Mackenzie's Pleasure

hadn't happened. Pick yourself up, learn something, and go on. It was in the past. The future was their marriage, their child. The present was now, and as Zane swiftly stripped off his remaining clothes, a lot more urgent.

He sat beside her again, comfortable in his own skin. It was such wonderful skin, she thought a little dreamily, reaching out to stroke his gleaming shoulders and furry chest and rub the tiny nipples hidden among the hair until they stood stiffly erect. She knew she was inviting him to reciprocate, and her breath caught in her chest as she waited for him to accept.

He wasn't slow about it. His hands went to the parted cups of her bra, and his gaze lifted to hers. 'Ready?' he asked with a slight smile.

She didn't reply, just shrugged one shoulder so that her breast slid free of the cup, and that was answer enough.

He glanced downward as he pushed the other cup aside, and she saw his pupils flare with arousal as he looked at her. His breath hissed out through parted lips. 'I see our baby here,' he whispered, gently touching one nipple with a single fingertip. 'You haven't gained any weight, your stomach's still flat, but he's changed you here. Your nipples are darker, and swollen.' Ever so lightly, his touch circled the aureola, making it pucker and stand upright. Barrie whimpered with the rush of desire, the familiar lightning strike from breast to loin.

He rubbed his thumb over the tip, then gently curved his hand beneath her breast, lifting it so that it plumped in his palm. 'How much more sensitive are they?' he asked, never looking up from his absorption with these new details in her body.

'Some— sometimes I can't bear the touch of my bra.' she breathed.

'Your veins are bluer, too,' he murmured. 'They look like rivers running under a layer of white satin.' He leaned down and kissed her, taking possession of her mouth while he continued to fondle her breasts with exquisite care. She melted with a purring little hum of pleasure, lifting herself so she could taste him more deeply. His lips were as hot and forceful as she remembered, as delicious. He took his time; the kiss was slow and deep, his tongue probing. Her pregnancy- sensitive breasts hardened into almost painful arousal, her loins becoming warm and liquid.

He bore her down onto the pillows, his hands slipping over her body, completely removing the bra and then disposing of her underpants. His eyes glittered hotly as he leaned over her. 'I'm going to do everything to you I couldn't do before,' he whispered. 'We don't have to worry about being on guard, or making noise, or what time it is. I'm going to eat you up, Little Red.'

She should have been alarmed, because his expression was so fierce and hungry she could almost take him literally. Instead, she reached out for him, almost frantic with the need to feel him covering her, taking her.

He had other ideas. He caught her hands and pressed them to the bed, as she had once done to him. He had trusted her with control, and now she returned the gift, arching her body up for whatever was his pleasure.

His pleasure was her breasts, with their fascinating changes. He took one distended nipple into his mouth, carefully, lightly. That was enough to make her moan, though not with pain; the prickles of sensation were incredibly intense. His tongue batted at her nipple, swirled around it, then pushed it hard against the roof of his mouth as he began suckling.

Her cry was thin, wild. Her breath exploded out of her lungs, and she couldn't seem to draw in any replacement air. Oh, God, she hadn't realized her breasts were that sensitive, or that he would so abruptly push her past both pleasure and pain into a realm so raw and powerful she couldn't bear it. She surged upward, and he controlled the motion, holding her down, transferring his mouth to her other nipple, which received the same tender care and enticement, then the sudden, deliberate pressure that made her cry out again.

He wouldn't stop. She screamed for him to, begged him, but he wouldn't stop. She heard her voice, frantic, pleading: 'Zane—please. Oh, God, please. Don't—more. More' And then, sobbing, 'Harder!' And she realized she wasn't begging him to stop, but to continue. She writhed in his arms as he pushed her higher and higher, harder and harder, his mouth voracious on her breasts, and suddenly all her senses coalesced into a huge single throb that centered in her loins, and she came apart with pleasure.

When she could breathe again, think again, her limbs were weak and useless in the aftermath. She lay limply on the bed, her eyes closed, and wondered how she had survived the implosion.

'Just from sucking your breasts?' he murmured incredulously as he kissed his way down her stomach. 'Oh, damn, are we going to have fun for the next seven months!'

'Zane... wait,' she whispered, lifting one hand to his head. It was the only movement she had enough energy to make. 'I can't—I need to rest.'

