Page 35 of Married at Midnight

In response, his arms moved around her, settled in the hollow at the base of her spine, then pulled her close.

Chilly night air swirled around their bodies, as though rejoicing in the fact they’d joined together. It felt so good, so right being in his arms.

His tongue slipped through her parted lips and touched hers. At the contact a jolt of pure fire went straight to Ellie’s core.

He broke the kiss. “Does this mean what I hope it means?”

Ellie felt the deep timbre of his voice clear down to her toes. “I want you. I won’t deny that.”

“And yet you hesitate.”

She’d had casual sex before, but nothing more. Ellie had never had that “something special” her friend Olivia talked about with anyone except the man in her arms. Would giving in to him now ruin her for anyone else?

She swallowed roughly and tried to concentrate on anything other than Connor’s full lower lip. Or the feel of his heartbeat against her chest.

Perhaps it was time to satisfy the need that never seemed too far away when he was near.

On that thought, she met his stormy green eyes. “I don’t want to hesitate any longer.”

“Thank God,” he breathed as he captured her lips.

Her lips moved over his, hot and demanding. Her senses were swimming, the ability to think clearly ebbed, and she lost herself in a maelstrom of desire.

An onslaught of pent-up emotions and forbidden passion swamped her. Needing an intimate connection, she pulled him toward her.

As his hips pressed against hers, she fit herself against his hardening arousal, and every cell in her being came alive.

Connor groaned and pulled back, his breathing ragged. “Before we go further, we are agreed this is for fun, right?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I don’t want to disappoint you. I care about you, but I have no room in my life for commitment or a relationship. I’m already married to my job.”

Her mind still swirling with desire, she nodded. “I get it. Would you just shut up and kiss me?”

And he did exactly that.

He kissed her with a thoroughness that sent her senses spiraling as he moved back to the westward wall, pulling her with him. Easing his hand under her sweater, his fingers skittered across her sensitive flesh, across her abdomen, along her sides, until he found and cupped her breasts atop the sheer fabric of her bra. Warm, demanding fingers sculpted her every curve, possessing her.

She succumbed to only sensation, to the unrelenting desire that pulsed through her veins.

Their veins.

No longer resisting, she reveled in the knowledge that she could still lure him, arouse him, incite him to action. A thrill of expectation flashed through her, bright and hot.

His kiss grew hungrier, more demanding.

Maybe it was the culmination of the last eleven years that seized them now, sent them into this flurry of desire. Or maybe they were finally at the right time and the right place in their lives to act on their dormant passion.

Ellie no longer cared about the reason, only that they were finally free from their restraints, together. She let her hands trail along his sides and then farther down until she sank her fingers into his buttocks, curling her body intimately against his, moving seductively.

Breaking the kiss, Connor reached for the hem of her sweater and pulled it over her head. Next he stripped her leggings away. Her breath hitched, not at the chill in the air, but at the warmth of Connor’s gaze, at the heat spiraling through her as she stood bared before him.

He let her undress him, and as she did, his lips curved into a seductive smile. He made no move to touch her until he stood naked before her, bathed in the moonlight that limned every muscle, every taut line of his face.

His chest swelled as he took a sharp breath; then slowly, deliberately, he brought his hands to her waist and lifted her up, caught the back of her thighs, spreading her wide, then stepped into the nakedness between them.

The hardness of his body pressed against her as she looped her arms around his neck. Reckless abandon pounded in her blood as she locked her legs around his waist. He explored her skin with his hands and his lips until she burned, until need was a molten ache low in her belly. She tilted her hips forward, wanting, needing, what he offered.