Chapter Thirteen
Every muscle in Reno’s body felt as if it had been stretched to its extreme then released. All the strength had been drained from him. It was almost too much for him to realize.
In all the years of his sexual experience, he had never experienced this. His body had just exploded with his release, shaking him with its intensity. The wet fist of Sarah’s delicious cunt had gripped him and hadn’t released him until the last vibration died away. None of Reno’s vast sexual experience had prepared him for the way this reached his very soul.
In that moment, he realized there was no uncertainty on his part, no question about his emotions. He truly loved this woman. He just prayed he could always be what she needed.
When he could move, he tried to shift his weight to give her breathing room, but she kept her arms wrapped around him, holding him.
“I must be too heavy for you.” His breathing was choppy and uneven, and his heart beat loudly against his ribs.
“No. Stay. Don’t move.”
He rained soft kisses on her cheeks, her eyelids, her forehead, the tip of her nose. “Was it all right for you?” he asked, his lips against her ear. “I’m a little out of practice.”
“I don’t think I could stand it any better.” She bit her lip. “I worried that I wouldn’t satisfy you, that I wouldn’t be…experienced…enough for you. Wouldn’t know enough.”
“You can believe this or not,” he said, “but nothing I’ve ever done before was even close to the feeling I had when we came together.” He brushed the damp tendrils of curls away from her face. “Sex doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be wonderful, darlin’. I’ll teach you anything you want, but believe me, I don’t think we can improve on this.”
“Yes, I want you to,” she whispered. “I want to know everything you like, all the things that make you feel good. I want to be able to give you as much pleasure as you gave me.” She lowered her gaze, a delicate blush creeping up her cheeks. “I have to confess something.”
He frowned. “What? I thought we were through with confessions for the night.”
She refused to look up at him. “I-I’ve been having dreams. About you.”
“Dreams?” He tried to keep his voice even wondering if she, too…
“Yes. Erotic dreams.” She turned her head away. “About you and me.”
Reno took a deep breath, reaching for control. Was this possible? Had they both been having the same dreams, night after night? God, how many times had he fucked her in his mind? Tasted of her essence, taken her into his mouth?
“I shouldn’t have told you,” she said when he didn’t speak.
“No. I mean, yes, you should.” He rolled to the side, taking her with him. He brushed her hair back from her face. “You definitely should have told me, because the same thing has been happening to me. I’ve been having my own dreams.”
Her eyes flew open, and she looked straight at him, an erotic thrill racing through him. “It has? You did? About us?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “Almost every night since we made this stupid bargain.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” she asked.
He brushed his lips across hers, their mouths touching as he spoke. “Why didn’t you?”
But he knew the answers to both questions, and the knowledge brought him a fresh wave of self-loathing. Deliberately, he banished those thoughts. Tonight was a new beginning, and he wasn’t going to drag the past into it.
“Tell me what you dreamed about,” he urged. “About us. Don’t be embarrassed,” he said when a dark blush colored her skin again. “I want you to be able to say anything to me.”
“I don’t know if I can.” She caught her bottom lip in her teeth.
“Did I do this?” One hand kneaded her breast gently, thumb rasping over the nipple.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And this?” He took the nipple into his mouth, raking his teeth over it and pressing it hard against the roof of his mouth. Her body tensed beneath him, and she arched up into his mouth.
“Yes,” she murmured again, her voice thickening.
“And this?” He moved down her body to run his tongue over the soft skin just above her mound.
“Yes, yes, yes.” She moaned and twisted beneath him.
He paused, studying her. “Please tell me I didn’t hurt you. That I’m not hurting you.”
“I’m fine.” She smiled. “More than fine.”
He eased two fingers inside her, curling them to hit that sweet spot. She bucked as he moved them in and out, adding a third and stretching her to the fullest. He felt the tiny quivers begin in her pussy and increased the tempo of his strokes. When her orgasm broke through her, he held her in place, feeling the tremors as her inner walls spasmed around his fingers.
When the last aftershock died away, he shifted so he was looking directly into her eyes. “Good?”
“Better than I imagined.”
He nipped at her earlobe. “Me, too. But oh, god, Sarah, I have to be inside you again. Right now.”
Positioning himself, he entered her again with one slow stroke, pausing only to give her time to adjust. This time there was no foreplay, no drawing things out, but it was just as cataclysmic. At last, they collapsed, spent, hearts thudding, breath rasping, a fine sheen of perspiration coating their bodies. The heady aroma of musk mingled with Sarah’s perfume and his aftershave, filling the room with the carnal scent of sex.
“Are you all right?” He stroked the scar with a gentle touch. “I’m so afraid of pushing you too hard.”
“I’m fine. I promise to let you know if I’m not.”
“We may not live to see Christmas at this rate,” Reno joked, then he tightened his arms around her. “It’s a wonder we haven’t killed each other tonight with all that pent-up sexual energy.”
