Secret Fantasy(23)
Author: Carly Phillips

He sucked in a deep breath of air. The “yes” came out in a drawn-out hiss, one he couldn’t hold back, though he’d obviously tried. She’d take it as an affirmative answer.

Grasping on to the ends of the white towel, she pulled him close. She inhaled his potent, masculine scent, and her body, already on the edge, reacted. Her ni**les tightened and desire coiled deep in her belly—both familiar and welcome reactions to this man.

Familiar. In a short time he’d become more familiar and endearing than her ex-fiancé ever had been. Why had she been willing to settle for less? “Let me take care of you this time.”

She spoke the words at the same time she covered his mouth with her own, using the movement of her lips and the vibration of speech to make her point. To arouse him with her words and her touch, just as he’d done to her.

His hands gripped her shoulders and she felt his indecision in the way he kept the kiss light and his hold on her firm, preventing their bodies from touching intimately. Just because Juliette now knew what caused his hesitation didn’t mean she’d allow him to turn her away. Testing her feminine wiles, testing him, she teased his lips with a light flicker of her tongue.

She obviously made her point because his heartfelt groan resulted in a change—their kiss became the deepest, sweetest one she’d ever known. Juliette figured she’d made headway. And when he matched her move, dipped into her mouth with his tongue, she stopped thinking at all.

CHAPTER SIX

SWEET HEAVEN. And that’s where he was. Losing himself in her warm, wet, willing mouth once more. Warning bells were ringing hard, but he couldn’t bring himself to heed them. Doug didn’t break the kiss as his hands slid from her shoulders and around her back, settling on her waist. Barriers, even silken ones, were no longer acceptable and he lifted the flowing material so he could caress her soft skin.

She stopped him with a firm grip on his wrists. “Your turn, remember?”

Her voice broke through the haze of desire, bringing him back to reality. He didn’t want anything from her.

He swallowed a curse. He might lie to her but he wouldn’t lie to himself. He wanted anything and everything she had to give. He just couldn’t let himself take. “I told you I didn’t expect anything in return.” His voice sounded rough to his own ears.

“I know that. You gave because you wanted to, even if you were proving a point to yourself. Now I want to give back.” She drew a deep breath, one Doug knew for certain was for courage, and then placed her hand on the front placket of his jeans.

He gritted his teeth. She must have sensed his aching need because she cupped him more firmly and slid her palm down then up again in an excruciatingly slow but tantalizing movement. Certainty combined with endearing hesitancy showed in her face as she felt, tested and learned his shape and contours. His body came alive beneath her touch and he barely held himself in check.

“Are you going to deny you like that?” she asked.

He couldn’t admit or deny. Need and arousal collided inside him, fast and intense. “I think the hard evidence speaks for itself.”

She laughed, the sound light and easy, despite their serious conversation and the fact that they were both on the edge. But when she reached for the button on his jeans, Doug knew he had to call a stop. Now, before things went too far. But he also knew he’d be hurting her if he turned her away.

Although he’d explained his fantasy, she was still vulnerable and she’d never completely understand why he stopped so soon. Considering how badly he wanted her, he was having a hard time understanding it himself—and he was in possession of the facts.

Holding back, not taking what she offered and losing himself inside her willing body—Doug didn’t recognize the man making the sacrifice. He hadn’t done many things in his life to be proud of, Doug thought. Obtaining and printing facts by any means possible, even if they revealed others’ failings, hardly qualified him for sainthood.

Yet here he was, denying himself what he wanted most, what he wanted even more than the information she possessed, because it was best for Juliette.

She was new and special and brought something good into his life. In an ironic way, he owed her for that, Doug thought. And this was the only way he could repay her.

She flipped open the button on his jeans and her fingers grabbed the zipper next. He inhaled, wondering how to stop her.

“Remember I told you I was engaged?” Her voice and the topic she chose took him by surprise, but he managed a nod.

“What I didn’t tell you was there were no sparks.” She released his fly and the rasping sound echoed in his ears.

He clenched his fists at his sides.

“No excitement.” Her hands went to the waistband on his jeans. “No real desire.”

She paused—thank God—because he needed to hear everything she said, words as well as inflection, and he couldn’t do that if she was undressing him. And he couldn’t stop her or the topic of conversation would turn and he’d never get this insight into Juliette.

Insight he wanted for personal, not professional, reasons. No agenda involved. He wanted to hear what she had to say because he needed to know the source of her pain. And he wanted to make it go away. Not because it was his so-called fantasy, but because he was on the verge himself.

On the verge of falling for her, hard, deep and fast. A first he had no clue how to handle. “I can’t imagine any man not wanting you.” He spoke, Doug realized, with his heart. And that particular organ began to pound harder inside his chest.

She bit down on her lower lip. “Then don’t imagine it, just trust me. He didn’t want me. And I thought it was my fault,” she said softly. “I’d been through something similar once before and it just reinforced the feelings. A man couldn’t want me, just what I could give him or do for him.”

Doug’s journalistic instincts kicked in, telling him he was seconds away from the truth. She could very well admit her secrets, yet the adrenaline flowing through his system had nothing to do with his ultimate goal and everything to do with her distant, hurt expression.

He touched her cheek. “You have to know I want you.”

“I do.” A smile lifted her lips and lightened her eyes. An honest, grateful, trusting kind of smile. “And since we’re admitting fantasies, you have to know you’ve been fulfilling mine. And it’s been an incredible gift.”

“How’s that?”