From the Heart

he lingered only briefly at her moist center before roaming on.
    He teased the tip of her breast with his tongue, then stopped to savor. Liv felt the passion shoot from the sensitive skin he tasted to the pit of her stomach. It pulled at her until her movements were less languid. But he wouldn’t be rushed. His mouth took the same slow, aching journey his fingertips had—over and over her while her skin hummed then quivered, then flashed with heat.
    She heard herself calling him in a voice that was rough with needs. Her body was no longer passive, but crying out for him. Only him. He took her, but slowly, while she clung to him mindlessly, a breath away from heaven. Then his mouth was on hers and they rocketed through space together.

13
    “ H ey.” Thorpe nuzzled Liv’s neck to wake her. “Going to sleep all day?”
    She snuggled closer. “Um-hum.” She kept her eyes shut. The feel of his body against her was all that she wanted at the moment. It could be night or morning or afternoon. She didn’t care.
    “It’s after nine.” He ran his hand down her back and heard her quiet sigh of pleasure. “We’re going to spend the day in a boat, remember?”
    Liv let her eyes open to slits. It was morning, she discovered. Saturday morning. And he was with her. With a sleepy smile, she tilted her face back to his. “Let’s spend it in bed instead.”
    “The woman’s lazy,” he decided. And beautiful, he thought as he brushed the hair from her cheek. So achingly beautiful.
    “Lazy?” Liv’s left brow arched. “I’ve masses of untapped energy.” Her voice was slow and heavy as she shut her eyes again. “Masses,” she repeated, and yawned.
    “Oh yes, I can see that. Should we go to the Mall and jog first?”
    She opened her eyes again. “Oh, I’ve a much better idea.”
    He hadn’t expected the kiss to be so ardent, or her move to be so quick. She was suddenly lying across his chest with her mouth on his. His sound of pleasure was muffled. Then she touched him. His pulse jumped from an easy rhythm to aracing pace in the space of seconds. His blood, cool from the night’s rest, flamed headily. Her hands were urgent, unexpectedly aggressive, her mouth hungry on his skin. He was caught up in her quickly, before he could fully register that she was leading him.
    His instant response seemed to fill her with power. Her mouth was greedy on his, demanding and drawing, then roaming on to his neck, his throat, his shoulders. Her tongue darted out, tracing over his chest, lingering over his nipples, and then on.
    When did she become so strong? he wondered, dazed. Or was he suddenly weak? He needed to have her now. Now. He could feel the blood pounding, in his head, in his loins, in his fingertips. Pleasure was a pain clawing at his stomach.
    But when he tried to roll her over, she shifted, straddling him and crushing his mouth with her own. He was suffocating, but he pulled her closer. She was in his lungs, in his pores. Her movements on top of him were driving him mad.
    Then he was inside her. Sanity shattered. The world exploded. He could hear the thunder of it roaring inside his head until he thought he would never hear anything else. Then it was Liv’s breathing—short, shallow. She seemed to melt onto him as the strength seeped from her. He shuddered once, then cradled the back of her head in his hand.
    My woman, he thought almost fiercely as she rested against him, still trembling. He let himself lie still until the intensity passed. There was still a need to be cautious. “I suppose you want an apology.”
    “Hmm?” He could hear the bafflement in the sigh.
    “For calling you lazy.”
    Liv laughed and clung to him, then shifted to his side. “It does seem to be in order,” she agreed, and prepared to snuggle again. “You can give it to me when I wake up.”
    “Oh, no.” Rising, Thorpe grabbed her and hauled her unceremoniously, unsympathetically from the bed. “Rowing,” he said as she tried to scowl at him.
    “You’re an obsessed man.”
    “Absolutely.” He smiled before he kissed her nose. “I’ll let you have the shower first.”
    “Thanks.”
    Her gratitude seemed a trifle mordant, but he grinned at her as she shut the bathroom door behind her.
    Thorpe slipped on his slacks and gave an idle thought to fixing coffee. Instead, he reached for the pack of cigarettes that lay on the table beside the bed. From there, he could hear Liv humming as she started up the water for her