Marriage On The Cards. Susan Carlisle

his chest hair. He didn’t notice her as he walked sleepily back to his bed and flopped backward. Mackenzie, frozen to the spot, had been trying, since she had awakened, to formulate her best pitch line, and she had decided on, Dylan—would you make love to me?

      “Dylan...?”

      Surprised by her voice, Dylan bolted upright. “Geez...you scared the crap out of me, Mackenzie.” Dylan collapsed back into his fortress of pillows.

      “Sorry...”

      “Don’t worry about it...” Dylan yawned and stretched.

      It took him a minute to focus his eyes and really get a look at Mackenzie. Standing shyly in his doorway, hands in the fig-leaf position, she was filling out his pajama top in a way that made his body stand at attention. He pushed himself into a sitting position and casually pulled the covers over the lower half of his body. He had to force himself not to stare at her legs; Mackenzie had really sexy, curvy legs.

      “Are you hungry?” Dylan asked after he cleared his throat.

      He needed to get her out of his bedroom. The last thing he wanted to do was go too far too fast and run her off the way he almost did last night.

      “No.” Mackenzie tugged on the bottom of the pajama top to cover more of her legs. “I mean...yes. I am. But no.”

      Dylan half smiled, half laughed at her odd response. “Say what?”

      Mackenzie twisted her fingers together, losing faith in the sanity of her plan. She had been trying to keep things simple and uncomplicated with Dylan back in her life; what she was about to propose was a first-class ticket to complicated.

      “Yes, I am hungry...but no, that’s not the reason I’m here. In your bedroom...”

      “I’m listening...” Dylan was intrigued...and hopeful. Perhaps Mackenzie didn’t need to leave his bedroom after all.

      “I was wondering...how you would feel about—” she shifted weight from one leg to the other “—actually, what I’m trying to ask is...do you want to...make love to me?”

      “Yes.” Dylan took her up on her offer in record time.

      “Yes?” Her voice had jumped an octave.

      “Yes.” He nodded. “I would...like to make love to you.”

      The man had said yes, which is what she wanted, right? But now she wished she could press Rewind and take back the offer. This couldn’t be a good idea, could it? Sex complicated everything. And this situation was already complicated enough.

      “Come join me...” Dylan peeled back the covers on the empty side of the bed.

      Instead of taking the sane and safe option, she walked slowly toward him.

      “You look really good in my pajamas...” It was a genius idea to lend her the top of his favorite pair.

      Dylan found Mackenzie’s nervous smile endearing. He had been used to women who were sexually confident, even aggressive at times. This was a nice change. When Mackenzie reached the side of the bed, she quickly slid beneath the covers and pulled them up to her chin. The tips of her fingers were white from gripping the covers so tightly.

      “Did you know—” Dylan turned on his side, kept his hands to himself “—that most men are really nervous about sleeping with a woman for the first time?”

      “Is that true or are you just making that up to make me feel better...?”

      “I’m not making it up...it’s true.”

      Mackenzie loosened her death grip on the covers. “Are you nervous now?”

      “Yeah,” Dylan admitted. “Sure I am...”

      “Why?”

      “Because...there’s a lot pressure on a guy to perform, women just don’t get it. We’re always worried about are we big enough, are we hard enough, are we going to last? Not to mention the pressure of trying to give a woman multiple orgasms when it’s hard enough just to figure out how to give her one. And trust me, all guys know that our performance, good or bad, is going to be discussed, and dissected, at length with their friends. I’m telling you...it’s a lot of pressure to be on the guy end of things.”

      His attempt to make Mackenzie feel more comfortable with him must have worked, because she put her arms on top of the covers. They were still pinned tightly to her sides, completely blocking him from her body, but it was progress.

      Dylan reached over, tucked her hair behind her ear and then lightly rested his hand on her arm. “We don’t have to do this, Mackenzie. It’s okay to change your mind.”

      “No!” Mackenzie protested. “I want to do it. I’m rusty, okay? And I would think,” Mackenzie snapped, “that with all your vast experience, you’d know how to get the ball rolling. Aren’t you the one with the bachelor pad and models-slash-actresses prancing about half-naked? I made the first move, why can’t you make the—”

      Dylan’s kiss cut off the rest of her words. She liked the minty taste of his tongue; she liked the masculine smell of his skin—no cologne, just Dylan’s natural scent. By the time Dylan ended the kiss, Mackenzie no longer felt like complaining. She wanted less talking and more kissing.

      “Here...” Dylan tugged on the covers that were still pinned down with her arms. “Let me get closer to you.”

      Once he managed to coax the covers out of her control, Dylan pressed his body into hers. She continued to lay on her back, stiff and unmoving, when he wrapped his arm around her and draped his leg over her thigh. Dylan made a pleasurable noise as he nuzzled her neck.

      “Aren’t we supposed to do this after...?”

      “Relax...” Dylan whispered near her ear.

       Relax. Relax. Just relax!

      “Open your eyes, Mackenzie...” Dylan was admiring her pretty face.

      She opened her eyes; it was embarrassing. She only made love in the dark with her eyes closed. And now Dylan wanted them open?

      “You have the most amazing eyes... Have I ever told you that before?”

      She shook her head. She liked his eyes, too. In the soft morning light, they looked mossy green with flecks of gold around the irises.

      He ran his fingers lightly over her lips. “Soft lips.”

      Those two simple words were followed by a kiss. Once he started kissing her again, he didn’t stop. He seemed to enjoy the taste and the feel of her mouth. And she found herself responding to this gentle seduction. He wasn’t in a hurry; he wasn’t just going through the motions to get to the end zone as fast as he could. Dylan was making her feel special, beautiful...cherished. At first, she was a passive partner, timid and unsure. But his kisses started to change that and she began to touch his body—the hair on his chest, his biceps.

      Dylan forced himself to go slow, take his time. Her touch was so tentative and she was so unsure of her own sexuality that it felt as if he was in bed with a virgin. Her body was so voluptuous, so soft, that all he wanted to do was to get rid of that stupid pajama top so he could feel her breasts. He wanted to hold them, massage them...kiss them. The scent of her hair and the feel of her silky skin were aphrodisiacs to him.

      Dylan pressed his hard-on against her body, and that’s when she felt it again: that throbbing, yearning sensation between her thighs. The next pleasurable sound she heard was her own. Dylan had slipped his hand into her panties and nudged his fingers between her thighs. When he felt how aroused she was, Dylan whispered into her ear.

      “I want to be inside of you, Mackenzie.” Dylan’s voice had a husky, sexy quality now. “Do you want that, too?”

      “Yes.” Why was he talking so much? “Why are you talking?”