that she knew were always there but could never touch. When he stood in front of her, so tantalizingly close, she couldn’t help herself. She reached out and ran a finger down the middle of his abdomen. The ridges there were tight and hard, yet pulsed with barely contained energy.
He groaned and his hands grasped her waist as he pulled her against him. At once, she pressed her lips firmly against his neck and froze, plying his salty skin with her tongue, while his fingers deftly manipulated the zipper of her evening gown. It slid to the floor and Austin stepped back, yet not so far that she couldn’t see the well of desire in his dark eyes as they swept over her lace bra and panties.
The answers they sought lay in the crackle of wood and the gentle hush of their breathing, yet for a moment, neither moved.
Austin took a step back, hesitating now, but Laney pulled him back, not willing to let him go.
For reasons she didn’t fully comprehend, she needed to know him. She needed to feel this. His hard length, still clothed, rolling against her bare stomach. She weaved her body against him until he grunted and threaded his fingers in her long hair. He kissed her deeply, his tongue on a mission with no map. She was his guide, opening herself to him, allowing him to drink of her, knowing innately that he would never be satisfied, wanting him to keep on needing.
His mouth worked down her neck, his fingers twisting in her bra straps, kneading her shoulders, unhooking her bra. That male energy pulsed tight against her, making her yearn to take him in her mouth, to feel that energy spread through her body.
He lifted his lips and his hands spanned her bare back, drawing her even closer to him, and her nipples rubbed against his bare chest.
Laney moaned and Austin lifted her up in his arms. She allowed herself to be carried by him, not fighting the primal urge to be dominated by this man.
She wanted this.
Although they couldn’t voice it to each other, deep down they had a common goal: to discover and to forget.
Austin laid her gently on the bed and she watched with wide eyes as he unzipped his trousers. Eased off his briefs. At the sight of him, she gasped. The length, wide as a river; smooth as glass on top, hard as a rock underneath, power coursing through unbidden. Her mouth began to water and she reached for him. Austin lay upon her, his smile almost imperceptible, his body elongated and seemed to never end. In the firelight, his skin was dark bronze, moist with sweat, firm with muscle. She trailed her fingers down his back and over his round buttocks and spread her legs in anticipation.
Their lips ground together again, tongues darting and playing, as they both sought to prolong their desire and their time together.
Austin’s fingers tweaked one of her nipples and she writhed beneath him, wanting more of his touch and more of him.
Sensing her need, he ended the kiss, cupped her breasts and lapped at her large nipples until they were hard. She looked down at the wet, swollen peaks and bit her bottom lip, as Austin pursed his lips and gently blew them dry.
Moving downward, Austin tongued her belly button, making her laugh. Her giggles quickly turned into gasps as he kissed her inner thighs, causing her muscles to quiver uncontrollably.
Laney moaned as his tongue hungrily darted across her skin, swirled briefly into her wet core, and out again, landing firmly on her ultra-sensitive pearl. Like a marionette on an invisible string, his gentle lips controlled her, beckoning her to buck. It only took a few moments and when she did, the satin sheets rolled underneath them. She cried out, fisting and clutching at the duvet, now a stage, barely able to contain her ecstatic agony.
After protecting them, Austin laid upon her once more, grunting low, murmuring softly in her ear. As he slowly, so slowly, inserted his length into her, she squeezed her eyes shut, her mouth going slack.
Laney opened her eyes and Austin stilled above her, breathing heavily, his arms stock-straight, palms flat against the mattress. The firewood shifted with a loud hiss, but neither of them flinched. His dark eyes gazed into hers and she bit her lip again at what she saw in them. No more a calm river, but a whirlpool of lust.
He began to move inside her so rapidly that she brought her hands to his massive shoulders, afraid she would fall off the bed. She tried to palm them, but gave up and settled on his shoulder blades. When she found a spot, she held on, like a mountain climber grasping sheer, slick rock, never letting go, never looking down, for fear of dying.
Her hair fell down around her face and she thrashed her head from side to side, moaning. She opened her legs wider, so Austin could climb higher, bore deeper.
He impaled her as his own, over one erotic threshold and then another, scaling and moving together, until she cried out again, desperate for more.
The freedom Austin was giving her, those undulating waves that were no match against fear, taking her outside of herself as their mutual pleasure rose to almost unbearable heights.
“Don’t hold back, Laney,” he urged, breathing hard. He found her lips and groaned. “Because I can’t.”
His neck corded as he slammed into her one last time and lifted his face to the sky. His chin jutting forth, eyes squeezed shut, as he froze in place.
Laney opened and closed her legs around his waist, and then finally locked them around his slick body. She moved her hips greedily to claim every drop that poured forth.
Emptying him.
Filling her.
So forbidden, so wanton, so unbelievably good.
The fire continued to crackle, and the beads of sweat that rolled from their bodies did not dampen their desire. No longer uncertain and not wanting to waste another moment, Laney and Austin began to eagerly explore each other again. Neither one considered, nor cared, what the new year would bring.
Chapter 1
“It was the kiss that changed everything,” Laney whispered.
Stella Rose nuzzled her neck. Named after her favorite lead character from the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and her favorite flower, Stella Rose was Laney’s prized thoroughbred and her closest confidante.
“Not yours, silly,” Laney exclaimed, giggling. “Austin’s!”
She gently patted Stella’s chestnut mane. “Only you know how I truly feel about him,” she whispered. “That’s a secret between us girls.”
Her newly minted sister-in-law, Brooke, who’d married Laney’s older brother Jameson, knew the biggest secret of all.
Laney was four months pregnant with Austin’s child.
All because of one night that she would never forget.
Ever since New Year’s Eve, Austin was the focus of her dreams, and they were naughty indeed. So much so, she’d often wake up in a sweat and it was difficult to control her thoughts for the remainder of the day.
But if she were honest with herself, the fact was that on most days she didn’t know how she felt about Austin. Only that she was scared to tell him the truth. First, she had to get through the process of telling her family.
“I sure wish they were as easy
