The Men of Medicine Ridge - Diana Palmer [61]
“Indeed they do,” Vivian seconded. “I’m so glad we all had a second chance. Look what wonderful things we’ve done with it!”
“And the most wonderful is only a few hours away,” Mack whispered in Natalie’s ear a few minutes later as they were preparing to leave on their brief honeymoon to Cancún.
Natalie pressed her hand against his cheek and felt him lift and turn it to press his lips to the palm. “I’ve waited a long time for you,” she said cheekily. “You said you’d be worth it.”
He chuckled. “Wait and see.”
They had Vivian and the boys drive them to the Medicine Ridge airport, where they took the Learjet to Cancún. They were booked into a luxury hotel on the long island just off the mainland, with one of the most beautiful sugary white beaches in the world. It looked like paradise to Natalie.
“It’s so beautiful,” she kept repeating after they’d checked in and were standing on their private balcony. “It looks like a picture postcard!”
“You can’t swim just yet,” he reminded her. “But would you like to go and walk on the beach?”
She turned to him and smiled softly. “Would you?”
He pursed his lips and gave her lithe body in the peach silk dress a long and ardent scrutiny. “I think we both know what I’d like to do,” he mused. “But I’ll humor you.”
“It would be nice to look for shells,” she said. “And besides, it’s not dark yet.”
He blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“It’s not dark. I mean, it’s broad daylight.” She hesitated, because he wasn’t getting it at all. She flushed a little. “I couldn’t possibly take off my clothes in the light and do…that…in bed with you looking at me!”
Chapter 11
He stared at her with utter astonishment. “My God!”
He looked as if she’d thrown a pie in his face. She put her hands on her hips. “My God, what?” she demanded. He sure was acting funny.
He took the tourist booklet out of her hands and put it on the round table inside the sliding door. He pulled her to him, very gently, and bent to her mouth.
It was the first time he’d kissed her with intent, as a lover instead of a fiancé. Despite their intimacy her first night back at the Killain house, she hadn’t dreamed there were such deep levels of intimacy in a simple kiss, until she felt her knees buckle and her body begin to burn with sensations she’d never felt.
She held onto his arms as his big, warm hands began a slow, teasing exploration of her figure that rose to just under her breasts, and around them, without touching them at all. After a few seconds, her body began to follow them, to entice them and finally to plead for the teasing touch that he denied her. When it came, when she felt his hands close around them, she moaned harshly and caught his wrists to hold his hands there.
It was like that night he’d touched her so intimately and taught her the sensations her untried body could feel with him. He’d taken her to heights that she’d dreamed about and moaned hungrily over in the time before the wedding. He hadn’t come very close to her in the meantime, apparently dead serious about abstaining until the rings were in place. He had continued to share her bed, but with the hall door cracked open and a resistance to all her flirting that made her reel. He was affectionate, gentle, even tender—but there was nothing indiscreet or urgent. Until now.
She never felt him ease her down on the bed. Each caress was followed by one that was more enticing, more teasing, more provocative. Her world narrowed to the needs of her body. She’d gone hungry for him in recent days. She ached to have him against her. She wanted his hands on her bare skin. She wanted his eyes on her. She wanted utter, absolute possession. She arched her back and ground her mouth into his, her hands trembling as they locked behind his head and guided those expert lips to her breasts. They were bare, although she didn’t realize it until his mouth fastened hard onto a taut nipple and began to suckle it. She made a sound that she didn’t recognize and twisted