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“Stop!” She put a palm over his lips. “I was a virgin until a few minutes ago, remember?”
And his smile slipped a notch. His voice held a grim note when he answered her. “I’ll never forget.”
Kane took her to the bedroom she indicated, surprised somehow by how soft and feminine it was. He didn’t know why it surprised him and, remembering earlier when he’d seen her hair down for the first time, he felt vaguely ashamed that he’d misunderstood her so completely. In the workplace she was calm, quiet yet always efficient. He’d thought of her as someone, well, bland, and if he’d ever thought at all about her personal preferences, which he hadn’t, he’d have assumed they were quiet and bland as well. In the limited personal moments they’d shared in the past, he realized that she rarely turned the conversation to herself. She’d always encouraged him to talk about himself, and he’d taken full advantage of her generosity.
Now he looked around him with interest, absorbing the ambience, gleaning clues about who the woman in his arms really was. She lay in docile surrender against his chest, her head against his shoulder. As he looked down at her slender body, all he could think was that he never wanted this night to end. Never wanted to have to think of anything but the incredible pleasure her sweet body gave him.
But he did have to think of something else. She’d been a virgin. So he knew she wasn’t prepared for birth control. And he hadn’t given it a damn thought until he’d been so deep inside her there was no chance in hell he could stop. He and Allison could have created a new life.
A child. He wasn’t sure how he felt. He’d always known he wanted children, children to whom he could give the kind of childhood he’d never had. But how he felt wasn’t really the issue. The issue was that he was an honorable man. His mother had raised him that way, and since he’d met the other members of the Fortune family, he knew where the strong streak of responsibility came from. Rarely did a Fortune walk away from his responsibilities.
He thought of his mother, a teenager with twin infants, totally overwhelmed and alone in a strange city. She’d been sure her father would never accept her back again, pregnant and unmarried. Maybe some people would see it as a shirking of responsibilities, but he thought it was the ultimate act of honor to give up children for whom she knew she couldn’t provide, to hope that they’d be adopted by loving families with adequate resources that she hadn’t had.
Well, he had the resources. And no child of his would ever be given away. The woman in his arms could very well be carrying his child after this night so he’d marry her. He’d marry her. The solution was so simple! They’d get married as soon as he could arrange it.
He wasn’t going to have people counting backward on their fingers and coming up with the wrong conclusions. He’d been the butt of gossip much of his life, one way or another. No child of his was going to have to suffer the cruel talk he had.
You don’t really have a dad, do you? I bet your mom was never married at all. He forced his mind away from the remembered taunts. No, his child would never have to endure anything like that.
It was a good solution in more ways than one, he realized as he looked down at the woman in his arms. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the reasons that she might still have been a virgin at her age. But it couldn’t have been a casual choice. No, if Allison had given herself to him after so many years of chastity, then he had an obligation to treat her gift as the special treasure it had been.
Besides, he was thirty years old. Nothing would please his mother more than to have him settled and giving her grandchildren to spoil.
And she’d like Allison. No, she’d probably love Allison. She’d take one look and see the gentle, selfless spirit, the honesty and integrity, the bone-deep kindness that radiated from Allison, and she’d see what he saw: the perfect woman with whom to spend his life. Satisfaction filled him. He could already imagine her soothing presence in his home and he liked the image. He liked it a lot.
And Allison would be a wonderful mother for his children. He already knew she would be great with infants since he’d seen the careful tenderness with which she handled babies in the neonatal unit. She was soft and sweet, easygoing yet competent. He couldn’t find a better-suited woman to mother his children if he tried.
She shifted in his arms and as he pulled his thoughts back to the present, he saw apprehension fill her gaze before she looked away. She swallowed. “Thank you,” she said, raising a hand and gently cupping his cheek. “I won’t…won’t make this more than it was. I don’t want to make you feel obligated or uncomfortable.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“No.” She rushed on. “It’s not as if—”
“Allison.”
She stopped, and her gaze came back to his.
