From This Moment On (The Sullivans #2)(64)

Her eyes glittered with arousal even as she made a soft protest. “What if I don’t like it?”

Instead of answering her question, he said, “Turn around, and hold on to the stair rail.”

He could see her heart beat pulsing through the soft skin on her neck as she thought over his request. Finally, she did as he bid, taunting him with a naughty look over her shoulder.

Moving his hand over her stomach, he held her torso in place as he ran his other hand over the swell of her hips.

“So pretty. So sweet.” He pressed a kiss to the small of her back. “And all mine.”

His hand came down a moment later, a swat on her behind that left a faint pink mark on her tanned flesh. She didn’t cry out, but he felt her ni**les bead against his palm where he still cupped her br**sts.

A moment later, he was marking her other cheek with the flat of his palm, and this time he couldn’t miss her moan of pleasure, moans that only increased in volume as he made contact two more times.

A few moments later, the swipe of his tongue over her aroused flesh had her bucking into his mouth while her hands held onto his hair. He thrust two fingers into her and slick heat surrounded them, throbbing and pulsing around him.

“I love you."

Marcus put his mouth between her thighs and covered her with his lips. He curled his fingers inside of her until she was gasping, arching, begging, crying out for more.

He loved the way she held on to him as she came apart against his tongue and fingers.

A few seconds later he was carrying her the rest of the way up the stairs to lay her down in the center of his big bed. She moved to reach for him, but he shook his head.

“No. Just let me look at you. I can’t believe I have the prettiest girl in the world in my bed.”

She blushed, but this time she didn’t try to hide any part of herself from him. Not her beautiful body...or the beauty that was inside all the luscious, creamy skin and mind-blowing curves.

He stripped off his clothes and put on a condom before moving over her. And then her arms were around his shoulders and her legs were wrapped tightly to his hips and he knew the rest of the naughty things he wanted to do to her would have to wait.

Because right now all he wanted to do was make love to the woman he’d waited a lifetime to find.

“Love me, Marcus,” she whispered as their bodies came together.

And, oh, how he loved her.

Not just with his entire body, not only with every beat of his heart...but from the very depths of his soul.

* * *

The midday sun was coming in through Marcus’s bedroom window as they sat naked on top of his covers eating the picnic lunch he’d pulled together from the sparse contents of his fridge.

Nicola had never felt so exhausted—or so happy—and with her stomach full of food and her body full of pleasure, she yawned and lay down in one of her favorite positions, her head on his lap and one of her hands in his. She never wanted to stop lying there looking up at his beautiful face.

But her long tour hours—and the three rounds of incredibly acrobatic sex they’d just had—had her yawning.

He smiled down at her. “You sure tire out quick for a young thing. My sleepy little kitten.”

“Funny,” she said on another huge yawn, “I was just about to say you have surprising stamina for an old man.” She hummed a few bars of the Joni Mitchell hit My Old Man, ending at the line about “keeping away my lonesome blues."

She loved hearing him laugh and hum along in a really off-tune voice.

Looking up into his eyes, she knew it was time to admit everything to him.

“I didn’t push you away just because I was trying to save you from my circus life.” When his hand didn’t still on her hair and his leg muscles didn’t tense up under her, she knew it was safe to say, “That was a big part of it, but I was also scared of trusting. Scared of falling. So hugely scared that I’d be hurt again. Only this time I knew it would be so much worse, because I loved you. That’s why I ran that day after lunch at your mother’s house, because I thought it would hurt less that way. But running only made everything hurt more.”

“I missed you just as much,” he told her. “Although, I can’t help thinking that if you hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to chase after you.”

Just that quickly—as he made her burn up at the wicked thought of being chased through the vines and then caught in the most delicious way—Marcus erased any chance of recriminations, of making her feel guilty or selfish for what she’d done.

And as he shifted them so that his naked body was pressed against hers and his mouth was moving over hers, she forgot all about fear and gave in to the most natural emotion in the world.

Pure, sweet love.

* * *

Sitting in the back of a limo with Marcus that night, Nicola wore a fantastic dress that managed to be classic and yet fun and flirty at the same time. All day she’d loved being with the man she loved, but as the driver pulled up in front of the Napa Valley mansion where the event was being held, panic gripped her.

“This is the big moment. Are you sure you’re ready for this? For not being my secret boyfriend anymore?"

Instead of answering her with words, he put her hands over his heart, then leaned in to kiss her.

“As long as you’re by my side, I’m ready for absolutely anything.”