LITMIR.BIZ

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instead. He nuzzled her and traced his fingers higher, to the moist folds of skin that hid her entrance and beyond until he gently penetrated her. He felt her muscles tighten around his fingers, felt the shudder that racked her body. Yes, it was definitely time. He closed his mouth around her bud, swirling his tongue around the tiny nub and sucking gently until she was pressing against his mouth with abandon. He withdrew his fingers and then entered them into her body again, mimicking the action his arousal craved.

      He tracked every indication of the escalating sensations that grew within her. Knew the exact moment she broke apart into a million pieces of pleasure. She looked so beautiful in her utter abandon that he had to fight to stay under control. He gentled the movement of his tongue, his fingers, until he felt her body begin to relax.

      Faye’s legs eased farther apart as she sank deeper into the mattress, and Piers moved between them, positioned himself and slowly slid into her molten heat. There was no resistance this time. No reminder that she had chosen to give herself to him and only him. Even so, he would eternally treasure that gift, treasure her, and make sure she realized just how incredibly special she was to him.

      This time he coaxed her slowly to her peak, holding on to his control with every last thread of concentration and only letting himself go as he felt the deep, slow ripple of her climax undulate through her body. And then he let go, allowing his own pleasure to roll like thunder through him.

      Spent, he finally collapsed on top of her, his heart pounding in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her slender form and rolled onto his side so that she was nestled up against him.

      He pressed his lips to her forehead, feeling closer to her than he’d ever felt to anyone in his life. And he knew he wanted this new closeness between them to continue. He couldn’t imagine his life without her in every aspect of it now.

      “Are you okay?” he asked gently, nuzzling her hair and relishing the scent of it.

      “Okay? I don’t think I’ve ever felt more okay in my entire life.” Faye’s voice sounded thick and heavy, as though she was drugged with a combination of satisfaction and exhaustion. A soft chuckle escaped her. “I always knew you were a man of your word, but I didn’t expect you to take things quite so literally. I think you can safely say your challenge has been met.”

      He smiled in response. “Well, you know what that means, don’t you?”

      She stiffened slightly in his arms, and though he wasn’t sure what had triggered that response, Piers stroked the skin of her back to soothe her again.

      “What does it mean?” she asked, fighting back a yawn.

      “It means I have to do better next time.”

      “If there is a next time,” she answered.

      “Oh, there’ll be a next time. And a time after that. But for now I think we should rest.”

      “Yeah, rest. That’s a good idea. I don’t think my body could handle all of that again too soon.”

      “Did I hurt you?” Piers asked, suddenly concerned. He’d done his best to be gentle. To ensure her body was completely ready for him before he’d entered her.

      “No, not at all. You were...you were amazing. Thank you.”

      He reached for the bedcovers and drew them over her, leaving the bed only long enough to dispense with the protection he’d worn before diving back under the covers and pulling her to him again. He felt that if he let her go she’d simply slip away like an ephemeral creature—there one minute, gone the next.

      “Are you comfortable?” he asked.

      “Very. I didn’t know it could be like this, sharing a bed with someone else. It’s cozy, isn’t it?”

      He laughed softly. “Very cozy.” He fell silent a minute before asking the question that kept echoing in the back of his mind. “Why me, Faye? Why did you let me be your first?”

      The minute he allowed the words to fall on the air he knew he’d made a mistake. He could feel her retreat, mentally if not physically.

      “Why not?” she answered. “You did seem to be very good at it.”

      Now she was using humor to shield herself from revealing the truth. He’d have to tread carefully if he was to work his way past her protective shields without damaging the fragile link they now shared.

      “For what it’s worth, I’m honored I was your first. I—” He took a deep breath. Was it too soon? “I care about you, Faye.”

      She remained silent for what felt like forever but then he heard her indrawn breath and her voice softly filtered through the darkness around them.

      “I care about you, too.”

      As admissions went, it was hard-won, and he allowed a swell of relief dosed with a liberal coating of satisfaction to ride through him. It was a good start.

      She snuggled right into his chest and he could feel the puffs of her breath against his skin.

      “I haven’t had many boyfriends,” she admitted. “After my family died in a car wreck, I just wasn’t interested in much of anything anymore. I was fostered in the same district where I’d grown up, so there was as little disruption to my routine as possible once I was released from hospital. Some of my friends at school...they tried to include me, but as we all got older we drifted apart.”

      “I’m sorry about your family, Faye. That must have been tough.”

      The words sounded so inane. Not nearly enough to describe his sorrow at the thought of what she must have been through. What would it have been like to suddenly be alone at fifteen? To be without the anchors that kept you feeling safe and loved. Growing up, his parents had been uninvolved, but he’d always had Quin by his side. The grief he’d felt at the loss of his brother had sent him to a dark, lonely place in his mind and it had forced him to reevaluate a lot of things in his life. But at least he’d been an adult while learning to cope with his loss. For Faye, just a teenager, how could she make decisions about her future when everything she’d ever known, every parameter she’d lived her life by, had been gone in a flash?

      “Tough, yeah. That’s one word for it. I had lovely foster parents, though. And my mom and stepdad had established a college fund for me so when I aged out of foster care I could choose where I went from there. I didn’t want for anything.”

      Anything except for a family. Piers thought about the little boy sleeping down the hall in his bedroom, considered the ready-made family that he and Casey could offer Faye. But he weighed that up with her obvious reluctance to have anything to do with the baby. Did that stem from the losses she’d suffered when she was still a teenager? How on earth did a man wade past that?

      * * *

      Encircled in Piers’s arms, Faye didn’t feel the usual searing pain that scored her when she thought about her family. Instead it was kind of a dull ache. Still there, still hurting, but muted, as if the edges had softened somehow. The realization made her feel disloyal to their memory. She didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve to let any aspect of the memory of their loss slide away. Guilt hammered at her with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

      This was why she hadn’t encouraged any relationships beyond friendship in the past. And it was why she should never have allowed things between her and Piers to go as far as they’d gone—no matter how fantastic it had been.

      She’d made a mistake tonight—several mistakes. From the minute she’d accepted the glass of champagne from Piers to the second she’d allowed him to touch her. What had she been thinking?

      Maybe that, for once in her life, she should reach out and sample what others took for granted?

      No. She mentally shook her head. She had no right to do that. It was best that she get back on her path alone and leave in the morning as she’d planned. Leave before her heart became too heavily engaged with the man who had drifted to sleep beside her, not to mention the child he was

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