he’d usually be able to puzzle it out, but right now he didn’t want to think at all. It was enough to just feel—in his body and in his heart.
He entered her slowly, kissing her inviting mouth. They moved together in a hypnotic rhythm, her soft sighs music that made his heart fill with joy. He loved the sensation of her hands on his body, even her nails digging into his flesh as the fever of their passion gripped her.
Lithe and agile, she moved with him on the lush, upholstered sofa. Astride him, she took him to new heights of agonized pleasure. Just when he thought he couldn’t stand another second without exploding, she pulled back, a sly smile on her face, and shifted so that he was on top of her again.
He managed to roll over without losing his safe place deep inside her. Every inch of his body, every muscle and corpuscle, throbbed with intensity. Half of him wanted to climax and end the delicious agony, the other half wanted it to continue forever. To keep them both suspended in a blissful half-life of sensual pleasure.
Would they both regret this in the morning, when the champagne would wear off and the silver moonlight be replaced by blinding rays of harsh sun?
“I won’t regret this.”
Her rasped words startled him. She’d spoken as if she could read his thoughts. “I won’t, either.”
“Whatever happens next, we’ll always have this moment.” With her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms tight around his neck, Annie held him with force. The heat of her arousal, compounded with his own, threatened to make sparks in the air. “And I won’t forget it.”
A threat or a promise, her words drove him those last few miles out into the realm where worldly cares and concerns evaporated and there was nothing but right now. They shared a climax so forceful it almost threw them onto the stone terrace, and he had to brace with his arms to keep them on the cushions.
Panting, gasping and holding on for dear life, they floated back down to earth together, chests heaving against each other.
“Why does that feel so good?” Annie’s question, after a long silence, made him laugh.
“Because if it didn’t there wouldn’t be any people on earth. If having sex was like brushing your teeth people wouldn’t bother.”
“You don’t brush your teeth?” Her eyes sparkled with both passion and humor.
“I’m the kind of person who does stuff out of a sense of duty.”
“I like that about you.”
“I can tell. You’re the same. I bet you never go to bed without brushing your teeth.”
“Am I that easy to read?” She pouted, or tried to, despite the smile tugging at her mouth.
“Yes, you’re an open book.”
Her smile faded slightly and a thoughtful look darkened her gaze. “Am I really? Did you know all along that I’ve … had a thing for you?”
He didn’t know that. It hadn’t crossed his mind that she felt that way about him. She’d simply been an excellent employee to him. How did you say that without sounding rude? “Something rendered me blind to your charms until our trip up to the attic. I don’t know why, because you’ve been the same ravishing beauty—cunningly disguised by L.L. Bean—haunting my house for years.”
She frowned slightly. “How odd that the trip up to the attic changed everything.”
“My mom would say it’s fate. Something mystical is happening.” He spoke in a deliberately mysterious tone.
Annie glanced around, still holding tight to his body. “I kind of feel that way, too. I’m not sure I would have ever dared to do … something like this before.”
“Have hot, wild sex on a stranger’s patio?”
“Pretty much. And with my boss, too. In fact I can’t believe we’re lying here naked under the moon.”
“I know. There’s a chill in the air.” He pretended to hold her closer, like a blanket.
“Is there? I can’t feel it. But then I’m glowing all over, thanks to you.”
She was glowing. Her eyes, her skin, her whole spirit radiated joy, good health and happiness. And he had the power to increase or destroy that happiness.
A dark shadow crept across his heart. He didn’t know how to keep a woman happy. He could make it past the wedding, past the honeymoon, and then, somehow, it all fell apart.
But maybe, with Annie, it could be different.
He jolted upright. Was he seriously thinking about embarking on another relationship so soon after the disastrous failure of his second marriage? And if he wasn’t, what the heck was he doing here with this beautiful and sweet woman naked in his arms?
“What’s the matter?” The concern in her voice wrung his soul.
“I’m not naturally suited to living in the present.”
She stroked his cheek. Her serious expression didn’t mock his doubts and worries. She seemed to silently accept them. “I usually live in the future. I go through the motions in the present, rinsing lettuce and making beds, but my mind and spirit are way ahead in ‘one day’ land.”
He frowned. He was good at living on the edge and going with the flow in business, but his personal life was a whole other story. “I suspect I tend to lag behind in ‘if only’ territory.”
“Then there’s obviously no hope for us, is there?” She spoke brightly, but there was an undercurrent of sadness to her tone.
“Either that, or we’ll have to save each other and only live in the present from now on.” A fresh flame of hope—or was it simply desire—roared through him, and he took her mouth in a fierce kiss. She kissed him back hard, gripping him as if sheer strength and determination could hold them here, at least for a few moments longer.
When their lips finally parted he felt breathless and light-headed.
“I hate to live in the future as usual, but we’d better get back to the party before it ends or our driver will wonder what happened to us.” Annie’s soft voice tugged him back to the present.
“You’re right.” He stretched, easing against Annie’s warm body. “Though it pains me to put clothes back on when I feel so comfortable without them.”
“I like putting my dress back on. I never know what’s going to happen when I put on one of the dresses from that trunk.”
“Or maybe you do know what’s going to happen now. There’s a definite theme.” He traced the line of her jaw with his thumb. Her lip quivered as he drew close. “Involving me taking the dresses off.”
They put their clothes on and climbed—gingerly—into the boat. The journey back to the party seemed so much quicker than the trip out, maybe because of the way the current was flowing. Or maybe because he hated to see their evening together end. He had an unsettling feeling that everything would be different once they got back to the mundane world of other people
