spellbinding moment, and she licked her lips expectantly.
His thrust, when it came, was a lovely shock. Urgently, potently, yet lovingly, he entered her, and she gasped at the sweet torture, her whole being filling up with him.
At first his movements were slow and measured, while he gradually drew her toward fulfillment. Then, becoming more and more aroused, she wrapped her legs about his rock-hard thighs, and pulled him deeply into her, welcoming him making love with a ravenous passion she’d never before experienced. As he began to plunge more forcefully, new hunger spiraled and blazed in her, and she delighted in his unexpected recklessness.
The sounds of their lovemaking were sounds that Jess knew she would hear echoing in her dreams for the rest of her life. Their love was beautiful and uncivilized. Untamed, unwise—and evanescent. Realizing this, she felt a sadness invade her pleasure.
Almost desperately, her hands searched, held and worshiped the exposed, lean muscles of his buttocks and back. She moaned his name again and again as the extraordinary power of his surging body consumed her totally. She was swept away on wave after wave of sensation, both alien and exquisite, until at last, molten shafts of rapture exploded inside her, and she cried out, abandoning herself to the cresting climax.
With a ragged groan, he shuddered inside her, holding her possessively to him as he found his own release. Their lips met in a stormy kiss of mutual triumph. And, trembling, Jess clung to his broad back, utterly fulfilled, utterly consumed.
When their lingering kiss ended, she lay still there for a long moment, her mind dazed, her body like jelly. Joined to him, and redolent with his scent, his delicious nakedness still pressing her to the floor, she felt as though she were in a dreamworld—a world from which she had no desire to wake. She sighed, and kissed his shiny-wet flesh, and she ran a hand along his spine, delicately, dreamily.
“What are you telling me?” he crooned near her ear. “You want more?”
She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice, drawn reluctantly back to reality. Her tone sorrowful, she sighed, “Oh, Lucas…” She uncurled her legs from around his muscular thighs. “I don’t have the stamina for more.”
He smoothed a damp tendril of hair from her temple, replacing it with a kiss. “What about the other condom?”
Her eyes widened. “The condom? I completely forgot. And this is—is a bad time of the month for me to be careless.”
His gaze was caressing. “It’s okay. I remembered.”
“But,” she stammered. “When? I never—”
He grinned at her. “Your mind was somewhere else at the time.”
She flushed hot. “I have to admit my mind has never deserted me as totally as it did tonight.” Swallowing hard, she whispered, “You must think I’m very loose.”
He frowned, then flashed a provocative grin. “I thought nothing of the kind.”
She became uneasy under his gentle scrutiny. It occurred to her that he really did have plans for using that other condom tonight. Long, strong fingers were already trailing down her rib cage, making her tingle with renewed sexual excitement. She couldn’t let it happen. This insanity had to stop before it was too late—before she fell in love. She squelched a mental voice that was trying to tell her something—something she dared not hear. “Lucas,” she began thickly, brushing away his hand. “I—I didn’t mean for us to get involved. I just wanted…” Her voice broke, and she found that all she could do was turn her head away in a wordless plea to be released from the heavenly male confines of his body.
He said nothing for a time, but his hand no longer quested along her skin. Finally he lifted himself away from her, gently disconnecting them. But Jess flinched at the parting, sure she had experienced something almost mystical with this man, yet, knowing him the way she did, determined she must never yearn for more. He had no place in his heart for a wife or kids. Fantasies and dreams of a future with him were useless.
“Am I out of your system?” he asked, sounding solemn.
She tried to shut out the harsh truth, loath to admit it even to herself—that she would never forget this man; never be able to put this night out of her mind. Because of her foolish weakness for him, she would be cursed to relive what had happened here for the rest of her days—and nights.
Fearing her voice would betray her, she only nodded, trying to coax