“Now come to me.” He gently pulled her to him.
She went willingly, more than ready for his kiss, yet unprepared for the sensual onslaught he made on her mouth. For long moments his tongue brushed hers like a paintbrush to canvas, each touch adding more layers of sensation, intensifying with each caress, bringing her to life. She moaned at the taste of him, a combination of fine whiskey and a flavor that could only be Flynn.
He broke off the kiss and leaned back. “You are so beautiful,” he said huskily, his eyes appraising her features, making her skin quiver, making her heart race, making her wonder how she’d existed before she knew of his touch.
His gaze traveled down to the creamy swell of her br**sts. “I want to see all of you,” he murmured, pushing her thin silky jacket from her shoulders, stripping away the layers of consciousness between them as the material slithered to the floor. Her dress followed and her stockings, leaving her in a black lacy bra and panties.
Suddenly she felt a little self-conscious. “This is embarrassing,” she managed to say, quickly putting her hands across the front of herself, knowing it was useless to try and cover herself, but doing it all the same.
He moved her hands aside. “There’s no need to hide from me, Danielle.” Then he stilled, his piercing eyes riveting on her face. “Now it’s just you and me. No one else.”
She knew what he was saying. That the rest of the world, including her baby, had to take a backseat for the moment.
“I understand,” she murmured.
Tiny flames leaped in his eyes and he began to make love to her in earnest. He undid her bra, letting it drop on top of the other clothes, then enlaced her br**sts with warm hands that made her throat close off. His head lowered and his mouth suckled first one nipple then the next, drawing a moan from deep within her, making her burn with need. She curled her fingers through his hair and held him to her.
“It’s not enough,” she murmured, wanting to touch more of him. No, she needed to touch more of him. All of him. Her hands slid beneath his jacket, her palms smoothing over the hot skin under the material of his white shirt, spreading even more heat from his body to hers.
But before she could touch him further, he groaned and stepped back to pull his jacket off, rapidly followed by his shirt. Then he reached for the zipper of his trousers. She gave a small gasp as he stripped down to nothing before her very eyes.
Yet “nothing” could be further from the truth. He was magnificent, with a dark smattering of hair arrowing down his chest, over the rigid muscles of his stomach, to the irrefutable proof that he wanted her.
Heart beating wildly, she hesitated for a split second. “You’re gorgeous,” she said, reaching for him, her hand sliding around his tight, hard erection to hold him as a lover. She watched with satisfaction as his jaw clenched and unclenched while she got to know him, heard the harsh uneven sound of his breathing when her thumb traced the smooth head of his arousal.
A shudder rumbled through him. “Enough! I want to pleasure you,” he growled, taking her hands away and placing them on his chest, pulling her into his rip-cord arms. His eyes darkened with something primitive as he nudged her intimately, her thin panties the last barrier between them.
His mouth covered hers hungrily, and she kissed him in return until she felt the room twirl around her, until she could feel herself being guided, until the bed touched the back of her knees and she was suddenly helped down onto the mattress.
And then his lips began to trek a downward journey to where she melted for him. He whispered words of passion as he slid her panties down her legs, then kissed his way up them, teasing nerve endings along the inside of her calves, up along her inner thighs, before settling in to kiss her intimately. She gasped in sweet delight as Flynn marked her with his mouth.
Then his tongue stroked her, and her stirring pulse jumped to attention and rushed through her veins. He quickened his pace, and so did her pulse. She’d never felt more alive.
She wanted more.
More of this.
More of him.
More of everything.
But before she could burst with pleasure, he came up over her and nestled full length between her thighs, his arms supporting himself so he wouldn’t lean on her too heavily.
He looked down at her, his eyes glittering with desire. “Are you sure?” he rasped, waiting, watching.
Her heart turned over as she looked up at the forceful planes of his face, knowing he wasn’t the type of man to hesitate taking what he wanted, yet he hesitated with her.
“Come into me, Flynn,” she said, her voice catching with the intensity of the moment.
He gave a low groan and parted her legs farther with his thighs. He entered her slowly, carefully, his eyes locked on hers. Those eyes devoured her as he set a slow sensuous rhythm, moving inside her with leisurely thrusts that were far from casual and built the tension inside her.
As if he felt it, too, he suddenly lowered his head and took her mouth by storm, and she gave her lips up to him as she had offered her body. He took it all, kissing her erotically, his tongue dipping in and out, around her lips, making a flush spread throughout her as his thrusts increased momentum, each movement sucking her more and more into a vortex of sensation.
And then sheer magic took over as she was sucked down and down, drowning in a shock wave of the most exquisite pleasure. She’d never felt this way before. Never suspected.
Then all thought left her as she fell into the deepest cli**x she’d ever had, every fiber in her body quivering around this man, quivering for him, with him.
Dear God, she never wanted it to end.
