Playing Dead_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [52]
“Look at me,” Mitch said.
She did. Mitch’s chocolate brown eyes stared at her with such intensity, his face revealing a layer of emotion she hadn’t seen before.
He started moving inside her. Slowly. Exquisitely. Their hands clasped as they focused on watching the pleasure their bodies generated in each other’s eyes.
Claire gasped from the intensity of their coupling. Here and now wasn’t only about sex and mutual pleasure. It was as if they’d become one person, their hearts beating in rhythm, their bodies completely in tune with each other. She’d never had this sense of completeness with anyone. Lust was turning into something else, the more she both wanted and feared.
The slow tempo of their lovemaking increased. Bit by bit, together, by unspoken consent, their bodies moved faster. Sweat glistened on their skin as they held back in order to make the finale more powerful. Claire wrapped her legs around Mitch’s thighs, to urge him to go deeper, to be even closer to him. With every thrust, she shook. With every grunt deep in his chest, she gasped.
Mitch licked his lips as he watched the waves of pleasure on Claire’s flushed face. He loved how Claire gave herself so completely to him without holding back. She was as physical in bed as he, loved the foreplay, wasn’t afraid to touch him anywhere and everywhere. As if reading his mind, her hands pulled from his and wrapped around his neck, over his head, down to his shoulders where her nails cut erotically into his back when he adjusted his position to rub against her in just the way she liked.
Foreplay was the time for teasing and games; now was the time for focus. For love. To show Claire that this wasn’t an isolated moment in time. That they had something together that they didn’t have apart.
Her hands moved down to his ass and squeezed as her body tensed beneath him, her breathing quick, sounds escaping her throat that hit him deep in his cock. They were slick with sweat, their bodies raw and exposed, as Mitch positioned his hands under Claire’s beautiful ass and pushed her as far as she would go. Her orgasm came with several high-pitched moans, and he followed with a loud groan.
He lay on top of her for a minute, panting. Then he pulled her into an embrace, side by side. He kissed her all over her face and shoulders and neck, not wanting to pull out, but knowing he had to break the spell. He wanted this time, this raw exposure, between him and Claire. He brushed her hair off her face. She was looking at him, her blue eyes bright and satisfied and warm. Mitch drank in that content, blissful expression on Claire’s face. He wanted to make her happy, protect her from the pain she lived with day in and day out. They had found each other, and together they had something too powerful to ignore.
Even though half of it was built on a lie.
Mitch knew he’d fallen in love, and fallen hard.
FOURTEEN
Claire couldn’t sleep. Mitch’s even breathing was soothing, and she was lulled into a comfortable drowsiness, but she still couldn’t cross over to the other side.
She watched Mitch while he slept, sprawled comfortably across her bed on his stomach. Too good to be true, but here he was, in the flesh. Her body still remembered just how good he was, and he was in her bed, generating about a thousand watts of heat. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t sleep, she was too hot. He wore his boxers and had only the sheet draped over his legs. Neelix was curled between his feet. Mitch was a good sport about her cat.
The bullet wound he’d gotten while in the military hadn’t made it to his back. In the faint light she saw another scar, lower on his back, above his left kidney. And another scar on his arm. That one was new—it still bore a reddish appearance. She’d seen it many times before; it was on his forearm. He’d never told her what it was from, and she’d never asked.
Now, she wanted