Private Scandals

man.”
    “Gorgeous?” Finn snagged her foot by the ankle. “You think he’s gorgeous?”
    “Yes, he’s—” She shrieked, twisting as he tickled her foot. “Stop that.”
    “And magnetic?”
    “Sexy.” Giggling helplessly, she reared up to try to free herself. “Sinfully attractive.” She tried biting when he wrestled her down.
    “You fight like a girl.”
    She blew her hair out of her eyes and tried to buck him off. “So what?”
    “I like it. And I’m now honor-bound to erase Dan What’s-his-name from your mind.”
    “Dan Gardner,” she said primly. “And I don’t know if you can. I mean, he’s so elegant, so polished, so . . .” She gave a mock shiver. “So romantic.”
    “We’ll shoot for a contrast.”
    With one swipe, he dragged his hand down her breezy cotton blouse and sent buttons flying.
    “Finn!” Caught between shock and amusement, she started to shove him back. The laughing protest ended on a strangled gasp as he fastened his mouth to her breast.
    Instant heat. Instant need. It burst through her like light, blindingly bright. The hands that had playfully pressed against his shoulders tightened like vises, short, neat nails digging crescents into his flesh. Her heart stuttered beneath his greedy mouth, losing its pace, then racing ahead in a wild sprint.
    His hands were already tugging aside the remains of her blouse, then streaking over bared skin to arouse and demand. The strong summer sun streamed through the windows, fell over her in hot white light. Her skin was moist from it, fromhis rough, impatient touch. With his mouth still feasting on her, he slid his hand under the baggy leg of her shorts and drove her ruthlessly to a fast, violent climax.
    “Again.” Driven himself, he fixed his mouth on hers, swallowing her cry as he pushed her higher.
    He wanted her like this. So often he was content to let them take each other slowly, savoring each touch, each taste on the long, lazy journey toward fulfillment. He loved the way her body grew sinuous and soft, the way his own pleasures built layer by layer.
    But now he wanted only the fast, molten ride, the mindlessness of hurried, urgent sex. He wanted to possess her, to brand her, to feel her body rock fitfully under his, until he was sunk deep.
    He tore at her clothes even as she tugged and yanked at his. Her breath was hot on his flesh, her mouth streaking hungrily over him, sounds of desperate excitement humming in her throat.
    He shifted, gripping her hips and lifting her up so that the muscles in his arms quivered. Then he was sheathed in her. Their twin cries of triumph shivered on the sultry air.
    With her head thrown back, her long, slim body glistening with sweat, she took him deeper, drove him as he had driven her. Ruthlessly, relentlessly. She gripped his hands, guiding them over her damp body, urging him to claim more while her heart galloped in a mad race of its own.
    The orgasm struck, a sweaty fist that pummeled and pummeled and left her body a mass of indescribably exquisite aches. The air was clogged and burning in her lungs. She sobbed to release it, sobbed to gulp it back in.
    She felt his body lunge, vaulting her over that final, keen edge. Like wax melted in the sun, she slid down to him and lay limp.
    His own mind cleared gradually, the static from the storm dying to a steady quiet that was her breathing. The dark haze that had covered his vision lifted so that he closed his eyes against the hard sunlight.
    “I guess I protected my honor,” he murmured. She gave a strangled laugh.
    “I didn’t know—God, I can’t breathe.” She tried again. “I didn’t know tweaking your ego would be so . . . rewarding.”
    “Relaxed?”
    She sighed. “Very.”
    “Happy?”
    “Completely.”
    “Then this is probably a good time to ask you to think about something.”
    “Hmmm. I don’t think I can think just now.”
    “Put this in the back of your mind.” His hand gently massaged her back. “Let it stew there for a while.”
    “What am I supposed to stew about?”
    “Marrying me.”
    She jerked back. “Marrying you?”
    “Is looking shocked another way to tweak my ego?”
    “No.” Staggered, she pressed a hand to her cheek. “God, Finn, you know how to toss one in from left field.”
    “We’ll talk baseball later—since the Cubs are in the basement.” Goddamn nerves, he thought, while his stomach clenched. It was ridiculous for him to feel these tugs of panic, but all he could imagine