“And your hair is so soft. It’s like silk,” he whispered, smoothing it back, the callused pads of his fingers gently grazing her cheek in the process.
“Do you know what your eyes remind me of? The blue is usually the same shade as those fields of wildflowers in Texas, but now…” His voice dropped even lower. “Now it’s like midnight.”
And on it went. He made love to her from head to toe, without hesitation, without restraint, letting her see the joy she was bringing to him, commanding her with his patient, lingering touches to share it. She was practically humming from the inside out, her body quivering with excitement, covered with a light sheen of perspiration. One by one her muscles stretched taut with expectation as he played his fingers over and inside her, kissing her with increasing urgency.
“I love you, Annie,” he whispered with added emphasis as he held himself poised above her. “Only you.”
The truth of the words was in his eyes. And the ache that had been building inside her became even more compelling. “Show me,” she pleaded, willing him to dispel the last of her uncertainty. “Please, Hank.”
Showing her how to help, he slipped on protection. Then he entered her, so slowly that she thought she’d go mad before knowing the sensation of being filled up by him. When he was deep inside her at last, she felt complete for the very first time in her life. And as he began more of those slow, tantalizing strokes, she began to know the meaning of magic, the rhythm of fulfillment.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice ragged, his muscles tense with the strain of holding back.
“Please, Hank,” she cried again, rising to meet his thrusts, urging him into a more frenzied pace. His musky scent lured her. The taste of his skin only teased at her hunger. She was past the need for compliments, beyond the desire for promises. She wanted release from the wild, wonderful, awful tension that had coiled so tightly inside her that she was certain she would explode with just one more gliding touch, just one more deep, demanding kiss.
Then his tongue circled the taut peak of her breast, the hot, moist stroking almost unbearably tender. The caress was gentle, incredibly gentle, but it was that which set off the flare of rockets that ripped through her, shattering the tension and carrying him along with her.
She didn’t realize she’d been crying until Hank hovered over her, his expression filled with concern. He touched a finger to the tears rolling down her cheek. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he murmured, his voice rough with anxiety.
“I didn’t know…”
“What?” he pleaded. “Please, baby, you’ve got to tell me if I hurt you. I would never…”
She kissed him to stop the unnecessary apology. “No. I never knew it could be like that. It was beautiful.” Her gaze swept over his face, memorizing the way it looked as he realized that he had made this first time so incredibly special for her. She’d never seen such a sense of wonder in a man’s eyes before.
“Annie love, it’s only going to get better. I promise you.”
She ran her fingers over his chest, tangling them in the mat of wiry hairs, delighting in the freedom she suddenly felt, the awe he was beginning to instill in her. “You’re always making promises to me.”
“And I mean to keep every one of them.”
She shook her head, clinging to one last shred of reality. “Hank, nothing is forever. We both know that better than anyone.”
He rolled on his back and sighed. He took her hand and held it over his heart, which was thumping with a sure, steady, reassuring rhythm.
“I’ve always thought that, Annie,” he confessed slowly.
Despite the fact that she’d been the one to say it, Ann realized that she’d been counting on a denial. Her heart sank when none came. His response hung heavily in the air between them, ruining their special moment.
As if he knew exactly what she was feeling, he reached over and lifted her until she was sitting astride him, her bare thighs clamped around his waist. “Now you listen to me,” he said, his hands resting lightly on her hips, his gaze locked with hers. “That is what I used to believe, Annie. No more. What we have is forever. And if it takes me that long, I’m going to prove it to you.”
For now, with the heat rising within her again, she needed him too much to argue. But the time would come, only too soon, when she knew she’d be proved right. Until then, though, they had this incredible magic.
The last gray streaks of twilight had turned to darkness when Hank woke her with a soft, sweet kiss.
“Time to go, sleeping beauty. If we don’t pick the kids up soon, we really will have to explain our absence.”
She ran her hand lovingly up his thigh, thrilling to the textures, the roughness of the hair, the warmth that cloaked solid strength. “It might be worth it.”
He seized her fingers in midstroke. “Annie, you don’t mean that.”
“What if I do?”
He grinned and stripped away the sheet that covered her. “In that case,” he murmured, rolling toward her, his hand already circling her breast.
Sensation swelled inside her at once, but practicality won out. Forcing a laugh, she rolled away. “Okay. Never mind. I think you’re probably right.”
“Tease,” he grumbled. “Hurry up, before I change my mind and give Liz and Todd permanent custody of all those children of yours.”
Still bathed in the warm afterglow of Hank’s lovemaking, Ann felt contentment settle itself over her as they drove the mile or so back to Liz and Todd’s. Even if this couldn’t last forever, she would treasure it. She had only an instant’s nervousness as they walked around the house toward the patio. They could hear the kids splashing in the pool
