The Dulles International airport was crowded. Amber, concentrating on her search for a particular dark, tall, broad-shouldered man, jumped when Ray said, “Hey, foxy mama, need a lift?”
She whirled around, heart pounding with excitement, causing the woman behind her to make a hasty sidestep in order to avert a collision.
“Ray,” she breathed, her golden brown eyes sparkled with love.
“Took you long enough,” he complained, brushing his lips over her cheek before transferring the strap of her garment bag from across her slender shoulder to his wide one. He was determined to ignore his aroused body, which was making demands that he had no way of accomplishing anytime soon. All he could think of was getting her home and into his arms. He needed her heat, needed her sweet fire.
“We circled the airport for an hour before we were cleared to land.” She linked her arm through his. A small makeup case was in one hand, her purse tucked under her arm.
He nodded, steering them through the crowded terminal. “Any baggage to claim?”
“Nope.” She smiled. “I travel light.”
He cocked a dubious brow.
“Well, occasionally.”
Ray chuckled throatily. “Good flight?”
“So-so,” she said, looking around with interest.
They were approaching the parking garage when she asked, “How are you feelin’? Any pain?”
“Nothing for you to be concerned about. How are you feelin’? Still blaming yourself for this Harris mess?”
She frowned. “I can’t help feeling responsible. After all, I’m the one who hired Harris. Since we still don’t know for sure if he harmed any of the children, I can’t stop worrying about them. At least the despair I was feeling the other night has passed, thanks to you. I needed you, and you were there for me.”
“Amber, you have every right to be upset—but, angel, remember you aren’t responsible for another person’s actions.”
“I know. It’s so hard, especially when I think about what could have happened to you or the children when that tire blew.” She shuddered, unable to finish.
“Nothing happened.”
“It could have!”
“It didn’t. Tell me, how did it go today? Any news? Have you heard from John McClure?”
Amber told him about the FBI agent’s morning visit. “You’re awfully quiet,” she said thoughtfully.
Ray shrugged but didn’t comment as he led her toward the sleek black Jaguar parked at the end of the next row.
Once he finished with the luggage and settled himself behind the steering wheel, Amber placed her hand over his, preventing him from turning the key in the ignition. “Ray, what is it?”
He gave her a questioning look.
“Are you sorry you asked me to come?” Amber asked, her heart pounding with fear. Rita Caldwell’s sexy southern voice replayed inside her head. If she looked even half as good as she sounded, Amber decided she was in a world of trouble.
“What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t really looked at me, not even once. You certainly haven’t touched me, let alone kissed me. I don’t call that peck on the cheek a kiss.” She blushed with embarrassment suddenly preferring to study her pink-lacquered nails than meet his dark gaze. It had made perfect sense to her, but it ended up sounding so stupid, almost as if she were begging for his attention—more to the point, his love.
For an instant Ray forgot to breathe. His voice was husky with desire when he asked, “Feeling a bit neglected?” He cradled her small brown chin in his warm palm.
“Yes, I suppose I am. The other night was all my doing. I tempted you. You probably wouldn’t have made love to me if I hadn’t fallen apart and cried all over you.” She tried to turn her face away, but he wouldn’t let her.
“You’re wrong. Don’t you remember how badly I wanted you? Oh, baby, there was only one reason we made love and that was because we needed each other.” When she wouldn’t meet his gaze, his voice dropped even more, the one deeper, rough with need, yet smooth as silk. “Girl, here is no reason for you to hide those beautiful eyes from me. I’ve missed you, baby. I am so very glad you came to me. But I don’t think a parking garage or the airport terminal, for that matter, are great places to make love to you. I’d prefer a bit more privacy when I show you just how hungry I am for you.” The last was whispered into her ear, before he pressed his mouth against the sweetly scented place below her earlobe, then teased it with hot licks of his tongue.
Amber shivered in reaction, the brief caress sent chills aching down her spine. “A tiny kiss,” she requested, desperate to feel his mouth on hers. She wanted to drown in his taste, and her nostrils were overwhelmed by his male scent. Her eyes flared with a feminine hunger she did not attempt to hide. She wound her arms around his neck. Her fingers caressed his clean-shaven brown cheek, his thick ebony mustache, and his full sexy mouth. “I’ve missed you so much.”
A nearby car door slammed, a horn blasted as another car applied brakes loudly. Ray did not really hear them for his entire focus was on his woman. Yes, she was his. He had made that decision the other night when her tight body milked him dry. There was no other woman for him. He was secretly thrilled that she desired him.
Ray chuckled softly. Tiny lines around his eyes and mouth fanned out as he grinned. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed with difficulty, his mouth a breath away from hers. Ray’s senses simmered toward a rolling boil. He was so painfully aroused, it was all he could do not tc take her hand and have her caress his sex. He was so read’ that he didn’t need anything more than privacy in order to give her the hot and deep loving they both craved “Amber ...”