“It’s too bad if you don’t want me to feel obligated because that’s exactly how I want you to feel.”
She hesitated, and he thought she might be holding her breath. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I want you to marry me.”
“What?” Her expression was so shocked he almost laughed.
“Marry me.”
She began to struggle in his arms and he pivoted, sitting on the edge of the bed and cradling her in his lap, controlling her until she stopped moving and lay against him again, her head on his shoulder, face turned up to his with a bewildered expression.
“Tonight…” he said. “Sex isn’t a casual thing for you. And we didn’t use birth control. I could have gotten you pregnant.”
“But…you don’t have to—you can’t marry me!” She looked completely panicked, her body stiff and uncomfortable against his.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.” He dropped his head and sought her mouth, kissing her with deep intent until she was limp and pliant in his embrace and her arms came up to clutch at his neck as she returned his kisses. Then he lifted his head. “Say yes.”
She gazed at him for a long time, then closed her eyes. “You’re crazy. You’d hate being married to me.”
The flat certainty in her tone took him aback, but he noticed she hadn’t said she’d hate being married to him. “I’ve thought about it,” he told her, his hand slipping down to cover a breast, “and I wouldn’t hate it at all. I think we’re well suited. We’re great in bed and we get along well outside it, too.”
She blushed. “Those aren’t solid reasons to get married.” But she didn’t push his hand away.
“They’re better than some. Think about it,” he urged, a sense of urgency rushing through him, “and you’ll see I’m right. How many other men do you talk to the way we’ve talked?”
She was silent.
A new thought occurred to him. Were there other men whom she’d treated as sweetly and gently as she’d treated him in the course of their friendship? The idea didn’t set well. “How many other men—?” he began, but she cut him off.
“None,” she said. “But, Kane, I just don’t think you’ve really thought this through. You’re a Fortune.”
“Who cares what my last name is?” Dammit, what was wrong with her? She had to marry him. “Say yes,” he prompted, his fingers shaping her nipple, tugging and rolling the taut flesh, teasing himself as much as he was teasing her. “We’ll be good together. And if you’re pregnant, I’ll be delighted.”
Her eyes drooped, closed. She hesitated, then took a deep breath. “Yes.”
He thought she sounded more like she was agreeing to an execution than a wedding, but the relief that swamped him was so intense and unexpected that he couldn’t comment. What was going on here? It was only that she was so perfect for the role, he decided. He’d have to look a long time to find another woman who fit so well into his life. And he had neither the time nor the inclination to go wife-hunting.
He lifted her again, turned to the pretty spindle bed and laid her down, taking the time to spread her hair out over the pillow. Then he went to the bathroom he’d passed and found a washcloth, running it beneath warm water before he returned to the bedroom.
He was amused to see that she’d pulled a sheet over herself and even more amused that she protested when he tugged it away and began to clean her. “I’m going to be looking at you every day soon,” he said, “So you might as well put the modesty in the past.”
“I can’t,” she said, covering her face with her hands, and he chuckled, setting the washcloth aside.
“This hair,” he murmured, moving onto the mattress beside her and pulling her into his arms as he buried his face in the fragrant mass. “I can’t believe you hid this hair from me for four years.”
Allison didn’t speak, though he felt her smile against his throat. She’d said very little since they’d risen from the couch, and he had a moment’s sudden panic that he’d hurt her badly, even though she’d just agreed to marry him. He leaned over her, cupping the sweet weight of one breast in his hand again and absently brushing his thumb across the tip. “Are you sure you’re all right? I was too rough.”
“I’m okay,” she said, and once again that light wash of color stole up her cheeks.
He grinned. “How can you still blush?”
Now there were bright flags of color painting her complexion. “I don’t know,” she said helplessly, looking everywhere but at him.
“You know,” he said, his voice deepening in anticipation, “There are a lot more things we could do if you really want something to blush about.”
He’d expected her to hide her face in his shoulder and laugh, but instead, her green eyes fastened on his, filled with interest and rising desire. “Show me.”
