Weddings Collection. Кэрол Мортимер
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to have him use that damn logic of his to ruin this.
“That’s what I mean now. Are you going to make me beg?” Tears shimmered in her eyes, tears that caught the sun, going straight into his heart as if they rode on a laser beam. “Because I won’t beg, Kevin. I—”
Unable to resist the power of her tears, unable to turn away from her, and himself, any longer, Kevin brought his mouth down to hers.
A rapture seized them, until the kiss burned into both their souls.
Still kissing her, Kevin picked her up in his arms again.
This time, she didn’t push him away, didn’t resist. This time she surrendered herself completely to him, because it was what she wanted. To be his. To have him be hers. Everything else didn’t matter.
Feeling his way around, Kevin entered the farmhouse using the rear door. The music from the radio she always left on followed them as he slowly made his way through the kitchen.
When he stopped kissing her, June moaned. Her limbs had been reduced to the consistency of churned butter and she was afraid that he was going to try to argue with her again. She could hardly pull two words together in her brain.
Drawing air into her oxygen-depleted lungs, she slowly blew out a breath, then said, “What?”
“Your bedroom?”
He was asking directions. He was a rare man, indeed.
Kevin saw the smile that curved her lips enter her eyes as she pointed toward the front of the house.
“That way,” she breathed.
Knowing he shouldn’t, having no choice, Kevin went in the direction she’d indicated.
“You know,” he told her, “you should eat occasionally.” He felt he was carrying nothing. “The paint cans weighed more.”
June curled her body into him, glorying in the heat she felt radiating from him. “What I lack in weight I make up in staying power,” she murmured.
Her whole body tingled with anticipation. He’d leeched the sadness out of her, the sorrow that had threatened to drown her, replacing it with a desire so intense she didn’t think she could draw a deep breath without feeling it consume her.
He smiled down at her and she could feel the effects of his expression right down to her very core. “No argument there.”
“Finally,” she breathed.
She meant the single word to encompass both his verbal surrender and the fact that they had reached her bedroom. It was the larger of the two, though not by much. It had been her parents’ bedroom once. It had taken her several weeks before she’d decided to use it instead of remaining in the one she’d shared with her siblings.
The latter was smaller, but here at least the memories had been mostly happy ones. She wasn’t certain what she’d feel in the room that her parents had slept in. Loved in. It had taken her a while to settle in with the ghosts.
And now she discovered that one of the ghosts was still among the living.
No, she wasn’t going to go there, she upbraided herself. Not now, not when she was going to finally make love with Kevin. The way she realized that she’d always wanted to. Maybe that was why she’d always kept everyone else at arm’s distance. Because she’d been waiting for someone like him.
And maybe she was just being vulnerable right now, but she didn’t want to explore it. She just wanted to feel it. To feel that excitement she knew had to be there rushing through her veins.
“Stop,” she ordered softly.
He was certain she’d changed her mind. He stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at her and was surprised when, instead of pushing herself out of his arms, she raised her head to his and kissed him.
And took away the doubts he harbored.
As he crossed the threshold into June’s room, he was barely aware of his surroundings. There was precious little to take in. Like the rest of the house, it had an economy of furnishings, an abundance of disarray. She was no better a housekeeper in her bedroom than she was in the rest of the house.
He wasn’t looking for a housekeeper. Just the keeper of his soul.
He welcomed a little disorder. His life, he decided, had been far too orderly. Too restricted. Because even now, it was tugging at him, warning him of the steps he was taking and their consequences.
But his blood was too hot and rushing too loudly for him to take heed any longer.
Very gently, Kevin laid her on her bed.
The blue-and-white down comforter was already half off the bed and she pushed it aside, letting it fall to the floor. She lay there, waiting for him. Her eyes reached out to him in a silent invitation.
He had no idea where he found the strength to make her a final offer. “Last chance to back out.”
Even as he said it, his gut tightened, afraid she’d listen to him at the very last moment. Afraid June would come to her senses the way he no longer could come to his.
She lay there a long moment, just looking at him. He had no idea what she was thinking. “I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered.
It was all he needed to hear.
Stripping off his shirt, he threw it aside onto the comforter that had sagged to the floor. His eyes never left hers as he came to her. Kevin slipped his hand underneath her blouse, softly skimming along the delicate skin he found there.
Her heart pounding, she took his hand and slowly moved it to her breast. Her breath caught, trapped by the look in his eyes as she felt his hand cover her.
He could feel her heart hammering. Keeping time with his, he thought.
His mouth came down to hers again.
Kevin kissed her over and over again, melting them both even as the fire rose higher, demanding more from each.
Consuming both.
She almost tore her shirt from her body, wanting to feel his hands all over her. Wanting to feel that final, infinite surge in her veins, the one that promised to wash everything else from her.
Her fingers were fumbling, getting in each other’s way.
“Easy,” he whispered against her hair. “Easy.”
With patient fingers, he undid the rest of the buttons on her work shirt, guiding the material from her breasts, from her shoulders, until it fell away completely. Her skin was like cream, soft and tempting. He struggled to keep his mind focused on putting her pleasure above his own. He pressed a warm, teasing kiss to the swell above her breasts as he undid the hook at the back of her bra.
She shrugged out of the lacy affair. He caressed every newly exposed inch of her, making her shiver in anticipation.
Needs she’d never known before came racing to the fore, clamoring for more. Clamoring for fulfillment. Making her yearn.
For pleasure.
For him.
She began fumbling with the button on his jeans, unable to release it.
His soft laugh echoed in her head as Kevin moved her hand away and undid the button himself.
He saw the look in her eyes. She thought he was laughing at her, he realized. Maybe even patronizing her.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. He was enjoying her. Reveling in the wonder of her.
Kevin buried his face in the slope of her neck, breathing in the fragrance of her hair, of her skin. It made his senses swirl at a dizzying speed.
Swiftly he undid the button on her jeans, sliding the denim along her hips. Her underwear rode down with it.
And then she was completely