His Not-So-Blushing Bride. Fiona Brand

and left it there. Then, he cupped her face reverently. “Beautiful. So beautiful.”

      Before she could squawk out a lame “Thank you,” he captured her mouth with his and held the kiss, lips suspended in time, and a tornado of need whirled through her womb.

      Slowly, he angled his head and parted her mouth with his lips, and heat poured into her body. His tongue found hers, gliding forward and back in a sensuous dance.

      Her nails dug into his rock-hard chest, scrabbling for purchase to keep her off the carpet. The kiss went on and on and stoked the flame of desire higher and higher in her belly.

      Slow. It was all about slow with Lucas, and it was exquisite torture. She needed more, needed him now.

      She broke away and reached for him, but he shook his head. His hands skimmed up her arms and down her back, came around to the front again, and both thumbs hooked the hem of her tank top. Gradually, he drew it skyward as he watched her from below half-closed lids.

      “You’re, um, not going to make me get in the bed?” she asked hoarsely.

      “Nope.” He pulled her top free from her raised arms and tossed it over his shoulder, and then he encircled her waist with an arm to draw her closer, his gaze ravenous as it traveled over her bare breasts. “You chose not to get in bed. I choose to take care of you right where you’re at.”

      Her nipples rubbed his naked torso and beaded instantly and fire erupted in her womb, drawing a moan from deep in her throat. If he kept whispering that whiskey-smooth voice across her bare skin, it wouldn’t take long to rip a verbally induced climax out of her. But she hoped for a hands-on approach.

      He obliged her. One hand glided to the small of her back and pushed, jutting her breasts up and allowing him to capture a nipple with his tongue in a searing, swirling lasso.

      She gripped his shoulders, lost in a slow spiral toward brainlessness as he sucked and laved at her sensitive flesh.

      He switched sides and treated the other nipple to his magically delicious mouth. When he skated hard teeth across the peak, her legs buckled. Why hadn’t she gotten in bed?

      His hand delved inside her shorts, along her bare bottom. His fingers slipped into the crevice, lifting her and crushing her to his torso, supporting her.

      The shock of Lucas touching her there had her gasping, but a solid pang of want swallowed the shock. “Madre de Dios.”

      Lucas groaned against her breast. With it still in his mouth, he mumbled, “I love it when you talk dirty.”

      A throaty laugh burst out of her. “It means mother of God, dingbat.”

      “I don’t care. Anything you say in Spanish sounds dirty. Say something else.” He licked his way down her stomach and bit the tie on her shorts, pulling the strings loose with his mouth.

       “Quiero que ahora—”

      And then her brain shut off when he yanked down her shorts and panties. He turned her and pressed her spine to his torso, settling her rear against his hard length. His firm arm snaked between her breasts, locking her in place, and his clever fingers slid down her stomach to find her center.

      He mouthed her throat and rubbed the hard button between her folds until she squirmed against the restraining band of steel disguised as his arm.

      One finger slid inside and then two, in and out, and her head rolled against his shoulder in a mindless thrash. So good, so hot. So everything.

      His heavy arousal burned into the soft flesh of her bottom, thrilling her. His thumb worked her nub in a circle and the sensuous onslaught swirled into one bright gathering point against his fingers. She came so hard she cried out.

      The ripples tightened her inner walls around his fingers, and he plunged his fingers in again and again to draw out the climax to impossible lengths until, finally, it ended in a spectacular burst.

      Lucas had just ruined her for any other man.

      Too spent to stand on her own, she slumped in his arms and her knees gave out. The additional weight must have caught him off guard, and she pulled him down with her. In a tangle of limbs, they hit the carpet, and Lucas laughed as he rolled her back into his arms.

      “There you have it,” he said into her hair. “Now we don’t have to lie. Next time someone asks why we got married, you can truthfully say we fell for each other.”

      A giggle slipped out and cleared the fog in her head, along with any lingering tension from being with Lucas, naked and exposed. His ability to bring the fun was unparalleled.

      He picked her up and laid her gently on the bed.

      “The first one is for you,” he said, eyes crystal clear blue and dazzling. “The next one is for me.”

      “That’s fair.” She cleared her throat. He deserved more than she knew how to give him. “Lucas? I’m nowhere near as um … practiced at this as you are. However, I promise to give it my best shot.”

      She dragged an elbow under her to sit up but he knocked it away. She flopped back on the tangle of sheets and watched as he straddled her, powerful thighs preventing his gorgeous body from crushing her.

      All of him was beautiful, but in this position, the really good stuff lay at eye level. She didn’t hesitate to look her fill and reached out to run her palms along his legs. So hard and so delectable.

      “No.” He shook his head. “Your next orgasm is for me. The first one doesn’t count. It’s only to take the edge off, and, honey, you were wound tight. I barely touched you and you went off like a Roman candle.”

      She moaned. “That was a demonstration of ‘barely’?”

      With a wicked smile, he laced their fingers together and drew her arms up above her head, manacled her wrists together with one hand and slid the other hand down the length of her side from shoulder to hip. “Oh, yeah. There’s much, much more. But this time, I get to pick where you’ll be, and it’ll be right here, where I can watch you.”

      He began to touch her, watching her as he did, and his heavy-lidded stare unnerved her, even as it heightened the sensations of his hands and mouth on her bare skin. He did something sinful to every inch of her body until she couldn’t breathe with the need for him to fill her.

      Why had she resisted a man with Lucas’s skill for so long? There wasn’t a whole lot of taking pleasure necessary when he gave it so freely. How selfish was she that she stingily lapped it up?

      After what felt like hours of lovely agony, he settled between her legs and his talented mouth dipped to the place he’d pleasured with his fingers. With his lips and teeth and, oh, yes, his tongue working her flesh, he drove her into the heavens a second time.

      His eyes never left her, and her shuddering release intensified with the knowledge that he was watching her, taking his own pleasure in hers. The manifestation of the power he spoke of, the power she held, was exhilarating.

      “Enough,” she gasped. “I admit it. You were right. I could have slept in my room, but I guess part of me wanted you to force the issue. So I could keep pretending I’m not attracted to you. No more pretending. I want you. Now.”

      “That might be the sweetest confession I’ve ever heard.” He rose up over her and captured her mouth in way-too-short, musky kiss. “But we have all night. And tomorrow night. So, slow down, darlin’. Half the fun is getting there.”

      “How is it not making you insane to keep waiting your turn?”

      He laughed and threaded his hands through her hair in a long caress. “Good things come to those who wait. Besides, I’m dead center in the middle of my turn. Every nuance of desire flashing through your eyes turns me on. Every moan from your mouth is like music. I could watch you shatter for hours.”

      Hours? Dios. She should have read between the lines a little better when he blew off