Hero by Nature (Reed Sisters: Holding out for a Hero 3) - Page 38

He rose smoothly, stepped up to her and took her shoulders in his hands. He wasn’t exactly angry—she’d never seen him angry, she thought fleetingly—but he was definitely annoyed. “That’s absurd and you know it. Do you think this past month has been easy for me?”

“I haven’t noticed you having any trouble leaving at night,” she replied defiantly.

He jerked her against his still-aroused body, his hands falling to her hips to hold her almost painfully against him. “You couldn’t be more wrong. Walking away from you has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’ve taken so many cold showers that I’ve developed permanent goose bumps and I still wake up at night drenched with sweat and shaking with need for you. God, it’s gotten to where it even hurts to kiss you, but when I’m with you, I can’t help it. Don’t accuse me of trying to make you suffer, Autumn. I’m torturing myself!”

“But why?”

He stepped away from her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his navy slacks. “Because I love you,” he answered flatly. “And because casual sex with you would hurt much more than none at all.”

“It’s not casual sex when two people care for each other!” she argued heatedly. “It’s called…making love.” She said the last words haltingly, her heart stopping at the flame that had suddenly flared in his eyes.

His hands fell again on her shoulders, his grip tight with emotion, though she didn’t protest the near pain. “Do we care for each other, Autumn?” he asked softly, his words almost a plea.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to lie to him or herself any longer. “Yes, we care for each other. But—”

“Hush,” he ordered roughly, pulling her into his arms. “Don’t say any more. I told you I was willing to take whatever you were ready to give. As long as you’ll admit that what we have is more than physical.”

She buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to his shirt. “Don’t leave me tonight, Jeff. I…I want you so much.” She’d almost said “need.” She wouldn’t say need!

“And I want you, honey. I need you,” Jeff retorted meaningfully, obviously reading her again. “Just don’t accuse me of blackmailing you into making love with me. Please.”

She shook her head against him. “No.” She knew now that he hadn’t been trying to coerce her into saying more than she was ready to say. He’d simply needed reassurance that he was more to her than a good lay. She was continually surprised by this man’s vulnerability. And his strength.

She stepped back and took his hand in hers, noting his trembling with a surge of tenderness that took her by surprise. She knew her smile was shaky when she looked up at him, turning to walk with him to her bedroom.

Jeff seemed determined to compensate them both for the weeks of frustration. He made love to her with agonizing slowness, caressing and touching every inch of her—her temples, her throat, her breasts, her stomach, her inner thighs, her ankles. Then he turned her over and explored her back with equal thoroughness, tracing her spine, nibbling at her firm, round cheeks, licking the backs of her knees.

Autumn was shuddering, mindless with need, when he finally gave in to her strangled pleas and ended the torment. He entered her in one smooth thrust, and she rose eagerly to meet him, her knees clasping his hips with all the strength in her healthy young body. His ragged breath and muffled groans were the most beautiful sounds she’d ever heard, and her own soft cries mingled with them in an ancient, wordless duet.

Harder and faster he drove them until neither could hold out any longer against the need for release. Jeff’s name was on her lips when Autumn reached that peak, and her own name echoed in her mind after his husky cry. He kept saying it, over and over, as he held her tightly during the descent to sanity. For the first time in twenty-five years she decided she had an absolutely beautiful name. Jeff’s voice made it beautiful.

A long time later Autumn stretched, propped herself on one elbow and glared down at his relaxed, contented face. “You sadist.”

He chuckled. “Now what have I done?”

“First you make me suffer from abstinence for a month and then you torment me by making love to me so slowly that I lose my mind.”

Grinning, he caught her hand and pulled it to his lips. “I suffered from abstinence just as long as you did, you know.”

“Your choice.”

“No. Not my choice.”

She decided not to go into that again. She was feeling too good for a serious discussion just then. Her eyes drifted slowly down his nude length, relishing every gorgeous inch of him. “Then I guess I’ll have to make love to you until you lose your mind. That’ll make us even.”

He spread his arms in a gesture of total submission. “Feel free.”

Her smile was utterly wicked, “I believe I will.”

And she did.

VALENTINES DAY CAME a week later. Somehow Autumn had known that Jeff would go all out for that particularly romantic day. She was right. He gave her flowers and chocolates and an enameled heart pendant on a fine gold chain, and then he took her to dinner at one of the most expensive, exclusive and romantic restaurants in the area. In a whimsically feminist gesture Autumn was waiting with flowers, chocolates and a gold keychain for him when he picked her up for their date.

“I’ve never had a woman give me flowers and chocolates before,” he mused later as he sat across the secluded candle-lit dinner table from her.

Autumn grinned impudently at him. “Did it threaten your masculinity?” she asked.

“Are you kidding? I love flowers. And chocolates.”

Tags: Gina Wilkins Reed Sisters: Holding out for a Hero Romance
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