Kings of California: Bargaining for King's Baby. Maureen Child

her hips, unconsciously drawing his body deeper into hers. Too much, she thought. It was all too much. She couldn’t handle so many sensations. So much pleasure. Surely there was a saturation point where her body would simply dissolve and her mind become a puddle of goo.

      And then he showed her differently. Reaching for her, he took hold of her waist and lifted her off the bed, settling her down on his lap, so that his length was deep inside her. Gina looked directly into his eyes as he guided her in an easy rhythm that had her rocking on him, tantalizing them both.

      The wind slid into the room, and the scent of sage melded with the scent of their heated bodies and the bloom of sex. Skin met skin, breath intermingled and their sighs became a symphony of want and desperate need.

      Moving on him, sliding her body onto his, Gina found a magic she’d never expected. Her body quivered, her insides straining, reaching toward the release that built within. Her heart swelled, filling with the thrill of being a part of Adam at long last. And her mind raced with images she couldn’t allow herself to indulge in. Images of Adam’s eyes shining with love for her. Images of the two of them, together. Always.

      But even though a part of her mourned, she relished the feelings coursing through her. She looked into Adam’s eyes, lost herself in those dark, dark depths and watched as passion ignited, firing sparks she knew she had brought him.

      Tension coiled tighter, tighter. Her body trembled. She held her breath and when she slid down his length one more time, the first explosion smashed into her.

      “Adam!” She gripped his shoulders hard, trying to keep herself stable in a suddenly wildly unstable world.

      “Let go,” he ordered, his voice a low rush of sound, scraping from his throat. “Let yourself go, Gina.”

      She did. She couldn’t help it. Didn’t want to try. Instead she gave herself up to the incredible sensations coursing through her. Riding wave after wave of tremors that continued to ripple through her long after that first tremendous burst had diminished.

      And when Gina thought she couldn’t take another moment, there was more. Adam dropped one hand to the spot where their bodies joined. Once again, he rubbed that tender piece of flesh that seemed to hold a store of electrical-like nerve endings. She jolted in his embrace and instinctively ground her hips against him.

      “Adam…” She whispered his name now, a sigh of pleasure.

      “Again,” he said, pushing her even higher than she’d been before. Her mind splintered, her body shattered and when she felt herself falling, she heard Adam groan and knew he was taking the fall with her.

      Adam’s heart was racing and his body felt more lax than it had in years. He turned his head on the pillows to look at the woman lying beside him. Her eyes were closed, and she lay, one arm flung back behind her head, the other reaching toward him across the wide expanse of mattress.

      Her skin was softer than the silk they lay on and her hair was a tumble of curls he couldn’t seem to touch enough. Her sighs, her pleasures, tempted him to take her again and again. Even now, he felt himself stir, his body already hardening for her.

      “You’re watching me.”

      “Your eyes are closed,” he pointed out. “How do you know?”

      “I can feel it,” she said and turned her head on the pillows to look at him. A smile curved her delectable mouth and Adam felt another jolt of desire slam into him. Maybe this bargain between them hadn’t been such a good idea after all, he thought, at the realization that in the last hour with her, he’d felt more than he had in the last five years.

      “Now you’re frowning,” Gina said, rolling to her side, unabashedly naked, her tanned, smooth skin nearly glowing in the moonlight. “No frowns allowed.”

      “Don’t know if I can accommodate that request,” he said.

      She sighed, pushed one hand through her hair, throwing the thick mass over her shoulder. “Adam, you don’t have to be worried.”

      “What makes you think I’m worried?”

      She laughed and the sound of it sang through the otherwise quiet room. “Please. I know exactly what you’re thinking.”

      “Is that right?” Turning to face her, he went up on one elbow. “Then what am I thinking?” he said with a slight smile.

      She stroked the tips of her fingers across the sheet covered distance separating them and Adam wished she were touching him.

      “That’s easy. You’re worrying that you made a mistake by agreeing to this little bargain.”

      He opened his mouth to argue, more because he hated knowing that she could read him so well than anything else, but she spoke up again.

      “You’re worried that I’m building up romantic notions. Hoping you’ll fall in love with me.”

      He frowned harder, because damn it, she was right. He had been worrying about that, too. But he wouldn’t admit it. “Wrong. I know you’re not doing anything that foolish.” At least, he hoped not. “After all, this was your idea.”

      “True.” She smiled and rolled onto her stomach, coming closer to him. Close enough that he couldn’t keep himself from reaching one hand out to stroke the line of her spine, the curve of her bottom. And he wondered how in the hell she’d managed to get a tan all over.

      Shaking his head to get rid of the image of her stretched out naked in the sun, Adam asked, “Why?”

      “Why what?” She looked at him, her golden eyes shining in the darkness.

      “Why’d you offer me this bargain? I mean, I know you want a baby. I understand that. What I want to know is why me?”

      She stretched lazily, moving that tanned, toned body on the white silk sheets until blood vessels started popping in Adam’s brain.

      “Easily enough explained, Adam,” she said, glancing at him. “You wanted the land, so that gave me some leverage….”

      “Yes…” He wanted the rest of her reason.

      “And, I’ve known you forever, Adam. I like you. I think you like me—”

      He nodded. He did like Gina. He’d just never paid much attention to that fact over the years. She was younger than he was, so they hadn’t spent much time together when they were kids. Then, when they were grown, he’d had other priorities.

      “—it seemed like the perfect answer to both of our problems.” She lifted one hand to him and stroked her palm across his chest. Adam sucked in a gulp of air at the heat that instantly shot through him. “And…I think the two of us will make a beautiful baby.”

      A slice of something cold and dark cut through his mind at those words. He’d once made a vow to never have another child. To never open himself up to that kind of risk again. But this was different, he reasoned, so he pushed those thoughts into a corner of his mind. He’d made this bargain and he’d honor it. The child he and Gina made between them wouldn’t be a part of his life. He wouldn’t know it. Love it. Or lose it. In fact, best to not think about it at all.

      “I’m sorry,” she whispered and Adam cut her a look.

      “About what?”

      “Talking about the baby I want must make you remember your son.”

      Adam froze. He felt his features tighten and everything in him go hard and still as glass. Memories jumped into his mind, but he refused to acknowledge them. He turned them off as easily as punching the remote button aimed at a television. He’d had a lot of practice.

      He wasn’t open to talking about the son he’d lost five years before and they might as well get that straight right up front. “I don’t talk about him. Ever.”

      Her eyes went soft in sympathy and Adam resented it. He didn’t need her feeling sorry for him.

      “I