“You’re the one with the answers.” He flung himself back into the chair. “You tell me.”
“I don’thavethe answers. That’s what this—this is all about! I don’t haveanyanswers. My mind is running in circles!”
“Could be I’m getting paid a pretty penny for this.”
“You don’t want the money,” she protested. “You’re not ambitious that way! You told me so the first time we met!”
“Could be I was lying. Could be it was all an act.” He jacked forward in the chair. “And since you’re hurling accusations, I’ve got a few of my own. You were a virgin for twenty-nine years. Then you met me, and within a week we became lovers. Strange things were happening to you. You were frightened. You needed protection.” He snorted. “Pretty high price to pay for it, I’d say.”
She felt as though she’d been slapped. “No! I didn’t—”
“Then again, maybe you were truly infatuated. I was different from the men you’d known. More physical. Brawny. But now that you’ve gotten what you wanted, you’re scrabbling for reasons to put me off.”
“No, Matt! How can you—”
“I don’t meet your high standards. Is that it, Lauren?” His eyes bore into hers. “You’re prepared to believe the worst because you just don’t think I’m good enough for you?”
Unable to bear another word, Lauren sprang up from the sofa and rounded on him. “That’s not true!” she screamed, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. It was a pitiful gesture, since he was so much larger than she, but her fury was beyond reason. “It’s not true! And I wasn’tpreparedto believe the worst!” His face blurred before her eyes. “But I had to know—had to know. I’d never been with another man, because no man had meant anything to me until you came along!” Tears trickled unheeded down her cheeks, and her hands stilled, impotent fingers clutching fistfuls of his shirt. “I’ve been dying, slowly dying for the past two days, grasping at straws, wondering if it was possible that—that I’d made a big mistake and given you everything and that you were really on the other side.”
Her knees gave out then, and she sank to the floor between his legs. Her head was bowed. She wept softly. “It hurt so to … to think that, and I knew I had to get … get it out in the open, but that hurt, too … and … and …” Her fingers curved around his knee, gently kneading in a silent bid for forgiveness.
Matt put a tentative hand on her hair. “And what, Lauren?” he asked softly.
Her head remained down, her muffled voice punctuated by sniffles. “I love you … and I’ve hurt you … and somehow this new life that was supposed … supposed to be so wonderful is all messed up!”
With a low groan, he slid to the floor. His thighs flanked hers as he took her into the circle of his arms. “Oh, baby. Sweetheart, shhh.” He rocked her tenderly. “You’ve just said the magic words. Nothing’s messed up. Everything’s suddenly clear.”
She shook her head against his chest, too upset to comprehend.
He spread a large hand over the back of her head, buried his face in her hair and pressed her closer. “It’s all right,” he whispered between soft kisses. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
Lauren let her tears flow. They were a purging of sorts. It wasn’t that she agreed with Matt or understood things as he seemed to, but being held in his arms this way, absorbing his strength and incredible tenderness, she felt herself slowly emerging from the hell she’d been living for the past few days.
He rubbed her back, caressing her gently. He whispered soft words of endearment and encouragement; with each one the darkness receded and she moved closer to the light. The warmth of his body thawed her inner chill. She fed on his strength like a creature starved for it.
Then he tipped her chin up and kissed her, and the last of her anguish broke and dissipated like a fever at the end of a long illness. She felt suddenly free, lightheaded and very much in love. Shaping her hands to his cheeks, she gave herself up to his kiss; but because she offered as much as she received, Matt was as aroused as she by the time they finally parted, panting.
While she strung slow kisses along the line of his jaw and his chin, she worked at the buttons of first her shirt, then his. His hands were already in full possession of her breasts before she’d finished the latter, and when she came to her knees to press closer, the squeeze of her thighs against the mounting ache between them was a necessity.
From numbness such a short time before to this rich blossoming of the senses, Lauren reeled. Everything about Matt turned her on, from the vitality of the thick, sun-burnished hair through which her fingers wound to the musky scent of the rough, sweat-dampened skin beneath her lips to the virile cords of muscle straining against the rest of her body.
“I love you,” she whispered against his mouth. “I love you, Matt.” Her hands slid from his head down his chest, savoring the journey. But urgency was quickly mounting. She released the snap of his jeans, then the zipper, and worked her way beneath the waistband of his shorts until her fingers found what they sought. He was thick and hard, needing her in the same way that she needed him.
He gave an openmouthed moan and whispered her name, then set her back and shoved his jeans lower. “Hurry,” he rasped as Lauren rocked back on her bottom and tore her own jeans off in jerky movements. He reached for her with urgent fingers, bringing her close until she straddled his thighs.
“Love me, Matt. Please, love me …”
“God, yes …”
His hands covered her buttocks, urging her downward even as she guided him inside her, and there was nothing then but paradise. His hands on her body, stroking … inflaming … lifting. His tongue wet and greedy on her throat, her collarbone, her breasts. Her own hands clutching his bronzed flesh, molding … straining … her mouth rapacious, her hips meeting his every thrust with matching ferocity.
They brought each other to near-peak after near-peak of exquisite sensation, and when the final climax hit, their cries were simultaneous, prolonged and distinctly triumphant.
For long moments, Lauren was aware of nothing but the state of heavenly bliss in which she floated. Then came Matt’s ragged breathing. It took her a minute longer to realize that her own throat was contributing to the rasping sound.
Very gradually the gasping eased, then ended, yet neither of them made a move to leave the other’s arms. Their bodies remained joined, and Matt defied the limpness of his limbs to hold her even closer.
“I love you, Lauren,” he murmured hoarsely. “Please, please don’t doubt me again. I think it would—” His voice broke. “It would destroy me.”
