Desiring the Reilly Brothers. Maureen Child

she hadn’t.

      It was so much more than mere memory could provide. The sensations coursing through her ebbed and flowed and rose up again, nearly swamping her with their strength. Her mind fogged over and her heartbeat tripped and staggered. Breathing was almost impossible. She couldn’t think clearly enough to draw a breath—only remembering when she was on the verge of passing out from lack of air. Her vision swam and silvered in the moonlight and she lifted her head from the pillow to look down at the man moving over her.

      She reached for him again, but he shifted, sliding around and down the front of her as though he were determined to taste every square inch of her body. She felt the fluttering nips and licks of his tongue and teeth and she shivered in his grasp.

      Oh, she hadn’t counted on this, Tina thought wildly, frantically as his hands moved over her hips, her thighs, exploring, defining. Then he was kneeling between her legs and Tina sucked in a gulp of air like a dying woman hoping for five last seconds of life.

      “Brian-” she reached for him.

      “Shut up, Coretti,” he said, smiling, then scooped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her hips off the mattress.

      Tina grabbed fistfuls of the quilt beneath her and held on. He held her suspended, then deliberately hooked her legs over his shoulders and Tina watched him as he lowered his head and took her.

      His mouth covered her, his lips and tongue did incredible things to flesh suddenly extremely sensitive. She held on tightly, fingers cramping in the fragile quilt fabric. The world tilted and only Brian’s grip on her behind held her steady.

      She couldn’t look away. Her gaze locked on him.

      He swiped her center with a long stroke of his tongue then nibbled at her core, and Tina groaned, rocking her hips into him, following the rhythm of his touch. She staggered toward a release that hung just out of reach and with every intimate caress, Brian pushed her higher, further.

      Her breathing quickened and she reached for him again, and threaded her fingers through his hair as she held him to her. Kept his talented mouth in place as her body quickened and raced toward completion.

      And when she screamed his name, she let herself fall, knowing that he held her safely.

      Seconds trembled past and she shivered again, then opened her eyes to find him watching her, hunger dazzling his eyes. Slowly, he eased her back down onto the mattress, then moved to cover her body with his.

      “I’ve really missed you, Tina,” he said, dropping a soft kiss at the corner of her mouth.

      “Oh, Brian, it’s been too long.” Her hands swept up and down his back, sliding over the familiar as though it were new.

      “Don’t think about that now,” he said, frowning as he bent to kiss her once, twice. “Don’t think at all.”

      “Don’t give me time to think,” she said and lifted her arms to encircle his neck, holding him tight, welcoming him with her body as well as her words. Welcoming him with everything she had. Everything she was.

      He entered her body on a sigh and she felt—for the first time in far too long—complete.

      Instantly, they were caught up in the rhythm. The slap of flesh to flesh, the thunder of hearts beating in time and the desire that pulsed around them, drawing them closer and uniting them into a single unit—as it always had.

      Tina held on to him, lifting her legs, locking them around his hips and holding him tight, pulling him in deeper. Rocking her hips in time with his, she followed the frantic pace he set and gave herself up to the wonder of being in his arms again.

      Her body quickened, sparkling with a renewed need that Brian hurried to meet. He thrust in and out of her heat, claiming and reclaiming all that had once been his. And she felt the strength of what they’d had and lost shimmering in the moonlight around them.

      Her heart ached as her body sang and all Tina could do was hold him, cradle his body within hers and make these moments with him a memory that would sustain her long after she went home.

      As the first tremors rocked her, Tina held him even tighter and raced with him to a climax that shook the foundations of everything they most believed. And as his body emptied into hers, she heard him whisper her name like a prayer.

      “Damn it.”

      Tina tipped her head back on the pillow of his chest and looked up at him. Smiling, she ran the tips of her fingers across his broad chest and said, “Not exactly the reaction most women look for after incredible sex.”

      “Incredible, huh?” His mouth twitched, then a heartbeat later, he was scowling. “That’s not what I meant.”

      “Well,” she said, turning into him and sliding up the front of his body in a deliberately slow, sinuous move, she brushed her hardened nipples against his chest. “Then I don’t want to talk about whatever you do mean. Not now, anyway.”

      “No, we have to talk about this….” His voice trailed off as she slid slowly back down his body, trailing kisses and long swipes of her tongue over his flesh as she went. “Tina, cut it out.”

      She smiled against his abdomen. “You don’t really want me to stop, do you?” she teased and shifted even lower.

      “Yes—no—”

      “Well, that’s clear.” Tina couldn’t let him talk. Not now. She didn’t want him regretting what they’d done because she wanted to do it again. And again. And again.

      And not just because she wanted his baby growing inside her.

      She did.

      But more than that, she wanted Brian’s body growing inside her, filling her, pushing her to heights she’d never reached with anyone else. She wanted him to want her as much as she did him.

      She wanted him to love her as she did him.

      That thought crashed through her mind and she at last admitted the plain, pitiful truth.

      She’d never stopped loving her husband.

      She’d never gotten over Brian Reilly.

      And she didn’t want to try.

      That’s why she wanted his child. If she couldn’t have him in her life, she at least wanted a part of him to love.

      “You’re distracting me,” he muttered.

      “Good,” she said and lifted her head long enough to smile at him. Then she bent and kissed his hard flesh, stroking the sensitive tip of him with her tongue. He gasped, dragging air into his lungs.

      “Still distracted?” she asked.

      “Come here,” he demanded and sitting up, reached for her, dragging her along his body until he could flip her onto her back on the mattress. He kissed her, taking her mouth, stealing her breath, giving her his. His tongue met hers in a tangled dance of promise.

      “No more talking.”

      “Who wants to talk?” she countered, grabbing at his shoulders, pulling him close. This is what she’d missed, she thought wildly. Being a part of Brian’s life. Being able to turn to him in the night and find this warmth, this need, this hunger for her.

      How she’d missed Brian.

      She parted her legs for him and he moved quickly, eagerly, to enter her again. As if he couldn’t bear another moment apart from her. Tina took him inside and felt the first staggering blasts of reaction dazzling within. He moved, his hips rocking, and sent waves of dizzying pleasure surging through her.

      Tina planted her feet on the mattress and rocked hard against him, taking him deeper, higher inside. She moved, and he tormented. His mouth continued its tender assault on hers and as their bodies mated, they clung together, each taking something of the other.

      He groaned and Tina swallowed the sound, burying