Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (black female authors TXT) 📕

his lips. Then she molded her curves to his planes and angles, giving herself up to the moment.

He lifted her into his arms, carrying her to the bedroom he’d taken, the one with the bay window facing the thick forest that filtered the evening light, two armchairs bracketing the fireplace, and a plump, pillow-covered king-sized bed.

He set her bare feet on a plush rug.

“I do love this dress,” he said, kissing her bare shoulder around the drop sleeve.

“This tie’s okay,” she responded with an impish smile as she tugged the knot free. Then she dropped the tie to the floor.

“Your hair . . .” he said, reaching behind her head and feeling the messy upsweep.

“Don’t like it?” she asked.

“Better down.”

She reached back to help him with the fastener, pulling it free, letting her hair fall around her shoulders.

“Sexy,” he said, rubbing the ends between his fingertips.

“Not crazy about this shirt,” she said, popping the top two buttons.

“The shirt’s definitely got to go,” he agreed, leaning into her neck and distracting her with another kiss.

She tipped her head to give him better access, letting the eroticism of his hot lips shimmer through her body.

He took over unbuttoning his shirt then stripped it off and tossed it to the floor.

“I’ve changed my mind about the dress,” he said.

She gave a mock pout. “You don’t like it?”

His kissed her lips, hard and long and deep. “It’ll look better on the floor.” He found the back zipper and dispatched the dress, leaving her standing in a pair of white lace panties.

“Those,” he said, gazing down and pulling back a little. “Those, I love.”

“They’re from the Polar Collection.”

“You’re making that up.”

She grinned. “I swear it’s true.”

“Well, welcome to the north.” He smoothed his hands slowly over the silk and lace.

His smile disappeared, and he eased her close, skin to skin, chest to chest, desire and passion and pleasure arcing between them. He cradled her face and kissed her mouth again and again and again, all playfulness gone.

He kicked off his pants, and they fell to the bed, drawing together in slow motion, their limbs entwined as they shared kiss for kiss, caress for caress, cocooned in pleasure and surrounded by the wilds of the forest.

Afterward, Mia was floating. She knew she was still locked to the planet, but her spirit was on a different plane of existence. Sex had never been like that for her. It had never taken her to the clouds and back again. She’d never felt like another person, her life divided between before and after—before Silas and after Silas.

She was afraid to look at him now, afraid he didn’t feel the same way, even more afraid he could tell how massively he’d rocked her world and would be amused by that.

They were both lying on their backs on the impossibly soft mattress, fan blades moving in slow motion above them beneath the red-hued cedar beams of the ceiling.

After a few minutes, he turned toward her and propped himself on his elbow. He brushed her hair from her cheek, his voice was low husky. “You good?”

She nodded, even though good didn’t begin to describe it.

“You are—”

She waited, a coil of tension forming in the pit of her stomach.

“Amazing,” he said. “But I think I said that already. I was trying for something more profound.”

She chuckled a little, mostly at herself.

“What?” he asked.

“That’s not what I thought you were going to say.”

He inched a bit closer. “What did you think I was going to say?”

She shrugged.

“Come on, give.”

She turned to face him, mirroring his posture, her head on her own elbow. “I thought you were going to laugh at me.”

He looked genuinely shocked. “Why would I do that?”

“I was . . . a little . . .” She flopped onto her back again to avoid looking at him. “Enthusiastic.”

He shifted closer. After a minute, he walked his fingertips from her navel to a spot between her breasts. “You thought I’d find enthusiasm funny?”

She nodded.

He laid his hand flat, his forearm resting along the indent of her stomach. “Mia, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

She checked out his expression. “You’re laughing at me now.”

“I’m smiling at you. You’re delightful.”

She felt an urge to bop him with a pillow, but they’d all been scattered to the floor.

“Thanks a lot,” she deadpanned instead.

“I’m laughing at the idea that lovemaking enthusiasm could be a negative.”

“I didn’t say it was negative.”

“Then what did you say?”

“I thought . . . I was afraid, that I was having more fun than you were.”

He did laugh then, and he pulled her close, rolling over so that she was on top of him. “That,” he growled in her ear, “is absolutely impossible. There are no levels of fun above what just happened to me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not just being nice?”

“I am not just being nice. Want me to prove it to you?”

She lifted her head to look at him. “How would you do that? You got a fun-o-meter strapped to your wrist or something?”

“No, but that’s a very interesting idea. Look into my eyes.”

She did. He had beautiful eyes. They were dusky blue in the filtered daylight, wide-set, and surrounded by thick lashes.

“What do you see?” he asked softly.

It was her turn to smooth his short hair from his forehead. “You have beautiful eyes.”

“Satisfaction,” he said. “You see satisfaction.”

He was right. She did. She laid her head back down on his chest.

“How long will you stay?” he asked.

“Here? In bed?” She wanted to stay. She wanted to curl up in his arms and stay here all night long.

“In Alaska,” he said.

“Oh. That.” She squelched her disappointment, slipping off to the side. She would have moved away, but he held her fast against him. “The preliminary court date is three weeks from now.”

“You have to go back for it?”

“I do. Marnie, my lawyer, is optimistic that Henry and Hannah will lose.”

“It sounds like they will.”

“So, you read that part of the story?” Mia hadn’t gone into details about the court case itself.

“Some of the guys were talking the other day over dinner. They said—” He