For a few seconds more, Flynn remained inside Danielle, leaning on his arms, looking down at the radiant picture she made beneath him. She was so soft to touch, so beautiful to look at, he didn’t want to move away.
And he certainly didn’t want other men knowing her like this, came an unbidden thought, as an intense streak of possessiveness filled him. She was his, for as long as he wanted her, and right now that was going to be quite a while. A man couldn’t make love to a woman like Danielle and not want to keep her as his own.
Except she was pregnant.
Pregnant with another man’s child.
And she hadn’t hesitated to use that to her advantage.
Just then she moved slightly and he pushed his thoughts aside, determined to ignore them. There were other things to think about when he had a sexy woman in his arms. “Are you okay?”
“Wonderful,” she murmured, her eyes sensuously drowsy.
He was tempted to arouse her again, but he could see she was tired and needed a rest. Giving her a hard kiss, he rolled onto his back, pulling her close to his side, her head resting in the curve of his arm. She fit snugly against him.
“Flynn, I’m so…” her eyelids fluttered shut “…tired.”
“Sleep,” he said, and kissed the top of her head, then heard her breathing soften and deepen as she fell into a deep slumber.
He lay there for a long time, thinking about this woman in his arms and what it meant that she had given herself to him. If he hadn’t known she was a con artist, he would have said she wasn’t a woman who would give herself lightly. He would have said she’d have to care about him in some small way to be lying here like this with him. And he definitely would have said that for her it wouldn’t just be about sexual attraction.
Not the way it was for him.
He swallowed hard and knew he was lying to himself. He found Danielle deeply attractive, but he had also begun to care about her in spite of himself. Yet it was a feeling he didn’t appreciate or want, and with the same determination that had taken him from a pauper to a very rich man, he put his emotions aside to concentrate on what was important. And that was right here, right now.
During the night he reached for her and they made love again, and this time he was the one who fell heavily asleep as soon as it was over.
But he still knew when she slipped out of bed in the early hours of the morning. In the moonlight he watched her pad nak*d to the bathroom across the hall, his body stirring even before she’d closed the door behind her.
He waited for her return, the bed feeling big and empty.
Right at that moment the bathroom door opened and he caught a glimpse of her dressed in her bathrobe before she flicked the light off. Good heavens. Did she think a bit of material would stop him from wanting her? Stop him needing her in his arms?
But instead of coming back to bed, she quietly went and opened a drawer and took out some clothes. He knew then what she was up to. His mouth thinned. She was about to sneak out without waking him and go into another room to spend the rest of the night. Perhaps on the sofa.
And the next time he saw her she would have put up that wall of reserve again. He wouldn’t allow it.
“Come back to bed, Danielle.”
Startled, her gaze flew across to him. “Flynn! I thought you were asleep.”
He leaned up on his elbow, letting her know he was wide-awake and not about to let her run away. “You thought wrong.”
“I was just going to—”
“Take that robe off and come back to bed,” he murmured, lifting the sheet, aching to make love to her, but prepared to let her sleep if need be.
She hesitated.
“Danielle,” he said firmly, not prepared to wait any longer.
She placed her bundle of clothes on the dresser and quickly undid the robe, dropping it from her shoulders, exposing her glorious nak*d body to him, making him catch his breath.
Then she slid in next to him and he pulled her up close. His heart thumped when she curled her fingers through his chest hair in silent invitation, and soon she had him making love to her, until she begged him to take her again and he could no more deny her than deny himself. Afterward, they fell into a deep sleep in each other’s arms.
He awoke to find her still in his arms, the side of her face pressed against his chest. He decided he liked waking up next to a beautiful woman like Danielle. In fact, he rather liked the idea of having her in his bed all the time.
She began to stir. The sheet covered her shoulders but didn’t quite hide her bare br**sts, a sight he enjoyed as she stretched, her leg sliding along his own, thigh rubbing against thigh, her fingers flexing out over his stomach, fanning lower.
She froze and her eyes flew open. For a moment he saw the confusion, then a flush began to rise up her throat and into her cheeks. Her reaction was just a simple thing, but it told him she was no longer used to being in a man’s arms like this. The thought warmed him.
And then she pushed against him and tried to sit up. “Um…I think you’d better leave.”
He scowled and held her still, making her look at him. “We said no regrets, Danielle.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s Monica. If she comes by…If she sees you here…like this…” She winced.
All at once he realized Danielle was frightened of her mother-in-law. She may not admit it to herself, but it was there.
And after the little episode he’d had with Monica himself yesterday morning, he shouldn’t have been surprised. The older woman definitely had a way of disturbing people.
Hell, the woman was disturbed, herself. And if she thought Danielle had gotten involved with him—worse, was sleeping with him—she’d be more than disturbed. Seeing Danielle’s reaction now, it suddenly didn’t seem so far-fetched for Monica to hurt her and the baby. And he knew he could only protect them so much. He swallowed hard. God, if Monica hurt either one of them, he’d never forgive himself.