Birthright

something . . . else.”
    “This is fine.” She set her purse down on the second bed. “I need to tell you what happened yesterday.”
    “Is telling me right now going to change anything?”
    “No. But you need to—”
    “Then first things first.” He drew the jacket she wore off her shoulders. “Nice material,” he said, and tossed it on the bed beside her purse. “You know one of the first things I noticed about you, Lana?”
    “No. What?” She stood very still while he unbuttoned her blouse.
    “Soft. Your looks, your skin, your hair. Your clothes.” He slid the blouse away. “A man’s just got to get his handson all that soft.” He trailed a fingertip down the center of her body to the hook of her slacks.
    “Maybe you should put the Do Not Disturb sign out.”
    “I did.” He lowered his mouth, nibbled on hers as the fluid material pooled at her feet.
    She tugged his shirt up, over his head. “You’re a clear-thinking, careful man. That’s one of the first things I noticed about you. I find that kind of thing very attractive.” Her breath caught when he swept her up into his arms. “And there’s that, too.”
    “We’re practical, straightforward people.”
    “Mostly,” she managed when he laid her on the bed.
    He covered her body with his. “Nice fit.”
    She let herself go, let the anxiety and excitement of the past hours melt away. He smelled of his shower, the hotel soap. She found even that arousing. To be here, so far from home in this anonymous room on sheets where he’d slept without her.
    She could hear the drone of a vacuum cleaner being run in the corridor outside. And the slam of a door as someone went on their way.
    She could hear her own heart beat in her throat as his lips nuzzled there.
    The long, loving stroke of his hands over her warmed her skin. Her blood, her bones. So she sighed his name when his lips came back to hers. And yielded everything.
    He’d dreamed of her in the night, and he rarely dreamed. He’d wished for her, and he rarely wished. All that, it seemed, had changed since she’d slipped into his life. What he’d once stopped himself from wanting was now everything he wanted.
    A home, a family. A woman who would be there. It was all worth the risk if she was the woman.
    He pressed his lips to her heart and knew if he could win that, he could do anything.
    She moved under him, a shuddering, restless move as he sampled her with his tongue. Now the need to excite her, to hear her breath thicken and catch, to feel that heart he wanted so much to hold thunder, rose up in him.
    Not so patient now, not so easy. As her breath went choppy, he dragged her up so they were kneeling on the bed, struggling to strip away the rest of their clothes.
    When she bowed back, an offering, his mouth raced over her.
    This is what she wanted now. Speed and need. A wild, wet ride. The thrill sprinted through her, turning her body into a quaking mass that craved more. She reared up, clamping her legs around him, curling over him to fix her teeth on his shoulder.
    When he filled her, body and heart, she spoke his name. Just his name.
    S pent, sated, he held on to her. The temptation was great to simply snuggle down on the bed, drag the covers over their heads and shut out everything else.
    “I want time with you, Lana. Time that’s not part of anything else.”
    “Normal time.” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “We’ve hardly had any of that. What would it be like, do you think?”
    “Quiet.”
    She laughed. “Well, there’s not a lot of that in my house.”
    “Yes, there is. There’s a nice sense of quiet with a kid running around.”
    “Dogs barking, phones ringing. I’m an organized soul, Doug, but there are a lot of compartments in my life. A lot to handle.”
    “And because you make it look easy, I shouldn’t think it is. I’ve never thought it was.” He drew back. “I admire what you’ve done with your life, and Ty’s. How you’ve done it.”
    “There you go, saying the right thing again.” She eased away, rising to unzip her bag.
    He noted that the short, thin robe was neatly folded and right on top. It made him smile. “Were you born tidy?”
    “I’m afraid so.” She belted the robe, then sat on the sideof the opposite bed. “And practical. Which is why when I’d prefer to snuggle up on that bed with you for the next hour or so, I’m going to spoil the mood. Something happened yesterday.”
    She told him about Rosie, watched