A Momentary Marriage(86)

When she opened her eyes, she found James still watching her, his eyes glowing, an almost smug satisfaction mingling with raw hunger on his face. She looked at him a little wonderingly. “But, James . . . you haven’t—” Her eyes went down involuntarily to his still heavily engorged state. “Don’t you—”

“Oh, yes, I do.” His voice was husky. “Don’t worry. I’ll have mine. But I wanted to see your face as it took you.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “It was a beautiful sight.”

Laura felt herself blush and she turned her head, pressing her lips to his chest. His skin twitched beneath her lips and she felt his hand tighten on her waist. Emboldened, she traced his flat masculine nipple with her tongue, then took it in her mouth, pulling gently. He let out a low, choked noise, his skin flaring with heat beneath her lips.

She kissed her way across his chest, her hands roaming over him. She was eager to know him, to taste and touch him, to learn each hidden spot that gave him pleasure. There was something intensely gratifying about wresting each small noise or shiver or sigh from this normally implacable man.

A shudder rippled through James and he grasped her arms, pulling her down to the floor with him. His kiss plundered her mouth. Laura could feel the need in him, the almost palpable hunger, and she opened to him gladly.

He sank deep within her, filling her in the most satisfying way. He began to move in a timeless rhythm, each thrust fulfillment and enticement, the pleasure building with the longing until they mingled in an aching, wordless anticipation. At last he reached his peak, shuddering against her, and buried his face against her neck to muffle his hoarse cry.

Laura clung to him, feeling her own blissful answer to his ecstasy. And holding him like this, her arms locked around him and his as tightly clamped around her, was its own deep joy.





chapter 32


Laura lay curled against James’s side, her head on his shoulder. Everything was perfect, she thought, then hastily retreated from that thought with a shiver. Such a notion was probably tempting fate.

“Cold?” James murmured, and draped his jacket over Laura. He kissed the top of her head. “Though it seems a shame to cover up such beauty.”

“Flatterer.” Still, she smiled.

“Ah, but you know I am distressingly blunt, so you may take what I say for the truth.”

“Or at least the truth as you see it.” She rose on her elbow to gaze down at him.

“Which naturally makes it correct.” James grinned, his face the easiest and most relaxed she had ever seen it.

“Naturally.” Laura made a little face at him. “If true, then we would be a matching pair.”

“In bluntness or superior discernment?”

“Both, of course, though I was referring to beauty. You are a handsome man, you know.”

“I am?”

“Of course. Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed the looks women give you. You just want to hear me compliment you.”

“Feel free to do so.” James linked his hands behind his head, as if settling in for a story.

“Well . . . first there is this hair.” Laura ran her fingers lightly through his thick black locks. Sliding her forefinger down his forehead, she traced the line of one eyebrow. “And these brows.” She laid a gentle kiss upon the eyebrow in question. “These eyes.” Her finger curved down, coming to an end on the prominent bone beneath his eye. “These cheekbones.” She kissed that, as well. “And most of all . . . this perfect, perfect mouth.”

Her kiss lingered there before she sat up, smiling down at him. He gazed back at her, heat mingling with amusement in his eyes. “I see. You married me only for my looks.”

“Not entirely.” She tilted her head as if considering the matter. “I also have it on good authority that you are a man of some wealth, with a gracious home, and a respectable, even honored, name.”

He began to laugh. “Touché. I should know better than to try to trade barbs with you.”

“Where you’re concerned, I have a good deal of ammunition.”

“You do, at that.” His eyes lit with mischief. “But you haven’t my skill in distracting you.”

Laura let out a little shriek as he lunged up, his fingers going to her ribs to tickle her. She giggled, twisting. “Stop that.”

“Very well.” His arms slid around her and pulled her to him, his lips meeting hers. After a long moment, he raised his head. “Now that might be the best way to deflect your arrows.”

Laura rested against him, listening to the heavy thump of his heart beneath her ear. She would have liked to linger, but she was certain that with a man like James, one needed the lightest of touches. With an inward sigh of regret, she pulled away. “I must go. I promised to help your mother with the invitations.”