black
speckled with shining stars and dotted with glowing
planets. She took a deep breath of the frigid air, shivering
as it bit into her lungs.
A cloud wafted across the moonlit sky. She released her
breath, watching the frozen vapor rise until it seemed to
meld with that wispy traveler, becoming more than what it
was, and yet stil less than it would be. For a minute more,
she watched the cloud skate along, free and unfettered,
and then smiled as, with absolute certainty, she knew
everything was going to be al right. There was nothing she
and he couldn’t do. Nothing they couldn’t accomplish. Not
together. Together, they were like that cloud. More than
what they had been before, yet ever growing with
boundless potential. She just had to stop being afraid to let
go.
Anticipation skittered through her veins as she walked
around the back of the car. The view here was as
interesting as the night sky, seeing as Marc was stretched
forward, retrieving a suitcase. The man had the body of a
runner, roped with lean, hard muscle. She slid her hands up
the side of his thighs, smiling as taut muscle flexed under
her touch, gliding them up over his narrow hips, under his
jacket, around his waist.
He jumped at the chil of her hands and then relaxed into
her hug, settling his palms over hers, pressing them into his
abdomen. As always, he communicated so much with a
touch, his thoughts as clear as if he’d spoken. She pressed
her cheek against the smooth leather of his jacket.
“I love you, too,” she whispered. And because she
couldn’t resist, added, “And I swear, I’m not going to be like
this al weekend.”
“Sweetheart, a few nerves aren’t going to send me
running scared.”
“Even if I babble occasional y?”
He turned in her arms, his hands dropping to the hol ow
of her spine. “I’ve never seen you babble. Might be cute to
witness.”
She tilted her head. With a foot difference in their
heights, she had to lean back a bit before she could see his
expression. “Trust me, it’s not a pretty picture.”
That half amused, half indulgent smile was stil on his
face. His head bent. Just before his mouth met hers, he
whispered, “I’l chance it.”
If there was ever proof that the man got her, it was right
there in his kiss. He didn’t just take what he wanted like she
expected, but rather he seduced, his mouth rubbing against
hers in a subtle coaxing that sapped the anxiety right out of
her and replaced it with a warm wil ingness. Wil ingness to
trust him, to do what he wanted, to be what he wanted.
What she wanted.
She opened her mouth and stretched up on her toes,
accepting the thrust of his tongue, the natural dominance in
his hold, tilting her head to give him more, letting him lead
her past the point where caution said stop. Spreading her
legs for the insertion of his thigh between, she checked her
impulse to control the need to rub against him, fol owing her
instinct and his lead rather than her head. With her next
breath she inhaled his groan of satisfaction.
“That’s it. Just let it happen.”
His grip moved to her hips, lifting her up against the
thrust of his cock, pressing down as she worked her hips in
an effort to get closer, to his heat, his cock, to him….
Too soon he was sliding her down his body, setting her
feet on the ground, separating their lips.
“Hold that thought.”
She didn’t want to hold anything but him. The press of
his thumb at the corner of her mouth sent a shock wave of
need through her. Everything she ever dreaded seeing in a
man’s eyes was there in Marc’s: amusement, satisfaction
and, worst of al , a complacent grin that said he knew
exactly how weak she was when it came to him. But her
inward flinch never got a running start because there was
no malice in that grin, just a bone deep satisfaction that
was as arousing as it was comforting because it said more
than anything else that at least one of them
Mark Halperin, John Heilemann
Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris