Felicity took another sip of her wine and rested her head against the back of the sofa with a contented sigh. “Hope loved the zoo. She wouldn’t stop talking about it at bedtime. I’ll have to get her a few zoo books.”
“Don’t spare it another thought,” Rafael told her. “I’ll have someone go to town and get them tomorrow.”
Felicity turned her head and beamed at him, but after a moment, the silence turned into something else. “So…this counts as absolutely private time, doesn’t it?”
“Of course,” Rafael said automatically.
“No more visitors for the day? No more staff?” It hit him then, what she was hinting at.
“No. They’re off for the night.” He set his wine on the table next to them.
“I don’t have anything on my schedule,” Felicity said thoughtfully. “No lessons. Far fewer rules, since we’re in private. No parenting to do, now that Hope is asleep and the nanny is listening for her…”
“What are you suggesting?” Rafael slid closer to Felicity and put his arm around her. She snuggled into him.
“I’m suggesting that…” She took a moment to choose her words. “I’m suggesting that I want more of what we had in the kitchen last week.
“Hmm.” He pretended to gaze into nothingness, considering. “That was good…but a little frantic, don’t you think?” He took Felicity’s wine from her hand and put it next to his. “For tonight, I think we’ll have to…” He took her fully in his arms and tipped her back onto the sofa. “I think we’ll have to take it a bit slower.”
“Mmmm.” Felicity stretched her arms above her head as Rafael kissed down the side of her neck to the boat neck of her shirt. She’d changed into it after they got back from the zoo, and now he couldn’t wait to take it off of her. “Oh, no,” she said, faux worry in her voice. “You’ll have to move my shirt if you want to—”
Rafael reached down and tugged it off before she could finish the sentence, Felicity sitting up to help. Then he reached around behind her and undid her bra. Her breasts were gorgeous, her nipples already peaked, and he tipped her back onto the sofa to have his way with them. First, he circled one nipple with the pad of his thumb, then the other, and when he had her moaning, he pressed his mouth to hers and drank in those sweet sounds.
Felicity’s eyes flew open when he pulled back to take a breath. “I want to see you, too.”
That was an easy thing to grant her. He stood up and stripped off his clothes, naked in a matter of moments, and she sprawled on the sofa, looking at him with wide eyes. Wow, she mouthed, and Rafael had never felt such pride.
He helped her wriggle out of her jeans, then panties, and busied himself between her legs, licking and teasing for several minutes before Felicity pulled him up. “I’m ready,” she panted. “I’m ready.”
He had condoms hidden in the drawer of one of the side tables, and he rolled one on. Then he positioned himself between her legs, and this time he felt only his own urgency. They wouldn’t be interrupted, and he savored every single moment of entering her, inch by inch.
Felicity seemed to be savoring it too, with her eyes closed and her arms draped lazily over his back. She ran her fingernails lightly over the skin there as he pumped into her and rocked her hips upward, into his, meeting every movement. It was the kind of slow and sweet sex they’d never seemed to have time for before she left for America. Rafael’s need for her built steadily, unwaveringly rising to a crescendo that left him breathing hard. Even after his climax, he stayed inside her, his body still responding to hers as he worked his hips against her clit until she came with a shuddering gasp.
When it was over, Felicity smiled, her eyes still closed. “I could get used to that,” she said into his ear, making no move to separate them. Rafael didn’t mind this at all. He could see himself staying right here, on this sofa, with her forever.
“I’d like that,” he admitted. As always, he felt the pull of duty, of all his responsibilities…but he would return to them soon enough. For this moment, he was right where he wanted to be.
He kissed her earl
obe, then her temple. “I have an idea,” he murmured.
“What is it?”
“A shower,” he said.
They didn’t emerge from the bathroom for an hour.
9
Rafael couldn’t sleep.
Things were going well—he knew they were. But the better they went between him and Felicity, the more he struggled to reconcile all the versions of her that he knew.
There was the Felicity he’d met at first, who had burned so brightly with need for him that he couldn’t resist her. He’d wanted her, too—there was no doubt about that. But it had been the first time a woman had entered his life and seemed to bend all the available light toward her. He had never had the time or the inclination to feel that way before. It just hadn’t been in the cards. Felicity had changed all of that without even trying.
Then there had been the Felicity who disappeared. Who'd went to the United States and given birth to his child without saying a single word to him about it.
And then there was Felicity now. She was a devoted mother, and the more time they spent together, the more he thought she cared about him, too.