His whole body leaped to attention. Relief rushed through him as he realized he really hadn’t hurt her, hadn’t frightened her, despite the lack of care he’d taken and the way he’d left her behind in his pursuit of fulfillment. This time, he thought, he’d make sure she was with him all the way. And he’d do it all for her.
So he did, pressing her back against the pillows and kissing his way over her from earlobe to tiny pink toe, sucking and nipping, running his tongue along the backs of her sensitive knees and then moving up to stroke and suckle her beautiful breasts. He smoothed his hands from her shoulders down to her wrists, then twined his fingers with hers and lifted them above her head, anchoring them there with one hand while he continued to explore her with the other. After a long while, he knelt near her feet and spread her legs, holding them apart with strong hands when she murmured a protest. And then the protests turned to moans as he kissed a path up the inside of one leg, slipping steadily up and up, lingering over the satiny flesh of her inner thighs, until finally, finally he put his mouth over her. He tasted her gently, inhaling her fragrant female scent. His tongue sought out the tiny pouting bump hidden within the damp blond curls, laving it gently until she was writhing beneath his mouth. Suddenly, he increased both the pressure and the rhythm and she arched and cried out as her body convulsed and she shook with her own release.
When she was calm again, he slipped up to gather her into his arms, nestling her head beneath his chin. “That,” he said, “was how it should have been for your first time.” He couldn’t change that, much to his regret. But the thought stole into his mind that after they married, this sweet, responsive, incredibly passionate woman would be in his bed every night, and the idea filled him with pleasure.
“That was…wonderful,” she breathed. Then her small hand drifted over his chest and down his belly, hovering a breath away from his taut, swollen flesh. “But you haven’t—you need to—” She stopped, and he figured if he looked, he’d see pink cheeks again.
“Any man who tells you he needs to is a damn liar.”
She laughed, as he’d intended. But then her eyes grew serious and her fingers traced small circles around his navel. “It’s your turn now.”
He inhaled sharply, drawing her hand away. “I can’t,” he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who carries protection around in his wallet. We already took one chance…”
“I don’t think it’s the right time for conception,” she said. “Besides, if we did…um, make a baby, it would be all right.”
His body leaped at her words, but still he hesitated. “I don’t have to.” He was reluctant to overwhelm her, even though his throbbing loins were calling his bluff in a most obvious way.
“What if I want you to?” Her voice was shy and so was the gentle hand that settled on him, but he jumped like a scalded cat and then groaned, relaxing into her.
“My mother raised a gentleman,” he reminded her. “I guess I can’t refuse a lady’s request.”
She stifled a giggle. “Gee, that was hard.”
“No,” he corrected her, rolling to his back and pulling her against his side, “this is hard.” He taught her how to stroke him, wrapping his hand around hers and showing her the speed and pressure that he liked. After her first few moments of tentative exploration, she got so good at what she was doing that he finally had to grab her hand and stop her before he lost it completely. Again.
“Wait,” he said in a strangled tone.
“Why?” Her voice was apprehensive and her hand stopped moving.
“Because I’m going to finish this right here, right now if you don’t.”
She took her hand away and he almost whimpered at the cessation of the hot, sweet pleasure coursing through him. “I liked the way you finished it before,” she told his throat.
He angled himself enough to peer down at her face, his body leaping at the mere suggestion. “The first time?”
She nodded, her eyes still on his throat. She was so shy, he thought with a touch of tender amusement.
He traced her jawbone and dropped his head to press a gentle kiss on her lips. This time she didn’t need to be coaxed to open her legs. This time, he held her gaze with his, looking intimately into her eyes as he slid his hard, hungry length into her receptive body and began to move, holding the eye contact as he felt the tremors of release scampering up his spine. He reached down between them and found her, gently rubbing and rolling her between his thumb and forefinger and her eyes widened in shock. Her mouth opened and she cried out, and as they both began to shudder in the final moments of the dance of completion, he sealed his mouth over hers and drank the sweet cries from her lips.
