Secrets in the Marriage Bed(23)

Lost, he began to slide one strap off her shoulder.

The doorbell pealed in the distance.

"Dinner?" Vicki's disappointed expression did nothing to quieten his arousal.

"Bad timing," he muttered. "Stay here. I want to eat my dinner off you."

Buttoning a few buttons on his shirt, he let the tails hang out as he  walked to the door. In the minute that he was gone, he knew Vicki would  cover up despite his request. The last thing he expected to see when he  returned to the study was his wife waiting for him … naked.

She was lying on the sofa, her body flushed and pink, her eyes turned to  the doorway. Against the deep blue backdrop, she looked like a  glistening pearl but there was nothing cold about her. This woman  invited touch, invited seduction. And he knew it was an invitation she  would only ever extend to him.

He dropped the take-out box on the floor and tore the buttons off his  shirt in an effort to remove it. She looked so delicious he wanted to  lick her straight up from her curling toes to the blushing tips of her  hair. "Why?" he rasped, crossing the distance to kneel beside the sofa,  unable to wait long enough to get rid of his pants.

"Red-hot memories," she whispered, face pink from her blush.

He knew exactly how difficult this was for her, how much it must have  cost her to let go of all the things she'd been taught for so long. How  scared she must be that she'd done something that would turn him away  from her. He'd never expected her to take such a chance and expose  herself to rejection so soon after she'd broken through that shell of  hers. And yet she had. For him. For them. To balance out the happiness  side of their ledger.

He put one hand on her stomach, near the soft triangle between her legs. "Sweetheart, this is beyond hot. You're burning me up."

Some of the tenseness evaporated from her expression. "Why are you … ?" She waved a hand at his pants.

"Because I think my very brave wife deserves some pleasure and if these  come off, I'm afraid I won't last." He slid his hand down and tugged  gently at her curls.

Her breath caught. "It's so bright."

"It's perfect," he told her, glorying in his ability to see every inch  of her body. "I want to watch you come for me." He'd never talked so  erotically to her before, had never been confident that she could take  it. Even now, he watched her eyes, ready to pull back if she looked even  slightly uncomfortable.

She swallowed and then spread her thighs just the tiniest bit. The musky  scent of her arousal washed over him. He moved until he was able to  take one of her legs and place her foot on the floor in front of him.  She watched him drink her in, her pulse a thudding beat against his  body.

"Hook your other leg over the back of the sofa." He wondered if he was pushing her too far.

She bit her lip. "Why don't you turn off the lights?"

"I want to see you spread out for me, wet and ready. I want to see what  I'm tasting. Men are very visual creatures," he teased, telling her that  he'd treasure her response.

To his surprise, she gave a soft laugh. "It's not only men." Her eyes skimmed over his bare chest. "Can we do it in stages?"

He'd never dreamed they'd ever come this far, physically and  emotionally. The trust that had forged between them over the past few  days was affecting every corner of their life. Who knew where it would  lead? "Step by slow step." Pushing gently at the leg on the floor, he  spread her just a little bit more. On the sofa, she bent her other leg  at the knee.                       
       
           



       

When his hand stroked the silky skin of her inner thigh, she gasped and  he saw her fingers clench on the thick fabric that covered the sofa.  With his free hand, he repeated the caress on her other leg. Her whimper  meant everything to him. Slowly, she was starting to talk to him in  bed, starting to give him more than her body alone.

"I'm going to kiss you," he warned her, looking up until she met his  eyes. "I'm going to savor every sweet inch of you. And then I'm going to  do it again."

She swallowed and lifted her foot off the sofa. He was so hard that he  felt as if he would break. He slid one hand down to her calf and helped  her get the leg over the back of the sofa. He was almost afraid to look  at the beautiful sight of her lying open and ready for him, terrified of  the hunger that had him in its grip.

He looked at her face to find that she'd closed her eyes, as if to watch  him adoring her would be too much to bear. His own hands were shaking.  Taking a deep breath, he allowed himself to look at what she was  offering. Need overwhelmed him in a violent wave.

With a groan, he slipped one hand below her bottom and lifted her to his  bent head, his free hand on the inner face of one thigh. She shuddered  as he blew hot breath against her open lips and her entire body went  taut with anticipation. Flicking out his tongue, he teased the nubbin  hidden in her curls.

"Oh!"

The cry acted like lightning in his bloodstream. He bent to his task in  earnest, treating her sweet flesh like the most exotic of delicacies,  something to be enjoyed slowly and with the greatest attention to  detail.

"Caleb!" It was a sobbing scream.

"Yes, honey," he said, against her. "Let go for me." He kissed her  again, using his mouth to wring another scream from her before her body  started to ripple in climax. Drawing back, he did as he'd said he  would-he watched her shatter from his touch, watched her back arch, her  breasts flush, the nipples standing out in sharp relief as she rode the  waves of pleasure until there was no breath left in her.

Only when she was gasping in recovery did he stand and strip himself.  Putting one knee on the sofa between her spread thighs, he took the leg  she'd hooked around the back and urged her to wrap it around his hips.  It put her in the perfect position for his ultimate enjoyment.

Her eyes fluttered open a second before he slid his hand beneath the  thigh wrapped around his hips, held her tight and pushed. Slow and deep.  The maleness in him was very aware of the precious life inside his  wife's body and he took every care with her, pushing in and out with a  deliberation that made her buck toward him. He did it again and again.  And again.

Until Vicki screamed and he had no choice but to follow her over the edge.





Eleven



"I love this room," her husband whispered in her ear as he handed her his shirt.

She pulled it on, blushing. "Caleb, that was … I can't believe … Oh, just  get the food."Grinning, he kissed her once then went to pick up the  fallen box, which was amazingly still in one piece. Her mouth dried up  at the sight of his beautiful body laid bare for her perusal.

As he returned to her, he raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me like  that. You've finished me off completely, you insatiable woman." He put  the box in her lap and looked around until he found his briefs and  pants.

"Are you sure?" she teased, put at ease by his irreverence. She wanted  to groan as she watched him zip the pants but leave the top button  undone. Her husband was the most unbelievably sexy man she'd ever met  and she craved him. Her body was sated but she continued to want to  touch, to adore. Somehow she didn't think it was the fault of her  misbehaving hormones-not when she'd wanted him like this forever.

He sat beside her. "Feed me, woman." The laughter in his eyes had her making a face at him.

"It's almost cold." She opened the box and lifted out a container of fried rice.

"And you are hot." Leaning over, he bit her earlobe.

She giggled and handed him the container. "Behave." But she didn't  really mean it. The last thing she wanted was for her husband to behave,  to go back to the cool formality with which he'd once treated her. This  was what they'd been like in the very beginning, before everything had  gone wrong.

The difference was that now a deep vein of loyalty ran between them, a  shockingly intense commitment Vicki wasn't quite ready to explore. But  at least she was no longer hiding from his needs or her own.

As they ate, the talk turned gradually to Vicki's ideas for Heart. Caleb  had every intention of being involved in this new part of her life.  There would be no more walls between them, no matter how exposed that  made him feel. Compared to the agony of isolation, naked vulnerability  was almost easy. Almost.                       
       
           



       

"So," she said after finishing her sweet-and-sour chicken, "I thought if  we could get a spot on that radio show, we might be able to lure in the  people we need most."

"Sounds like you'll be busy."