The Tempting Mrs. Reilly by Maureen Child Page B

long as you don’t have some socially icky disease, you don’t have to worry.”
    Don’t have to worry. So she was on the pill. Okay, there went the last wall standing between him and glory.
    It didn’t matter anymore why she was here or what she wanted. Maybe it never had. Maybe since the day she arrived in Baywater, they’d been heading right here. To this place. Maybe it was something they both needed.
    She trailed her fingertips up, over her hip, pushing the other half of the towel aside.
    His mouth went dry.
    His heart hammered in his chest.
    â€œSo?” she asked, her voice a whisper in the moonlight as she repeated her earlier question. “ Are you as good as I remember?”
    Even a Marine knew when to surrender.
    Brian grinned and pulled off his shirt. “Babe. I’m way better.”
    She held one hand out to him. “Prove it.”
    He tore off his clothes, and in seconds, he was there, beside her on the bed. He peeled the towel off her body, then cupped one of her breasts.
    â€œBrian…” she whispered, arching into him, pushing herself into his touch, “I want you so badly.”
    â€œI want you too, baby,” he murmured, dipping his head to taste her nipple. A lick, a nip of his teeth and his words muffled against her flesh. “I’ve always wanted you.”
    She put her hands at the sides of his face and tipped his head up until she could look into his eyes. Brian read the hunger in those dark chocolate eyes of hers and something more. Something he didn’t want to think about. Or acknowledge.
    She pulled him close and kissed him, nibbling at his bottom lip for a long moment before saying, “Then take me, Brian. Take me and let me take you.”
    He was lost.
    Groaning, he covered her mouth with his and swept his tongue into her warmth. Grabbing her tightly, he held her close, and took everything she had to give. His tongue mated with hers and his breath filled her as she filled him. He felt the heat of her, pressed along his body and thought wildly that he’d been so cold for five years. So damn cold and he’d never realized that it was because he didn’t have her.
    She was the heat.
    The light.
    Tina Coretti was the missing piece in his life and even if it was for this one night, it was good to have her back. To feel the connection blistering between them. To realize that here, at least, there was nothing else in the world that mattered. Here there was only the two of them and the magic they created together.
    She moved against him, and slid her hands up and down his back, scoring his flesh with long swipes of her short, neat nails. And he wanted more. He wanted her to somehow mark him permanently, so that he would always carry a reminder of this night. This moment.
    His brain raced, blood pumped and an ache he hadn’t known in five long years built within. Sweeping one hand down the length of her body, he defined every curve, every line of her. He touched, caressed, explored. He tasted, as he shifted over her, trailinghis lips and tongue along the line already drawn by his hands. She moved in his grasp, wriggling and sighing softly into the night.
    And no music had ever sounded sweeter.
    He ached for her.
    Sliding down her length, he kissed every inch of her as he moved along her body. She lifted her hips, arching into him, digging her head deeper into the pillow beneath her. Her fingertips scraped across his shoulders as she reached for him, but he evaded her touch, determined now to explore all of her. To rediscover every hidden delight. To touch her as he had before—and as he’d dreamed of doing since.
    â€œBrian,” she whispered throatily, “I need you inside me.”
    â€œNot yet, babe,” he answered, then nibbled at her abdomen, making her hiss in a breath. “Not yet.”
    Tina didn’t think she could stand much more. Oh, she’d thought herself prepared. Thought that she