tortured her gently, sending her mind spinning out of control as her instincts took over.

      She groaned and held his head to her breast, smoothing her fingers through his short hair, loving the slide of it against her skin. He suckled her and she felt everything inside her liquefy in a rush of molten heat that settled deep at her core.

      “Rick …” She swayed into him as her knees went weak in response to the overload of sensation. “I’m going to fall over here in a minute.”

      “I’m going to lay you down in a minute.”

      A stirring of unease mixed with excitement lit up her insides. “Out here?”

      “We’re alone, honey,” he said, kissing her again, lightly, teasingly. “There’s not a soul around.”

      “But Elena. John Henry—”

      “Never leave their place at night. No more buts, darlin’,” he told her, laying one finger across her lips to keep her protests quiet. “Just relax and trust me. Can you do that?”

      She looked up into his eyes and realized that she had already made her decision. She wanted another night with Rick. He was the man who had shown her what real passion and excitement was. Did she really want to back away now?

      “I can do that,” she said before her rational mind could override her desires.

      “Just what I wanted to hear,” he said and tore off his own shirt.

      She reached for him, unable to keep from stroking her fingertips along that bronzed, sculpted chest. He sucked in some air at her touch and Sadie smiled to know that she was having the same

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