Love didn’t make sense. But it felt amazing.
* * *
“Come on, Toni, we need another shower.”
This time he washed her. Bathed her as gently as he would a baby. Toni stood under the warm water, unable to think beyond the way his hands felt on her skin. He removed the plug carefully, taking care to do it slowly. She was sore, but so satisfied it was a battle to keep her eyes open. Danton dried her off like a prized sports car before he clasped her hand and took her back to bed.
He pulled her into his embrace, even trapping her legs with his as he tucked a sheet around them. He caught her chin and raised her face to meet his eyes. In the dark room, only moonlight shimmered off them both.
“I’m sorry I didn’t disclose all the facts to you, Toni, but I thought you’d be able to move on easier if I didn’t tell you I had doubts about the baby’s paternity.” He stroked her face gently as his lips curved into a
-43-
Mary Wine
smile. There was such intensity in his mood; tears stung her eyes as she witnessed it. No one had ever been so devoted to her before. It communicated far more than any three little words could ever do. Saying he loved her was one thing, right now she felt cherished.
“I know you had to be sure, you’re not a jerk. That’s the real reason I didn’t date anyone else. You’re a hard act to follow.”
“You’re impossible.” His voice was husky with emotion now. “Tell me you’ll marry me.”
Toni giggled instead. “Arrogant man. You ask me… Will you marry me?”
“Yes, I will.”
Toni punched him in response. But since she was lying against his shoulder, the blow didn’t have any real force behind it. She pouted at him. “Loving you is going to a bag of surprises, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” His face went serious as he stroked a hand over her hip. “Will you have my baby, Toni? Leave those birth-control pills in the cabinet and just take a chance with me? No waiting, there will never be a perfect time. Life isn’t that way. I didn’t care for how it felt to get split apart. Maybe it’s the kick in the ass I needed. I want commitment, right now, no waiting, let’s just jump. As long as we have each other, I don’t give a damn how cold the water in the river is, we’ll adapt.”
“There’s no other man on this earth who I’d agree to do that with but you.”
They might plan for a decade and never find the perfect time to begin a family. Maybe Danton had the right idea, jump in and swim. He wouldn’t let them drown. Love gave her the kind of faith to believe in him like that; that unshakable foundation that a couple could build a life on.
“I would be honored to become your wife, but I have one condition.”
“And that is?”
Smoothing her fingers across his forearm, Toni smiled at the contrast between her slim fingers and his harder, male ones. “We stay friends too.”
-44-
Full Disclosure
Her voice coated his ears, filling in all the nicks and bruises the last few months had left on him. Danton listened to her breathing as it slowed and deepened. For ten years, he’d lived his life out of a duffle bag. Tonight, he was going to hang it up in a home.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Their home. It was perfect because it was built on love.
-45-
About the Author
To learn more about Mary Wine, please visit www.marywine.com
. Send an email to Mary at
[email protected]
.
Look for these titles by Mary Wine
Now Available:
Evolution’s Embers
Full Disclosure
Coming Soon:
Let Me Love You
Time might march on but hidden in each human are the embers of
evolution that flicker to life when nature insists.
Evolution’s Embers
© 2006 Mary Wine
Available now at Samhain Publishing
Earth is in trouble, flooded with pollution and uninhabitable for females, who are instead sent into space to live. As the birth rate becomes predominately male, the human race must find a way to stabilize the population. No chances will be taken on relationships doomed to failure because of personality conflicts. Males that desire a female to mate submit to intense testing and wait for a female whose results match. They will also agree to share-one female can provide children for two males and stabilizing the population must take precedence over personal choice.
Jala is an Estroko, a female gladiator who trains and competes in martial arts. Only females can be Estroko and winning freedom from matching is an Estroko’s ultimate reward, but a dishonorable knee sweep ends that dream for Jala-sending her to be matched for reproduction.
