“Thank goodness you thought of it because yes, there’s still the possibility, and heaven forbid I should be an unwed pregnant senator.” Yet she’d almost leapt into bed without protection.
Then he robbed her of the ability to think again with the stroke of his hands over bare flesh, his mouth to her breasts. And no way was she missing out on the opportunity to savor every inch of his muscular body, his chest, his legs, the hard hot length of him in her hand.
They weren’t inexperienced youths. She knew what she wanted, what she needed and she didn’t hesitate to show him. Thank goodness he had the smart sense and a strong enough ego to growl in appreciation.
She was a lucky woman tonight.
He tucked her underneath him and she hooked her arms around his shoulders, gliding a foot along the length of one of his legs. She couldn’t stop the purr of pleasure over the warm weight of him settling atop her, the unmistakable pressure of his arousal ready, so near. He smiled, and she held that image in her mind as her eyes drifted closed at the muscle-melting sensation of him sliding inside her.
She wanted to capture each moment of this into her memory but thoughts jumbled with each bold stroke of his body into hers. Somewhere in her scrambled mind, she realized that instincts were taking over. Her legs wrapped around his h*ps to hold on, tipping her h*ps for more, wonderful more.
She lost herself in the friction of sweat-slickened skin against skin. Touching. Tasting. Mumbled encouragement and appreciation and moans. Somehow in a distant part of her brain she wondered if their longtime friendship had brought a synchronicity of instinctive knowledge to their coupling, because this went beyond right.
With the building swell inside her, she feared it would end too quickly, yet he seemed to sense her frustration and slowed. Hank rolled to his back, shifting her on top, taking her to the edge again only to stop short. Time and time again, he teased her until she no longer worried about finishing fast at all.
“Enough.” She gripped, raked at his back with her nails.
“Not hardly.” He nipped at her shoulder.
Still, he tucked her beneath him again and began purposeful thrusts she knew…would carry her…to…
Yes.
Completion.
“Penny for them.” Hank popped a candied date into Ginger’s mouth, wondering what swirled around in that brilliant mind of hers.
How long had it been since he’d genuinely worried about the inner workings of a female’s brain? Not that he didn’t care what women thought or felt. But tonight, her emotions mattered on an intensely personal level and, for a man who dealt in a more factual world, reading chick nuances wasn’t his strong suit.
“A penny?” Ginger teased a sugar-glazed grape along his mouth. “We’re in another country. The currency won’t work.”
“You’re evading.” He scooped up a handful of almonds.
“You’re perceptive.” She snitched a roasted chestnut from his palm and rolled to her back.
He might not be known for being emotionally perceptive, but he could see when a person was avoiding answering. “We’ve known each other too long to misread.”
Her emerald eyes finally slid up to meet his. “What do you see then?”
“You’re scared,” he said with a sudden surety.
He waited for her to deny it…but she didn’t.
A sad smile tipped her kiss-swollen lips. “Seems silly, doesn’t it? I’m forty-nine years old, Hank. I’m not some young thing to get all fluttery.”
Not young? Maybe. But he couldn’t think of a time she’d looked more beautiful to him than now with her hair all tousled around her face, her shoulders bare above the covers, a sexy hint of whisker burn along her neck.
He weighed his words carefully. “When I was a ‘young thing’ I used to think fifty-five looked old, but now that I’m there, I don’t feel old. I believe the heart doesn’t have an age.”
She blinked fast. “Oh my,” she cupped his face, “I never would have guessed you’re a closet romantic.”
“Shhh.” He winced in exaggerated horror. “Don’t say it quite so loud. You’ll ruin my badass warrior reputation.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
He could sense the fear in her as surely as he’d ever felt it radiating off any airman about to head into battle. He couldn’t deny some of it stirring in his own gut. He’d been there. Felt the debilitating loss. “I know how you grieved for Benjamin. I was there just like you were there when I lost Jessica. Love like that is only supposed to come around once in a lifetime.”
“Soul mates.” Surprisingly, the words didn’t carry any kind of reverence, more frustration. “It scared me, thinking of all those lonely years, my children so big already since we’d started having them so early.” She shook off the faraway look and rejoined him in the present, taking another one of the almonds from his hand. “The offer to take over Benjamin’s senatorial seat was a godsend. With all that was going on in Congress, I had something to dig my teeth into.”