He slid down between her legs and lifted her thighs onto his shoulders. 'You don't have to move,' he promised her in a deep, rich voice. 'All you have to do is lie there.' Then he kissed her, slowly, deeply, and her body arched as it began all over again, and he showed her all the things he hadn't been able to do to her before.

He brought her to completion once more before finally crawling forward and settling his hips between her thighs. She moaned when he filled her with a smooth, powerful thrust. She quivered beneath him, shocked by the thickness and depth of his penetration. How could she have forgotten? The discomfort took her by surprise, and she clung to him as she tried to adjust, to accept. He soothed her, whispering hot, soft words in her ear, stroking her flesh, which was already so sensitive that even the smooth sheet beneath her felt abrasive.

But, oh, how she had wanted this. This. Not just pleasure, but the sense of being joined together, the deep and intimate linkage of their bodies. This fed a craving within her that the climaxes he'd given her hadn't begun to touch. Her hips lifted. She wanted all of him, wanted him so deep that he touched her womb, ripening with his seed. He tried to moderate the thrusts that were rapidly pushing her toward yet another climax, but she dug her nails into his back, insisting without words on everything he had to give.

He shuddered, and with a deep-throated groan, gave her what she asked.

She slept then. It was long after midnight on the east coast, and she was exhausted. She was disturbed by the presence of the big, muscled man beside her in the bed, though, his body radiating heat like a furnace, and she kept waking from a restless doze.

He must sleep like a cat, she thought, because every time she woke and changed positions, he woke up, too. Finally he pulled her on top of him, settling her with her face tucked against his neck and her legs straddling his hips. 'Maybe now you can rest,' he murmured, kissing her hair. 'You slept this way in Benghazi.'

She remembered that, remembered the long day of making love, how he had sometimes been on top when they dozed, and sometimes she had. Or perhaps she had been the only one who dozed while he had remained alert.

'I've never slept with a man before,' she murmured in sleepy explanation, nestling against him. 'Slept slept, that is.'

'I know. I'm your first in both cases.'

The room was dark; at some time he had turned off the lamp, though she didn't remember when. The heavy curtains were drawn against the neon of the Las Vegas night, with only thin strips of light penetrating around the edges. It reminded her briefly of that horrible room in Benghazi, before Zane had taken her away, but then she shut out the memory. That no longer had the power to frighten her. Zane was her husband now, and the pleasant ache in her body told her that the marriage had been well and truly consummated.

'Tell me about your family,' she said, and yawned against his neck.

'Now?'

'Mmm. We're both awake, so you might as well.'

There was a twitch of flesh against her inner thigh. 'I can think of other things to do,' he muttered.

'I'm not ruling anything out.' She wriggled her hips and was rewarded by a more insistent movement. 'But you can talk, too. Tell me about the Mackenzie clan.'

She could feel his slight shrug. 'My dad is a half-breed American Indian, my mom is a schoolteacher. They live on a mountain just outside Ruth, Wyoming. Dad raises and trains horses. He's the best I've ever seen, except for my sister. Maris is magic with horses.'

'So the horses really are a family business.'

'Yep. We were all raised on horseback, but Maris is the only one who went into the training aspect. Joe went to the Air Force Academy and became a jet jockey, Mike became a cattle rancher, Josh rode jets for the Navy, and Chance and I went to the Naval Academy and got our water wings. We can both fly various types of aircraft, but flying is just a means of getting us to where we're needed, nothing else. Chance got out of Naval Intelligence a couple of years ago.'

Barrie's talent with names kicked in. She lifted her head, all sleepiness gone as she ran that list of names through her head. She settled on one, put the details together and gasped. 'Your brother is General Joe Mackenzie on the Joint Chiefs of Staff?' Of course. How many Joe Mackenzies were Air Force generals?

'The one and only.'

'Why, I've met him and his wife. I think it was the year before last, at a charity function in Washington. Her name is Caroline.'

'You're right on target.' He shifted a little, and she felt a nudging between her legs. She inhaled as he slipped inside her. Talk about right on target.

'Joe and Caroline have five sons, Michael and Shea have two boys, and Josh and Loren have three,' Zane murmured, gently thrusting. 'Junior will be the eleventh grandchild.'

Barrie sank against him, her attention splintered by the pleasure building with each movement of his hips. 'Don't talk,' she said, and heard his quiet