Unguarded (20 page)

She paused, savoring the feel of him against her. And then—with a single fluid motion—made them one.

She rode him slowly, sweetly, cherishing him with her body the way he so obviously cherished her. Immersed in him, wrapped up in the feelings that arced between them with each slow glide of her body, she kept the rhythm languid, steady.

Even as the tension began to build in her, the ache between her thighs becoming more and more unbearable, she kept it dreamy, drowsy.

Even as his hips arched beneath hers, and the hands that had caressed her so gently turned rough in an instant, she kept it leisurely, lazy.

Need was a living thing within her, but she pushed it back again and again, unwilling to have their moment end so soon. She'd waited so long for this, to be held
in the arms of a lover who understood and treasured her, that she wanted it to last forever.

But the need continued to build until sweat poured from him, from her, mingled as she leaned over him and brushed a kiss across the muscles directly over his heart.

“Now, Rhiannon!” Shawn's hands clamped on her thighs like a vise. “Please, I need you. I need you now.”

There they were, the words she'd been waiting to hear all along, without even knowing it. Because she was suddenly as desperate as he was, she let him take control for the last few seconds. One powerful thrust, another, and they plunged over the edge of the world. Together.

When it was over, when she was wrapped in Shawn's arms and her heart had finally slowed to something resembling normal, she told him in the clearest voice she could muster, “I love you.”

“Good. Because you're going to marry me.”

“Really?” She lifted her head and stared at him. “It's customary for a man to ask a woman if she wants to marry him.”

“Yeah, well, it's customary for the woman not to drive the man who loves her completely around the bend, and that hasn't stopped you.”

“Funny.” But she settled on the bed next to him, her head cushioned by his rock solid biceps. “We both know I'm too old for you.”

“Shouldn't I be the one to decide that?” he asked. “Or maybe what you really mean is that I'm too young for you?”

“Yeah, right.” But when she looked into his warm,
summer-sky eyes she couldn't help smiling. Shawn would take care of her, in sickness and in health. In good times and in bad—and she would do the same for him. He was that kind of man.

Still, there was no reason to make it too easy for him. “We both know I only keep you around because I like the idea of my own personal boy toy.”

“Do you, now?”

“I do.” She reached between them, stroked him, reveling in the way his breath caught and his eyes turned smoky. “Unless you object?”

“Well, if you insist.” He sighed heavily. “It's a burden I'm prepared to bear if it means keeping you happy.”

“Oh, I insist, all right.” She rolled on top of him, took him inside her again.

“Thank God.”

He arched beneath her and she gasped as pleasure shot through every nerve ending she had. She started to lower her head to kiss him, but he stopped her with a finger on her lips. “Marry me, Rhiannon. I don't want to live without you.”

“Just try to stop me.”

And then he was kissing her and she was kissing him right back, giving herself up to the joy and love she had found where she had least expected it.