The Bridal Path: Sara by Sherryl Woods

arousal, his heart slammed against his ribs.
    Why?
The question taunted him one last time, but he didn’t wait for an answer. It was too late. Nothing could have kept him from taking what Sara so willingly offered. Nothing, perhaps, except a change of heart on her part.
    He gazed into glittering green eyes and rubbed his thumb across lips swollen from his kisses. He’d warned her of who he was, just like he’d warned the others. Still, he asked one last time to be sure she understood what she was doing. He wasn’t sure if he asked out of honor or in the desperate hope that she would back away and save them both from making what was bound to be a terrible mistake.
    “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked, curling a strand of red hair around his finger, then brushing it gently away from her face. “It’s not too late.”
    His breath seemed to catch in his throat as he waited for her answer. If she said no, if she changed her mind now, he might very well hate himself for the rest of his life for asking. But that would be better by far than having her hate him for not asking.
    All she said, though, was, “Please, Jake. Don’t stop.”
    She opened herself to him then. Her hands on his hips guided him. When he would have sunk slowly, carefully into her, she took that option from him, arching her hips until they were joined fully, deeply.
    Jake couldn’t recall ever fitting another woman so snugly, so perfectly. Nor could he recall a time when his movements had been so tormentingly slow, when the buildup of tension had been so exquisitely consuming.
    When a howl ripped through the night air, Jake thought surely it must have been the wolf once more. Then he realized that the sound had come from him just as an explosive climax shuddered first through Sara and then with shattering intensity through him.
    He closed his eyes, hoping that would shut out the emotions crowding through him, but it was a wasted effort. Something told him that Sara had claimed more than his body in the past hour. He was very much afraid she had claimed his heart and soul. The real shock, of course, was that he still had either one for her to claim.

Chapter Six
    O bviously she’d lost her mind, Sara thought with a fresh bout of embarrassment as she fought opening her eyes in the morning. There were fresh reminders of her middle-of-the-night madness.
    Jake’s leg was settled across hers. He’d flung one arm possessively around her waist. His shadowed cheek rested against her bare shoulder. The intimacy was beguiling and confusing. When she thought of how she’d practically—okay, literally—thrown herself at him the night before, it was also humiliating.
    Where had she gotten the notion that Three-Stars could be seduced away from Jake? Just because she’d proved he wanted her was no reason to assume he wanted her badly enough to sacrifice the home he’d dreamed of owning.
    Not that he’d tried very hard to fight her off. He’d put up a token, gentlemanly resistance. It was probably more than most men would have under the circumstances, but he hadn’t exactly called a halt to the proceedings.
    Which meant one of two things, she concluded. Either he’d been lusting after her as ardently as she’d been lusting after him or he was just the kind of male who never turned down such a generous offer of feminine companionship.
    Judging from the rumors about the trail of broken hearts Jake had left behind, it was more than likely the latter.
    She went back to the original question. What the devil had possessed her to fling herself at him? She tested a few more theories, hoping she’d like them better.
    Maybe she had just wanted to discover whether their marriage would be more than compatible in one respect. That was a good one. Logical even. Not even Jake could argue with it. In fact, he’d already embraced that very concept when he kissed her the first time.
    Or maybe all those years of pent up longings had finally gotten to be too much