She turned a deep pink, and Reno laughed again.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone blush all over before.” He caught her hand. “You’re beautiful naked, Sarah. Don’t cover yourself, okay? I want to look at you and be able to touch you whenever I want to.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip again then nodded. Her eyes dropped to his cock, still large and heavy even at rest.
As if he could read her mind, he said, “Yes, you took it all. Every bit.”
She blushed again.
“I should get the wine to celebrate, but I think that’s beyond my energy level right now.”
“We don’t need wine. This was better than a drink.”
“I wanted to drink to the future,” he told her. “To us.”
He buried his face in her neck. “God, Sarah. When you were shot and Molly was taken, I died a thousand times. The thought of life without the two of you was so bleak I couldn’t even contemplate it.”
“Then isn’t it nice we’ve been given this second chance, and you don’t have to.”
“Yes, it is.” He tucked her up against him and pulled the covers up.
“Don’t you think it’s strange,” she asked, “that we’ve both had such…erotic dreams about each other?”
“I think someone was trying to send us a message. And I think that’s why everything tonight has been so explosive. It’s been building all this time.”
“I just hope we don’t kill ourselves,” she teased.
****
When morning arrived, they were still wrapped around each other, naked bodies pressed together. And despite Reno’s morning woody, it was more emotion than passion.
“I think I could use a long, leisurely bath,” Sarah told Reno.
“Why don’t you take one? Then I’ll take you and Molly out to breakfast. It’s Sunday, and we have the whole weekend to do as we please.”
“Mmm. That sounds good.” She pressed herself against him.
He stroked her back and arm with a gentle glide of his fingers. “Do you think we made a baby last night?”
She tensed, and he looked down at her. “Sarah? Is that a problem? I thought—”
She searched for the right words. “There’s something I probably should have told you before, but the terms of our bargain made it irrelevant.” She bit her lip. “I was sure it wouldn’t matter so I just kept it to myself.”
“What is it, Sarah?” Suddenly, he was the voice of concern, shifting so he could reach out his hand and touch her. “What didn’t you think you needed to tell me? Are you sick? Is it something we can take care of?”
She shook her head, then dropped her gaze. “Not sick. No.” Her sigh was heavy enough to split the thick silence. “After my miscarriage, when Mike was killed, the doctors told me I’d probably never conceive another child.” She raised her eyes to look at him again. “Molly may be the only one we’ll ever share. That’s why this is so important to me. Why I wanted us so desperately to be a family.”
He pulled her into his arms, holding her against his body. “I am so sorry. No wonder you thought I was such a heartless bastard where Molly was concerned.”
“When Aguilar took her that day—” She shook her head. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Then don’t. It’s over and we move forward.”
“If by some miracle we make a baby, I don’t want Molly to be relegated to second place.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“You say that now, and I know how you’ve been with her since the hospital, but…” She bit her lip. “What if you have flashbacks about Maggie and that awful scene?”
“I promise I won’t close up, okay? I’ll tell you, and we’ll deal with it.”
“I can’t ask for more than that.”
“I held that child every day for two weeks when she was born,” he said, his eyes staring at a point beyond her. “I rocked her in my arms and felt her tiny heart beating against mine. She was my child, my flesh. Then, in seconds, I found out what a cruel joke it all was.” His face twisted in pain. “Now I hate myself for all I missed out on. And all that Molly missed.”
“This is a new beginning for all of us. Including Molly.”
He hugged her, then grinned. “You may have to give me regular treatments to keep me in line, though.”
At that moment, they heard Molly calling out her usual babbling from the nursery.
Sarah gave a mock groan. “I guess Mommy and Daddy time is over. She needs to be changed and fed.”
“I’ll do it. I’m getting real good at this. You take your bath.”
She wasn’t about to turn down that offer.
The soothing bath did much for her sore and aching body. She leaned back and let the scented foaming water drift over her as images of the night just past kept floating at the edge of her consciousness. Her body began to tingle just from the memories, and she lay there for a long while with a smile on her face.
Dried and sprayed with her favorite perfume, she dressed in a new sweater and a pair of tight, chocolate, suede jeans she’d bought in a moment of frivolous impulse. They clung to her hips and accentuated her legs. The outfit was so different from her usual dull, functional wardrobe. She put on what she thought of as her wedding earrings and brushed her hair out until it fell in thick, shimmering waves.
In the mirror, she saw an unfamiliar image, a woman full of life and exhilaration. Her eyes sparkled, and she glowed with passion and joy.
“You’re so beautiful. You take my breath away.”
She looked up. Reno stood in the doorway, clad in chinos and a bright blue sweater that stretched over his powerful muscles and accentuated his dark hair and features. She saw such emotion in his eyes that her heart turned over. She went to him and wrapped her arms around him. “You make me beautiful.”
“You should dress this way all the time,” he told her. “Except other women would most likely object. They’d pale into insignificance.”
She laughed, not used to that kind of compliment. “I’m going to call Lindsey and see if it’s okay to drop by. They might have plans.”
But Lindsey was thrilled they were coming out and insisted they stay for dinner. “Come on out. We’re excited to see you guys.”