She leaned into him, her full breasts so soft against his arm that he found himself reaching for her hand, but stopped himself just in time, a split second before he would have curled her soft fingers around his pulsating shaft and urged her to stroke him from the broad base to the ultrasensitive tip. Instead, he pressed her hand against his wool-covered chest and trembled from thoughts of the intimate caress he was forced to deny himself. He comforted himself by inhaling her sweet scent. When she said his name, and her velvety soft tongue brushed down his throat lingering at the base, he groaned from the pleasure.
He required no further urging. His lips quickly covered hers, claiming what was his. Plunging his tongue into the honeyed depths of her mouth, he stroked her tongue with his own as he threaded his fingers into her lush brow curls. Oh, she was so sweet, so very sweet. He felt the way she trembled in his arms, her enticing nipples pouting against the silk of her sweater. He didn’t dare caress her.
A few stolen kisses in a crowded garage could not begin to eliminate the man-sized ache he had for her.
His voice trembled from the intensity of his emotions, when he said, “Let’s get out of here. I’m so weak for you, baby, I could take you right here... right now. I don’t think either one of us wants that.”
She was barely able to nod. She felt as if her brain had stopped functioning, and all she could do was feel. For so many years they had camouflaged their true feelings for each other. Now suddenly all the pretending was over. Amber found she needed his assurance that he still found her as desirable as he had the other night She could not bear it if their loving turned out to be a mistake. It would break her heart, especially now that she realized how deeply in love she was with this man. There was only one man on this earth for her... Ray Coleman.
During the drive from Arlington into Georgetown, Amber told him about Ginger and Lynn’s visit, and the Adams’s plans to adopt.
“That’s great. You have certainly made some wonderful friends in your new home. Shelly has been good for you.”
She nodded. “I know. I feel very fortunate that neither Lynn or Ginger turned their backs on me. It has been a rough few days.”
“I think you’ll find, given time, the community will stand behind you. You’re not to blame for any of this.”
“I hope you’re right—I mean, about the community. We must have their support to keep our school open. I suppose it would be foolish of me not to face the possibility that some people will never believe I wasn’t part of this.”
“Don’t start blaming yourself again. I thought we worked through that the other night.”
“Yes, but—”
“You’re taking this much too seriously... too personally,” he insisted, his voice taut with tension. He could feel her pain and he hated it... hated that she was suffering.
“I can’t help it. This is not just a business to me. I care about the children. Their entire welfare matters to me. I can’t just take their trust or their parents’ belief in me lightly. It is personal, damn it. If Harris hurt one child, he hurt us all,” Amber said, fighting tears.
“How was the faculty meeting on Friday?”
“Difficult but enlightening. Everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to support our children,” she said with apparent relief.
Ray was relieved. It bothered him knowing that he had to leave before this Harris thing was settled. He didn’t like it one bit. He couldn’t ever remember feeling so torn up inside.
“How lovely,” Amber said as they came to a stop outside his town house.
It was among the richly restored Georgian and Federal period structures in Georgetown, which housed elegant boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and nightclubs.
He urged her through his towering front door, into the foyer, and into his empty arms.
“Finally,” he groaned, lifting her until her feet were several inches from the floor. He whirled her around, caught up in the thrill of having her at long last in his home.
Giggling, her arms locked behind his neck, her fingers caressing his close-cut natural: “Are we alone?”
He lifted a brow. “I’m not that hard a taskmaster. Meg does not work weekends,” he said, referring to his secretary who worked out of his home office.
“Wonderful,” she practically purred.
He teased the sensitive place just below her ear, his nose buried in her fragrant hair. Slowly he let her soft body slide down his. He felt her tremor as her soft mound ever so briefly came into contact with thick ridge of his sex. Amber’s eyes matched the passion in his own gaze. Yes she was where she belonged with him.
Swallowing with difficulty, he said, “Come on, let me show you around.”
He took her on a tour of the downstairs rooms, watching with pleasure as she gently handled the artifacts he’d collected from all over the world. Her presence in his home filled his heart with gladness.
“Honey, your home is lovely.”
By the time they had returned to the foyer, his need had almost completely eroded his self-control. After one night in her bed, he was hooked on her sweet kisses... her tight, wet heat. “Did you miss me?” he asked, watching her closely but made no move to touch her.
“Oh, yes...” she said.
Her answer seemed to satisfy him, for he dropped his head in order to take her mouth with a masculine need that could not be ignored. Amber quivered with longing, opening her lips to the insistent pressure of his tongue. His arms were like bands of steel as they crushed her to him.
Dear God, he didn’t want to leave her. For the first time in his professional career, he felt no excitement for the job ahead. What he wanted... needed more than anything else in the world was right here, in his arms. Ray’s kisses were possessively insistent as he accepted how intricately his happiness was intertwined with her. He was one huge ache, throbbing with an acute hunger to lose himself in her sweetness.
She stroked his lean cheek tenderly. There was a kind of desperation in his eyes, in his kiss, that she didn’t understand. “Sweetheart, is something wrong?”
“Let me love you... now,” he said between hot tongue- thrusting kisses.
She shivered from the desires he alone could ignite. ‘Yes... oh, yes.” Her hands were beneath his sweater, her fingers curled into his shoulder blades as she rubbed he hard tips of her breasts against him. She needed him inside of her, filling her, claiming her, loving her.