She comes face to face with a pair of males who consider her their match-and their possession. Jala won’t abandon her dreams because science says Cassian and Sion were meant for her. Cassian and Sion can’t fathom why Jala ignores the passion igniting between them. In an era when science controls attraction, what happens to the tender emotions that can bind more than just the body? Love doesn’t show up on test pages, it flows through the blood and takes root in the heart.
Enjoy the following excerpt for
Evolution’s Embers:
“Yefet is quite warm this season. You won’t be cold once we transport to the surface. Cassian and I have provided a sturdy home for you.”
She hissed softly, making him raise that eyebrow again. Jala didn’t care if he did hear her. She wasn’t going to start holding her tongue to keep his ego polished. Even if she’d heard human males expected that sort of master-like treatment from their matches. Listening to gossip wasn’t the wisest idea but every negative comment she’d ever heard about ending up matched was surfacing from her memory to torment her.
“I won’t thank you for building me a cage.”
“It’s better than your training facilities.”
She grinned and showed him an even row of teeth. “I guess that depends on who you ask. What you call a training facility was what I knew as a home.”
“Females enjoy security.”
He said it like he believed it. Jala felt her grin turn into a smile. “I enjoy taking care of myself.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“And why not?” She wasn’t smiling any longer. Arrogant, egotistical male! She didn’t have a scrap of patience for their y-chromosome barbarian attitude. “I can provide for myself just fine! Just because I was born a female doesn’t mean I need a free ride. The law shouldn’t force me to be some male’s dependant.”
“Match. You will be my match and it’s not a dirty word.”
She snorted at him. Sion shook his head and stared at the defiance shining from her face. No one ever
snorted
at his orders! Hostile attitude certainly seemed almost too weak a word for her current mood.
“Sion is a whole lot more even tempered than I am, Jala.”
The opposite doorway was filled with the commander of the ship. He had darker features and black hair compared to the light golden hues of Sion. She flinched as she applied a name to one of them. Her fickle hormones were already turning against her. Flooding her blood stream and making certain she noticed little details about her male companions. Those embers of evolution encoded right into her genes, the damn things had been blissfully dormant but now it appeared her allotment of mercy had been exceeded. The Resource Department’s tests had dumped her right into close quarters with the sort of males who she found too
attractive for her own good. During a competition, she could focus and avoid the issue. Cohabitating with them was going to be a much more difficult test of her composure.
Living among females was nice and uncomplicated. You trained hard and indulged in friendly companionship. Men ruined that balance just by being male. They caused a chain reaction in the body that spelled disaster for any woman who wanted to keep her brain from becoming a slave to her uterus.
“You seem to have missed a few lessons in manners.” The commander walked towards her with solid steps as his dark gaze cut into her. “Snorting is not an appropriate response to any officer.”
Jala very precisely looked at the top of her arm. When a man joined Interlink force, his service number was laser inscribed on his left shoulder. Not that she could actually see her arm through the insulated suit but the commander’s face tightened as he understood her gesture.
“It appears I didn’t register to follow your dictates. That’s too bad for you.” Her words sounded spiteful but she refused to care. Their approach was too certain, their words too full of their own authority over her. The walls were pressing in on her as she struggled to just breathe, her lungs felt too heavy to inflate. She felt like was a puppy at a pet store as it was boxed and sent home with whoever had paid the price for it. Forever expected to wait upon the whim of the owner for morsels of affection as well as the most basic of necessities. It was a humble position for a woman who had been so close to earning a living as the master and owner of her own school.
“What in the cosmos is that?” Sion’s hand snaked up the pants she wore to clasp around her calf. Her legs were bent with both feet up on the bench she sat on because she’d been rubbing her knee. She hadn’t checked to make sure the fabric was pushed all the way back to her foot. Sion had sat on the other side of her feet and she’d left them there to keep the man from getting too close. That meant he could see up the baggy leg of the suit and his medically trained eye instantly found the brown bruising decorating her leg.
He shoved the fabric up her leg as his eyes examined her. His face tightened with rage as he identified the severity of the injury.
