Nobody's Baby by Carol Burnside

breasts ached for more of his touch. She turned into him, clutching at his shoulders with insistent fingers and mashing her nipples against him. They were ultra sensitive, and it wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel his big hands weighing, his strong fingers plucking.
    His rigid length pressed against her hip. A low keening sound pushed past her lips.
    His hand slid from her neck and covered one breast. She gasped against his mouth, breaking the consuming kiss.
    Kate’s eyes flew open, her gaze meeting his, smoldering hot. Oh, hell. She’d been acting like the sex-starved, hormone-driven woman she was. What had she done? “Rio,” she whispered. “I’m sor —”
    “Don’t say it, because I’m not. Not even a little bit. You’re … amazing.” His voice was a low rumble she could feel in her chest. “I can give you what you need, Kate. Let me.”
    “We can’t. The contract says —”
    “Shh.” He sipped at her lips as he lifted her off his lap and pulled her down across the bed. “Not that. Let me pleasure you. I can’t stand the thought of leaving you needy, knowing I started this.”
    He followed that startling offer with more kisses and nibbles along her jaw. Shoving her robe aside, he closed one hand over her breast. The first squeeze arched her back off the bed, and she no longer remembered why this shouldn’t happen. Covering his hand with her own, she pressed into his palm.
    Rio responded to her encouragement with masterful fingers, creating magic as he plucked and rolled her nipples while kissing her and ravishing her neck and earlobes.
    Need built in her with such a fierce intensity, Kate had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from voicing her frustration. Just when she thought she’d scream if she couldn’t find release, Rio slid a hand up her thigh, under her gown and cupped her.
    She was writhing now, need lifting her hips, searching for friction.
    “Easy. I’ve got you, babe.” He pulled her panties to the side, plunged two fingers inside as his thumb pressed against the little throbbing nerve center above her entrance. A second later, his mouth nibbled at her breast through the thin silky fabric.
    It was all too much. Lights flashed against the backs of her eyelids as she gasped for air and her body rippled with pleasure. Again and again her inner muscles clutched at his fingers.
    “That’s it. Ride it out.” Rio didn’t ease up when she thought surely she would die from the overload of sensation, but shifted his fingers to her nerve center and rubbed against it. The tremors ebbed with the change, then amazingly began to build in strength. The delicious friction he created sent her over again. Rapture bordering on pain rippled through her with more force than she’d ever experienced.
    When cognizant thought finally returned and her ears quit buzzing, Kate became aware of Rio kissing her with little tender sips between murmured reassurances. He adjusted the hem of her gown back into place.
    Her heart squeezed with the knowledge that this could never be. What had she done?
    “Rio,” she sighed his name, needing to hear it, wishing she had words of appreciation for what he’d done. Then she opened her eyes and saw his struggle.
    He’d given her everything and took nothing for himself. “Oh, Rio.”
    He shook his head.
    She squeezed her eyes shut as his lips met her forehead for a long moment. In a rush of movement, he pushed off the bed and left her, the door stopping short of closing all the way.

Chapter Six
     
    K ate heard the tap-tap of Margaret’s heels on the upstairs landing from her perch on the living room sofa. Because the press somehow caught wind of Margaret’s travel plans, she insisted a bodyguard and no one else would escort her to the airport.
    “Are you sure this is what you want, Mom? I don’t mind seeing you off.” Rio’s deep voice carried from upstairs, stirring Kate’s blood with memories of his touch.
    “I know, dear, but it’s not necessary. To