The Man Within by Lora Leigh Page A

for her. Reminding her how much she had loved him, how much it had hurt when he suddenly wasn’t in her life any longer.
    Even the fear of conception couldn’t dim the needs rising in her body like a flashflood of sensations. How was she supposed to deny him? How could she fight her body, its needs and her heart as well?
    “I’m fine.” She forced the words between clenched teeth. “Find me some clothes. I want out of here.”
    If she could just get away from him, she thought desperately. It hadn’t been this bad, this intense, until he showed up in her life again. If she could leave, maybe it would ease; settle back to the mild irritation it had been before.
    “It won’t go away, Roni.” His hands settled heavily on her shoulders, his thumbs smoothing over the taut muscles as she fought the shivers of pleasure his touch evoked.
    The calloused pads of his thumbs rasped over her skin, heating her flesh, making her moan with the pleasure that streaked through her body. It was exquisite, his touch, the scent of him wrapping around her with a warmth that seared her to her soul.
    “I can’t do this,” she whispered, fighting the tears that thickened in her throat. She had needed so much more from him. “Everything’s happening too fast.”
    “You don’t have to do anything, baby,” he promised her gently, his lips whispering over the mark he had made so long ago. Making her shiver in longing. “I’ll take care of everything, Roni. I promise.”
    Every cell in her body screamed out in pleasure when his tongue stroked over the small wound. She would have denied him, she assured herself, if she could have fought past the web of arousal and need that tightened about her, leaving her breathless beneath his touch. How could he do this? How could nature have been so cruel as to give him this advantage over her?
    “I can smell your heat,” he whispered at her ear. “Like warm, sweet cream. It draws me, Roni. I want nothing more than to go to my knees, draw the gown to your hips and bury my tongue in your hot pussy.”
    She shuddered violently at his words, a whimper of longing escaping her throat as he drew the robe from her shoulders. She felt weak, dazed, unable to fight him when she wanted him with every breath in her body.
    “You’re so warm, so soft and tempting, you make me lose any semblance of control. You make me desperate, Roni, so hungry for you I can barely think of anything except tasting you.”
    His tongue licked over her shoulder, raspy, slightly roughened, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her lips at the sensation. His hands drew the thin straps of the gown over her shoulders as his lips trailed hot kisses down the slope of her arm.
    “I lost control before.” The gown slipped over her hardened nipples, but she had no chance to miss its dubious warmth.
    Taber’s hands covered the swollen mounds, his palms cushioning the elongated points, rasping them gently as she moaned in rising pleasure. That was good. Too good. Too hot.
    She stared down at his hands, amazed at the contrast between his dark skin and her paler flesh. It was so erotic, watching him touch her, seeing the differences between his hard, muscular body and her softer one.
    “I won’t lose control now. I’ll show you how good it can be, baby.”
    His voice was rough, a sensual caress to her senses as the gown slid to her hips, caressing her as it slipped lower and finally pooled at her feet.
    “See, all you have to do is relax,” he assured her, his voice at once soothing, stroking her senses as carefully as his hands stroked her breasts. “Let me show you what we missed out on all those months ago.”
    “You left me.” She fought to breathe, to find the strength she needed to refuse him. But it wasn’t there. Her body was overruling her mind, stealing her objections, her fears.
    “You left me no choice, Roni.” His hands cupped her breasts, his finger and thumb gripping her nipple, making it hard for her to think, to