“My mother thinks I should diet.”
“What do you think?” His brain screamed to proceed with caution. Some women were weird when it came to talk of food and diets and body shape. He steered a clear course away from women focused on lettuce leaves.
“I think I’m a healthy weight for my build and height. I exercise and eat properly. The specialist told my mother the same thing,” she said with a trace of smugness.
He barked out a laugh, and repeated it when he realized the sound would startle his brothers. There hadn’t been much to laugh about during the last year. “Personally, I think you look perfect.” Eager to see the rest of her, he directed his hands to the waistband of her sweat pants. “I’m going to take these off now.” He suited actions to words, holding his breath to reveal the rest of her body. She wore tiny pink panties, but the lacy confection didn’t conceal much. Unable to help himself, he grasped her hips and leaned closer to catalogue her scent. Flowers and warm spices and all things nice. A slight muskiness. He’d expected a perfume with a more sophisticated note, a designer fragrance.
“The verdict?” A note of anxiety had crept into her voice.
“Very nice. Shall we move to my bedroom?”
She nodded. “Let’s jump to the hot sex and burn off my nerves. I’m excited but anxious too.” She bit her bottom lip, tugged on it with her teeth as if she was afraid she’d revealed too much.
The honesty in her warmed him through. Maria had never… His brothers had told him she was cheating on him, but he hadn’t believed them. Laura didn’t seem deceitful or hold secrets close to her ample chest. He huffed out a sound that wasn’t far from another laugh. Instead, she blurted thoughts without mental censorship.
“Are you going to say something?”
“I think that’s a good idea. Dinner can wait.”
“Wait! What if the power goes out?”
Still some lurking anxiety, he mused. “Sensible wee thing, aren’t you?”
“Someone needs to observe the practicalities.” This time her words held a defensive note.
“That wasn’t a criticism, sweetheart. I have a generator, and I’ll stoke the fire before we head for the bedroom.”
She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
“Go and climb into my bed to keep warm. It’s the room before the spare one. The light switch is inside the door, to the left.”
She turned away.
“Laura.”
“Yes?”
“When you get to the bedroom, take off the rest of your clothes. I want you to ready yourself so I can slide right inside your heat without too many preliminaries. I find my control is teetering.” To his bemusement, it was true. Maria had called him cold, a machine, but he didn’t believe the words any longer. He burned for Laura. They both needed a first, wild time to settle teetering nerves.
“Ready myself?”
“Masturbate.” The quick surge of pink to her cheeks charmed him. “Can you do that?”
Her chin lifted, and she met his gaze without fear. “I can do that.”
“But don’t get yourself off. We’ll do that bit together. I sleep on the right side of the bed.”
Laura’s heart thudded against the wall of her chest like a panicked sparrow trying to escape an enclosed space. Ready herself for him. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t masturbated before, but it was a secret thing, something she did for herself and herself alone.
Somehow, she managed to stumble to Dallas’s bedroom, her minding spinning with thoughts of Dallas, the things they’d do together.
Hot sex. Nasty sex. Bossy sex.
He intended to order her around when she fought so hard for her freedom every day. If she refused, she might lose her chance to enjoy the focus of that Dallas O’Grady charm.
A low-level hum still simmered in her abdomen, but the pinball game of pinging nerves ceased.
She flicked on the light and studied the queen-size bed, its autumn-colored quilt, the dark furniture and the large windows. Aware of a ticking clock, she drew the curtains, closing out the night. She turned on a bedside lamp and switched off the main light, liking the subdued, more intimate shadows better.
