Married By Mistake

voice called softly, “Here I come, wife. ”
    “You’re being Neanderthal again.” Her attempt at a casual comment came out a squeak.
    He chuckled, then the bathroom light clicked off, and she sensed rather than heard Adam making his way across the room in the dark. Casey froze, wondering where he would touch her first, the suspense tearing her apart. Where was he, dammit?
    His hands brushed her collarbone as he reached for the duvet she’d pulled up to her neck despite the hot night. He tugged the cover away, and she felt the play of air over her body. Still he didn’t touch her, yet she prickled all over. She heard the soft swish of the comforter hitting the floor, felt a sudden depression on the other side of the mattress. He was in bed with her, no more than a dark shape. She shouldn’t have closed the shutters, not when she needed to see exactly where he was.
    She felt his touch, featherlight on her forehead, smoothing her hair aside. He ran a finger down her nose, then traced the outline of her lips. Casey took his finger into her mouth, nipped the pad between her teeth, heard his ragged breath as she soothed it with her tongue.
    He moved his hand to her nape, buried his fingers there the way he had earlier. Casey arched her neck, felt him shifting closer. When she lifted a tentative palm, she met the firm wall of his chest, felt the coarseness of the hair there. She wondered if he was already naked. Then she registered the brush of a silky fabric against her thigh. Boxers, she concluded.
    His hands moved over her shoulders. Then he pulled away. “What on earth are you wearing?” The lamp on the nightstand snapped on, making her blink.
    Adam stared down at her T-shirt and jogging shorts. Heat mingled with laughter in his gaze.
    “You look fantastic,” he breathed, and she giggled at the outright lie. The giggle turned into an indrawn breath as his hand caressed the bare skin of her abdomen where her T-shirt had ridden up.
    “I guess your outfit means you’re still not planning to let me make love to you,” he said regretfully.
    “Actually...” She licked her lips and saw his gaze follow the movement of her tongue. Her heart began thudding so strongly she thought Adam must surely hear. “It doesn’t mean that at all.”
    He stared at her for a long moment. She nodded. A smile curved slowly across his lips and ended up in his eyes.
    Then his mouth was on hers, and she was matching him, kiss for searing kiss. Whatever she’d said to that journalist about spontaneous combustion had been an understatement, Casey thought, as Adam’s lips trailed fire over her face, her neck and, nuzzling her T-shirt aside, her shoulders.
    His hands roamed beneath the shirt, exploring the sensitized column of her spine, then moving around to cup her breasts. At that touch, Casey couldn’t stifle a cry. Adam pulled away, breathing heavily. The need in his eyes was exhilarating...and terrifying.
    “First,” he said unevenly, “I need to get rid of your incredibly sexy nightwear.”
    He helped her tug the T-shirt off. For a moment, he held her hands over her head, snagged in the
T-shirt, while he dipped his head to her breasts.
She moaned and a low growl sounded in his throat. The T-shirt flew across the room. He reached for the waistband of her shorts and slid them down.
    He paused, scanned her body with a heavy-lidded gaze that set her quivering.
    “Your turn,” she murmured, her hand fluttering toward his shorts in sudden nervousness. He peeled them off in one swift movement, and his glorious nakedness sent a charge of desire through Casey.
    Adam touched a hand to her hip, then trailed a caress over her stomach, her breast, up her neck to her mouth.
    She reached for him, and he shuddered, the guttural sound he made almost pained. He lowered himself over her so she could feel his hardness, feel how much he wanted her.
    “My darling, you’re so beautiful,” he said.
    She was ready for him right then. But the seduction he performed with his mouth, with his hands, was tantalizingly, achingly slow. He found every inch of her, bringing her to a level of desire she hadn’t dreamed existed. And just when Casey thought she might die of it, he claimed her as his own.
    * * *
    C ASEY AWOKE from the soundest sleep of her life to find herself alone in bed. She jolted upright, then relaxed again when she heard the shower running in the bathroom.
    She lay there, hands splayed on the quilt, and let memories of the night