Allison’s alarm clock chirped a wake-up call at dawn. She’d slept in his arms through the night, and he’d woken several times to the novel sensation of sleeping with someone. It was surprisingly enjoyable even though it wasn’t something he was accustomed to. A doctor in training didn’t have time to sleep, much less think about sex.
But he was thinking about it now. Oh, was he ever!
Allison stirred when the alarm went off, reaching out a hand to turn it off. Still half asleep, he put a hand on her bare shoulder and she turned to him easily, letting him pull her down beneath him and slide into her, the soft wet depths of her body welcoming and already familiar. Hips pumping steadily, he rode her in a relaxed, easy rhythm that nonetheless stoked the fires that slumbered inside him. He took her legs and wrapped them around his waist, angling her hips up so that he was arousing her with each stroke, and when she started to whimper and buck beneath him, he let himself come to her, long slow streamers of release melting his bones and leaving him slumped on her equally limp body.
“Good morning,” he said into her ear when he’d gotten his breath back.
“Good morning.” There was a lilt in her voice.
“Today,” he said, his voice grim as he came awake enough to remember what he’d forgotten, “I’m going to start using birth control.”
She smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling as her hands massaged the muscles at the back of his neck. “Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse is out.” Then she turned her head and looked at the clock again, and immediately her small hands began shoving at his shoulders. “Get up! I’ve got to get moving or I’ll be late! I’m on dayshift today.”
He complied, rolling off her to lie on his back until she was out of the shower. He took a quick shower after her, and by the time he walked back into the bedroom, she was dressed and was brushing her hair with quick, hard strokes. As she pulled it tightly back and began to wind it into its usual confined style, he walked over to stand behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes in the mirror.
“Are you about ready to go?”
She nodded, turning to the mirror and pushing a few more pins into her hair. “Almost.”
He was distracted by the small, feminine ritual as he watched her tuck up her hair. “I’m glad you wear it up at work,” he said. “I don’t like the thought of anyone else seeing all that hair and getting ideas.”
Her hands stilled in her hair and she turned to stare at him, clearly dumbfounded. Hell, he knew how she felt. Someone he didn’t know had just stepped into his head and uttered words he hadn’t expected to come out of his own mouth.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s go.”
Allison floated through her shift on autopilot, doing all her usual tasks with her usual efficiency, but her mind was back in her bedroom.
I want you to marry me.
When she went into the supply closet for something, she actually pinched herself. This couldn’t be real.
Yesterday, she’d been a plain single nurse with both her virginity and a hopeless crush on the hottest doctor in the whole hospital. Today…in whomever’s dream this was, she was marrying him. And she wasn’t a virgin anymore.
For years, celibacy had been a conscious choice. She’d expected to marry and give her husband the gift of her body. But the years had drifted by and love had never found her. Until Kane. And though she hadn’t known he would marry her, when he’d begun to caress her she’d realized immediately that this man and this moment were what she’d wanted for so many years. Kane had made love to her. To her. He’d marked every inch of her with his stamp—she had brush burns from his beard in some pretty darned intimate places!—and he hadn’t just done it once, either. He’d lingered over her, made sure that she was as satisfied as he was. He’d done wonderful things to her that she’d remember for the rest of her life.
The world was a very crazy place. And she was equally insane, to be standing here dreaming about a wedding and a life with a man like Kane Fortune. One of the Fortunes.
Kane wasn’t really going to marry her, no matter how hard her heart beat at the thought. He’d gotten brusque and abrupt as they’d met in the parking lot after the brief drive and walked toward the hospital doors together. He was probably regretting his offer already.
Well, she would be gracious. Treat it as if he’d been joking. That way she wouldn’t lose him as a friend. She didn’t think she could bear it if he avoided her, didn’t want her friendship and left her with nothing. Not after they’d been so close.
She was in the lounge later, checking through the refrigerator to see if there was any creamer that didn’t have things growing in or on it, when Kane came through the door. He looked tired and harried, and the circles that had been beneath his eyes last night were even worse than before. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep, and it was her fault—
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