knew what they
were doing. And it was completely natural that it was him.
His jacket whispered a protest as she slid her arms free.
His hand cupped her cheek in one of those easy touches
that reached al the way to her soul, catching her before she
could step away. His hazel eyes were dark in the moonlight.
She leaned her cheek into his gloved palm and sighed. “I’m
an idiot.”
His answer was immediate. “Yes, you are, but you’re
mine, and I kind of like you this way.”
She raised her eyebrows. “A neurotic mess?”
His thumb brushed her mouth and a chuckle quirked his
lips before his hand dropped away. “Vulnerable.”
She held out her hand for her suitcase. “Uh-huh. Wel ,
don’t get used to it.”
He paused before dragging the cooler out and putting it
on the snow-encrusted ground. “I’l try to keep my
appreciation limited to the weekend.”
She averted her eyes as he settled a brown box on the
cooler’s white top. “Thank you.”
He closed the trunk and hefted the cooler and box. “My
pleasure.”
Becky fol owed as Marc led the way down the hil to the
cabin, admiring the way his jeans clung to his thighs with
each step delineating the strength beneath. She wondered
if he was thinking the same things she was. She wondered
if his cock was hardening as quickly as her pussy was
moistening. God! She wanted him. Wanted this. And, she
shifted the suitcase as she hurried to keep up, she was not
going to al ow anything to stop her from obtaining her goal.
She might have more than her fair share of inhibitions, but
she also had more than her fair share of determination, and
of the two qualities, the second was stronger than the first.
The cabin was cold, the vaulted ceilings and log wal s
harboring the chil of the outside. She turned up the
thermostat on the furnace and set to work on the fire as
Marc made the bed and unpacked the food.
From the corner of her eye, she could see the brown box
on the coffee table, looking lost in the vastness of the room.
The innocent-looking brown box that held al the sex toys
they’d selected together. Anything and everything they’d
seen that they thought they might use. It had been tough to
ignore the expense, but as it seemed the height of
ridiculousness to be prudent when pursuing decadence,
she’d conquered her caution to the point of maybe going
overboard. She battled an unreasonable urge to toss the
throw from the couch over it.
As if there was anyone here to see. As if Marc was
going to have a problem with anything contained in it. The
man had adventure in his bones. She was the one with al
the good-girls-don’t hang-ups. Heck, judging from his
comments as she’d pointed out a few things she’d been
interested in and from the confidence with which he’d made
his selections, there probably wasn’t anything in the box of
which he didn’t have firsthand knowledge. Just not with her.
And that fast, she added another emotion to the
turbulence of the evening. Jealousy that her husband’s past
lovers had been more adventurous than she.
He came up behind her as she stood by the fire. She
shivered as he moved her hair aside, baring her neck. The
heat of his breath touched her first, moist and tantalizing,
brushing across her sensitive nerve endings in an
evocative arc.
“Ready?”
The question whispered against her neck. Goose
bumps sprang up in a silent “Hel , yes,” she couldn’t get
past her throat. She tilted her head, inviting a kiss instead,
shuddering when he gave it to her. His cock pressed
against her buttocks, rock hard and eager while his hands
slid down her sleeves until his fingers intertwined with hers.
She gripped his hands in hers. “As I’l ever be.”
He laughed into the curve of her shoulder, sending new
goose bumps chasing after the last set, the flick of his
tongue encouraging their tingling spread to her breast and
nipples. His big hands whispered across the front of
Mark Halperin, John Heilemann
Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris