“Take me, Grayson. Please.” Only Lori could sound so demanding while begging.
Instead, he deliberately lowered his voice to a growl. “Is this what you wanted to show me? How good it feels when you take me in your mouth until I can’t think straight, and then how good it sounds to hear you gasp and moan as you come wild and wet against my hand—”
His dirty talk had her inner muscles clenching against his fingers, tight enough that she stole the breath out from beneath the rest of his words. No longer able to tease either of them another second, he gently widened her stance with his hands on her thighs, then went down to his knees on the wooden floor.
When his mouth closed over her sex, she moaned his name, low and long. Knowing all it would take was one more swipe of his tongue, one tiny press of his thumb over her arousal, and she’d break apart, he held her just at the precipice of bliss. For a few heady moments, he paused to savor, to relish her taste, her scent, her heat.
Of course, he should have known that was when she’d take back control by rocking her hips against his mouth, a movement so small he might have missed it if he wasn’t so attuned to her every breath, each throb of her heartbeat.
He lifted his mouth from her skin at the same moment that he gripped her hips. Not so hard that he’d leave marks, but firmly enough that she was yet again compelled to follow his sensual lead.
“Not so fast.” He thought he heard her muffle a curse. “What was that, my darling wife?”
Though his heart was practically beating through his chest, and he was as hard as stone, he grinned when she let loose a string of curses, making it abundantly clear what she was going to do to him if he didn’t make her come right this very second!
Another time, he might have teased her longer, knowing it would only make her release better when he finally let it come. But today was their baby shower, so he supposed he could give her one of her presents a little early.
Without warning, he slid his finger inside her slick heat at the same moment that he played his tongue over her sex. Her orgasm came hard and raw and perfect as her hips rocked helplessly against his mouth.
He was so desperate for her that he was barely aware of getting up from the floor to press his chest against her back and put his hands over her glorious breasts to play with her extremely sensitive skin while she rubbed the curve of her bottom against his erection.
“Don’t hold back,” she urged him over her shoulder. “I need you, Grayson. All of you.”
Though he was nearly as far gone as he could remember ever being, there was no way he would forget that he needed to be careful with Lori. There would be plenty of time for wild and crazy sex again in the future.
“I don’t want to hurt you or the baby.” He must have said it to her a hundred times during the past few months.
“You know what the doctor said,” she reminded him, as she had so many times before. “As long as nothing hurts, it’s fine to continue ‘normal intimate relations.’”
She mimicked the doctor’s voice, which usually made him laugh despite himself. But now that they were only weeks away from her due date, he couldn’t laugh about it anymore.
She turned her head to capture his gaze over her shoulder. “I promise everything’s going to be okay, for both me and the baby.” She paused, searching his face. “When have I ever broken a promise to you?”
He blew out a harsh breath. “Never.”
“And I’m not going to start today. Not even when I need you so bad that I feel like I’ll detonate soon if you don’t just take me already.”
“It’s how I feel too.”
“Then take me, Grayson. Love me.”
Between one heartbeat and the next, he was covering her mouth with his and he was taking her. Loving her.
“Lori.” Her name on his lips was a vow. A promise. A prayer.
“I love you, cowboy.”
The smile on her lips, in her voice, in her eyes, sent his body rocketing over the edge, while her words of love brought his heart tumbling toward the kind of ecstasy he’d never known was possible.
Until Lori.
CHAPTER THREE
“I’ve never seen a pregnant woman look so good.” Valentina gave Lori a big hug. “You’re positively glowing.”
Valentina was married to Lori’s movie-star brother, Smith. During the past year, Valentina and Smith had married at Summer Lake in upstate New York, honeymooned in Maine, where they adopted their dog Magoo, then opened Sullivan Studios in San Francisco to produce movies and TV shows. Lori was thrilled that Valentina and Smith had decided to settle full time in the Bay Area. She’d missed her brother so much over the years when he’d been on sets all over the world filming his iconic movie roles.
“I’ve never felt better.” As Lori said it, she couldn’t keep from turning to moon over her husband, whose very sexy moves and loving words were wholly responsible for the current exceptional state of her glow.
Grayson was across the room chatting with Lori’s brother Zach and his pregnant wife, Heather. Zach and Heather were due to have their first child in six weeks. The two couples had discussed having a double baby shower, but given that Zach and Heather had already shared their wedding day, Lori didn’t think it was fair for them to share their baby shower too. The Sullivans would all be getting together again next month to fête them.
Valentina elbowed Smith in the ribs when he remained silent and somewhat scowly. “Doesn’t your sister look great?”
“You really do.” Smith brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead, the same big-brother kiss he’d been giving her since she was two years old. When she was a little girl, he would always watch over her while she played in the backyard to make sure she didn’t hurt herself as she constantly tested her own limits. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that your pregnancy is going so well.”
Though Smith was considered to be one of the best actors of his generation, and should have been able to school his features, he couldn’t quite prevent himself from shooting another scowl in her husband’s direction.
Lori knew how much her brother liked Grayson. Still, Smith had never been particularly good at controlling his protective urges, especially when his little sister had just been drooling over her husband.
She loved few things more than razzing her brother. “In case you missed the day they did sex education in high school,” Lori said in her sweetest tones, “the way a girl and a boy make a baby is—”
When Smith’s hand shot out to cover her mouth, she burst out laughing. She also couldn’t resist pretending to bite his fingers, which had him dropping his hand with alacrity.
“I don’t know why all of my brothers have to be so predictable,” she said to her cousin Cassie, who had just joined the group. “I’m clearly not a virgin anymore.” Lori rubbed her belly to further emphasize her statement.
“Honestly,” Cassie said, picking up the thread of the conversation, “I find it’s easier if my four brothers still think I’m a virgin, even though that ship sailed a long, long time ago.”
All of them laughed, except for Smith, who was still looking a little grumpy, probably because he had guessed why Lori and Grayson had been late to their own party. They’d emerged breathless from her bedroom down the hall with their hair and clothes slightly askew.