McIver's Mission (18 page)

"I want to touch you," she told him.

"Honey, if you keep touching me like that, it's
going to be all over before we get started," he warned.

Any response she might have made was lost when he slid
down her body. The friction of his skin on hers caused all kinds of sensations
to run rampant through her system. Everything was so sharp and close and she
felt an incredible pressure starting to build inside her, coiling low and tight
in her belly. His hands were on her breasts again, his thumbs rasping over her
peaked nipples, as he trailed hot, hungry kisses down to her navel, then lower
still.

She screamed out as his tongue delved inside her, her
hips arching off the bed instinctively as the first climax ripped through her.
She hadn't been prepared for the intensity of the explosion, the aftershocks
that rippled through her body. She'd never experienced anything like it before,
wasn't sure she'd live through it. She was certain she couldn't survive a
second time.

But Shaun had other ideas. He waited until her
shudders subsided, then he drove her up again. She wanted to protest, to beg
him to stop, but she could hardly even breathe, never mind speak. And she was
rushing toward that peak again, and she didn't want him to stop.

She was gasping, her body quivering, when he finally
covered himself with a condom and slipped inside her. She wrapped her arms and
legs around him, clinging to him, drawing him deeper inside.

Then he began to move. Slow, steady strokes that
seemed to touch the very center of her being, driving her again to the edge of
that desperate, greedy pleasure. She matched his rhythm, their bodies moving in
tandem, their hearts beating as one, until they finally leaped over the edge
together.

Afterward, as Arden lay quietly in his arms, Shaun was
stunned, overwhelmed, by the emotions that coursed through him. None of his
fantasies had prepared him for the reality of making love with Arden. Nothing
had prepared him for an experience that was as satisfying emotionally as it had
been physically. It was so much more than the culmination of desire. It was a
life-altering experience. He stroked a hand down her back, tracing along her
spine. He loved to touch her, the feel of her warm, silky skin beneath his
hands, the passion of her responses.

"Thank you," she murmured sleepily.

He lifted his head to look down at her. Her eyes were
closed, her lips curved in a satisfied smile. And he wanted her all over again.

"What are you thanking me for?"

"For showing me how incredible making love could
be."

Her words stunned him, humbled him. He hadn't shown
her anything. It was she who had opened him up to a whole new experience.

"I've never felt so…" Her words trailed off,
her eyelids flickered open. "I've never felt like that before. I didn't
believe it was possible."

"Are you telling me…" He hesitated, looking
for the right words to phrase the question, failing.

"I've never had an orgasm before," Arden
admitted. She glanced away, her cheeks flushing.

Never? He was speechless.

"I never understood what the big deal was … about
sex." Her eyes were soft, her smile warm, as she looked up at him again.
"Now I know."

"I never understood the difference between having
sex and making love," he told her, meaning it. "Now I know."

Her smile widened. "That's a really sweet thing
to say."

He winced. "It's not sweet, it's true."

"I'm glad. I wasn't sure if—" she blew out
an impatient breath "—I didn't want you to be disappointed."

"I'm not disappointed," he told her.

"Good."

She took another condom from the box he'd left on the
bedside table and removed the wrapper. He was almost embarrassed by the
enthusiasm with which his manhood stood up again to be sheathed. She rolled the
condom onto his erection, and his eyes practically rolled back into his head.

"I am sorry that I didn't take my time with
you," he said, trying to focus on conversation rather than the impatient
demands of his body. "I wanted to give you romance and seduction."

He pulled her on top of him, kissed her slowly,
thoroughly.

"You can make it up to me later," she said,
pulling her knees up so that she was straddling him. She rocked forward
slightly and took him inside her in one long, deep thrust.

Now his eyes did roll back in his head. Heaven help
him, he thought, if she ever figured out the power she had over him. Then she
was moving her hips, and he wasn't thinking at all.

* * *

Arden
woke early Sunday morning, but she wasn't in a hurry to get out of bed. She
felt comfortable with Shaun, more so than she would have expected. She'd always
been a little self-conscious about her body, more than a little uncomfortable
with her own nakedness. Not with Shaun. During the past thirty-six hours he'd
touched every inch of her bare skin with his hands, caressed every curve and
angle with his lips, and loved her body with his own.

He'd taught her so much in such a short period of time
about the giving and receiving of pleasure, and she knew that, regardless of whatever
else might happen between them, she'd always be grateful to him for that.

A low murmur of pleasure hummed in her throat as his
hand skimmed over her hip to cup her breast.

"You are awake." His voice was still rough
with sleep, his breath warm on her ear.

"
Mmm
-hmm." But she
closed her eyes again as his thumb brushed over the tingling peak of her
nipple. She felt the familiar tension already beginning to build deep in her
belly, the aching warmth spread between her legs.

"Good." He rolled her onto her back and
levered himself over top of her, the hard length of his shaft pressing against
her leg.

She shifted to position him more firmly between her
thighs, her hips arching instinctively off the mattress, her body seeking the
fulfillment of his.

"Not yet," he said. He combed his fingers
through her hair and touched his mouth to hers. A teasing caress more than a
kiss. Gentle, fleeting. Then his lips skimmed over her cheek, nibbled down the
column of her throat. His hands moved over her skin softly, slowly.

Arden thought she knew by now what it was like to make
love with Shaun. She was wrong. Everything was different this time. The very
air she breathed seemed richer, intoxicatingly sweet. Every moment stretched
into an eternity, drawing her inexorably deeper into a swirling vortex of
building desire. Each kiss was agonizingly tender, every touch gloriously
gentle.

