Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,43

situation, since she was sixteen years old. He'd sensed then the reckless wild-ness lurking inside him. The wildness only she seemed to bring alive.

Eleven years ago, it had scared the hell out of him and he'd not wanted to scare the hell out of her. But they were years older and way, way past the stopping point now.

**Come here."

Elena slowly moved toward him.

'It's all right," he reassured her. And it was, now that she was coming closer. He could keep the beast at bay as long as he had her near and as long as he knew he would have her soon.

When she was an arm's reach away, he was able to gently draw her close. The driving need inside him subsided from a roar to a purr and he reveled at the feel of her bare skin against his. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. **It's all right," he repeated, reassuring them both.

Then he edged her away and gently unfastened her bra. Without even looking at her breasts, he brought

her back against his bare chest and drew the undergarment away.

She shivered.

He closed his eyes, savoring the smooth heat of her skin and the soft poke of her hardened nipples against his chest. His hands ran down her back, soothing, soothing, as the exotic scent of sun-soaked flowers rose off her flesh.

With the prize of her naked skin and her perfumed scent, the beast inside him quieted. Logan tugged on the ends of Elena's hair to coax her head back and he kissed her again. Gentle too, but thorough, his tongue exploring the undersides of her lips, then moving in to sweep across her own tongue.

Elena made small sounds at the back of her throat and moved her body restlessly, her tight nipples rubbing against his chest. Logan's body went harder, but her obvious, growing excitement gave him the power to keep his own desires in check.

If he took Elena out of control, he thought, he could keep himself under control.

He broke the kiss only to rain kisses down her throat. She bowed in his arms and he took the invitation for what it was—^he feasted on her breasts.

But slowly there, too. First licking around them, and under them, tickhng the crease beneath the plump curves with little flicks of his tongue. Elena clutched his head with her hands, and when her nails bit into his scalp he let his mouth move to her nipple and suck it inside.

Her body shuddered. He held her, his thumbs under

her breasts, his fingers splayed across her back and brought her to his mouth at his will. He was greedy in his enjoyment of her, sucking slow and gentle, then increasing the pressure to draw as much of her into his mouth as he could.

Edging away, he paused to admire. She looked dazed, her eyes half-open but almost all pupil. Her fast breaths caused her breasts to rise and fall, rise and fall, the tips berry-red and wet from his mouth.

**Please, Logan," she whispered.

He smiled, still calm because she wasn't, and sUd his thumbs up the curves of her lower breasts to brush over the distended nipples, back and forth. **Please what, honey?" Back and forth again.

She sUd her hands from his waist to his chest. His erection ached as she inched her way along his skin. **Just...please." The pads of her thumbs stroked across his own hard nipples.

He jerked. Her gaze on his face, she stroked again. Calmness fled.

'*Enough." He didn't recognize his own voice, but he recognized the impetus—^the beast—^that spurred him to lift her into his arms. *'Time for bed."

*'Futon." A little smile tugged the comers of her hps. *1 left the bed back at my house and only have a futon here."

Bed, futon, countertop, card table. It didn't matter what the surface was, as long as it was horizontal. He strode down the three-door hallway and shoved a door open with his foot.

''Cabby's room."

Groaning aloud, he spun and used his shoulder to push open the door across the hall. The room was dark, a sHce of moonlight the only illumination. The full-size futon was positioned left-center. Logan felt a brief pang of regret at the thought of his king-size mattress and box springs, but then he breathed in, he breathed in the scent of Elena that filled the room, and nothing else mattered but her.

He needed to touch her, get close to her, rub himself in her essence. It was an instinct, an obsession, the beast