Chapter 10
He made love to her. When the rest of the house slept, hecrept up to her room, where the rain-dampened breeze liftedthe curtains and the shadows reigned, and he led her out ofthe house by the hand.
Tony knew he was making a mistake. This wasn’t whyhe’d come to her house. This wasn’t what she needed. Thiswouldn’t give her closure or peace of mind or purpose. Hecouldn’t help it. He hadn’t been able to help it ever sincehe’d first seen her smile.
Her hand trembled in his, but she never hesitated, gliding over the wet grass in a plain white cotton nightgown andhair the color of sunset. She followed him to that weary oldbed in the corner of the inn as if it had been the master suitein a stately home, bestowing grace and dignity and beautywhere he’d only dreamed it.
“And here we were worried about the kids,” he whispered with a smile, his hands in hers, his heart stumblingaround in his chest like a drunk.
Her hair was dewed with rain, her skin glowing in the softlight of the candle he’d set in a bowl by the window. Thelight glimmered in her hair, licked the sleek lines of herlimbs, shuddered across the cotton at her breasts, and Tonyfound he couldn’t look away from it.
“I’ve never done anything...” She shrugged, suddenly a young girl again.
Tony smiled for her. “Like this. I know. Neither have I.”
He lifted her hands, turned them over. Captured her sweetblue eyes with his and kissed her palms in greeting. “Guesswe’ve just been out of the circuit too long, huh?”
Tony saw her eyes widen, saw her nostrils flare and herchest lift. He could smell the rain on her, fresh soap and softnight. He could feel the satin of her skin against his lips.God, he wanted her. He hurt hard, harder than he had inyears. He’d lain on this cot night after night picturing her upthere in her room in a nightgown just like this one, demure,simple, incredibly sensual on her lithe figure, and he’d forbidden himself to hope.
He had anyway.
He did now.
“I’m a little... rusty,” she admitted, and then giggled. “It sounds like I’m riding a bike.”
“Same principle,” he reassured her, his thumbs caressing her wrists in slow circles. “I’ve heard that it all comes back to you pretty easily.”
She began to move, an instinctive dance that brought hercloser to him. “It does, huh?”
Her voice sounded like a breeze. Her body mesmerized.Tony couldn’t remember to breathe. He couldn’t remember anything but how she’d looked that afternoon, laughing andtumbling in the waves.
“Yes,” he assured her, letting go of one hand to cup herface to him. “It does. And just in case you’re worried, Ibrought along all the safety equipment needed for this ride.”
He didn’t give her a chance to argue. Instead, smiling, hebent to kiss her.
She tasted like morning. She felt like life itself, warm andround and nourishing in his hands. She met him withouthesitation, measuring her dance in eagerness. She sighed,and Tony captured the sound with lip and palm. He feastedon her lips and captured the depths of her mouth for hisplunder, and he forgot the rain outside. He forgot the candlelight and the breeze and the narrow bed that would have to carry them. He saw only her, felt only her, heard only heras he finally allowed himself the exquisite luxury of discovering what lay hidden away beneath those pastel flowers andthat mother’s sensibility.
He swept impatient fingers over cotton to be tempted by the hint of soft, full curves beneath. He measured her waist and spanned her hip and cupped her bottom, pulled her to him so she could feel how much he wanted her.
She hummed with his touch, arched against him andopened to him, and Tony forgot the morning and the responsibilities that lay beyond this small room. He forgot everything but the spill of her hair in his hands, the lushpleasures of her lips, the petal-soft texture of her skin.
With his hands, he eased the gown from her shoulders.He tasted the tender skin at her throat and felt her head fallback before his assault. He felt her hands scrabble at hisback and wrapped her more tightly in his grasp.
He spread his hands across the neckline of her gownwhere it rested over her breasts and inched it down. Her skinpearled in the dim light, blushing faintly with the day’s sun,warm where he tasted and teased it. She whimpered at his touch, writhed and danced and tempted until the gown fell away and she stood naked before him.
Tony couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, with her eyes closed and arms up and her skinas pale as moonlight in his hands.
Her breasts. Oh, God, her breasts, so full and heavy withnipples the color of peaches. Tony lifted them, courtedthem, bent to take them in his mouth and pleasure them. Helifted her, carried her to that small bed so he could wrap himself around her, so he could sate himself on the feel ofher, so he could lose himself in her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he groaned, burying his face in herhair, filling his hands with the feel of her softly roundedbelly.
“I’m a forty-something-year-old mother,” she retortedwith faint protest, her own hands creating havoc.
Tony lifted his head, faced her and smiled. “That’s whyyou’re so beautiful,” he said, and returned for anothersampling of that delectable mouth.
He almost stopped her when she moved to lift off hisshirt. He was trembling, trying so hard to maintain control. It had been too long, and it had never been like thiseven then.
“Come on,” she said with a gentle grin. “I’m not goingto be the only one baring everything to the cold air.”
