He closed the door and approached the bed, smiling.
“Looks like fascinating reading,” he said.
“Oh, it is,” she said so confidently that his smile widened. She had to be the most adorable woman he’d ever seen. Her green e
yes flickered down over his bare torso, making his nerves tickle in awareness, and landed on the envelope he carried.
“What’s that?” she asked.
He sat on the edge of the bed. She scooted over, giving him room. He hesitated for a second. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She might think he had mercenary reasons for his actions, but in truth, he’d done what he’d done out of concern for Faith and their child.
He handed her the envelope. She opened it, a curious expression on her face, and withdrew the papers inside.
“I had these medical tests done just before the wedding. I know with the baby, you’ve probably had lots of blood tests done to make sure you were healthy. I thought it was only fair for me to do the same. I wasn’t promiscuous when I was single, by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t abstinent, either. I’ve always practiced safe sex, Faith,” he said in a quieter tone.
She glanced up at him, a startled expression on her face.
“Except for Christmas Eve,” he said sheepishly. “I thought maybe given our first night together, you might have very good reason to doubt my assurances in that regard.” He nodded toward the envelope. “I got a completely clean bill of health.”
“Ryan, you didn’t have to do this,” she said, her voice shaking a little.
“Yes, I did,” he said firmly. He took the papers and set them on the bedside table. The journal she’d been reading slid off her blanket-covered thighs onto the floor, but neither of them paid any notice. He took her hand.
“I’m not going to be with another woman, Faith. Not for as long as we’re together.”
Tears swelled in her eyes. “I’m not going to be with anyone else, either,” she said in a choked voice.
He leaned forward and caught her soft gasp with his mouth. Her arms flew around his neck, and she pulled him closer. He came down on the bed, partially sprawled on her, kissing her like she was his very breath. Her scent filled his nose—flowers and some singular scent that came from her skin. He came up for air from their kiss and buried his nose in the fragrant juncture of her neck and shoulder.
“I can’t believe I was only gone for two days. It feels like weeks since I touched you,” he said between feverish kisses. A shudder went through him at the sensation of fingernails scraping his scalp.
“I missed you, too,” she said breathlessly.
His mouth coasted down her throat, nibbling hungrily at her skin. She moaned and grabbed at his waist when he gently took a love bite from her shoulder. He’d never known a flame of desire to leap so high and powerful so quickly as it did with Faith. It was like he existed constantly on a low simmer for her, and a touch, a kiss, could send that fire to the boiling point instantly.
He ran his mouth over her chest, breathing her scent, testing her skin with his lips and tongue. Her hands moved restlessly over the bare skin of his back, making him shiver uncontrollably. He felt need swell in him, hard and hot, as he moved his lips over the lace of her nightgown and the upper swells of her breasts. He tugged on the straps of her gown, suddenly impatient to taste her...drown in her sweetness.
She cried out sharply when he slipped a nipple between his lips and drew on her, so he softened, laving his tongue over the stiffening tip, soothing and exciting her at once. His hunger mounted soon enough, however, breaking through his feeble restraints when it came to Faith. He gently gathered her breast in his hand, molding her softly to his palm, while he applied a steady suction with his mouth. She tasted like woman and sex and something so sweet, so precious, he couldn’t find the word if he tried.
He pushed her gown down lower. The skin over her ribs tasted just as good, and so did the exquisitely soft stretch along her sensitive sides. He heard her whimpers of excitement through the sound of his heart pounding in his ears as he licked and kissed and nibbled at the skin there. An almost unbearable ache of longing went through him when he kissed her abdomen. Was it his imagination, or had it swelled slightly even since the last time he’d kissed her there? It felt so warm, taut and smooth beneath his cherishing lips.
Her fingernails raking his scalp—this time more forcefully—added a welcome spice to his excitement as he kissed the tender strip of skin below the slight swell of her belly and ran his hands along her silky thighs. He lifted his head and worked her gown down over her legs. He sensed the tension rise in her muscles when he lowered her panties. For a few strained seconds he just looked down at her, stunned by her beauty. He glanced up at her face and saw the glaze of desire in her eyes.
A ripple of excitement went through her when he kissed her just above her pelvis. He lowered his head, closed his eyes and tasted her for the first time. He moaned softly, and was lost.
He was gentle with her, focusing exclusively on the soft, nectar-sweet folds of her outer sex and the precious kernel of nerve-packed flesh nestled between them. The essence of Faith filled him, her flavor, her scent, the sexy sounds of her soft whimpers and increasingly desperate moans.
She called his name wildly when she bucked in release. He came at her bidding, waiting until she’d quieted beneath his kiss.
When he slid into her, his mouth fused to hers, it was like a sharp blade of distilled pleasure knifing through his flesh. He’d only ever been inside a woman naked once before. Faith had been his first.
As he began to move, and ecstasy became his entire world, Ryan sent up a silent prayer that she would be his last.
* * *
Ryan and Faith stood when Dr. Feingold, her obstetrician, greeted them both in the waiting area of the clinic.
“Are you the baby’s father?” the friendly doctor, who was in her late forties, asked Ryan unabashedly.