“Why wasn’t this treated?”
“Because it didn’t matter once I’d lost my final match because of it. Let go of my leg.” She tried to yank her limb out of his grasp. His fingers tightened as he aimed harsh disapproval at her.
“Do you have some kind of fetish for pain?” Sion asked the question in a whisper-soft voice. He was almost afraid to hear her answer. There were rumors about Estrokos liking rough handling. Her little rosy nipples weren’t pierced but that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy other kinds of pain. Any female who drove herself hard enough to reach her senior year had to be able to work through pain, and it was possible that her decades of training had warped her senses until Jala considered it enjoyable. His hand was stroking her foot. Jala frowned as the firm strokes felt amazing while they worked at the throbbing agony that gripped her limb. The strength he had in that hand was amazing. It made her want to melt into a puddle and just enjoy the motion of his fingers. Comfort wasn’t something she was used to getting from anyone but herself. Only little girls got tender attention, but once they began to grow up, each Estroko student was expected to appear strong no matter what personal pain they might be enduring.
Does a full moon really cause naughty behavior?
Bad Moon Rising
© 2007 Leeanne Kenedy
Hailey Burke has heard that full moons cause people to behave in strange ways, but she never thought it would apply to her until the night she winds up in bed with a man she doesn’t even like. So she’d had a temporary loss of sanity when she slept with Zack Creighton, the womanizing photographer. Big deal. Doesn’t mean she’s going to do it again, right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately, Zack has something else in store for Hailey. He’s liked the sassy redhead from the moment he met her, but he can’t get the stubborn woman to let go of the misconceptions she’s formed about him. Sure, he’s played the field, but Zack is no womanizer, and he has no intention of leaving things at one night. Once he’s had a taste of Hailey, he wants another. And he’s determined to convince her that he’s not the bad boy she’s always thought.
Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language.
Enjoy the following excerpt for
Bad Moon Rising
:
“Hailey,” Zack said.
“Yes?”
“Why exactly don’t you like me?”
Her jaw tensed. “You know why.”
“You think I’m too much of a ladies’ man.”
“Yep.”
“You think I’m arrogant.”
“Yep.”
“Yet I still manage to turn you on.”
“No,” she lied.
He gave a knowing glance before fixing his gaze on her breasts. “Your nipples are hard.”
“I’m cold.”
“It’s ninety degrees.” He licked his lips in a way that should’ve been sleazy but instead looked pretty damn enticing. “What would you do if I put my hands underneath your shirt? Would you stop me?”
Her clit swelled as a rush of liquid heat pooled in her panties.
“I don’t think you would,” he continued, moving even closer. He dragged his palm up her thigh, over her navel, until it was inches away from her breasts. “I think you’d beg me to keep going.”
“Your arrogance astounds me,” she squeezed out.
“Deny it all you want, but we both know what’s running through that pretty red head of yours right now.”
“Oh, please enlighten me.” It was a miracle she managed to keep her voice calm. Inside, she was a trembling mess, hot, needy, so painfully aroused it hurt to talk.
“You’re thinking about all the things I could do to your body. With my hands and my tongue.” He dipped his head and bit her earlobe. “And my teeth.”
A jolt of excitement shot from her ear, to her breasts and straight down to her pussy. Somehow she was wetter than she’d ever been.
“Let’s not be coy, Hailey. Admit you want me.”
Their eyes locked and something inside her caved. “Fine. So maybe I do. Just a bit. But I still don’t like you,” she added.
“Didn’t we just establish liking each other had nothing to do with wanting each other?”
Had
they established that? He seemed to think so. She was beginning to think it too, what with her hard nipples and damp panties. The window blinds rustled as another gust of hot air drifted into the room. She shifted in her seat, agitated, her lower body tight with anticipation. Aw hell. Would it really be so bad, going to bed with this man? He was deliciously attractive, with his dark, smoldering eyes and that strong jaw covered with stubble and those wicked lips she couldn’t