BACHELOR NUMBER FOUR Read online

  "Say it again," he ordered in her ear as he left her mouth.

  She fumbled the words. He hitched her higher, pressed her center against his stomach and urged her to hook her ankles behind him. Up against the door, hard enough to make it rattle in the frame, he held her, while his eyes bored into hers.

  It had been too long since she'd looked into his blue-green eyes, shadowed by black brows. Time had not dimmed her memory of how she looked reflected in his gaze.

  She had forgotten how much bigger he was. He engulfed her. Surrounded her. And even so, as light and small as she felt in his arms, this wasn't going to work.

  "Not like it is in the movies," she whispered.

  Shane laughed. "No."

  He let her slide through the circle of his arms to rest her feet on the floor. Arden linked her hand with his and led him toward the stairs. "Come with me."

  He paused in the doorway, his hand linked in hers making her stop, too. Arden looked back at him, a big man wreathed in shadows. A shaft of light from the hall window cut across his face, illuminating his eyes.

  "Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure, Shane."

  Then she was in his arms again, and he swept her up like a bridegroom carrying his bride across the threshold. The comparison twisted her stomach for a moment, in memory of Jason, and she pushed it aside. Jason was gone. They had loved, married, had a life, but that had ended. He had loved her too much to wish unhappiness for her.

  A thought struck her. "Are you sure?"

  The moment stretched out between them, as fragile as gossamer. She didn't want to speak, lest she break the thread. If it had taken her a long time to admit this was what she wanted, she knew it had taken Shane even longer.

  His kiss answered her. Softer this time, it caressed her mouth instead of plundering it. His hands came up to tangle in her hair, to tilt her head and pull her close to him.

  "It's all right," Arden said, as much to soothe herself as him. "It'll all be right."

  She took his hand again and led him toward her bed, where fresh, cool sheets welcomed them. She took him down on top of herself, thighs and arms spread to embrace him in the cradle of her body.

  They kissed. Slow. Sensual. Mouths opened and closed, feeding their passion. They kissed like they had forever to do it, and she was happy to let him taste her as she tasted him.

  Her hips lifted under him, moving her body against him in answer to her body's call. He answered with a rolling thrust, pressing against her. She felt him, hot, long, hard, his cock a rod of iron in the confines of his jeans, and she shivered in anticipation of what it would be like to feel him inside her again.

  Shane pulled back and stood to tug his t-shirt off over his head. For a moment he stood silhouetted in the light from outside, his chest and stomach tight with muscle and arms flexing with more of the same as he dropped the shirt to the floor. His hands went to his black leather belt. The silver buckle flashed as he snapped it open. Then the button-fly of his jeans came undone as though by magic, and he pushed the heavy denim over his strong thighs and kicked off the jeans. He wore dark boxer-briefs, the front of which strained to confine his erection. He slid his thumbs into the waistband, but didn't pull them down.

  Arden waited, breath caught in her throat, for him to reveal the rest of his body. She'd seen him naked before, that long ago time, but like everything else about him, her memories had been shadowed by time and replaced by other memories. Seeing him now would be like seeing him for the first time.

  He slid the soft cotton down, exposing himself to her hungry gaze. She swallowed hard at the sight. His belly hair led to a dark, thick patch. His cock rose from the nest of curls, framed by strong thighs.

  She'd leaned up on her elbows to watch him undress, and though her over-sized sleep shirt had ridden up to expose her thighs and give him a glimpse of her own dark curls, when she put her hands to the hem to lift it off entirely, she found she couldn't do it. Time had been good to him. His body was better now than it had been even back then, taut and firm and unblemished by the years.

  She, on the other hand...

  "What's wrong?" He slid onto the bed beside her, his erection warm on her thigh. Shane put his hand on her belly, over the shirt. "Arden?"

  "I'm...I've..." She fumbled the words, not wanting to sound vain. "I don't look the way I did twelve years ago, Shane."

  His palm made gentle circles on her belly. "I wouldn't expect you to."

  She thought of stretch marks, love handles, breasts changed by nursing and gravity. "I haven't been naked in front of anyone for a long time."

  He did not, thankfully, try to talk her out of her sudden shyness. He kissed her again, hand resting on the stomach she worried was too soft. He caressed her, moving his hand up and down the material of her shirt, passing it over her breasts until her nipples poked hard, like pebbles, through the cotton. His hand drifted lower while he still kissed her. He pulled up the hem and put his hand beneath, slid his fingers up the inside of her thighs and brushed them over her curls and rested his hand again on her belly.

  With every move, Shane kissed her, every kiss a slow and subtle seduction. He pulled the hem higher, moved his hand with it, cupped her breast and rolled his thumb across her nipple so she gasped inside his mouth.

  Without urging her to take off the shirt, Shane left her mouth and slid down the bed. His mouth found her bared skin. She tensed, but didn't protest. He kissed her belly in slow, gentle kisses that traced the curves and lines time had granted her.

  Arden's body relaxed beneath him, while tension coiled inside her. Every kiss, every brush of his lips and nip of his teeth, every smooth lave of his tongue, went straight to her center.

  He sat up to look at her. "You're beautiful."

  And in his eyes, she felt beautiful.

  Arden hovered on the brink, her self-consciousness worn away by his luxurious worship of her body, with all its real or imagined imperfections. It no longer mattered she was not the buff and toned twenty-something who'd stripped off her clothes without a second thought. That was then. This was now. This was here.

  Arden sat and pulled her shirt off over her head, no longer caring about the rise and fall of her breasts as she moved her arms, or the way the light highlighted her hips and thighs.

  She lay back, arms open to him, and he returned to her embrace like a key fitting in a lock. Their bodies matched, hip to hip, belly to belly, mouth to mouth.

  His cock nudged between her thighs, the tip teasing her entrance, but before she had time to say anything, Shane moved lower. He nuzzled her springy curls. And then, oh, mercy, then she felt the flick of his tongue on her clit and she gasped, hips twitching so his hands had to grab her to hold them still.

  "Shane!"

  He didn't answer and he didn't pull away. He licked her slowly, moving his tongue in a small, precise circle around the tight bud. He found her rhythm without effort, matching the pace she craved and easing her toward climax.

  His breath caressed her. He kissed her clit, took it between his lips and pressed his mouth on her in a steady pressure that sent her climbing, climbing toward ecstasy.

  His fingertip probed along her folds, and he entered her. Her slickness aided him. His finger slid inside without effort, smooth, and she cried out and arched upward against the dual sensations of his touch inside and out.

  He made love to her that way for a length of time she could not comprehend. Pleasure built within her, until it seemed impossible she could ever feel anything else. With every lick, every stroke, she was certain she could stand no more, positive she'd crash and spiral downward, but with every touch, she only climbed higher, until she could feel nothing but Shane's mouth, his hand, and could hear nothing but her own moans.

  He pushed deep inside her as he suckled, then licked again. And it happened. She broke. Shattered. Her body tensed and released as pleasure thundered through her. Wave after wave of orgasm crashed through her. Her hands found his hair and she cried out his name