Her heartbeat tripled. “But you aren’t now.”
She blinked and found herself covered by his naked body, his warm skin and his even hotter, rigid flesh. Her body molded to accept his harder shape and contours and she absorbed his raw, masculine scent. He bracketed her head in his hands and his lips met hers in a dizzying kiss. He held nothing back as his tongue delved into the recesses of her mouth. Her body recognized the prelude of what was to come, filling with need, bursting with desire.
He eased his hands between her legs and his
fingers did a slippery glide into her feminine heat. His earthy groan reverberated through her. “I promised you hard, fast and deep,” he murmured.
She raised her hips, letting him know she was ready.
His sexy smile was devastating. “And I always keep my word.” After reaching for protection, he reared back. His eyes darkened as he spread her thighs wide and entered her with one demanding thrust.
Juliette shut her eyes and intense sensations took over. She felt him—thick and hard inside her, pausing to let her adjust and shifting so she could take him farther into her. Her heart seemed connected to her body as fantasy and reality meshed and melded into one.
She nearly peaked then and if the guttural sound that ripped from his throat was any indication, he was close too. But her emotional reaction was far more potent than the physical sensations rocking her body. Because joining with Doug rocked her world.
She wasn’t a virgin but she might as well have been, so new and enlightening were the feelings and emotions clogging her throat.
Love.
There was that word again. But she had no time to process the meaning. He raised himself up, slowly, allowing her to feel the exquisite sensation of his enlarged member gliding out of her, and giving her body time to moisten and stretch farther to accommodate his size, length and intentions.
Instinctively she bent her legs to keep him inside her. Keep him a part of her. “Doug.” She whispered his name as he drove himself home—hard, fast and deep, just as he’d promised.
“Is this what you had in mind?” He slid out again only to return with more force than before.
“Yes.” She’d been waiting so long for this moment, for this man, that climax wasn’t far off. The waves crested, higher and faster, washing over her entire being until she was beyond thought, beyond reason.
He found the perfect rhythm, but this time he raised himself above her, bracketing her head and holding his weight with his hands, so all she felt was him, moving inside her, hard and hot, thick and firm…
Her hips jerked up to meet each incredible thrust. She forced her heavy eyelids open. The emotion she saw in his eyes and the taut expression on his face matched the emotions rioting through her.
“Doug, please.” She wasn’t even sure what more she could want.
“Deeper?” he asked, his deep voice barely controlled.
“Oh, yes.”
“Then help me out, sweetheart.”
She wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her femininity into him, so each consecutive lunge buried him more fully within her. “Faster.” She spoke the last on a gasp for air.
He complied, moving faster and harder, taking her up, up, up and over, into a burst of blinding light and waves of unending ecstasy. He let out a loud groan, her climax triggering his. Or maybe he’d been waiting for her, but they came in unison, his hot breath on her cheek and her name on his lips.
Minutes later, cocooned in Doug’s arms, her heartbeat slowly returned to normal. But Juliette knew without a doubt that everything else had changed.
After Stuart’s betrayal, love had been the last thing she’d believed she’d wanted or thought she’d ever find. Her fantasy—once she realized she had one—was to get past the hurt and know she was desirable, not because of her family or political connections, but for just being her. But she had fallen in love instead. Fallen fast, deep and hard.
And now that she had, she refused to take a wait-and-see attitude with her life and her future. Perhaps her newfound determination to take charge had something to do with Stuart’s demand that she keep silent, and his absolute belief that she would comply. Or perhaps it had more to do with loving a special man who she refused to lose after this vacation was over. At least not for lack of trying.
So although she’d keep silent about Stuart, at least for now, she had every intention of telling Doug she loved him. With a little luck he felt the same and happily ever after wouldn’t be a farfetched notion for Juliette Stanton, Senator Stanton’s daughter.
DOUG LAY AWAKE long after Juliette had dozed off. He inhaled, taking in the fragrant scent of her hair and the musky reminder of all they’d shared. They’d skipped dinner out and called in for room service, then made love one more time. Although his body was temporarily sated, his heart wasn’t even close. How could it be when too much was uncertain?
He needed to know they had a future and the only way that could happen would be for him to come clean and hope she could find a way to understand and forgive. Considering she’d been hurt recently by a man who’d used her, Doug had his doubts. But he refused to lump himself in the same category as Stuart Barnes because Doug loved Juliette and had never set out to hurt her. He stifled a wry laugh. He was a master at using people for professional ends and if he lost his greatest desire now, it was probably no more than he deserved. Because, initially, he had set out to use her—no matter what his reasons or how good his intentions seemed at the time—just like her ex-fiancé.
She sighed, stirring in his arms. He brushed her tangled hair off her face and let her curl more snugly against him. He might not know what she ate for breakfast when she was late for work or how easily her living habits would gel with his, but he had no doubt they could make a long-term commitment work. And he was certain he wanted not just to have an affair or to live together but a till-death-do-us-part commitment like his parents shared.
His certainty was born of his past. He’d never experienced anything as all-encompassing or strong as what he felt for Juliette. And he couldn’t mistake the difference in his feelings for his past lovers and his current love.