Her hands smoothed down to his belt and his lips brushed her closed eyelids. “Lower,” he whispered. “I want you to touch me.”
She hesitated. She was curious, but all her inhibitions were protesting.
“I belong to you as surely as you belong to me,” he said quietly. “Aren’t you curious about the differences between your body and mine?”
“Well, yes,” she confessed hesitantly.
His lips parted against her eyebrows. “Then find them out for yourself.”
She lay her cheek on his chest and slowly let her cool, nervous hands trespass past the wide belt. He jerked a little at the unfamiliar touch, and she hesitated, but his hands trapped hers when she tried to pull them away.
“It’s all right,” he whispered against her temple. “I’m no more used to this than you are.”
“You’re experienced...” she protested.
“Not in this, I’m not,” he replied, surprisingly. “What we’ve done together is totally new for me, up to and including this. Haven’t you realized that I’m not playing some sophisticated game with you?” he asked. “Allison, I’m as helpless as you are when we make love. Your touch is just as exciting and potent to me as mine seems to be to you.”
“I didn’t realize that,” she whispered. Under her softly questing hands, his body was powerfully male and very, very responsive. He gasped and she felt his body shudder. “Did I hurt you?” she breathed.
“No,” he said, his voice faintly choked. “I’m sensitive there.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t stop,” he whispered, searching for her lips with his mouth. He opened it to a slow, deep kiss that seemed to have no end, glorying in her tender exploration of him. He guided her hand to the zipper and groaned helplessly when she touched him under the fabric. They wound up on the couch in a tangle of arms and legs, fighting their way into each other’s arms through a sea of uncooperative clothing.
She shivered, her breasts flattened in the thicket of hair on his warm chest, swelling as he traced them with his thumbs while they kissed.
“When are you going to marry me?” he whispered into her open mouth.
“Whenever...you like,” she managed unsteadily.
“Friday?”
“That’s only three days away,” she said huskily.
He smiled against her mouth. “I know.” He lifted his head and looked down where her body was lying across his lap, her torso bare against his. “And not a minute too soon.” He tugged at her lower lip with his teeth, in a sensual throbbing fantasy that made him dizzy. “Make a baby with me, Allison,” he whispered, easing her down onto the sofa as he lifted his head to hold her hazel eyes in thrall. “Here. Now.”
“Gene...!” she exclaimed when he moved.
But it was already too late for second thoughts, because he joined them with a minimum of fuss and smiled gently into her shocked eyes as he began to move sensually and with expert knowledge of her body.
“Yes, that’s it,” he whispered when she ground her teeth together and gasped. “Only don’t cry out when I satisfy you,” he added with a slow, sensual smile, “because the walls aren’t that thick and the door isn’t locked. Do you hear me? Bite my chest or kiss me when it happens, so that the sound doesn’t penetrate the walls. God, you’re noisy,” he whispered as she began to bite back the sounds. “One day I’ll make love to you deep in the woods and you can scream for me. Yes. Yes. That’s it, lift up to me.” His hands gripped her hips and pulled her to him in a ragged, rough rhythm. “Yes. Yes!” His eyes closed and he began to shudder, then they opened straight into hers and his body impaled her fiercely. She felt the spiraling rhythm explode into ecstasy and rocked her slender body.
“I want a son!” he bit off in her ear, and his hands clenched on her hips and ground her into him as he shuddered against her.
It was the most unbelievable pleasure she’d ever shared with him. He collapsed against her and she clung to him, trembling in the aftermath.
“God, that was good,” he whispered hoarsely at her ear. His arms contracted, riveting her to him. “Did you hear what I said, just at the last?”
“Yes.” She drew him closer. “You whispered that you wanted a son,” she said, shivering.
“I meant it. A son. A daughter. Our child.” He lifted his head and searched her eyes, his sweaty hair hanging down onto his broad forehead, his green eyes glittery with spent pleasure. “It’s exciting to make love like this. I never wanted children before. But it’s all I think about when I’m with you.”
She reached up and touched his mouth. “I can never say no to you,” she whispered. “It’s...frightening.”
“It’s your inhibitions,” he corrected. He kissed her softly and moved away, smiling indulgently at her embarrassment as she rearranged her clothing while he fastened his own. “Feverish, isn’t it?” he asked wickedly. “Hot and wild and out of control. You’re every dream I ever dreamed. I don’t know how I lived this long without you.”
“Are you sure it isn’t just physical?” she asked after a minute, really worried.
He brought her face up to his and kissed her gently. “If it was only physical, why would I want to make babies with you?” he whispered tenderly.
She smiled, her heart in her eyes, and laid her head against his chest. “Then I’ll marry you whenever you say, Gene.”
He hesitated. “There’s something I have to tell you, before you commit yourself,” he told her a minute later. “A secret I’ve held back. I should have told you before we ever got involved. I can’t ask you to live with me unless you know it.”
She lifted her head. “It won’t matter. What is it?”
“My father,” he began slowly, watching her face closely, “my real father, I mean...is in prison.”
Her eyes didn’t waver. She smiled up at him. “I’m sorry about that. But what does it have to do with my marrying