When he finally sheathed himself in a condom and
slipped between her thighs, filling her, fulfilling her, nothing else in the
world mattered.

He kissed her again. "I don't ever want to leave
here."

"We have to," Arden said, with more than a
little regret. She glanced over at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock on
the bedside table. "Very soon, in fact. We have less than an hour before
checkout."

"It would be worth paying for an extra day to
hold you in my arms just a little while longer."

Arden's heart sighed. Gorgeous, sexy, and charming.
"You could come back to my place and hold me for free."

She hadn't intended to issue such an invitation. She
didn't want to assume anything beyond the right now; she didn't want to think
about what would happen when they had to return to the real world.

"Or you could come home with me," Shaun
countered. "I have a king-size bed."

"How do you know I don't?" Arden demanded,
both pleased and relieved by the reciprocal invitation.

"You're a very practical woman, and a king-size
bed is impractical for a woman sleeping alone. Besides, I peeked into your
bedroom while you were packing."

"Practical," she echoed. "As in
boring?"

Shaun smiled. "No. One thing you're not is
boring." He nuzzled her throat. "What do you say, Doherty? Will you
come home with me?"

Arden hesitated, not because she didn't want to, but
because she did. Maybe too much.

"Please," he said.

"Okay."

*
* *

A
short while later he pulled into the driveway beside the two-story
Georgian-style house that was his home. It wasn't the first time Arden had been
there. In fact, she'd attended a barbecue at his house a few months earlier, but
that was with Nikki and Colin. This time it was just her and Shaun, and she was
nervous. Terrified, even. Not of what would happen when she walked through the
door with him, but of what had already happened.

How could she keep sharing her body with this
incredible man and expect to keep her heart intact?

Then he pulled her into the house and closed the door
behind them. Arden met him eagerly, lips meshed, bodies aligned. He backed her
down the hallway and into the kitchen, then lifted her onto the table. She
wrapped her legs around him, drawing him closer to the heat pulsing inside her.
He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, then his tongue soothed the gentle
ache, slipped between her parted lips. Arden sighed, leaning into him, losing
herself in his kiss.

She felt his hands at the front of her blouse,
slipping the buttons free. His movements were steady, quick, determined. Then
the garment was gone, and his hand covered her breast through the thin fabric
of her bra. She gasped as his thumb moved over the already taut peak, enticing,
teasing. She felt her blood heat, pulse, and she went to work tugging his shirt
out of his jeans.

His lips skimmed along her jaw, down the column of her
throat, and she shivered with anticipation. His mouth moved lower, over the
curve of her breast, to fasten over the straining nipple. "I seem to
recall you promising me a king-size bed," Arden managed to get the words
out between gasps and moans.

"In a minute," he promised, pushing her
skirt up over her thighs.

Just as the doorbell chimed.

Shaun hesitated, swore under his breath, then lifted
Arden into his arms and moved decisively to the stairs.

"I'm not answering that," he said, when the
bell chimed again.

"It might be important," Arden said.

"Not as important as getting you upstairs,"
Shaun told her.

Arden smiled. "Go to the door to get rid of your
visitor, then we can go upstairs."

He set her feet back on the ground, pressed a brief
but firm kiss on her already swollen lips. "Don't move."

"I'm not going anywhere," she assured him.

He pulled open the door, his most ominous glare in
place. He didn't want to give his uninvited visitor any hope that he was in the
mood for company. The only person he wanted to be with right now was Arden,
naked and sweaty. He swore again when he found his brother on the doorstep.
"Don't you have a wife to go home to?" Shaun asked testily.

Colin didn't wait for an invitation but pushed past
his brother and into the house. "She's having some kind of candle party
tonight—told me not to rush home."

"Well, find somewhere else to hang out,"
Shaun advised. "I'm busy."

"Busy?" Colin's confusion edged away as he
smiled in understanding. "Hot date?"

Before Shaun could confirm, as he intended to do in
order to speed his brother out the door, Arden stepped into the kitchen. The
buttons on her blouse had been refastened, the hem tucked back into her skirt,
but her lips were bare, swollen from his kisses, and her hair sexily
disheveled.

She looked as if she'd just rolled out of bed, and he
couldn't wait to roll her into his. It didn't matter that they'd already made
love more than half a dozen times this weekend, he wanted her again, wanted her
with an intensity that shook him to the very core.

"Just me," Arden told Colin, forcing a
smile.

"Arden." Colin looked from his wife's cousin
to his brother, and back again.

"Shaun, um, offered to lend me some research …
for a case I'm working on."

The words spilled out of Arden's mouth in a rush, and
with them came a stab of pain, quick and unexpected. He hadn't realized it
would be so easy, so effortless, for her to hurt him.

He knew that she was reluctant to let Nikki and Colin
know they were involved, and he thought he understood. But he also thought if
she was willing to take their relationship to the next level, she'd be willing
to admit to others that they were a couple. Obviously, he'd been wrong.

Arden turned back to him, but she wouldn't quite meet
his eyes. "If you can't find the book, maybe it's at your office. I'll
give you a call on Monday and pick it up there."

Hurt turned to anger, began to churn hot inside him.
"Fine," he agreed abruptly.

She grabbed her purse from where she'd dropped it on
the counter, just minutes before she'd ended up panting and breathless beneath
him on the kitchen table, her blouse open, her skirt up around her hips. Now
she was acting as if none of that had meant anything, as if the weekend hadn't
meant anything.