Page 18 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

“I’ve never felt like this in my life.”

He sobered. “You should always feel like this.”

A stab of inadequacy had her looking to the base of his throat.

His hot mouth swept down into the crook of her neck and he nuzzled his way back to her ear where he let her feel the edge of his teeth.

“Come back to the house with me. Let me keep making you feel like this,” he whispered.

She nodded and let him draw her back up the hill.

CHAPTER FIVE

THEYENTEREDTHROUGHthe basement where they removed their muddy shoes. Jasper hung his wet sweatshirt on a hook. Vienna did the same with her pullover, wavered briefly, then opened her jeans. The seat was damp from where he’d pressed her against the wet trunk of the tree and probably stained by the moss.

He watched very closely as she peeled them off and threw them onto the washer.

“Those are pretty.” His touch was cooled by the outdoors, so goose pimples rose on her skin as he grazed the lace of her bikini-style undies across her hip and upper thigh.

“I—”

She sucked in her breath as the knuckles of his two bent fingers brushed the emerald silk down the center in a feather-light caress that made her throb.

“You do have trouble talking, don’t you?” he teased as he dragged his gaze up to hers.

All she could see was the wall of his chest and the sinful tilt of his mouth and the promise in his eyes. With a shade more pressure, he drew a firmer line in the silk.

“I—” She tried to remember what she had to say. “I don’t have condoms. I’ve had every test and I can’t get pregnant, but—”

“There are some in the en suite bathroom.”

She suddenly whirled away from him and ran to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the kitchen.

When she stopped there and looked back, he was in the open door of the laundry room, hands braced on either side of it.

“It’s like that, is it?” His voice was gritty enough to tighten her hand on the stair rail. “You’d better run, then, because I’m definitely going to eat you.”

A small scream left her as she raced up the stairs and through the pantry, tossing a look behind her when she reached the kitchen.

His steps resounded with steady purpose, oozing confidence that he would overtake her.

It was a thrilling chase that had her doing something wild because she felt wild. Unfettered. There were no wrong answers today, not with him.

She skimmed the lace and silk down her legs and left them at the bottom of the stairs as she started up them.

He swore as he emerged from the pantry and spotted them.

She laughed, starting to run again, but she was looking back, so she stumbled on the stairs.

He was there to catch her, softening her landing, his strength so far outmatching hers that he turned her in a way that felt as though she did it herself. Perhaps she did. Either way, she was pressed onto her back on these see-through stairs and he was braced over her.

“I want you like nothing I’ve ever wanted,” he told her.

The faint stubble on his chin burned as he stole a hard kiss.

“And I havewanted, Vienna. For the last year, I have wanted a lot of things. All day and night, I made myself all sorts of promises if I could only get my life back. You, though... I didn’t know I wanted you.” His hand slid under her shirt, palming her breast through her bra while his teeth scraped the point of her chin.

“Then let’s go upstairs,” she urged. One stair tread was a sharp line in the middle of her back. Her foot found another so she could lift and arch, alleviating the discomfort, but he was still heavy upon her.

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