Four
As she watched Cole get out of bed to remove his jeans, Paige knew what they were about to do was absolute insanity. But she didn’t care. For once in her life she was going to throw caution to the wind and live for the moment. She briefly wondered if she was finally experiencing the rebellious stage that she’d skipped in her teens.
But as Cole tossed his jeans to the side, got back into bed and took her in his arms, she ceased thinking. There would be plenty of time to analyze her decision tomorrow. Tonight she just wanted to get lost in the comfort of his lovemaking and once again feel as if someone cared for her, as if someone needed her.
He immediately placed his mouth over hers and gave her a kiss so filled with passion and need that it took her breath away. As he tenderly explored her with the same thoroughness he had done the first time he’d kissed her, Paige gave herself up to the desire threatening to consume her.
The delicious sensations Cole was creating were electrifying, and she was only vaguely aware when he lifted her nightshirt over her head and tossed it aside. The feel of his calloused palm on her bare breast and the pad of his thumb gently chafing her tight nipple caused her head to spin. She had never experienced anything as amazing as his tender lovemaking.
When he skimmed his hand down her side to her hip, then slipped his fingers inside the elastic waistband of her panties, heat flowed throughout her body and sparks flashed behind her closed eyes. But when he parted her to softly stroke the tiny nub of intense sensations within, she felt as if she would burn to a cinder.
Wanting to explore him as he explored her, she caressed his firm flesh as she moved her hand from his chest down his abdomen and beyond. When she found him, she gently measured his length and girth, and then explored the fullness below. Her reward was a heartfelt groan rumbling up from deep inside him.
The strength of his need for her was overwhelming and the knowledge that she had created that kind of passion in him filled her with a feminine power she’d never experienced before. But when he moved to test her readiness for him, her hands stilled and she gave in to the delightful ache of her own building desire.
“Cole, I...need you,” she pleaded.
“And I need you.” He paused a moment before he shook his head. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do this, Paige. I don’t have anything to protect you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, feeling a little sad. “I miscarried over ten years ago, and I haven’t been able to become pregnant since. I doubt that I ever will.”
“Maybe one day you will,” he said hoarsely as he parted her knees with one of his. “But right now, I want you so much, I’m willing to risk it. I’m going to love you now, Paige. Is that what you want?”
“Y-yes. Please...I think I’ll go out of...my mind...if you don’t,” she said, her body burning with the need for him to make them one.
As she stared up at him, Cole took her hand in his and together they guided him to her. Without a word, he slowly moved forward and as he sank himself deep inside her, she realized that she had never felt as complete as she did at that moment.
Lowering his head, he gave her a kiss so tender it brought tears to her eyes as he began a slow rocking against her. His gentle movements and the passion in his kiss were an intoxicating combination and she knew for certain that lovemaking had never been as beautiful or as meaningful as it was at that moment with Cole.
All too soon the building tension inside her took on an urgency that only total fulfillment could relieve. Apparently Cole sensed she was close to finding the release they both sought because he quickened his pace, and in no time, Paige was set free by the waves of pleasure flowing through her. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly to her when she felt the surge of his body deep inside hers. A moment later he groaned and gave up his essence with one final thrust.
When he collapsed on top of her, she held him to her and scrunched her eyes shut as reality intruded. Cole was her late husband’s brother and she had practically insisted that he make love to her.
Did he think she had used him as a substitute for Craig? That was the furthest thing from the truth, but how could she tell him something like that? She didn’t even know how to go about starting that conversation.
She could count on one hand the number of times in the past several years that Craig had made love to her. And even though he had encouraged her to move into another bedroom because of his restlessness during sleep, she suspected the real reason behind his suggestion had been because he’d no longer desired her.