A Match for Celia

Though he didn’t move, she felt a faint quiver of reaction beneath her touch. “Sometimes,” he said, sounding as though he were choking.

“It pays off,” she murmured dreamily, snuggling against him. His arms closed around her, a tender trap. She made no effort to free herself. She was too happy where she was, held against his hard, warm, throbbing body.

Reed gave a broken groan and lowered her to the bed. He shed his slacks and briefs with more haste than grace and joined her on the huge, soft mattress. Celia welcomed him with open arms and an encouraging smile.

Whether out of consideration for her inexperience, or simply to prolong their pleasure, Reed moved very slowly. So slowly that within minutes, Celia was clutching at him, urging him to hurry. She felt as though she would shatter from a delicious combination of excitement, desire, anticipation and nerves.

He explored every inch of her with his hands, his lips. Her breasts, her throat, her stomach, her legs. Places so intimate that she blushed when he touched her there, then cried out with pleasure when he lingered.

Celia was a quivering mass of flesh long before he’d completed his investigation.

“Reed,” she said, her voice a shaken whisper. “Please. I need you.”

He moved upward and lay draped across her. He was so hard, so tense, that she knew it was difficult for him to wait. But still he moved slowly, pausing to smooth a strand of hair away from her damp cheek. “I want you so badly,” he said, his tone gruff, his eyes glittering with barely repressed need. “Don’t let me hurt you.”

“You won’t hurt me,” she said, trusting him then as she’d never trusted any man before. “You could never hurt me, Reed.”

He seemed to flinch. “I hope you remember that later,” he said obscurely, but he kissed her again before she

could ask him to clarify. By the time he released her mouth, she’d forgotten the question.

He made love to her so gently, so tenderly. If there was pain, it was fleeting. And the pleasure that followed more than compensated for any discomfort.

Dazed and sated, Celia lay for a long time against Reed’s damp, heaving chest. She moved one leg experimentally, finding that she was sore—but delightfully so. On the whole, she’d never felt better.

So this was love, she thought dreamily.

It seemed strange to her, now, that she hadn’t recognized it immediately.

“Are you all right?” Reed asked, tucking her tenderly into his shoulder. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“I feel wonderful,” she replied, then laughed softly. “I had no idea what I’ve been missing all these years.”

“You wouldn’t have felt that way with anyone but me,” Reed told her sternly.

She smiled at his tone. “Is that right?”

“That’s fact. So don’t even think about broadening your horizons to find out. I intend to be the only one to demonstrate anything you think you might have missed.”

She propped her chin on her hand and looked at him through her lashes. “You sound very fierce. Very possessive.”

His hand tightened in her hair. “You can bet on it. You’re mine now.”

“I didn’t know tax accountants were such a primitive breed,” Celia mused teasingly. It seemed safer at the moment to keep the conversation light—though Reed didn’t sound at all as if he were joking. The thought gave her an odd little thrill that seemed to be a mixture of nerves and pleasure.

Too fast, she found herself thinking. It’s happening too fast.

She tried very hard to ignore that annoying voice of warning.

Reed didn’t answer her comment about accountants. Instead, he kissed her until she was clinging to him again, teasing forgotten.

How could she want him again so soon? So desperately?

The very intensity of her hunger frightened her a bit. It was almost as though she felt she had to take advantage of every minute she had with him. Almost as though she knew their time together couldn’t last.

Impatiently calling herself a compulsive worrier, she pushed those worries aside and gave herself up to enjoyment.

Neither Reed nor Celia said anything for a long time after that. Celia simply didn’t have the energy for conversation, and as she lay bonelessly in Reed’s arms, she suspected that he felt much the same way. The thought made her smile in secret satisfaction.