Page 49 of Richard

As soon as she sheathed him, her tightness wrapped around him, he came violently, endlessly, sweetly, his body shuddering on top of her.

Her name was torn from his lips. He had never called out a woman’s name while in the throes of a climax before, but then again, he had never climaxed so long and hard. It felt as if he was never going to stop, that his entire body was involved in a freefloat toward destinations unknown.

He wanted her pregnant so she would have no choice but to say yes when he proposed. He would have preferred to spend years having her to himself, with no one to intrude on their getting to know each other, but he was running out of time.

He should have met her when he was in his teens, in his twenties at least.

He had been cheated out of years, and he was going to have to make up the time. And he didn't want to waste anymore.

He also didn’t give her time to rest before he took her again. He gave himself time to get hard again, but she was not afforded any such relief. He used his fingers and his mouth and had her flying again. He knew she was probably exhausted, but she didn’t complain. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.

When he finally dropped back in exhaustion and took her with him, she was curled against his chest, her tears on his flesh.

For several minutes, the silence permeated the room, and then he spoke.

“Marry me.”

She did not respond for a few seconds, and he forced himself to wait.

When she lifted her head, her eyes were drenched with tears, lashes spiked with it. “We only just met, and this is–”She took a deep breath. “It’s going too fast. Please, Richard, I need time.”

“Why?” he asked gruffly.

“To make certain that’s what we both want.”

Understanding dawned, and he wanted to hurt that son of a bitch badly. “You think I am going to change my mind.”

Spiky lashes swept over her eyes, and her fingers played with the hairs on his chest absently. “I just think we should wait. It’s a very important decision–”She gasped when her chin was wrenched upward.

“I know what I want. I am in love with you for Christ's sake!” Taking a deep breath to dispel the anger, he ameliorated his tone. “I am forty-five years old, and for the first time in my life, I am in love. I want our relationship legalized and become permanent.

I want you living with me, going places, sleeping in my bed and waking up next to me every goddamned morning. And I cannot wait.”

She wrenched her chin out of his hold and sat up, pulling the sheets along with her. “I had a man telling me he loved me too and wanted to marry me. He found someone else more appealing and broke my heart. I need you to be certain. You–you can have any woman you want, and I am not certain why you chose me.

You are also high profile, so if you were to change your mind–”She broke off when he swore viciously and swung hislegs off the bed. Reaching for the robe he had found in the closet, he walked over to the window and noticed, to his surprise, that it had started raining.

“Richard, please understand where I am coming from.

Her soft voice crying out to him had him turning to face her. “I understand that you are still holding on to the past. I understand that you are afraid to trust me because of what happened to you.”

His mouth twisted bitterly. “I also understand that I am being unfairly judged by another man. I keep my promises, Collette. This is the first and only time I have ever proposed to a woman.

I thought I was a bachelor and would be for the rest of my life. I never believed in the institution of marriage. My parents’ marriage was a disaster, and my mother has been married five times already, so I told myself that I do not need all that drama.”

His eyes glittered. “Until I met you," he laughed harshly. “Thejoke is on me, isn’t it? I am almost middle-aged, and here I am, experiencing love for the first time. And with a woman with enough baggage to fill a damn carousel.” He regretted the last part of his speech when he saw the wounded expression on her lovely face.

“I apologize," he said wearily, running restless fingers through his tousled hair. “I am not thinking straight. Or being reasonable.”

She let go of her death grip on the blankets, her expression pleading. “I never experienced anything like this before,” she confessed. “Never knew love making could be so–”She searched for an appropriate adjective and could not come up with anything that could adequately describe what he made her feel.

Her insides were still quivering; the imprint of his mouth, his fingers, and his entire body were still on her. His cologne seeped into her skin permanently, and she was afraid that what she felt for Trevor paled in comparison to what he made her feel.

Richard McBride had swept her off her feet in just a few short weeks. And he was out of her league; she knew that very well. As soon as they were made public, the press would be on them,asking for a sound byte.

She would be inundated with reporters wanting to get a scoop on their relationship. She was not used to the spotlight like he was. And then there would be the digging into her past.

It was natural for the public to want to find out about the woman who had managed to “change Richard McBride’s mind.”

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