A REASON FOR MARRIAGE

“Obviously I need to take you back to bed and refresh your memory as to how un-cold my own character is…” He held out his hand, very dark and handsome with his dark hair still slightly ruffled, his jaw unshaven, and the tight-fitting black T-shirt outlining the muscles of his chest and flat abdomen.

“So soon…?” Her eyes were wide.

Simon eyed her quizzically. “You would rather not…?”

“I didn’t say that!” she protested instantly, her nipples having noticeably tightened beneath the black silk robe, and that moist warmth once again heating between her thighs. “I just- I’m just surprised that you-well, that-”

“That I would, or could, want you again so soon?” Simon finished huskily, his eyes dark with intent. “Come back to bed, Sara, and let me show you how much and in what ways I want you”

Sara felt slightly shy as she placed her hand in Simon’s and stood up to accompany him to the bedroom. A ridiculous feeling after the intimacies the two of them had shared earlier.

The intimacies they were about to share again…

_________

“You may just succeed in killing me with pleasure, Sara!” Simon groaned as she collapsed on top of him a long, long time later.

“Not intentionally, I assure you.” Sara chuckled weakly as she lay against the dampness of his hair-roughened chest, having totally lost count of the number of times and in how many ways Simon had brought her to climax-before she had gently pushed him back against the pillow and made love to him, first kissing his chest and the flatness of his stomach, before moving lower to take him into her mouth. Her fingers had encircled him as she’d licked that responsive length, until Simon had begged her to stop and she’d moved up to straddle his hips, taking him deep inside her, inch by pleasurable inch, before riding him-riding them both-to explosive pleasure.

His arms encircled her as he rolled to one side and took her with him. “What are your intentions towards me?” he prompted gruffly.

Sara’s heart gave a leap even as she opened one wary lid to look up at him.

“Entirely dishonorable, I assure you,” she said softly.

Simon felt a sense of disappointment in Sara’s answer, even though he held her in his arms and had every intention of doing so for the rest of the day. And tomorrow…? Tomorrow, as he had already stated, was another day…

“Simon?”

He gave a relaxed smile. “We will sleep now and talk later,” he encouraged huskily, and he rested her tousled head more comfortably against his shoulder before settling back against the pillows.

“Talk about what?” she prompted, that earlier wariness now back in her voice too.

“Whatever needs to be talked about,” Simon dismissed lightly, and he closed his eyes, Sara still held firmly in his arms.

Sara lay awake for a long time after she knew by the soft and even tenor of Simon’s breathing that he had fallen into an exhausted sleep-hardly surprising when he’d confessed to having had no sleep the night before, and then embarked on two athletic bouts of exquisite lovemaking.

Amazingly wonderful lovemaking, during which she knew she had lost all and every inhibition she had ever had as Simon touched and kissed her in places she had never been touched or kissed before… She felt…wonderful. Deliciously satiated. Every part of her body worshipped. And for once in her life Sara intended to let tomorrow take care of itself.

_________

She had no idea whether it was day or night when she woke up, although the brightness of the sun shining through the bedroom window would seem to indicate it was probably late on Sunday afternoon.

Amazing. She had never ever spent the whole day in bed with a man. And this was not just any man, but Simon Hamilton. She turned her head sideways on the pillow to look at him, smiling warmly as she saw that Simon was doing exactly the same thing. Those green eyes gleamed appreciatively, and the stubble was darker on his square chin, his hair tousled on his forehead, his muscled shoulders bare above the bedcovers.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted him huskily.

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he returned her smile. “Did you know that you purr in your sleep?” he asked.

“You’re making that up!” Sara refuted indignantly, her cheeks warming as she turned fully to face him.

“No, I’m not,” he assured her indulgently as he reached out to touch the hair at her temple. “You sounded like a contented kitten.”

That was probably because she felt like a contented kitten: warm, intensely satisfied and safe.

Safe? How could she possibly feel safe when she now knew that Simon was capable of breaching every barrier she had ever placed about her bruised emotions? And yet that was exactly how Sara felt-safe, cared for, even cherished. So unwise when it came to this particular man! Sara knew better than most how ephemeral Simon’s relationships had been and always would be, and she had no intention of falling for a man who chose to fill a woman’s life before leaving it- and her-totally empty when he chose to walk away. She had already been burned so very badly once in her life. She certainly didn’t need-Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“You are thinking again,” Simon rebuked gently, as his fingers moved to smooth the frown from Sara’s creamy brow.

“Perhaps it is time for more food…?”

“Good idea.”

Her smile didn’t reach those brown eyes as she turned away to throw back the bedcover. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go and take a shower while you look for something to eat.”

She picked up the black silk robe and shrugged into it in such a way that Simon couldn’t see her nakedness, before standing up to tie the belt tightly around her waist.

“I can’t say I exactly like the idea of going home in a black silk evening gown in the middle of the afternoon!” She wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Simon lay relaxed against the pillows as he looked at her from between narrowed lids, one of his knees bent and raised as a shield to the rampant hardness of his arousal. One look at a tousled Sara when he woke up, along with listening to those soft little purring noises she made in her sleep, and that part of him had immediately perked up and taken an interest!

“Who said anything about your going home in the middle of the afternoon…?”

Sara frowned as she looked across at him uncertainly. “I think I’ve already been here long enough, don’t you?”