He swept her up into his arms and quickly mounted the narrow flight of stairs that would take them to his bedroom it the end of the hallway. His still tender midsection ached from the exertion, but he could tolerate the discomfort. What he couldn’t handle was being without her.
The four-poster bed creaked beneath their combined weight. Wrapping arms and legs around each other, they shared kiss after sizzling hot kiss.
“Hurry,” she panted as they impatiently undressed each other.
He was not satisfied until her breasts filled his hands. His skin was dark against the pale brown richness of her skin. She was so soft, so soft, he marveled. He stared down at her, his breath sending chills of excitement to the hard tips of her breasts.
“Beautiful,” he said, then he followed the curve of her breast with his tongue, then licked the hard nipple before taking it into his mouth, sucking.
She moaned from the pleasure, clenching his head to her body. She cried aloud when the suction seemed to intensify. Ray took his time tasting her, then teased her by worrying the sensitive peak gently against the sharp edge of his teeth. Amber gasped his name as the passion that ran wild through her system seemed to accelerate while his stroking fingertips moved through the damp thick curls between her thighs.
“Oh...oh, baby, you’re so sweet, so wet,” he whispered,
She made inarticulate gasping sounds in her throat as he tugged at her nipple, drawing circles with his fingertips over the tiny heart of her feminine yearning. “Please .. please,” she begged. He didn’t stop until her slender frame shuddered, awash in pleasure.
“Oh, Ray,” she said, kissing him. She pushed her tongue between his lips, plunged into the moist warmth of his mouth. Her hands weren’t still—they caressed his nipples gently tugging at them until he groaned in response. Her soft hands stroked over his hair-covered chest, moving toward his taut stomach, careful of his wound. He growled his excitement when her slender hands stroked the coarse dense hair that surrounded his sex. Her fingertips played in the thickness while he held his breath—waiting, hoping for the feel of her soft, soft hands palming his shaft, stroking him.
She was so close... so close to where he wanted her. When she curled both hands around him, he gasped her name. “Amber ... yes ... yes.” His whole body craved her full caress. His swollen shaft thickened even more, pulsating as she stroked him, paying particular attention to the ultrasensitive broad crown. His hand briefly guided hers, applying the firm pressure that he craved.
“Yes... oh, yes,” he said, his deep voice rough with need as his hips moved against her encompassing hands. It felt so good... so good. Suddenly he said tightly, “No more.” Taking her hands away, he pressed a tender kiss into center of each palm. At her questioning eyes, he said, his voice thick with desire, “I don’t want to come until I am inside of you.”
He paused, reaching for the condom on the nightstand, long enough to prepare himself. No matter how badly he ached to be inside of her, he would never make the same mistake twice of leaving her pregnant and alone. With his weight balanced on his elbows, he licked her lips and caressed her soft breasts. The pleasure was so great that his mouth ravished hers.
When she said, “I need you,” he knew he couldn’t wait any longer, he had to be inside of her.
He had to have her. Taking as much care as he could, he guided his heavy shaft against her petal softness before slowly moving deep inside of her, penetrating, filling her. They both moaned from the pleasure of their joining. All too soon, powerful sensations eroded his control, forcing an avalanche of even greater sensations. Ray established a rhythm that thrilled them both. When Amber tightened around him, he called out her name.
His thrusts were deep and hard while he stroked the highly sensitive pearl at the top of her mound with his fingertips. Amber’s moans of excitement increased Ray’s pleasure. He did not slow his movements but continuously, persistently, determinedly loved her until they shared an incredibly exciting climax as one.
They clung to each other. Their uneven breathing was the only sound in the room. Gradually it slowed, his body still very much a part of hers. His hands caressed down her back from her nape to her soft bottom.
Forcing himself to move, he slowly eased from her magical heat. He sprawled on his back, holding her close against his side.
“You were wonderful.”
He quirked a brow at her, then teased, “So were you.”
Amber smiled at him, lacing her fingers through his. She absently traced his mouth from beneath the fall of his mustache. He had the most beautiful mouth.
“I was too rough,” he said with a frown. He’d lost control toward the end and was unable to slow his hard thrusts.
“If you keep scowling like that Ray Coleman, I’ll start imagining all sorts of things—like you’re not pleased with our lovemaking.”
He smiled that slow devastating smile of his that made her heart race. It was no different now, even when her body still tingled from his lovemaking.
The late afternoon sunshine filtered past the partially opened brown and gold flecked drapes. The room, done in shades of brown, from darkest mocha to the palest beige, suited him perfectly, Amber decided as she snuggled against him.
“Fishing for a compliment?” He grinned broadly.
“You bet!”
He chuckled, brushing his lips over her kiss-swollen lips. “I missed you so much last night. I couldn’t sleep for wanting you.”
“I missed you, too,” she said, then was forced to cover an unexpected yawn.
“Tired?”
“Mmm,” she yawned again.
“Why don’t you close those pretty brown eyes—get a few hours rest.”
She did not feel the gentle caress of his mouth against her cheek. She was already asleep.