Amidst a Crowd of Stars Read online

  Marrin watched him undress, her eyes lingering on his body in constant appreciation. “Have you ever wished it had been different when you came? That we’d had the chance for a honeymoon like most married people get?”

  He turned from the dresser where he’d been placing his watch and the interlocked chain he wore around his wrist. “Do I wish I’d been able to spend a week with you at an overpriced tourist resort indulging in decadent sex and overeating bad food? No, Marrin.”

  She laughed. “I mean do you wish we’d had the chance to be a couple before we were a family?”

  Again, he shook his head and stepped out of his trousers, hanging them with the same neat efficiency he always did. At last fully naked, he moved toward her and stretched out on the bed beside her.

  “The moment I stepped off that freighter and saw those three little faces, I was in love,” Keane said. “Falling in love with you came later and was a pleasant side benefit.”

  She nudged him with a frown, but his answer pleased her. “You don’t think it would have been easier without the girls?”

  “Easier? Undoubtedly.” He put his hand flat on her belly, fingers splayed. “Would I wish it had happened differently? Never.”

  He leaned down to kiss her, his tongue urging her lips to open. His breath was sweet from ceremonial wine. She licked his lips, tasting.

  “It would’ve been easier to make love to you at the beginning without three little ones always underfoot,” he whispered as his hand began a lazy ascent toward her breasts. “But maybe we can make up for it now.”

  “Pretend this is the first time?” she teased.

  “If you like.” His hand cupped her breast.

  Her nipple rose beneath his palm. Keane rubbed his thumb across it. The barrier of her dress blunted the sensation but made it no less delightful.

  “I was so nervous that first time. I don’t think I’d want to repeat that.”

  “You were nervous?” He laughed. “I was afraid I wouldn’t please you and you’d send me back.”

  “Keane, you weren’t!”

  He paused in kissing her to look into her eyes. “I was.”

  She’d never known he’d been afraid, too, the first time they had made love. The admission touched her. She put her hand to his face.

  “I couldn’t have sent you back,” she said. “I loved you too much to live without you.”

  His tender kiss hadn’t changed in all the years they’d been together. Familiarity couldn’t steal the sweetness of it, or quench the fire he always created when he put his mouth on hers. No matter how many times they joined, each time was as exciting and fresh as the first time.

  “You’re not naked,” he whispered in her ear. “And I am.”

  She remedied that by sitting up and tugging her dress off over her head. “We can’t have that.”

  His low chuckle parted her thighs. His hand stroked the curls there, finding the already upright button of her clit and pinching it lightly. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger before moving his hand down lower to slide a finger through her folds.

  Slickness, begun at the sight of him undressing, already coated her. He brought some of it up to coat her clit, making it slippery. He rubbed her in small, tight circles interspersed with an occasional up and down stroke that had her whimpering in short order.

  He kissed her mouth, her cheek, her jaw, down to her collarbone where he nibbled along the ridge and smoothed his tongue across her skin. He moved lower to suckle her nipples, one then the other, while his hand continued to work between her legs. Marrin looked down to see him stroking himself too, the thickness of his cock appearing and disappearing into his fist as he pumped it.

  “Come here.” She reached for him.

  He shifted on the bed so she could reach his penis. He kissed her hipbone. She angled her head just a bit, and took him into her mouth.

  His low, strangled moan sent a pulse of pleasure through her that she could so affect him. Marrin slid his cock down the back of her throat as far as she could until her lips touched his belly.

  His hand stuttered in its movement against her clitoris as she sucked him harder. The break in his rhythm only gave her more pleasure, brought her closer to orgasm faster. Her clit throbbed and her hips moved as she slid her mouth up again, then down.

  “Marrin, I love it when you take me all the way in your mouth.”

  His throaty words made her body tingle. She loved that about him, his ability to tell her exactly how he was feeling at all times during their lovemaking. What he liked, what he wanted, how to please him.

  Before Keane, Marrin had never spoken during sex. Orgasms were like buried treasure. “X” marks the spot. Find the map, follow clues, and maybe you’ll hit the jackpot.

  Keane had shown her the freedom of speech, of telling her partner exactly how she liked to be touched and where, exactly what would work to get her off.

  “I want to be inside you,” he murmured, even as he pushed himself deeper into her mouth.

  She gave him one final, loving suck and then let him go. She got onto her hands and knees to look down at him, his eyes gone yellow in his arousal. He licked his lips, and before she could move, Keane got behind her and slid inside.

  A moan escaped her as he filled her. Her butt tipped upward as she put her forehead to the bed, her hands on either side of her head, bracing herself. In this position he could grip her hips to move her, use a hand to slide around in front and tweak her clit while he thrust. He could go deeper, harder, and she gasped out in pleasure as he did.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he told her, as his hands rubbed circles on her buttocks and the small dimples on either side of her lower spine. His fingers traced the jut of her shoulder blades, the line of her backbone and the cleft of her ass. He thrust inside her slowly as his hands caressed her body.

  Climax stole her words. She pushed herself backward against him, needing him to thrust harder. To fill her. He groaned. She answered. Their pace quickened.

  His erection stretched her. She settled her legs wider, pushing upward on her elbows. Keane reached around to press his fingertips to her swollen clit, and Marrin cried out. She pushed herself harder against him, each movement dragging his fingers along her erect button and stabbing his cock into her core.

  They moved together in perfect time. The dual sensations of his erection inside her and the pressure of his hand on her clitoris was enough, at last, to send her over the edge.

  “I want to hear you come,” he said. “Nobody will hear you but me.”

  He was right. They were alone. After all the years in a house filled with children, they were at last alone. She screamed out her ecstasy, voice hoarse and her breath leaving her in great gasps as her orgasm pounded through her. Nobody to hear them, not now. Not with the girls all grown with families of their own. The time of quiet, furtive lovemaking had passed. Now there was no need to be silent in their passion, and the thought of it made her open her mouth and cry out, simply because she could.

  He thrust harder and she bent forward to open herself to him, to take him deeper. She cried out again, another burst of climax filling her. She tensed, relaxed and tensed again. Keane cupped his hand over her, easing off the direct pressure that made her body jerk in the aftermath of her climax.

  His thrusts became ragged. He cried out as she had, a wordless sound of joy. His cock pulsed. His fingers tightened on her hip.

  A third time her vagina contracted around him, a smaller and gentler orgasm that made her moan and push back against him hard as he thrust forward one last time and shivered in his climax.

  He stayed inside her for another breath, another heartbeat, and as she felt him begin to soften, he pulled out of her and lay down on the bed, pulling her into his arms to spoon her as they both caught their breath.

  “Who needs a honeymoon?” she said when she could speak again. “This is much better.”

  He kissed her between the shoulder blades. “It is.”

&n